General DiscussionNeed Tips on playing Shadow Fiend

1. You need an aquila.
2. You cant just buy any type of boots on sf. Treads or Travels. Treads if your team is responsive and work together. Travels if your team has neutral camp fever and its your job to push out lanes.
3. You cant have both a right click and damage build.

Option 1 : Magic

-Brown boots-aquila-euls-blink-upgrade boots-bkb or other defensive item- octarine or some hex or whatever you want at this point that synergises with your magic build. Your talents should synergise with your magic build. Spell amp, move speed, 150 raze damage, 40% cd reduction.

Option 2: Physical

-brown boots-Aquila-threads- and whatever is necessary like shadow blade or you can go dragon lance straight. Get a drums tho ( not necessary but I like to do it).

-You buy bottle for an agi carry which is bad. You can easily get clarities and that component from euls that gives you mana. If you are going physical, get more clarities.

-Buy regen and mana items like mango clarities etc.

-Play on radiant if possible bec its where you can be most efficient. Raze clear at 45 and double stack med and hard camps closest to ur lane.

- Stay back. If you frontline you are just throwing.
- If enemy has really tanky carries, get a dedalus.
- bkb and defensive item is a must cause sf is a piece of shit that gets rekt.

Watch replays on sf. Whats most important is knowing what to do with the hero besides just playing it.

I hope my legend advice helps.

Crazy ass challenge for you : get about 108 cs by 11 min.

Nice winrate on sf. Why do you go phase euls pike? Lol. Probably the most garbage build I've ever seen.

And you should probably practice last hitting and laning because u should not be getting destroyed mid so hard.

U can build hybrid u know tho it usually revolves around aghs or building right click items after blink euls or smth

imo only eul and scepter are decent. hex and oc are bad.

my advice: stop playing SF

im 2k but i will say this.. stop playing sf magic dmg.. you need so much games with sf to learn the proper positioning, counters, which hero to take down first and idk much more stuff.. go right click sf you will never lose.. also your euls timing is awful :D learn that shit.. maybe not.. dont play sf magic dmg

Go Look at my Last SF game. That is what you should do (0-10 with Abandon)

Sf magic is situational and hard so doing right click is more reliable

#1 Stop buying bottle, seriously clarity and tango/salve are better, you spent 660 gold for an item who give nothing but flat 80 health and mana
#2 Go power treads or just brown boots, sf benefits from tread switching like no others because of the raze, the tankiness and more attack speed
#3 For the talent the spell amp, and movement speed are just too good other talent are pretty situational, as for the lvl 25 it depends on the situation and your build, you decide it yourself
#4 Try to remember that on level 3,5, and 7 your power spike is absurd, abuse it to zone enemy midlaner.
#5 Swag fiend rewards and punish aggressive playstyle at the sametime be quick but also be careful with your decision
#6 Lost laning stage = Lost Shadow friend, just don't get rekt by enemy midlaner, survive!

i lost 1v1 sf to 600 mmr ama

Just ban tinker if you are wlling to play sf because tinker is just a pain to deal with as an sf.

LMAO what is that build maaan?its paintful to see this.
phase into eul and then crystalys?
wtf???

Probably pike is the majority of your problem (pike is a really situational item and the nerf to force staff makes it even worse (not enough damage, high mana cost).

You probably want to get an item which synergizes more with sf (blink/sb).

And on the early game, i suggest getting items that provides mana regen and stats at the same time, cause razes are your primary damage source in the early game.
(Aquilla, eul, drums(situational)).

It is very important for you to know when is your power spikes against your line up, so you can play more aggresively and not just sort of fall off because you jungle.

Personally : power treads, aquilla, wand is the way to go and buy some clarities if needed.

Well it's good that u came for suggestions and criticism cuz u do need em. I'll probably watch one of ur games and talk more in depth, but instead of focusing on UR way of playing imma tell u a part of the RIGHT way of playing him

So first off u level ur soul level1. You NEED TO practice sf in an empty lobby for the first 5 mins and get cs without using razes at all, over and over. Specially the first waves. U do it till u can do it without failing. Then u can proceed to d that in a real game where a competitor gets added

Secondly, sf wants to stay in lane for the first mins, then 2 things happen:
1) he wins the lane hard in a way enemy cant do shit if sf stays and he can deny and lh everything. Then u gotta keep staying in lane keeping the equilibrium and csing there not letting the guy get anything
2) the other guy is either able to compete on cs and deny or has more advantage. Then u double nuke the wave and go jungle and come back to lane and double raze the next wave and back to jungle and keep doing this pattern

Items are aquila > treads + 4 clarities or more > eul/blink or shadow blade or dragon lance or drums

Once u have ur euls/blink as magical or shadow blade as physical, u go gank a person near an enemy objective (99% it's better if it's either mid or enemy safelane). You kill him, take his tower, then keep farming and again with shadow blade (or ...) u kill a guy near another tower and take the tower (ofc if it's safe).
U keep getting PICKOFFS (not fights) into objectives.
U take over enemy jungle most of the time unless u see them coming to kill u as 2-3-4-5 and they can, so u go back to a safer area.
U snowball this into a rosh, then all tier 2s, then u shove all lanes in their base while u farm all the map and 5 enemies farm 3 waves in their base. U get ur items, and the next rosh. U end the game

This is the ideal scenario. Which should happen pretty much most of the time in ur bracket

Now IF enemy has this core that has gotten out of control and they're the ones dominating, u rat and splitpush a lane, force them to rotate there, walk back and farm the safe place near that lane (jungle, mostly enemy's). If the enemy went all in on that lane u pushed with tps, u can tp out and push another lane, then farm ur way back to the lane u tped from (enemy safelane). U keep hanging around and farming near that lane so whenever enemy's fighting or roshing or pushing, or showing themselves, u can push or shove the lane in and make them react to u. U keep making them react while they're ahead, and u make space for u and ur team to farm. U keep doing this until enemy makes mistakes and u take towers, basically the enemy isnt doing anything with the advantage but running around chasing u. This will give u the basis for winning now when to take a fight, or pickoff, when not and stuff will make it a win or a loss

just want to tell you guys, just by applying some advice that written here, I finally get rid of my SF losing streak, and having a disadvantage in picking phase as well! Please keep the criticism coming, I'm starting to get the feel of playing SF. Middle is lost but at least I didn't die more than 1 time vs Lina
https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/3863203729

Dope. Keep learning and watching sf spammers till u absolutely surpass ur skill bracket, then u'll win most of ur games till u reach the ppl in ur skill on sf
And if u keep learning and going there's not gonna be such a thing as "the trench"

we all started from a humble beginning, keep it up

The thing is half of the advice he got here is contradicting and doesnt make sense
It just makes more sense than phase LOL

Whoever said sf is lost if lane is lost just leave
Stop