Shadow Blade

The Shadow Blade is an item purchasable at the Main Shop, under Weapons.

Recommended heroes

 * Dazzle can be permanently invisible with his cooldown reduction.


 * Shadow Blade is very useful for Monkey King to gank with 4 charges of Jingu Mastery, as the damage stacks with Shadow Walk's backstab damage.


 * Shadow Blade is useful as both an engagement tool and as an escape mechanism for Nature's Prophet. It allows him to have physical burst damage and is usable during, allowing you to escape safely as long as the enemy has no True Sight or AoE disables.


 * Dragon Knight can use Shadow Blade as a tool to initiate. One can use, use Shadow Blade, break out of invisibility with Shadow Walk's backstab, and then immediately use , almost instantly disabling the target for a long duration, allowing Dragon Knight (and his team if they are close by) to deal a lot of damage.


 * Shadow Fiend can instantly kill most enemies early-mid game by using Shadow Walk, standing on top of an enemy due to the Phasing effect, and then using . Shadow Fiend does not get revealed during the cast time, and will remain phased. If positioned properly, the enemy will be hit by (almost) every soul released by your ultimate for massive magic damage.


 * Due to Tiny's high attack damage, breaking out of invisibility with an attack and then following up with an - combo can instantly kill most Heroes early in the game. This combo uses a lot of mana, however, so it's best to keep full mana at all times.


 * An easy way to increase the damage of is to simply attack while invisible when the ability is off cooldown. An additional 175 Damage to your Cleave is dealt in a large AoE, allowing Kunkka to deal considerably more damage in teamfights. When paired with his other abilities and additional items such as, he can potentially wipe out an entire team, even in the late game if he is properly positioned.


 * Lina can kill enemies very quickly with the additional physical damage from Shadow Walk alongside her high magic damage. If an enemy doesn't have detection, one can initiate easily by using undetected.


 * Slark's will give him immense health regeneration and movement speed as long as he is invisible to the enemy team. Additionally, Shadow Walk gives Slark great burst damage along with a free  stack on his first attack to break invisibility, after which he can follow up with, making him a very potent ganker in all stages of a game if the enemy lacks detection, but even should the enemy buy detection, an observant Slark will notice he is seen if he loses Shadow Dance's buff upon nearing a hero. As he is still invisible, he can simply run away and try to attack from a different angle or time instead.


 * Shadow Blade allows Alchemist to start then go invisible, surprising enemies with heavy burst damage and the full duration stun. He can also activate it while affected by  to regain a large amount of health before enemies can reveal him.

Others

 * Heroes who builds Shadow Blade and later upgrades it into :

Items Synergy

 * will silence your enemy for 5 seconds, preventing retaliation from caster heroes such as.
 * works similar to the Orchid, but will also disable items, preventing the enemy from dispelling any debuffs or from healing themselves.
 * will add a brief slow to your backstab attack and enable an instant second attack afterward.
 * reduces armor, increasing Shadow Walk's backstab damage. Pusher heroes such as can buy Desolator to enable quick pushing of enemy lanes, then instantly flee with a quick cast of Shadow Walk.
 * gives a chance to bash your enemy from attacking or escaping. 's short ranged active ability can now also be cast easily, giving any melee ganker an instant stun in their arsenal.
 * can be bought if the enemy has low health pools but high damage output, such as or, possibly discouraging them from fighting back.
 * gives you a lot of movement speed allowing you to cross a long distance while invisible to help you gank or escape. The maim is also very helpful to slow your enemy.

Counter items

 * ,, and reveals invisible heroes.
 * also works against Shadow Blade users, as such heroes would be dealing high damage to their target. If they themselves are not too durable, their gank might end badly for themselves instead.
 * disables item usage, and its instant cast time can prevent a quick escape with Shadow Blade.

Trivia

 * In the original DotA, this item was called Lothar's Edge, a reference to Sir Anduin Lothar from the Warcraft universe. It is still commonly referred to as "Lothar" or "Lothar's" by those who have played the original DotA.
 * 's cosmetic item, Kunkka's Shadow Blade, is based on Shadow Blade.

Gallery
Lâmina das Sombras Shadow Blade 影刃