Shadow Fiend stats, abilities and strategy
Unleashes the souls of fallen enemies for damage
Capturing souls from every kill he makes, Shadow Fiend is always gathering his power. Every assault, each carefully aimed raze that kills an enemy, brings him closer to unleashing his gathered souls in a deadly blast of scouring energy.
Win Rate 50.5%
Pick Rate 13.3%
Attributes
538 +59.4/lvl
291 +26.4/lvl
19 +2.7/lvl
25 +3.5/lvl
18 +2.2/lvl
Stats
Damage:
41 - 47 + 3.5/level (156 - 162 at level 30)
Range:
525
Armor:
5.2 + 0.6/level (24.4 at level 30)
Movement:
305
Roles
Carry
Durable
Nuker
Pusher
Support
Escape
Disabler
Initiator
Facets
Lasting Presence
Win Rate: 51.1%
Pick Rate: 56.3%
Presence of the Dark Lord temporarily reduces more armor after nearby enemy heroes are killed. Every hero kill increases Necromastery's max souls by 1 until Shadow Fiend dies.
Shadowmire
Win Rate: 49.7%
Pick Rate: 43.7%
Shadowraze slows enemies.
Patch 7.39
- Shadowraze: Movement Slow per stack increased from 3/6/9/12% to 6/8/10/12%
Abilities
ABILITY: Passive
PASSIVE: Breakable
Shadow Fiend steals the soul from units he kills, gaining bonus damage. Hero kills grant 3 souls. On death, he releases 30% of them from bondage.
Denies and neutral creeps also provide bonus damage through Necromastery.
Break disables the gaining of new stacks.
Break does not disable the bonuses from existing stacks.
DAMAGE PER SOUL: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
BASE MAX SOULS: 20
FACET: Lasting Presence
Every hero kill increases max souls by 1 until Shadow Fiend dies.
Aghanim's Scepter
Increases max souls.
LEVEL 20 TALENT: +2 Damage Per Soul
Patch 7.39
- Hero kills now grant 3 souls
Harvested souls swirl in and out of the Abysm, empowering the Shadow Fiend to increase the size of his collection.
Shadowraze
DAMAGE TYPE: Magical
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: No
DISPELLABLE: Yes
Shadow Fiend razes the ground directly in front of him, dealing damage to enemy units in the area. Adds a stacking damage amplifier on the target that causes the enemy to take bonus Shadowraze damage per stack.
Stack duration refreshes on stack gain.
BASE DAMAGE: 90 / 160 / 230 / 300
RANGE: 200
BONUS PER STACK: 35 / 50 / 65 / 80
STACK DURATION: 7
9
80
FACET: Shadowmire
Applies a stacking 6 / 8 / 10 / 12% movement speed debuff on enemies hit.
LEVEL 25 TALENT: Shadowraze Applies Attack Damage
LEVEL 15 TALENT: +120 Shadowraze Damage
LEVEL 10 TALENT: +30 Shadowraze Stack Damage
Nevermore's trademark for harvesting souls.
Shadowraze
DAMAGE TYPE: Magical
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: No
DISPELLABLE: Yes
Shadow Fiend razes the ground a short distance away from him, dealing damage to enemy units in the area. Adds a stacking damage amplifier on the target that causes the enemy to take bonus Shadowraze damage per stack.
Stack duration refreshes on stack gain.
BASE DAMAGE: 90 / 160 / 230 / 300
RANGE: 450
BONUS PER STACK: 35 / 50 / 65 / 80
STACK DURATION: 7
9
80
FACET: Shadowmire
Applies a stacking 6 / 8 / 10 / 12% movement speed debuff on enemies hit.
LEVEL 25 TALENT: Shadowraze Applies Attack Damage
LEVEL 15 TALENT: +120 Shadowraze Damage
LEVEL 10 TALENT: +30 Shadowraze Stack Damage
Nevermore's trademark for harvesting souls.
Shadowraze
DAMAGE TYPE: Magical
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: No
DISPELLABLE: Yes
Shadow Fiend razes the ground a longer distance away from him, dealing damage to enemy units in the area. Adds a stacking damage amplifier on the target that causes the enemy to take bonus Shadowraze damage per stack.
Stack duration refreshes on stack gain.
BASE DAMAGE: 90 / 160 / 230 / 300
RANGE: 700
BONUS PER STACK: 35 / 50 / 65 / 80
STACK DURATION: 7
9
80
FACET: Shadowmire
Applies a stacking 6 / 8 / 10 / 12% movement speed debuff on enemies hit.
LEVEL 25 TALENT: Shadowraze Applies Attack Damage
LEVEL 15 TALENT: +120 Shadowraze Damage
LEVEL 10 TALENT: +30 Shadowraze Stack Damage
Nevermore's trademark for harvesting souls.
Feast of Souls
PASSIVE: No
DISPELLABLE: Yes
Shadow Fiend gains Bonus Attack Speed and Movement Speed for 8 seconds. For the duration of the effect, Necromastery's Max Soul count is increased by 5, but he loses that amount of souls after it is done.
Cannot be cast unless Shadow Fiend has enough souls to pay the cost.
BONUS ATTACK SPEED: 40 / 55 / 70 / 85
BONUS MOVE SPEED: 5% / 7% / 9% / 11%
SOUL COST: 5
21
60 / 65 / 70 / 75
LEVEL 25 TALENT: Feast of Souls Grants +30% Cast Speed
LEVEL 10 TALENT: +30 Feast of Souls Attack Speed
Patch 7.39
- Cooldown increased from 16s to 21s
- Mana Cost increased from 60 to 60/65/70/75
- Duration rescaled from 7.5/8/8.5/9s to 8s
- Now additionally provides 5/7/9/11% bonus move speed
For Nevermore, there's as much delight in the harvest as there is in the feast.
Presence of the Dark Lord
ABILITY: Passive
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: Yes
PASSIVE: Breakable
Shadow Fiend's presence reduces the armor of nearby enemies.
Stacks fully with other armor reduction abilities and aura.
ARMOR REDUCTION: 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
RADIUS: 1200
1200
FACET: Lasting Presence
Presence of the Dark Lord temporarily reduces more armor after nearby enemy heroes are killed.
LEVEL 15 TALENT: +2 Presence Armor Reduction
Even being near Nevermore eats away at one's soul.
Requiem of Souls
DAMAGE TYPE: Magical
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: No
DISPELLABLE: Yes
Shadow Fiend gathers his captured souls to release them as lines of demonic energy. Units near Shadow Fiend when the souls are released can be damaged by several lines of energy. Any unit damaged by Requiem of Souls will be feared and have its movement speed and magic resistance reduced for 0.6 seconds for each line hit up to a maximum of 2.15. Lines of energy are created for every soul captured through Necromastery.
Requiem of Souls is automatically cast whenever Shadow Fiend dies, regardless of its cooldown.
One line is generated from Shadow Fiend for every 1 soul in his possession.
Fear and movement slow do not apply if the Requiem was released on death.
MOVEMENT REDUCTION: 20% / 25% / 30%
MAGIC RESIST REDUCTION: 5% / 10% / 15%
FEAR DURATION PER SOUL HIT: 0.6
FEAR DURATION MAX: 2.15
120 / 110 / 100
150 / 175 / 200
Aghanim's Scepter
Reduces cooldown and causes Requiem of Souls to return back to Shadow Fiend. The wave back to Shadow Fiend deals less damage, but heals Shadow Fiend for all the damage it dealt.
LEVEL 20 TALENT: +0.2s Requiem Fear per line
The captured souls of those past slain are released to ravage their former allies.
Talents
Shadowraze Applies Attack Damage
Feast of Souls Grants +30% Cast Speed
+ 2.2%
+0.2s Requiem Fear per line
+ 2.6%
+2 Damage Per Soul
+120 Shadowraze Damage
+2 Presence Armor Reduction
+ 0.2%
+30 Feast of Souls Attack Speed
+30 Shadowraze Stack Damage
+ 0.8%
Win Rate
Pick Rate
Patch 7.39
- Level 15 Talent Presence Aura Affects Buildings replaced with +2 Presence Armor Reduction
Strategy
Stack Shadowraze debuffs on the enemy laner and secure last hits at the same time if possible.
Build up Necromastery stacks through last hitting and capitalize on the extra damage you have.
Try to stack camps close to mid after you push in the wave.
Kill the creep wave prior to {rune} spawns quickly and collect the runes. You need runes badly for mana.
Alert your teammates to stack for you as you can clear those early.
Look to farm your 
Black King Bar before you join fights as Shadow Fiend is quite susceptible to disables.
Keep side lanes pushed out with Shadowraze when not much is happening on the map.
Counter Strategy
Shadow Fiend has low starting damage and he relies on gathering souls through last hits. Try to contest last hits with him when his base damage is low.
Shadow Fiend does not have an escape mechanism, so look to gank him during the laning stage. If left unchallenged, he's one of the best farming heroes
Try not to run at Shadow Fiend in plain sight as you might get triple razed to death
Keep an eye out on the availability of
Black King Bar in Shadow Fiend's inventory and try to gank him continuously before he gets the item.
In teamfights, look to play around Shadow Fiend's ultimate by either canceling it or moving away from him
Armor items are good against Shadow Fiend as his Presence of the Dark Lord is an armor reducing aura
Shadow Fiend should be a high priority target in team fights. If left unchecked, he can do tons of damage. At the same time, he's not that tanky and easy to bring down