Vengeful Spirit

Shendel the Vengeful Spirit is a ranged agility Hero excelling in ganks, disabling and kill hunts. She is one of the most potent supporters in the game and being item-independent, she serves as the team warder. Effective from early to late game, vengeful Spirit is typically seen roaming the battlefield, searching for targets to prey on, hitting them with a powerful stun with Magic Missile and reducing their armor and scouting ahead with Wave of Terror. Her ultimate Nether Swap switches your position with an enemy hero putting both in danger. This allows Shendel to swap an enemy key hero making him vulnerable or sacrificing herself to save an important ally from death which may be essential to win a clash, or perhaps the entire game.

Beginners tend to dislike Venge very much, especially because her most crucial role is that of suicide. Aside from this, she is extremely dependent on target priority, timing, rapid reactions and knowledge of the mechanics of all heroes on both teams. She is recommended for intermediate to advanced players.

Tips

 * Under all circumstances max Magic Missile first, as aside from being a powerful early-game nuke it allows allies to land their own, usually-more-difficult spells.
 * Besides being an effective disabler, she is a potent interrupter from Magic Missile and Nether Swap.
 * Her Vengeance Aura boosts her own damage as well, so do not underestimate her autoattack.
 * Be aware than Vengeance Aura will push the lane, depriving your lane partner of farm and increasing the risk of a gank.
 * A ganking trick early-game is to Nether Swap an enemy hero into a tower's range, then use Magic Missile to stun them. With the tower's help you should easily kill the hero.
 * Venge is best chosen when you have very auto-attack reliant heroes like Ursa and Drow Ranger, as her aura enhances their main source of damage. She is also effective in helping spells that are hard to land, such as Lina's Light Strike Array.
 * Wave of Terror is an armour reduction spell with very little mana cost, and should be used in every encounter. It can be used to reveal the fog of war to scout out possible ambushes or to reveal an area for a Nether Swap.
 * Venge is an item-independent hero, meaning she can be effective even with minimal items. She should constantly be ganking your opponents keeping enemy carries in check, warding and de-warding maps or assist in pushes. Reserve the farming for your carries, as they require items and levels to be useful.
 * Nether Swap has multiple uses despite its simple mechanic. It allows Venge to bring an isolated enemy hero into her team, or to exchange her own life for that of a crucial ally. This very often entails suicide, but because of her ability to function with very few items, it is almost always better for Venge to die than for her allies.
 * With good communication, Nether Swap allows you to escape death by swapping with an ally that has potent escape mechanism such as Queen of Pain's Blink without putting them in much danger.
 * With Kunkka's X mark the spot on Vengeful, she can then swap her opponents while being returned back to her exact location afterwards, effectively saving her from imminent death.
 * If being pursued by multiple heroes, Nether Swap can sometimes be used on the enemy hero furthest from you, resulting in the pursuers to overshoot slightly due to a sudden change in direction, giving you extra time to escape in a different pathway though putting you in the opposite direction from your intended escape route.

Trivia

 * Blink Dagger cannot be bought on Vengeful Spirit. If it could be, she would be able to blink to an enclosed area and then switch places with an enemy, leaving her foe potentially trapped. This is still possible to do with Force Staff, however.
 * Previous designs of Vengeful Spirit showed her with a mask.
 * Vengeful Spirit's fun name, "820", is given in respect of legendary DotA player 820.