General DiscussionShadow Fiend to boost solo mmr

at my games SF sucks

there's no counterpick to sf, beside leshrac, gyro and brood at middle lane.

Only gyro and leshrac Haha thats at least one counter at every game at the current meta

ta, zeus? both tend to eat sf alive
not to mention some offlaner bara makes everything way worse than it already is

A counter is not something even, or slightly advantaged, a counter crush you on the lane.

Gyro isn't a counter to sf, if he isn't facing him 1v1, nor is leshrac (and leshrac is actually not that good against a sf past the lane phase).

"The thing I can't get myself around is a solid SF build like there are some builds for TA that you can go for and have the hero to be at its full potential during all stages of the game" is there a similar build for sf?
"is sf really a hero which can be used to carry your team in ranked or boost solo ranked mmr?"
"would also like to know about some other heroes that can be used to carry 1v5 or boost solo ranked mmr in general like ta and meepo for me so far"
"Lastly I would appreciate if anyone can link some decent shadowfiend players so I can watch their replays and learn something new about the hero."

I would appreciate if someone can answer my questions related to the topic.

I think u need bkb to counter magic butterfly to counter physical Dmg + skadi for HP deadalus for Dmg and sth for your Engagement shadowblade blink or euls. Aquilla bottle and Power treads are enough for early game.

And slark is pretty nice to boost mmr in my opinion

I like playing shadow fiend a lot, you can check some of my games eventhough Im not in the very high skill bracket yet I think I play the hero pretty fine.
Sf is a hero who can abuse the mid lane and powerfarm like no other hero can during the first 10 minutes and even later on, thats why everyone wants to gank sf as soon as possible, so you gotta be careful if the enemy has an spirit breaker or some early gankers.
I always try to figure out what items are the best in every case, if I feel like im the only right clicker of my team, I go for a full carry build with s&y, bkb, dominator, + damage items and I hope my team to be able to set up teamfight while I do the most damage. If we already have another hard carry I buy more mobility items like blink or sb so I can get the ocassional pickoffs and create space for the real hard carry. Or if they have some heavy nukers I just tend to get hp items (skadi, s&y, silver edge, satanic).
I dont like the euls build but I sometimes build it if I feel like we need some disable to stop channeled ultimates, and if you do so dont be afraid to abuse your combo to get solo kills.

Imo the hero is very strong at all stages of the game if built properly, so you gotta know how to adapt to your team's needs.

^a little advice: s&y is a very weird and often suboptimal pickup on SF. If you want mobility, get manta, euls or blink; if u need hp - buy skadi or satanic.

Not all the time you're gonna play mid.. Or you're the kind of player that'll flame everyone who wants to call mid aswell? xD

Aaaaaanyway..
Offlane dark seer carried my ass from 3700 - 4000 with 72% winrate! Just my 2 cents

I built s&y a lot when I was starting to play the hero because I didnt feel confident with blink, and it was probably the best sf time of my life... I went in like a 13 win streak and then wining 20 out of 21 games, hero farm really fast and if you go for s &y first item you can get it in 10 minutes~ and that means at 10 minutes you will be faster than all the enemies + you have a slow + you have heavy right click damage so you can chase almost everyone. I dont build it as much because I prefer the blink as Im confident with the hero now, however if my team already has a lot of initiation and we lack a hard carry I still build a fast s& y into a bkb and go 5 man dota to the win.

I like manta too but it's very situational to me, I only get if I really need another defensive item. And about skadi I dont really like it, I see lots of sf getting it and I hate when they win the game with skadi.. its like the most boring item of the game, If I want tankiness/hp I just get satanic and some + damage item, that with the bkb and maybe 1 sange from s & y or silver edge is all the tankiness the hero needs.

http://www.dotabuff.com/players/78410961/matches?date=&hero=shadow-fiend&skill_bracket=&lobby_type=&game_mode=&region=&faction=&duration=&enjoyment=any&timezone=Pacific%2FPago_Pago

^ Mask of madness on a hero like sf against heroes like qop, gyro, lion, bara... basically it seems like you go with that build in every game. My balls are not as big as yours so I'm still looking for a decent build.

@Kylextazy
Actually I just insta pick sf and play against multiple counters to get mid, you can see in almost all my games as sf I have multiple counters on the other side and in ranked people usually wait so by insta picking the hero I easily get the mid lane.

@Flash_3
Nice winrate with the hero I never made s&y on sf so I guess I will try that, also do you think it is possible to boost solo mmr by solely playing sf like I did with meepo and ta or is it just a team dependent hero? I need some motivation to put work into really learning this hero and if carrying the solo ranked games is possible then its all worth it.

Don't go Mek just because you see pros do it. It requires you to gather your team to come with you and push which generally won't happen. Also if you go for Euls, don't play him like a Wex Exort Invo. The Euls into ulti is nice, but Euls is mostly used for farming because of the MS bonus and insane mana regen that let's you spam razes all day. I still like BKB first more than any other build though
http://www.dotabuff.com/players/103418398/matches?date=&hero=shadow-fiend&skill_bracket=&lobby_type=&game_mode=&region=&faction=&duration=&enjoyment=any&timezone=Europe%2FIstanbul Not many games but still a high winrate.

I think SF is pretty easy to build.

I only got into the hero recently, but most of the time you'll want a BKB as your first Core item.
After that I usually go for some mobility (maybe squeeze in a hotd before that), which for me comes down to blink if they don't have a thousand ways to disable it or Shadowblade - especially when I need to break some passives. Not a fan of Euls on SF.

Next on the list will either be more tankyness in the form of Skadi/Satanic if you need pure HP because they have lots of burst or Butterfly if your biggest threat are enemy rightclickers.
After all that it's usually just damage. Daedalus or MKB, whatever is needed.

If you have a terrible laning phase you can always go for drums after Treads and catch up that way.
I think the most important thing to do as SF, especially when you're mid is to always be wary of missing enemies. If supports don't ward, spend 75g and put one down where you need it.

And if you manage to get rid of the creepwave at like ~xx.45 you can always take a quick run into the jungle and stack the nearest camp. Especially easy on the radiant side. This is your biggest comeback mechanic, imo. Just don't bet on your supports doing it for you.
They'll usually be busy watching the safelane carry try to last hit while getting harrassed.

Yes I think you can boost your mmr playing a lot of sf, generally you will outfarm the other mid so you have higher chances to win I guess, if you know how to play the hero properly ofc..

ryze used to rape 70% of his games alone with sf, so yeah its possible, only you have to crush ur mid oppo, and then crush the rest.
i think he went mom first item if he had an ez game and then snowballed.

but now mom is shit so~