Shadow Fiend — abilities, talents, counters and builds

Abilities

Official ability data from Valve

ShadowrazeQ⏱ 9s◆ 75

Shadow Fiend razes the ground directly in front of him, dealing damage to enemy units in the area, dealing bonus damage based on his current Necromastery Soul amount. Adds a stacking damage amplifier on the target that causes the enemy to take bonus Shadowraze damage per stack.

Mechanics notes (1)

• Stack duration refreshes on stack gain.

•

Feast of Souls⏱ 21s◆ 60 / 65 / 70 / 75

Shadow Fiend gains Bonus Movement and Attack Speed for 8 seconds. For the duration of the effect, every 0.5s he collects souls from 2 enemies in a 600 radius. After the effect is over, he loses the souls whose owners are still alive, retaining the rest for 8s, after which souls that are over the Necromastery max stack count are also lost. Can only collect souls once from each individual enemy.

Presence of the Dark LordE

Shadow Fiend's presence reduces the armor of nearby enemies.

Mechanics notes (1)

• Stacks fully with other armor reduction abilities and aura.

Requiem of SoulsR⏱ 120 / 110 / 100s◆ 150 / 175 / 200

Shadow Fiend gathers up to 20 of 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 0.6 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.

Mechanics notes (2)

• One line is generated from Shadow Fiend for every 1 soul in his possession.
• Fear and movement slow do not apply if the Requiem was released on death.

NecromasteryWInnate

Shadow Fiend steals the soul from units he kills, gaining 1 bonus damage per soul. Hero kills grant 4 souls. On death, he releases 30% of them from bondage.

Mechanics notes (3)

• Denies and neutral creeps also provide bonus damage through Necromastery.
• Break disables the gaining of new stacks.
• Break does not disable the bonuses from existing stacks.

Traits ours:Magic burstSustained physical DPSArmor reduction

Our ratings

0–10, our judgement — every planner uses them

Aghanim's upgrades

Upgrade text from Valve · priority is ours Our recommendation

Aghanim's Scepterlow priority

Requiem of Souls: Reduces cooldown and causes Requiem of Souls to return back to Shadow Fiend. The wave back to Shadow Fiend heals him for all the damage it dealt.

Necromastery: Increases max souls.

Aghanim's Shardlow priority

Shadowraze: Cooldown reduced by 2s per enemy hero hit. Applies a stacking 12% movement speed debuff on enemies hit.

Tips & counterplay

Playing as Shadow Fiend

Snowballing mid with huge damage. Farm fast with razes and fight with BKB.

Laning: Raze when the enemy mid stands still for last hits.

Kill combo: Three razes → right-clicks; Requiem in melee range after Eul's/Blink.

Staying alive: Raze the creep wave to push and pull back; ward runes.

From real games (OpenDota)

• Most games are in the safe lane (50.8%, 40.7% win rate).
• Best results come from the mid lane (43.5% over 757 games).
• Power Treads: usually done by 8 min; finishing it by 8 min wins 42.6%.
• Dragon Lance: usually done by 20 min; finishing it by 15 min wins 49.2%.
• Blink Dagger: usually done by 20 min; finishing it by 8 min wins 94.1%.

Playing against Shadow Fiend

Generated from this hero's traits, counters and real matchups

Magic burst Black King Bar, Pipe of Insight, Glimmer Cape and Infused Raindrops blunt the burst. Don't stand clumped.

Sustained physical DPS Ghost Scepter, Heaven's Halberd and armor (Assault Cuirass, Shiva's, Crimson Guard) shut down sustained right-clicks.

Armor reduction Solar Crest and Assault Cuirass restore the armor they strip.

• Respect Shadow Fiend at Full souls + Bottle: Lane dominance and rune control.
• Respect Shadow Fiend at Black King Bar: Fight in the middle of the enemy team.
• Respect Shadow Fiend at Blink + Requiem: Teamfight wipes.

Items that counter it

Ghost Scepter Sustained physical DPS, Armor reduction

Solar Crest Armor reduction, Sustained physical DPS

Assault Cuirass Sustained physical DPS, Armor reduction

Infused Raindrops Magic burst

Bracer Magic burst

Cloak Magic burst

Heroes that beat it

DazzleShadow Fiend wins only 43.2% vs Dazzle (95 games)

Witch DoctorShadow Fiend wins only 45.1% vs Witch Doctor (144 games)

SniperShadow Fiend wins only 45.4% vs Sniper (368 games)

HuskarShadow Fiend wins only 46.2% vs Huskar (93 games)

Storm SpiritKnown counter

PuckKnown counter

Talents

Current talents (Valve)

Feast of Souls Grants +30% Cast Speed

Shadowraze Applies Attack Damage

+5 Necromastery Max Souls

+0.2s Requiem Fear per line

+1.5 Presence Armor Reduction

+2 Feast of Souls Souls Collected Per Hero

+30 Shadowraze Stack Damage

+30 Feast of Souls Attack Speed

Best items

Position 2 build Our recommendation

Starting

Early

›

Core

›

Luxury

Power spikes

Our recommendation

Full souls + BottleLane dominance and rune control.

Black King BarFight in the middle of the enemy team.

Blink + RequiemTeamfight wipes.

Best skill build

Position 2 Our recommendation

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	18
Q Shadowraze		Q		Q	Q		Q
W Necromastery	W		W					W	W
E Presence of the Dark Lord											E		E	E		E
R Requiem of Souls						R						R					R
T Talent										★					★

Counters

Strong against ours

Countered by

Weak against ours

Synergies

Great with ours

Best lane partners

Faceless VoidListed synergy

TidehunterListed synergy

EarthshakerListed synergy

Toughest lane opponents

From our matchup model, adjusted by each opponent's laning rating Our recommendation

Huskar−20

Phantom Assassin−17

Juggernaut−13

Queen of Pain−13

Lion−11

Live stats OpenDota · 2026-10-14

Public match stats

Win rate (all ranks): 43.2%
Win rate (Divine+): 40.3%
Pick rate: 8.8% of matches
Sample: 360,911 picks
Pro: 3 picks · 66.7% WR · 1.2% ban

Lane presence

safe50.8% · 40.7% WR

mid47.4% · 43.5% WR

off1.7% · 51.9% WR

Win rate by rank

Public matches per medal bracket

Win rate by game length

Minutes · OpenDota parsed games

Item timings

When the item is finished, and the timing that wins most (≥15 games)

Item	Games	Usual	Win %	Best timing
Power Treads	1,262	8′	40.8%	≤8′ · 42.6%
Dragon Lance	830	20′	41.6%	≤15′ · 49.2%
Blink Dagger	576	20′	48.4%	≤8′ · 94.1%
Black King Bar	497	30′	45.7%	≤25′ · 54.7%
Shadow Blade	428	20′	46%	≤20′ · 47.3%
Force Staff	389	25′	45.5%	≤20′ · 47.4%
Manta Style	383	20′	45.4%	≤15′ · 59.3%
Hurricane Pike	371	25′	45.3%	≤30′ · 45.8%
Silver Edge	226	25′	54%	≤20′ · 60%
Boots of Travel	179	20′	57%	≤8′ · 78.9%

What players actually buy

Most purchased items by game phase

Start

Early

Mid

Late

Best real matchups

Head-to-head win rate, ≥40 games

Phantom Lancer89 games55.1%

Centaur Warrunner283 games54.8%

Tidehunter310 games54.5%

Puck234 games53.4%

Phantom Assassin62 games53.2%

Worst real matchups

Head-to-head win rate, ≥40 games

Dazzle95 games43.2%

Witch Doctor144 games45.1%

Sniper368 games45.4%

Huskar93 games46.2%

Necrophos169 games47.3%

Recent pro & league games

Most recent league matches featuring this hero

League	Result	K / D / A	Length	Date
DreamLeague Season 30 Qualifiers	Win	3 / 0 / 1	17′	2026-10-12
DreamLeague Season 30 Qualifiers	Win	17 / 6 / 8	32′	2026-10-11
DreamLeague Season 30 Qualifiers	Win	7 / 3 / 2	33′	2026-10-10
BLAST SLAM VIII	Loss	2 / 5 / 4	43′	2026-09-30
BLAST SLAM VIII	Loss	11 / 3 / 11	51′	2026-09-30
PGL Wallachia 2026 Season 9	Win	4 / 3 / 3	43′	2026-09-26
BETBOOM Streamers Battle Dota 15	Win	14 / 8 / 12	72′	2026-09-25
PGL Wallachia 2026 Season 9	Win	8 / 4 / 2	37′	2026-09-23

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.