Shadow Fiend is a ranged agility hero that is often played in the middle lane, where he is able to shine the most with his insane damage once he gets souls and where he has quick access to the jungle.

This guide should help you to learn the basics of SF, but as with all heroes it takes practice to truly get better, so start playing some SF in your games and work on that mechanical skill.

Shadow Fiend is a unique hero with leveling, his first skill shadowraze, is three skills in one. If you put one point in shadowraze you will get three skills, this essentially triples the value that you gain from the skill point, and as you will see later, you will easily be able to output more damage magic damage than most heroes in the game during the early-mid game. Shadow Fiend is also, in my opinion the hero that is punished most by repeat deaths, as dying will cause you to lose your souls and damage.

Shadowraze


This skill is your bread and butter early game, you use it for damage and farming. Without this SF is not the hero that he is, you better get used to the ranges and aoe because you'll be using it alot, but once you are used to it you'll be able to quickly punish out of position heroes.


This is the range of your first raze, anything that is in front of you on this line will be hit by the raze, keep in mind that raze has an AOE of 250 so even if a hero is not exactly on this line they might still be in range, it just takes a bit of practice to get used to it. It's worth noting that due to the AOE raze and the distance that the small raze hits that a hero that is 50 units behind SF can still be hit by this raze.


Here we have the range of the medium raze. At 450 units this line is a sweet spot for SF, as it is the spot where all three razes can hit. Like so
However, it is very unlikely that someone is going to stand still and let you triple raze them, so only use this when your enemy is stunned.


Finally we have the long raze, at 700 units it extends beyond your attack range, so it is often used to finish off someone who is running away from you, or as the first raze when clearing waves or stacks.

When using razes on heroes the general rule is to raze, right click, raze, right click, raze. With full souls this amounts to 1295 damage before reductions, enough to kill most heroes in the game, and certainly enough to kill most common mid laners. Here is a demonstration

Necromastery


Necromastery is the other skill that makes Shadow Fiend unique, for every soul he gains he is given 2 damage, which when maxed out and at full souls amounts to a total of 72 damage, combined with your base damage of 38, this means that a level 8 SF with full souls will hit for around 110 damage. Basically necromastery is the reason that SF is able to build more utility based items and still be a relevant damage dealer in the mid game.
Important to note is that you gain souls for ANY kill, including denies, that means you should deny as much as possible if you want to get your souls up quickly, you also get the full 12 souls for a hero deny, so if your support is under the effect of level one venomous gale and is in deny range it might be worth denying them for that early boost in souls, it can completely change the opening minutes of a game.

Presence of the Dark Lord


Not much to say here, just an aura that reduces the armour of nearby enemies, this combined with necromastery makes SF hit HARD early game. Just don't level it over necromastery at level 1.



Requiem of Souls


Shadow Fiends ultimate, I personally feel that this is one of the best team fight ultimates in the game, as well as being one of the best ultimates for solo kills. It's based off the total number of souls, with one line of damage for every 2 souls, because of this you won't be leveling it until until level 9, unless there is special circumstances. You also shouldn't cast it unless you have full souls, although if you REALLY need the slow and damage reduction, then it's worth a cast.
If every line hits, this will do a total 1440/2160/2880 damage before reductions, easily enough to kill most heroes in the game. If you get into a melee range fight against someone who can't use bkb or cancel this, use it, if they run you triple raze them and if they stay they die.

Skill Build

Your skill build should rarely change, the only time I would change it is in specific matchups that I will go over later or if you only get a value point in presence and level stats from there for the extra hp.

In terms of items SF has alot of choices, almost any item can be built on this hero and it will be viable in some way. The only items that I would consider core on this hero is power treads and bottle, with proper tread switching and mana management you should rarely run into mana problems. I will go over all of the items that are seen the most on SF, and give my opinion on when they should be bought.

Mekansm
One of the best items for SF, it provides a strong burst heal that can keep SF alive, effectively serving as a 250hp increase. SF can quickly farm it and if you can get your team to group together to take towers, you can quickly snowball into having complete map control and winning the game. Though the item is not without problems, one of which is the mana cost, while SF certainly has the mana pool to support the mek, you will need to pay attention to your mana alot more, try to keep enough mana to mek, ult and use 2 razes in a fight. Another problem is getting your team to group up and commit to a push every time mek is off cooldown, because of this you might choose to skip it in a pub, but if you're scared of being bursted then this is one of the items you can get, or if you expect alot of fighting around 15 mins you can give your team a massive advantage by picking this up.

Euls Scepter
I like to think of this as the solo queue item, if you were watching DAC you would have seen how many Shadow Fiends were picking this up along with a blink dagger for the euls into ulti combo, allowing you to insta kill any hero in the game. If you're not familiar with it then here is an example for you.


Other than the combo with the ultimate, euls also serves as a way to massively increase your farming speed early game, the mana regen lets you spam out razes to quickly farm camps and creep waves, and the movement speed gets you to the farm faster. It will also let you cancel tps. Oh and if the guy you're using the combo is has a euls of their own you should try to bait out their euls by cancelling your ult at the last second, if they're spamming their euls then you will be able to easily set up your combo after they euls themself.



Refresher Orb
Super situational, but I feel that it's worth mentioning. The only times I would build this is if a game went super late game against heroes that bkb is required against, for example tidehunter. Or if you are against Chaos Knight, and you need the double ult to clear his illusions.

Shadow Blade
In lower MMR games this could be used to snowball pretty hard, but other than those types of games I can't see much use for this over another item, maybe if you wanted to do some kind of split push SF with bots. Upgrading this into a Silver Edge when against bristleback/PA will make solo killing them easy until they get bkb. You can cast your ultimate without breaking the invisibility on this, but you could get a euls and get a similar effect with alot of other benefits.

Monkey King Bar
If you need to counter evasion this is the item, but in every other case Deadalus will give you more dps.

Deadalus
This is the item you get when you need to start right clicking people hard, if you already have enough survivability and attack speed then buy this and start right clicking people.

Butterfly
All around a great item for SF, you're usually far enough ahead in networth for the evasion to be worth it, and with this and treads you'll have more than enough attack speed. If they have already got MKB's then a large part of this item is useless, and I would prefer an Assault Cuirass.

Black King Bar
The builds of SF have moved away from the more classic BKB rush, and this item is nowhere near as core as it used to be, but it's still a VERY good item on SF, and you will find yourself needing it alot of games. If they have alot of magic burst, you need a bkb. If they have alot of stuns, you need bkb. Just don't buy this if most of the spells that are causing you problems go through it, if that's the case then buying something like a skadi to tank up would be better.

Blink Dagger
SF is a hero that requires good positioning, and this is probably the best item to secure good positioning. Blink works well with alot of the other items that are common on SF, you can combo it with a euls for a strong ganking build, or you can combo it with a bkb for initiation. The only problem I have with it is that it takes up and item slot and if the game goes late you're really going to feel the lack of item slot.

Manta Style
This item used to be more popular, but Sange and Yasha seems to have replaced it, it's still a good item for SF, if you need to purge things that you dont want to use a bkb for. I usually buy this when I am playing against tree, and if you build it I feel you need to go for a more stats based build with skadi and butterfly to make the illusions deal damage. Still the ability to manta dodge is always useful and if you're good at doing that this is always a good item.

Assault Cuirass
I don't think this item is bought that often, usually because butterfly provides a similar amount of armour with the added benefit of giving damage and evasion. But if the evasion is already countered or you are facing a heavy -armour lineup then this item should be considered.

Helm of Dominator
I buy this if I'm going to play the position 1 SF, you can stack ancients and once you get a yasha you can take your stack, this will also be built into a satanic later. If you do go this build make sure you wont get rolled over for being too greedy, you will need a more active safelaner or to be playing against a team that can't punish greed for this type of play to not be punished.

Desolator
I don't really see much reason to get this over lifesteal or a skadi, but if you want to one shot supports you can build this. Combine it with a shadow blade and you'll be one shotting everyone.

Sange and Yasha
One of the most popular items on SF right now along with the euls and mek, I will usually build this after one of those two items, try to get it before 25 minutes, as it's effectiveness drops as the game goes on.

Eye of Skadi
I consider this to be a luxury item, I don't like getting it as a 3rd of 4th item unless I really need to tank up, but it is still one of the best items to get if you want to manfight other carries, and there's usually very little reason to not get it in the late game.

Please note that I haven't played every matchup possible for SF, and I won't be going into great detail on the finer details of mid laning. If you're looking for that I recommend ChaQ's guide to solo mid, it helped me alot with playing SF and is one of the best guides I have ever read.

Dragon Knight

SF favoured, he is melee and you are ranged, during the early waves you might have trouble csing due the breath fire, but once you get your souls up he should be forced to bottle crow and use his nuke to get cs. It's unlikely you kill him unless he gets incredibly out of position, just dont leave your lane for too long or he will quickly take your tower, luckily your razes are more than enough to stop his push.

Razor

You really shouldn't be winning this matchup, you will have your damage drained and will be forced away from creeps early. Just get your levels in raze and last hit with that, from there you can stack and begin to outfarm the razor.



Viper

This hero is a lane dominator, you will not win this lane unless you massively outskill the viper. You should play this the same way that you would against Razor, get your levels, and outfarm him.



Templar Assassin

If you're picking SF alot eventually somebody is going to pick this to try and beat you in lane. TA is one of the best heroes to beat an SF in my opinion, she can destroy him in lane and is able to snowball to a win. She is also one of the few heroes in the game that can keep up to him in farming speed with ancient stacks. Luckily for you she does not have much of a hp pool and can die very quickly to razes if she does not have refraction up, and if you get ahead in souls her extra damage shouldn't be much of a problem.
TA has a very low attack range, so you should be able to stay on your high ground, try to not take too much damage from psi blades and work on getting her refraction down. Try to get a double wave, if you can do this she won't be able to be aggresive on you because she will lose her refraction instantly, and if she has no refraction you can raze her! I would not recommend going for runes once she hits level 6, as it will be very easy for her to kill you without creeps nearby, you should aim to not die, and once you are level 5 with 3 points in raze you can get a kill if she is out of position.

Ember Spirit

This is one of the easier matchups for SF and you should be able to stomp, embers spells are terrible at the early levels so neither of you should be able to kill eachother early, and as a melee hero if he turns on flame guard to get aggresive he should quickly lose it to a double raze. Without flame guard ember will die quickly to you, so push him away from the wave, he has low armour and wont be able to stay in lane long if you harass him.

Puck
I haven't played puck vs SF apart from a few times in 1v1s, so I'm not sure if what I say here is very reliable. In the early laning phase puck should be able to push you away from the creeps, but she can't keep you from csing once you get level 2. You should aim to get your souls up as always and from there just take over the lane, just be careful to not get in a bad spot, puck will kill you very quickly if you are out of position, but you can do the same to her, if you are level 5 and she uses orb to farm, try and get a quick double raze.

Storm Spirit
This is probably the matchup I've played the most this patch, and I feel it is a very even matchup, maybe 60/40 in favour of SF, but it is one that can be lost very easily. Storm has high base armour and a strong nuke at level 1, you wont be able to fight him if he presses up on you. You need to get your levels, once you have your levels in raze and your souls you should be able to win fairly easily, he has low range so if you just move forward slightly you can double raze him. Just be careful to not get too close, he can kill you very easily. You might want to get a point in your ult at 6, just so you can deter him if he decides to zip on you.

Windrunner

She has higher range than you and more base damage, she will harass you early so you need to play safe, but she also has low hp, so she is definately killable, just dont try get into a right click war with her if she has windrun up. After lane you should be able to outfarm her.


Lina

One of the harder matchups for SF, she can harass you so easily and can nuke you down quickly. She's squishy but she is almost never in range for razes, your best bet is to trade farm, just be careful once she gets her euls, at that point she can kill you quickly.


Queen of Pain
You will struggle early, you will need to get a salve early, and you should avoid dying. There are multiple danger points against queen of pain, when she is level 4 with full hp and if you are level 3 with few souls she can blink on you and quickly kill you, you should try to bottle crow as much as possible to keep your hp and spam razes on her to keep her low enough that if she blinks on you she could die. Once you get level 5 things change a bit, her dagger at level has a range of 450, and your 2nd raze also has 450 range. This means that if she ever tries to dagger you she will be in range for a double raze, 375 damage on a hero with a hp pool of around 600 will mean she has to stay away. Once she hits level 6 you should play a bit more careful, pick up a wand and you can try bait her with wand charges, if she can't burst you quickly and you have razes you can turn her dive around. Once you are level 7 the lane should become alot easier, she wont be able to dagger you without eating 480 damage.

Leshrac

The balanced disco goat, infamous for being impossible to lane against. Well luckily you are a shadow fiend, who can catchup and even land a kill on this guy if you outplay him. You're going to need a wand, and you shouldn't expect to win this lane heavily, but he has low damage and you can play the last hit war against him, you should bottle crow for his matchup, you're most likely going to get run down by him if you go for runes. Lesh has a low hp pool, so if you see him out of mana just walk up onto his high ground and stay there, if he tries to right click you hit him, you have the damage advantage, and if he gets in range a quick double raze should keep him under tower. Of course none of this matters if he has mana, so if he is keeping his mana topped off just push the lane and stack your jungle.

Early game Shadow Fiend is all about maximising your farm, once you hit level 7 2 razes will kill creep waves and clear every camp but large camps. In lane you want to get souls, try not to miss cs, every last hit you miss hurts you more than other heroes, you want to stay ahead. Once you hit level 5 you can push out mid with razes and stack your large camp, and once you get level 7 you can clear the jungle insanely fast. You should be able to clear the creep wave and 2 creep camps in 1 rotation. A good Shadow Fiend can achieve 150 cs by 15 minutes, but a good guideline is around 80 cs for 12 minutes, and around 120 by 15 minutes. If you have a support stacking jungle for you, commend him, and give him the mid lane once you hit level 7, they will appreciate the levels. Once you've got your items of choice and are level 11 you can start to look toward the mid game.

This is where SF shines, you should be ahead of everyone in networth and your necromastery is like having an extra item. This is where you want to snowball out of control, depending on your item build. If you went for the team based mek you will want to group up with your team and start pushing some towers, gaining map control as you go. Once you have taken all the outer towers you should start to farm the enemy jungle, from there you can farm the mid and enemy safelanes. All the while taking jungle, with this method you can achieve 700+ gpm, continue with this until you are confident enough to take high ground, preferably with an an aegis. Just don't let the game go on long enough for their carry to get items, then it becomes alot harder.
If you went for a more gank oriented euls+blink/shadow blade build then you should aim to pressure as much as possible, make your enemy fear farming their own jungle, if you have shadow blade invade their jungle and farm it, remember if you cant find kills you can still farm, don't let yourself fall behind while you search for kills. If you have a euls make them afraid to show on lane, abuse the fog and stay off the map, this build shouls also make you pretty hard to catch, and you can start to split push if the game stagnates or you fall behind.

Sometimes you will find yourself in the lategame as SF, this is where your decision making can win or lose games, and being caught out of position can lose you the game. By this point your nukes have fallen off and you're going to want to right click people, if you went for a farming build you might be at an advantage by this point, and if you went for euls/mek you're going to want to sell them soon. Depending on the game you might also want to sell your blink if you need to become a bigger damage dealer. Items you want to look at are Skadi, Satanic, Deadalus, MKB, Butterfly, AC and Boots of Travel. In the late game SF is just like any other rightclicker, he can hold his own and can be a strong carry, but you probably want him paired with a second right clicker to make your game easier. The best way to deal with late game SF is to never be forced late, try to end the game when you're at your peak, between 25-40 minutes.