Vengeful Spirit

Shendelzare, the Vengeful Spirit, is a ranged agility hero who excels at ganking, disabling, and kill hunts. She is one of the most well-rounded supports in the game, possessing a skill set that allows her to set up kills for her team during ganks and teamfights, strengthening her team and weakening the enemy in large-scale engagements, and saving allies from certain death if they are caught by the enemy.

Effective at all stages of the game, Vengeful Spirit is typically seen roaming the battlefield, searching for targets to prey on. She possesses a strong targeted stun in Magic Missile and an armor reduction debuff in Wave of Terror, making her a strong partner in a gank. Motivated by her lust for revenge, Vengeance Aura boosts the attack damage of all nearby allies, making Shendel an invaluable ally to teams with strong physical damage output and turning her into a potential semi-carry. If Shendelzare dies, her death will not be in vain, as her killer will be afflicted with a debuff that reduces their attack damage as well as their allies', ensuring that her presence is felt even after being killed. Her ultimate Nether Swap immediately swaps Vengeful Spirit's position with another hero, ally or enemy, allowing her to displace a key enemy hero for easy elimination, or save an ally in distress at the potential cost of her own life. Vengeful Spirit's skill set and low reliance on farm allows her to be played with great recklessness, as even her death can be integral towards guiding her team to victory. Shendelzare requires very selfless and skilled play to operate well, and relies on the competence of teammates as much as herself.

Talents

 * The magic resistance stacks multiplicatively with other sources of magic resistance.
 * The attack damage is added as bonus attack damage, and therefore does not benefit illusions.

Recommended items
Starting items:
 * and help Vengeful Spirit sustain during the laning phase, preventing her from returning to base due to enemy harassment.
 * is crucial for replenishing Vengeful Spirit's mana from casting during early ganks, as her small base mana pool means that she will run completely out after one or two casts.
 * is a cheap way to improve Vengeful Spirit's attributes, particularly her HP and mana, both of which are lacking in the early game. It can be used either to build a Ring of Aquila or Magic Wand later.
 * is an important item for support heroes to purchase at the start of the match. Shendel's low reliance on items makes her a good candidate for purchasing it.

Early game:
 * is a useful pickup when in a lane against heroes who have low mana cost spells, and are harassing you with those spells. The burst HP and mana regen allow Vengeful Spirit to survive slightly longer and cast at least one one more spell in an engagement, which can make or break a fight.
 * are essential early on for Vengeful Spirit, as the improved speed will allow her to escape deadly situations, as well as quickly get within range to stun them with Magic Missile
 * gives Vengeful Spirit many strong bonuses. It provides all-around attributes, particularly to her agility, and the increased armor makes her more survivable against physical damage. The Aquila Aura provides even more armor, and its flat mana regen is very helpful in the early game when Vengeful Spirit's intelligence is low. The aura can provide allies with more armor, and can be useful for pushing lanes to take map objectives after securing kills. Later on, Ring of Aquila can be disassembled to recycle its components.

Core items:
 * is a useful pick up for the same reasons as the Magic Stick. Its attribute bonuses are very useful on low-farm supports, and the increased charge storage allows Vengeful Spirit to instantly replenish a large fraction of her HP and mana, enough to stay in a fight long enough to make a greater difference.
 * increase Vengeful Spirit's attack speed, which synergizes well with, greatly increasing her physical damage output. The ability to switch attributes allows her to either give herself more HP for survivability, more mana for casting her powerful spells, or more damage and attack speed for damage output.
 * synergizes well with, combining to reduce a target enemy's armor by 13 at its highest level; cast on an ally, it can help keep them alive for longer in fights. The bonuses on Vengeful Spirit herself give her increased armor for survivability against physical damage, and scaling mana regen that helps to maintain her mana pool.
 * are crucial for purchasing regularly as a support hero. Map vision provides intelligence about enemy movements, and is particularly useful for Vengeful Spirit given her ability to roam and get kills on lone enemies.
 * are essential for cross-map transportation. Shendel's powerful abilities make her a crucial ally to have in any engagement, whether it's to save an ally who is being ganked, or to get to a gank opportunity to kill an enemy.

Situational items:
 * greatly reduces the cooldown on, allowing Vengeful Spirit to use it repeatedly in engagements, and gives her access to the Vengeance Illusion sub-ability. With a reduced cooldown, Vengeful Spirit can swap enemies repeatedly, preventing them from easily escaping so long as she is nearby, and the Vengeance Illusion spawning upon her death allows her to continue to contribute to fights even after death. The item itself also greatly improves her HP and mana, making her more resilient and improving her mana pool to reduce the strain that repeated casting of her ultimate will induce.
 * is a cheap support item that is very useful on Vengeful Spirit. It can be used to re-position her in order to cast her abilities particularly Magic Missile and Nether Swap. It can also be used to escape from failed fights or ganks as well as save nearby allies, or push enemies into your grasp. It also improves her mana pool, allowing her to cast her spells more often in fights.
 * is extremely strong in the hands of Vengeful Spirit. While it cannot be used to trap enemies on unpathable terrain with Nether Swap, it greatly increases her mobility and lets her quickly get in position to stun an enemy or swap a key target. It also greatly improves her roaming potential as she can traverse over cliffs and trees while hunting for targets.
 * is a powerful semi-carry item that boosts Vengeful Spirit's damage output. Combining the attack modifier with Wave of Terror and Medallion of Courage can reduce a target's armor by up to 19, which can be enough to bring down even the tankiest heroes.
 * is an expensive but strong luxury item for a semi-carry build. The item drastically increases Shendel's physical damage output, particularly when combined with Vengeance Aura and Wave of Terror, and provides evasion to make her harder to focus down in engagements. Its active can temporarily boost her movement speed, increasing her ability to roam the battlefield and chase down enemies.
 * increases Vengeful Spirit's semi-carry potential further. It improves her overall attributes, particularly her agility, and improves her movement speed for better mobility. The active allows her to remove debuffs from herself while also creating illusions to confuse the enemy; as well, the illusions can carry Vengeance Aura to benefit her team even while she herself is not within range, and can even be used to provide allies with the positive aura after Shendel's death, meaning that both the positive and negative auras can be simultaneously active.
 * will massively increase Vengeful Spirit's survivability, granting her a much larger HP pool and the ability to quickly regenerate between fights. This survivability gives Vengeful Spirit a much higher chance of survival when swapping herself into a group of enemy heroes, and forces them to expend more time and spells in order to bring her down.
 * gives Vengeful Spirit all-around attributes for a cheap price, and the aura provides increased movement and attack speed for both herself and nearby allies. The increased mobility, especially with the active, allows Vengeful Spirit and her team to quickly chase down enemies during ganks, or escape from pursuers.
 * is as essential as Animal Courier, and should be purchased at the earliest opportunity. Vengeful Spirit's low reliance on items means that she can purchase it for her team more easily than can most of her teammates.
 * is a strong upgrade to that further augments the bonuses it brings to the field. The increased armor shift allows Vengeful Spirit to make an even bigger dent in the enemy's armor, or provide even more protection to a target ally in combination with the bonus evasion. The additional mana regen also helps to better sustain her mana pool for casting spells.
 * is a strong utility item on any support hero. Vengeful Spirit can use it in conjunction with Nether Swap to help ensure that an endangered ally survives, and cast on herself can improve her ganking ability as she can approach targets invisibly before disabling them with Magic Missile.
 * is a cheap mana item that improves Vengeful Spirit's ability to roam independently. It gives her HP and mana regen, allowing her to sustain her HP and mana more easily without going back to base. The active allows her to draw on her HP pool for immediate mana, useful for getting the mana she needs to cast and.
 * is a useful roaming item that gives Vengeful Spirit many powerful benefits. The bonus strength and mana regen give her more HP and help to maintain her mana pool. Charges can be easily obtained through successful ganks, and the charges can be used to heal herself or allies, synergizing with Nether Swap in keeping teammates alive, or can be used to add additional Pure damage in a gank, increasing the odds of success.
 * are a powerful alternative option for a roaming Vengeful Spirit. The increased movement speed allows her to roam more effectively, chasing down enemies more quickly to stun them, while the armor helps her to survive more easily after a successful Nether Swap. The passive HP regen can replenish any HP lost during an engagement, allowing Vengeful Spirit to be ready for another gank shortly afterward.
 * is a good support item that helps Vengeful Spirit and any roaming partners to cast their spells. Increasing the size of Shendel's mana pool reduces the strain of casting Magic Missile and Nether Swap, and the active can allow her to replenish her own mana pool and that of teammates, whether they need their spells to function in teamfights or to kill gank targets.
 * is a utility item that increases Vengeful Spirit's teamfight presence. The aura's damage bonus stacks alongside that of Vengeance Aura, further increasing the physical damage output of nearby teammates. It also provides armor to protect Vengeful Spirit and her teammates from physical damage, and HP and mana regen to keep them topped up outside of fights.
 * greatly improves the utility of all of Shendel's spells. It increases the size of her meager mana pool, allowing her to cast her spells more easily, and provides HP regen for improved survivability. Boosting the cast range on all of her spells allows her to stun enemies with Magic Missile from farther away, and debuff more enemies with Wave of Terror. But most importantly, it increases the cast range of Nether Swap, allowing her to displace enemies from extremely long distances.
 * can be a cheap utility item that serves multiple purposes, both in teamfights and ganks. The intelligence and mana regen bonuses will solve all of Vengeful Spirit's casting problems, and its movement speed boost allows her to position herself for casting spells or chasing down enemies more easily. The active can be used to temporarily disable secondary enemy targets while her team focuses down the primary target, or can be cast on herself to provide temporary invulnerability after a successful Nether Swap while also purging debuffs.
 * is a very strong semi-carry item that drastically boosts Vengeful Spirit's damage output. The increased armor will make her extremely resilient against physical damage, while the attack speed bonus allows her and nearby allies to further capitalize on Vengeance Aura's bonus damage. The enemy armor reduction can further reduce their resistance to physical damage alongside Wave of Terror.
 * is a powerful ganking item that can help to secure guaranteed kills. While expensive, Scythe of Vyse provides an instant hard-disable that can be combined with Magic Missile to pin down gank targets reliably. The increased intelligence and mana regen also solve all of Vengeful Spirit's mana issues.

Gameplay
 Strategy & Tips Counters & Matchups

Audio
 Responses Sounds

History
 Lore Old Abilities Changelogs

Trivia

 * Magic Missile is the first offensive spell available for arcane spellcaster classes in the famed RPG series, Dungeons & Dragons.
 * Previous designs of Vengeful Spirit showed her with a mask that looked similar to her Vengeance Aura ability icon.
 * Vengeful Spirit's fun name, "820", is a tribute to former professional DotA player 820.
 * In DotA1, she was the sister of Mortred, the, and her name was Shendelzare Silkwood. In Dota 2, her lore was changed so that she became affiliated with the Skywrath, thus switching her affiliations to Dragonus, the.
 * In the transition to Dota 2, her aura's name was changed from Command Aura to Vengeance Aura.