ShadowFiend : The Pubstomper.

Introduction

Greetings! My name is Aditya 'Az7y' Vaidya, and I've been playing DotA 2 for around 7-8 months. To start with it, I'm a very bad ShadowFiend player. I miss 2/3 razes, most of the times. Although I quite sucked at it, I just thought of giving this build a try. It's a very unsophisticated build. Most competitive players will call it being stupid. But as far as pubs are concerned, I would say this build is better than your Black King Bar + Blink Dagger + Shadowraze.

If you're already good at ShadowFiend with Shadowraze, just forget that you ever came across such a guide, and forgive me for wasting your time. But then, most of us aren't. We miss razes. We **** up. For them, here I go:

Pros & Cons

Pros:

- Can out farm any other carry in the game, with a proper start.
- Good attack animation.
- Strong mid-lane presence.
- Can out-last hit & deny after a couple of levels.
- Strong carry, late game.

Cons:

- Extremely squishy from mid game to late game.
- Item dependent.
- Difficult to comeback from getting outlaned.
- Suspectible to ganks.
- Cannot gank before level 7-8.
- Lowest start base-damage in the game.

Item Guide [In Depth]

Power Treads : ShadowFiend is an agility carry. With the DPS build, it consumes absolutely no mana. Hence, all you need is a bit of survivalability & attack speed. Power Treads provides you with your basic needs.

Phase Boots : It is not as recommended as Power Treads. Phase Boots can be quite dangerous against nukers or heros with stuns & disables, since it gives you no hit points. Although, that said, if you are against a non-aggressive solo, you can go for it.

Mask of Madness : As ridiculous as it may sound, so as to go for Mask of Madness, the most avoided item as a first item right next to Power Threads, it does give you huge amounts of lifesteal + movement speed + attack speed, which is all you need to kill a hero in a couple of seconds. Yes. You do receive bonus damage, which might be lethal. Hence, if you're going against a stunner or nuker, let him deal the nuke, then turn on your Mask of Madness and melt him down, for Lifesteal = 17% of your damage, which means, while you have about approximately 160 damage, as a 9 level ShadowFiend, you gain more than 30-40 HP per hit, which is ridiculously high at that level.

Shadowblade : As we know, ShadowFiend has absolutely no escape mechanism. Once targeted, he goes down like a Crystal Maiden. We don't want that, now, do we? Hence, just get your Invisibility up, with Shadowblade. It will provide you efficient positioning to cast Requiem of Souls, as well as scout Jungle for some easy kills, chase with the extra movement speed, and most of all, use it as an escape.

Black King Bar : Too many nukers? Getting ganked? Efficient stuns? Gem or potential wards/sentries? A farmed Outworld Destroyer? Well, then, that's your alternative for Shadowblade. It is not as recommended, since Black King Bar without a blink has no initiation, on it's on, but get it for survivability against nukes, depending on your situation.

Daedalus : Yeah, right. Huge damage per second. That's what we want next. We want the ability to melt a farmed opposition carry with a couple of hits. This, ofcourse, will give you huge farm & damage advantage in the later game, as well as redefine the phrase, "Pubstomping", just as you one hit a tanker like Axe. Considering you haven't taken Shadowrazes, Daedalus is the only item you can depend on, to get your autoattacks buffed enormously.

Monkey King Bar : If you can afford it, you'll be farming heros by now. You won't be needing it, but well, hell.

Playstyle

The Laning Phase :

Laning phase is between level 1 - level 8. As a ShadowFiend with no razes, you have no capability to gank bottom or top. Your goal should be surviving. Tower hugging, grab every single last hits, denies, get the Necromastery damage up, harass with single hits which, ofcourse, will deal loads of damage. Presence of the Dark Lord will just help you in last hitting creeps, as well as push your lane, a bit further away from you, considering your tower & creeps will deal more damage to the opposing creeps. Get your supports to plant a ward or something. And remember, you are not a ganker. You're a hard carry. Considering yourself a range Phantom Assassin or Faceless Void as mid solo.

Mid game :

Up with your Mask Of Madness? Try to grab a couple of runes & gank the lanes. You'll end with autoattack killing a hero in 4-5 hits. Use Mask of Madness only if required. Alternate of farming NC's & lanes will be your goal. Rush for the next item, ShadowBlade. As soon as you have the ShadowBlade, look for little targets like INT or AGI supports, go autohit them with 3-4 hits, and you get some kills. You can solo Roshan, by now. But as far as possible, target other DPS carries. They can't kill you. Nor can a farmed Anti Mage nor can a Drow Ranger. Fear the supports, fear the nukers.

Late game :

If everything above goes as planned, you don't need to tell what to do. You'd be taking triple kills & ultra kills, by now. Since your Daedalus is up, you fear none, except nukes & Blademail. Think like a Huskar, behave like an Ursa. Your damage, being enormous, makes your lifesteal enormous. You can simply kill a couple of heros with 10% HP & still survival, as long as you are not stunned.

Friends & Foes

Friends -

Ogre Magi : The nuke + stun will allow you to autoattack the enemies, while they are stunned. Team up with Ogre Magi and you end up getting kills. Not just that, the attack speed + movement speed burst is terrific on a DPS carry like yourself.

Shadow Shaman : SS is a dream companion of any DPS carry due to the Shackle, ofcourse.


Lion : 2 disables. 2 kills for you.

Earthshaker : Stuns, ofcourse.

Tidehunter : The beast of disables, who wouldn't like him in your team, when you can kill almost half of the team?

Enigma : The Black Hole + Requiem of Souls combo will devastate any kind of opposition without doubt. Also, the additional stun from Enigmas are trustworthy.

Omniknight : The heal? Ah, not bad. What about a free 10 second Black King Bar? Turns you on, neh?


Foes -

Your friends, are your foes, placed in an opposite team. Stuns kill you. Disables kill you. Nukes kill you, especially when you are in berserk mode, with Mask Of Madness on.

Huskar : The only carry who is scary enough to take down a DPS ShadowFiend by himself, apart from Ursa.

Pugna : He totally disables you. You can't even autoattack, when Pugna uses his skill combo on you.

Source(s)

I've tried and revised the build while playing some pub games, myself. Here are the ShadowFiend games of mine, from both of my IDS. Work in progress.

https://dotabuff.com/players/46768092/matches?hero=shadow-fiend&lobby=
https://dotabuff.com/players/64527455/matches?hero=shadow-fiend&lobby=

Suggestions will be helpful.