[Daily Hero tl;dr #22] Shadow Fiend

Shadow Fiend is a nice, unique hero that had A LOT of action a few versions ago, but due to recent changes (specifically Smoke of Deceit) has not been played much in competitive games. He has very good DPS, great burst damage, excellent farming ability, but is super frail and can get disabled/killed easily.

TL;DR -

• Skills - Raze (2,3,5,7) Necromastery (1,4,6,8) Presence (9,12,13,14) Requiem (10,11,16)
• Items (lane) - regen, branches, Bottle
• Items (early) - Treads, rush BKB/Dagger
• Items (later) - Shadow Blade (if you want), Manta, Butterfly
• Tips - land your razes, quickly farm lanes, balance ganking and farming, control the early-mid game
• Counters - disables

Let's jump right into Shadowraze because that's one of the major focuses of this hero. I will be referring to them as the Z, X, and C Raze for the 200, 450, and 700 range ones respectively. They have little mana cost and do not share a cooldown, so if you hit all three that can be 900 damage (before reductions) at level 7. In lane, if you're being heavily harassed, you can fight back with razes. For example, against a Tinker, if he is in range to Laser you, then you are in range to hit both an X and C raze which is just as much damage back to him.

Razes are your primary farming skills during the mid game. Up until 35 or 40 minutes (don't remember, sorry) you're able to clear an entire creep wave with just two Razes. Do this to quickly farm up your BKB and Dagger and then go win fights.

With BKB and Dagger (Dagger sometimes not necessary) you can control team fights during the early-mid game. You have a build in Sacred Relic, 900 damage worth of nukes (with a short cooldown) and a HUGE AoE ultimate that can change the tide of fights easily. With a BKB you can be fearless and demolish enemies during fights.

The other major issue of this hero is that he has a very logrithmic growth. He gets strong very very quick but then plateaus later when other agility carries start getting items. Basically, SF can get items faster, but if the other heroes are farming at the same rate, they will be stronger.

Just a few final tips - your ultimate has a one second cast time: this is NOT channeling. If you are disabled, you keep your mana and cooldown, and therefore you are able to cancel your animation if you feel out of place. Additionally, it is based off the number of souls you have. If you die, quickly run to a lane and kill a few waves to get your souls back. Denies also count!

// I'll answer questions in the comments and take suggestions for tomorrow's write up.

/// I am compiling a list of my threads (until something better comes up) on my profile at GG.net