Hero
Shadow Fiend | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Unleashes the souls of fallen enemies for damage. | |
Capturing Souls from every kill he makes, Shadow Fiend is always gathering his power. Armor fails within the Presence of the Dark Lord, leaving foes no choice but to scramble. Every assault, each carefully aimed Shadowraze kills an enemy, brings him closer to his acme of potency. The Shadow Fiend pauses to charge his demonic energies, then, with a flourish of his lightless wings, unleashes his gathered souls in all directions to obliterate enemies in a howling Requiem of Souls. | |
Roles: | Carry Nuker |
Complexity: | |
Adjectives: | Demon, Flying, Red Legs ( 0 )
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Bio[]
▶️ "So, you're curious where I come from? There's one easy way to find out for yourself."
Lore:
It is said that Nevermore the Shadow Fiend has the soul of a poet, and in fact he has thousands of them. Over the ages he has claimed the souls of poets, priests, emperors, beggars, slaves, philosophers, criminals and (naturally) heroes; no sort of soul escapes him. What he does with them is unknown. No one has ever peered into the Abysm whence Nevermore reaches out like an eel from among astral rocks. Does he devour them one after another? Does he mount them along the halls of an eldritch temple, or pickle the souls in necromantic brine? Is he merely a puppet, pushed through the dimensional rift by a demonic puppeteer? Such is his evil, so intense his aura of darkness, that no rational mind may penetrate it. Of course, if you really want to know where the stolen souls go, there's one sure way to find out: Add your soul to his collection. Or just wait for Nevermore.
Aliases:
SF, Nevermore
Voice:
Abilities[]
Shadowraze (Near)
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.
Distance: 200
Move Speed Slow Increase per Stack: 12%/13%/14%/15%
Stack Duration: 8
Shadow Fiend can consume a Necromastery soul per attack to deal critical damage and fear the target.
Nevermore's trademark for harvesting souls.
- Leveling any of the three Shadowraze abilities levels the others as well.
- Shadowraze (Near) blasts a 250 radius area 200 range in front of Nevermore upon cast.
- This means that it can hit units up to 50 range behind Shadow Fiend, and up to 450 range in front of him.
- Places one hidden debuff on the enemy. This debuff counts how many Shadowrazes hit the target within its duration.
- Shadowraze first sets its damage based on current stacks, then applies the debuff or increases the stack count, then deals the damage, and then the instant attack.
- This means the first stack added by the raze does not affect the ability's damage.
- A number on the icon shows how many times the debuff was refreshed, including the first cast.
- The debuff has no stack limit and can be increased infinitely.
- Hitting all 3 Shadowrazes consecutively can deal up to 370/600/830/1060 damage to a single unit (before reductions) and applies up to 24%/26%/28%/30% movement speed slow.
- With the base damage increasing talent, they can deal up to 715/945/1175/1405 damage.
- With the stack damage increasing talent, they can deal up to 420/650/880/1110 damage.
- With both talents, they can deal up to 765/995/1225/1455 damage.
- The hidden debuff is placed on heroes and is used to count successive Shadowraze hits. It lasts for 3 seconds.
- Although only the Demon Eater cosmetic item makes use of it, the counter is always placed.
- TALENTWith the Shadowraze using attack damage talent, Shadowraze causes Shadow Fiend to perform an instant attack on all hit enemies within its effect radius.
- These instant attacks can proc any attack modifiers, including Necromastery, and on-hit effects normally, with cleave being an exception. They have True Strike and completely ignore disarms.
- Does not affect enemy Couriers.
Shadowraze (Medium)
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.
Distance: 450
Move Speed Slow Increase per Stack: 12%/13%/14%/15%
Stack Duration: 8
Shadowraze (Medium) is a stand-alone ability that comes with 3 charges.
Nevermore's trademark for harvesting souls.
- Shadowraze (Medium) blasts a 250 radius area 450 range in front of Nevermore upon cast.
- This means that it can hit units from 200 to 700 range in front of Shadow Fiend.
- Other notes from Shadowraze (Near) fully apply.
Shadowraze (Far)
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.
Distance: 700
Move Speed Slow Increase per Stack: 12%/13%/14%/15%
Stack Duration: 8
Nevermore's trademark for harvesting souls.
- Shadowraze (Far) blasts a 250 radius area 700 range in front of Nevermore upon cast.
- This means that it can hit units from 450 to 950 range in front of Shadow Fiend.
- Other notes from Shadowraze (Near) fully apply.
Shadow Fiend steals the soul from units he kills, gaining bonus damage. On death, he releases 30% of them from bondage.
Passive Component
Stacks Lost on Death: 30%
Increases max souls.
Shadow Fiend gains an extra soul per kill. Shadow Fiend can consume a soul per attack to deal critical damage and fear the target.
Illusion Notes:
Illusions start with 0 souls, and can gather souls themselves.
Illusions do not benefit from the flat attack damage bonus.
Harvested souls swirl in and out of the Abysm, empowering the Shadow Fiend to increase the size of his collection.
- Instantly grants 1 ( 2) stack(s) from killing any unit, including ward-type units and allies, despite the visual effects.
- Does not grant stacks from killing the following units:
- From denying allied Observer Wards and Sentry Wards.
- From illusions and the Tempest Double.
- From Runes.
- From buildings.
- The number of the current stack is visible on the status buff icon, and it is always rounded down upon death.
- This can be defined as expr
⌊ StackNumber × 0.3 ⌋
- Shadow Fiend can never lose all gathered souls. Necromastery keeps 1 stack, even when dying while only having 1 stack.
- The number of stacks is not lost during Reincarnation.
- This can be defined as
- The more souls Shadow Fiend has, the more red particles fly around his chest area.
- Grants a total of 11/28/51/80 ( 44/70/102/140) regular flat bonus attack damage with the maximum amount of souls.
- Necromastery grants up to a total of 25/50/75/100 ( 100/125/150/175) regular flat bonus attack damage with the maximum amount of souls.
- These extra souls affect the number of lines created by Requiem of Souls.
- When losing the Ability Upgrade, the attack damage bonus adapts immediately and does not account for the extra souls.
- Shadow Fiend keeps his stacks even when having more than the default allowed amount. However, Requiem of Souls still releases more lines in this case.
- Necromastery turns into an active attack modifier, with the passive components still present.
- Necromastery's cast range can only be further increased by attack range bonuses of the same range type as the caster. It is not affected by cast range bonuses.
- Both Autocast and manually casting it uses Shadow Fiend's current attack range.
- Upon cast, the attack projectile is replaced with a thicker particle.
- The Necromastery attack fears the target, and has an ensured critical strike, crits with a lower value have no effect if they proc since the higher crit value takes priority.
- The attack, including instant attacks (e.g. Shadowraze), first applies the fear debuff, then its own damage.
- Necromastery's fear makes affected enemies run away from the caster, rather than make them run toward their team's fountain.
- Consumes a stack and goes on cooldown upon projectile launch, therefore missing the attack wastes the soul and cooldown.
- Cannot be cast without stacks, attempting to do so releases a regular attack without triggering the cooldown.
Ability
Aura
Aura
Affects
Enemies
Enemies
Shadow Fiend's presence reduces the armor of nearby enemies. Every enemy hero killed nearby further improves armor reduction by 2 for 20s.
- The armor reduction is provided by an aura and its debuff lingers for 0.5 seconds.
- Does not affect enemies who have no vision over Shadow Fiend.
- Does not affect invulnerable and hidden units.
- Fully affect enemy Couriers and buildings.
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 0.7 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.
Requiem of Souls is automatically cast whenever Shadow Fiend dies, regardless of its cooldown.
Passive Component
Proc Chance on Death: 100%
Necromastery Stack Required per Line: 1
Damage per Released Line: 80/120/160
Move Speed Slow: 20%/25%/30%
Magic Resistance Reduction: 5%/10%/15%
Reduces cooldown by 30 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.
Modifiers [?]
Necromastery must be drafted as well for Requiem of Souls to work.
The captured souls of those past slain are released to ravage their former allies.
- Grants Shadow Fiend phased movement during the ability's cast point.
- The damage is entirely based on the number of souls gathered with Necromastery.
- The damaging lines have the following mechanics:
- The area of every single damaging line is shaped like a cone.
- The distance between the damaging lines is always even. One line is always released towards the east and the others adapt accordingly.
- Creates a line on every 32.7°th/25.7°th/21.2°th/18°th ( 14.4°th) with the maximum number of souls on each level of Necromastery.
- The damaging lines travel at a speed of 700, taking 1.43 seconds to reach the max distance.
- With the travel distance and end width, the damaging lines can hit units up to 1350 range away.
- Each damaging line cannot hit the same unit more than once per cast upon expanding and returning respectively.
- Fears and reduces the movement speed of all enemy units hit by the damaging lines of Requiem of Souls.
- The duration increases by 0.7 ( 0.95) per each line hit, but is capped at 2.15 ( 3.35) seconds.
- Each line, including the returning lines, starts a new fear instance at the time of impact.
- Requiem of Souls' fear makes affected enemies run away from the caster, rather than make them run toward their team's fountain.
- Affected creeps do not move.
- The expanding lines can deal up to 1600/2400/3200 damage to a single unit (before reductions), if all lines hit.
- Each line first removes the movement and magic resistance reducing debuff, then applies the damage, then the fear debuff, and then re-apply the removed debuff.
- This means the lines' damage does not benefit from the magic resistance reduction at all.
- Stacks multiplicatively with other magic resistance sources.
- Reduces most heroes' magic resistance to 21.25%/17.5%/13.75%.
- With the magic resistance reduction from this source, every 10 points of intelligence further increases the total magic resistance by 1.05%/1.1%/1.15%. [?]
- Upon death, Requiem of Souls is passively and instantly cast, regardless of mana and cooldown.
- If the caster does not have Requiem of Souls, it will not be passively cast.
- Shadow Fiend first loses 30% of his Necromastery souls before this happens, so this passive cast can only have a maximum of 7/9/11/14 ( 17) lines.
- Requiem of Souls cast passively is not upgraded by Aghanim's Scepter, does not apply fear, but does apply the movement speed slow.
- The passive cast does not trigger with Reincarnation.
- COSMETICHas a cast backswing of 1.2 with the Demon Eater equipped.
- After the lines expand to their maximum distance, they return back to Shadow Fiend.
- Despite the visual effects, the lines do not "respawn" around Shadow Fiend. They start returning back exactly where they stopped.
- The lines return at the same speed to Shadow Fiend's current location, not to the location Requiem of Souls was originally cast from.
- The lines do not follow if Shadow Fiend moves. Once the lines start returning, their path cannot be further altered.
- The maximum travel distance also applies to the lines also upon returning, meaning they travel a total distance of 2000, taking 2.86 seconds.
- The width of the lines is reversed upon returning — starting with the maximum width and getting thinner towards the end.
- The returning lines deal 60% damage. They hit all units regularly like the expanding lines and also apply the movement speed slow and fear debuff.
- The returning lines can deal up to 1200/1800/2400 damage to a single unit, if all lines hit.
- Together with the expanding lines, it can deal up to 3200/4800/6400 damage to a single unit (before reductions).
- The heal is based on per hero hit by the returning lines, not by the initial expanding lines, and it is applied as soon as the lines stop moving.
- Always heals for 48/72/96 health per hero hit, regardless of how much damage the lines actually dealt.
- Only heals from damage dealt to heroes, including illusions.
- This ability's cast point is not modified when acquired. The lines created are based on Shadow Fiend's current Necromastery stacks when acquired.
Talents[]
Hero Talents | ||
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Shadowraze Applies Attack Damage | 25 | -5s Shadowraze Cooldown |
+0.25s Requiem Fear per line | 20 | +3 Damage Per Soul |
+115 Shadowraze Damage | 15 | Presence Aura Affects Building |
+25 Attack Speed | 10 | +25 Shadowraze Stack Damage |
Recent Changes[]
<div> <div class="updatetablehead"> <div id="version">Version</div><div id="description">Description</div> </div> <div class="updatetablebody">
- Increased base agility from 20 to 25.
- Reduced base attack damage from 21‒27 to 16‒22.
- Increased attack range from 500 to 525.
- Aghanim's Scepter upgrade:
- Requiem of Souls
- Increased damage per return line from 32/48/64 to 48/72/96. [?]
- Increased self-heal per return line from 32/48/64 to 48/72/96.
- Requiem of Souls
- Talents:
- LVL 15+100 Shadowraze base damage increased to +115.
</div> </div>
Recommended Items[]
Starting items:
- Tango provide the necessary health regeneration to help you staying in lane.
- Healing Salve can save Shadow Fiend when activated at the last moment.
- Slippers of Agility compensate for your low starting damage by allowing you to last hit easier in the laning phase. The more last hits you get, the stronger you become, so this is important.
- Clarity lets Shadow Fiend use Shadowraze more often in lane, helping him build up his Necromastery.
Early game:
- Regular Stick will help do nothing in particular for your Shadowraze.
- Bottle is crucial for surviving in lane, and capturing runes.
- Infused Raindrops will provide you with the mana regen to sustain Shadowrazes throughout the jungle, as well as provide a little bit of tankiness with the magic damage absorption.
Mid game:
- Magic Wand will save inventory space and provide a small attribute bonus.
- Power Treads increase your damage output with attack speed and agility, as well as survivability and sustainability when switched to strength or intelligence.
- Shadow Blade provides Shadow Fiend with an escape mechanism, and helps him position for Requiem of Souls. The invisibility fade time means you won't be visible until you're close to actually casting Requiem of Souls. Using this item and getting directly on top of an enemy and unleashing your ultimate will usually lead to a one-hit kill.
- Dragon Lance gives additional attack range and attributes.
Late game:
- Black King Bar provides good health and damage, but more importantly, can be used to ensure Requiem of Souls is not interrupted.
- Hurricane Pike is a natural upgrade from Dragon Lance that can push enemies away while providing infinite range for up to 4 attacks.
- Butterfly increases your DPS and makes you much more survivable against enemy carries who are reliant on their physical attacks.
Situational items:
- Blink Dagger gives Shadow Fiend some much needed mobility, and can be used to jump into fights with Requiem of Souls.
- Arcane Blink allows Shadow Fiend to jump into a fight using Requiem of Souls with a massive reduction to the long cast time, giving the enemy significantly time to react while being an upgrade to Blink Dagger.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity can be used to cyclone an enemy, giving Shadow Fiend the time to charge Requiem of Souls and hit the enemy upon landing. It is also a great counter to heroes that rely on Blink Dagger to get away since enemy heroes will take 50 damage upon landing.
- Eye of Skadi grants a massive attribute bonus. In addition, its attack modifier's slow pierces spell immunity, ensuring enemies cannot kite you too easily.
- Assault Cuirass increases your team's DPS and survivability while reducing the other team's DPS and survivability. The armor reduction aura also stacks with Presence of the Dark Lord.
- Daedalus increases damage output and scales well into the late game.
- Satanic allows Shadow Fiend to quickly regain health by lifestealing during late game teamfights.
- Desolator, in combination with a maximized Presence of the Dark Lord, reduces an attacked enemy's armor by 14, increasing the physical damage it takes even further.
- Silver Edge is a natural upgrade from Shadow Blade, and provides break to disable passive abilities.
- Diffusal Blade improves Shadow Fiend's physical attacks, providing a boost to agility as well as allowing his attacks to burn mana. The active grants Shadow Fiend a light disable, something his own skills are lacking.
- Monkey King Bar increases attack damage, and counters enemies with evasion with magical damage procs.
- Boots of Travel is commonly picked up during the late game to push lanes and move around the map more efficiently.
- Aghanim's Scepter greatly increases the damage from Requiem of Souls, and raises Necromastery's maximum soul count.
- Manta Style is good for disjointing and confusing enemies, giving Shadow Fiend a little extra time to deal damage. It is also excellent for attacking towers and buildings.
- Scythe of Vyse is a good combination with Blink Dagger, granting a good disable, allowing Shadow Fiend to find kills more easily without Requiem of Souls, by easily getting off triple Shadowraze hits.
- Ethereal Blade is a good situational item, if you are going magical build, providing a big nuke due to Shadow Fiend's high agility, and giving a 40% increased magical damage, and a slow, which eases hits on Shadowrazes.
Dota Plus Progress[]
Main Article: Hero Challenges
Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.
Relics | Voice Lines | |
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Bronze |
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Silver |
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Gold |
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Platinum |
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Master |
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Grandmaster |
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Equipment[]
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Trivia[]
- Shadow Fiend's alternate/fun name in DotA was "YaphetS", a tribute to a professional DotA player who skillfully used Nevermore.
- The name "Nevermore" likely refers to the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe. This is also referenced in his bio.
- ▶️ "Never say Nevermore..." is in reference to the James Bond movie "Never say never again".
- Apart for popular demand by fans, Shadow Fiend's model rework may have also been done to adhere to certain countries' censorship laws, namely the Chinese client.
Gallery[]
Old model (before September 25, 2014 Patch)
Old Low Violence model