Liquipedia Dota 2 needs more help, are you able to? You just have to register an account and then log in to edit our pages. If you have any questions you can join the #dota2 channel on Discord.
Download the Liquipedia App here!Download the Liquipedia App on Android or iOS!Want to be updated on everything you love in esports? Download the Liquipedia app on iOS or Android and never miss a beat of your favorite tournaments, teams, players, and matches!
From Liquipedia Dota 2 Wiki
Some heroes focus on dealing damage with abilities, while others prefer to destroy opponents with normal attacks, and only a few are able to do both equally. Shadow Fiend, or Nevermore, is one of those heroes. With a competent game, he delivers a lot of inconvenience to the enemy with his destructive abilities, and at the same time saves souls for his long-range attacks. Mastering it is not easy, but in the capable hands of Nevermore is incredibly dangerous.
The hero owes his unusual name to the famous American poet and writer Edgar Alan Poe and his poem «The Raven». The hero, who has lost the love of his life, is visited by a talking raven, who answers all his questions Nevermore, which literally translates as «never again», dooming him to mental anguish. And Nevermore in Dota 2 dooms his enemies to a quick and inevitable death. However, gamers often call it even shorter — SF (short for Shadow Fiend).
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.
Cast Point 0.55
Cast Backswing 0
Nevermore’s trademark for harvesting souls.
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.
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.
Shadow Fiend steals the soul from units he kills, gaining bonus damage.
Upon death, he releases an amonut of the collected souls from bondage, dealing damage as if Requiem of Souls was cast. This effect is independent from his ultimate.
Harvested souls swirl in and out of the Abysm, empowering the Shadow Fiend to increase the size of his collection.
Presence of the Dark Lord
Shadow Fiend’s presence reduces the armor of nearby enemies. Every enemy hero killed nearby further improves armor reduction for a few seconds.
Even being near Nevermore eats away at one’s soul.
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 a duration for each line hit. 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.
Cast Point 1.67
Cast Backswing 0.9
The captured souls of those past slain are released to ravage their former allies.
Shadow Fiend (Never, Nevermore, SF, SF, Nevermore) is a relatively complex hero who feels confident both in the mid game and in the late game. On the professional stage, he goes exclusively to the mid with a healing or becoming a 5.
Ability Description
Shadow Raze (coil, active)Deals magic damage in an area in a small area of effect. Inflicts a debuff for 8 seconds that deals additional damage for each subsequent hit with a coil. Shadow Raze at the first levels will provide you with easy last hits. Having studied this ability, Nevermore immediately receives 3 skills of a lone level of pumping. Shadow Raze (1 skill, default to Q, close range) — 200 game units of distance. Shadow Raze (2 skill, default on W, medium distance) — 450 game units of distance. Shadow Raze (3 skill, default on E, long distance) — 700 game units of distance.
Necromastery (souls, passive) For each last hit of a ward, ally, enemy or allied creep, catapult and ward, SP gains an increase in damage. The higher the level of the ability, the more souls you can fill and the more damage you will receive for each of them. Because of this ability, Shadow Fiend is considered one of the best mid-game heroes. After death, the SF loses 40% of the accumulated souls.
Presence of the Dark Lord (Armor Reduction, Passive) This ability reduces the armor of nearby enemies within 1200 game range. Important! The debuff works through Black King Bar and is not removed by other abilities.
Requiem of Souls (ultimate, default on R) Never’a’s ult releases waves equal to the number of souls from the Necromastery ability and deals magic damage over a large area around the hero — 1000 game units of range. After a short delay, SF releases souls, each of which deals damage, depending on the level of the ability. Accordingly, the more souls hit the enemy, the more damage he will receive. The ult also slows enemies by 25% and inflicts fear for 0.8 seconds. After death, it is applied automatically. Does not pierce magic immunity.
Hero perks
In order to feel comfortable in the first minutes of the game, you should decide whether there will be a support near you that can strain the enemy midlaner. If this is not the case, then we will introduce a standard skill build that aims to quickly farm souls and, therefore, the first money to buy consumables and important gank items.
It is worth considering that the circumstances of each game are different. If your opponents play too aggressively, then leveling the ult at lvl 6 will not be an advantage, however, how to look. If you play aggressively and you have a good mass stun in your team (Earthshaker, Enigma, Kunkka, Treant Protector and others), then leveling your ult becomes a must-have.
Also a lot depends on your build. Imagine a skill build for a magical SF.
Talent at 10 is a simple dilemma. If you’re building magical SF, then you need +6% damage from magical abilities. At the same moment, if you can realize +20 attack speed, then why not?
Main subjects
There are several builds for each hero in DotA, and SF is no exception. A lot depends on your pick and on the enemy heroes. Items are also often bought according to circumstances. For example, BKB is not bought in every game, but Blink and Travel Boots are among the most common items.
Game tactics
Above, we mentioned micro and macro control, because two things are important for a successful mid in the first minute:
After killing the first 4 creeps, if you did not let the enemy denies your creep, you will get the second lvl. After that, it is important to farm the first 11 souls as quickly as possible. Dening and finishing are the most important factors. Taking additional damage with Necromastery can strain the enemy midlaner, but it is advisable not to push the lane — SF has enough movement speed, but one stun — and there is not much chance to escape unless you have charged sticks or a support nearby (or TP).
At lvl 5 you can be more aggressive, as the level of coils will reach 3. One hit on an enemy will deal 200+- damage to him and plus 60+- damage for hitting the next coils. If the enemy mid laner makes a mistake and lets you hit yourself with the first coil, then the chance of killing him with the right use of the other two coils increases to 80%, since you will deal 700-1000 damage with skills and auto attacks.
After the appearance of the first items (blink, lotar), mid-game is most often suitable. At this time, it is desirable to be with the team as often as possible.
During a fight, the first thing to do is to cast your ult in the place where there is a risk to your carries. Ulta SF inflicts fear and deals incredibly high damage. After applying coils, almost all tanks have no chance but to run away or fight to the last. A satanic will help you with this, or the direct hands of a support.
If your opponents are in a bunch, then casting an ult in the center of them is a duty.
It is advisable to choose a boot so that you can always catch up with a fleeing opponent. It is important.
Match/counter pick
The order of talent leveling is as follows:
The key to the effectiveness of the hero is a large number of souls, which means that Nevermore should farm well throughout the game. It’s best to do it mid. But if you are playing with a friend who is ready to support you on the sidelanes, you can go there.
In the early game, focus on farming. After collecting a maximum of souls, start harassing the enemy with auto-attacks. Shadow Fiend Dota 2 has no disable other than ult, but if the enemy made a mistake and got too close to you at the moment of taking the sixth level, this is almost guaranteed death.
Midgame — the time when the power of the hero gradually begins to unfold. The damage from the hand is already quite good, and a competent ult can change the course of the battle. But the disadvantages of the hero are also felt — Nevermore has low survivability. Don’t rush into the fight headlong to ult as soon as possible, otherwise you risk ulting only posthumously.
In the late game, you are the carry of your team. Thanks to the aura and the accumulated souls, thick tanks and towers crumble under the blows of Nevermore. If you are unlucky enough to die, refill souls on the creeps before starting the next teamfight.
Items for SF Dota 2
The order of leveling, in which two skills are leveled in parallel, is unusual, but players who play Nevermore Dota 2 well find it optimal. It is important to strike a balance between the number of souls available and the damage from our single nuke.
Nevermore, the Shadow Fiend
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.
Capturing souls from every kill he makes, Shadow Fiend is always gathering his power. Every assault, each carefully aimed raze that kills an enemy, brings him closer to unleashing his gathered souls in a deadly blast of scouring energy.
