Introduction
“It all comes together in the end.”
Shadow Demon is a ranged intelligence support. Although unpopular in standard matchmaking, Shadow Demon has been a consistently frequent support pick-up in competitive Dota, where his ability to save allies is almost unmatched and his Soul Catcher ability enables him to significantly augment his team’s damage output.
Shadow Demon's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Able to perform clutch saves on teammates
- Hugely increases the damage output from his entire team
- Can effectively scout fog of war and prevent enemy jukes around trees
- Has a significant slow and purge ability
- One of the best late-game supports thanks to Disruption
- Good support counter to illusion-based enemy line-ups
- Versatile skill build and very item independent
Cons
- Has no stun or hard disable
- Quite squishy
- Lacks burst damage output
- Disruption can potentially save enemies or doom allies if not used properly
- No escape mechanism or mobility skill
Item Build
Starting Items
As a support hero it’s your job to ensure that the Courier and/or Observer Wards are bought at the start of the game. Usually these duties will be split between yourself and another hero on your team, but you can’t always guarantee this in public games. If no one else ponies up the gold for one then you should bite the bullet and buy both for your team.
Good starting items if there’s another support on your team:
Courier or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, Clarity.
And if you’re forced to solo support:
Courier, Observer Wards, a set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, and an Iron Branch.
Early Game
Ensure that the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark. Also ensure that Observer Wards are always purchased when they’re off cooldown.
Get your Boots of Speed up and running as quickly as possible to help reduce your vulnerability to ganks, then upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and then get to work on your core. At this stage you may wish to invest in a Bracer, in order to get some early stats and tankability, but this is entirely optional/situational.
Core
Arcane Boots are a no-brainer on Shadow Demon; they allow you to use his abilities – all of which are actives that cost mana - freely whilst at the same time being pretty much essential on a Mekanism carrier.
Talking of which - if there are no more viable Mekanism carriers on your team that will get it up much faster than you (such as a mid-Viper, or a jungle Chen), then Mekanism should be your go-to core item – it’s absolutely necessary for your team and as a support hero you’re a decent candidate to purchase it. Be sure to check with your team to see if anyone else intends to build one before you get started on it though; if someone else does intend to build it then you can move straight onto a luxury item pick-up.
Luxury Items
Force Staff – Will significantly improve your mobility and make you feel less vulnerable. It’s an amazing escape tool for someone who is naturally very squishy, and can be used on allies and enemies, making it a great play-making item for clutch saves or to Force an enemy into bad positioning.
Drums of Endurance – Drums of Endurance are a great option because they give your team bonus attack speed and move speed auras, whilst at the same time giving you plenty of stats and being easy to build into (since the components are so cheap you can buy them up whenever you have the spare unreliable gold, meaning you won’t lose much gold when you die). You may also have a Bracer from the early game as well, making Drums a natural extension to your inventory.
Heaven’s Halberd – A fantastic anti-carry item, thanks to the ability to disarm an enemy core for 3.0-4.5 seconds, Halberd will also give you a much-welcome chunk of health an evasion, making you a lot less fragile.
Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes. Useful stat gain as well.
Ghost Scepter - The go-to luxury pick-up if you find the enemy team is able to bring you down quickly with physical damage (typically in the form of right-clicks). Most often this will be the enemy carry taking you out of the fight quickly with a few auto-attacks. Ghost Scepter will buy you a clutch 4 seconds of physical immunity, which gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity – The active is good for taking an enemy carry out of the fight for a couple of seconds. In that respect it’s sometimes referred to as a poor man’s Scythe of Vyse, the downside being that the hero selected cannot be attacked. Nonetheless, it’s useful for buying your team time. The other downside is that whilst a Scythe use is universally beneficial, Eul’s can sometimes be disadvantageous to your team, perhaps saving an enemy when they would otherwise have died, or trapping an allied hero who would otherwise have escaped. If you’re not confident in your decision making abilities in the heat of battle then don’t go for Eul’s (and for the love of the RNG Gods don’t Eul’s an enemy that you’ve just cast your ultimate on).
The other upsides of Eul’s are the fantastic mana regeneration and the burst +40 move speed – both fantastic buffs for a mana hungry and quite squishy hero such as Shadow Demon.
Scythe of Vyse – You're unlikely to be rich enough to ever afford it, and if you are the game is likely already won anyway, but if the game is really stretching out it can potentially be a decisive item to get. 3.5 seconds of lockdown on a key enemy hero is the reason Scythe is considered one of the most powerful items in the game.
Situational Items
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Vladmir’s Offering – Yes, you’re ranged, so you won’t get the lifesteal bonus from Vlad’s, but you’re not buying it for yourself, you’re buying it for your team. Vladmir’s Offering is great to pick up on a support even if your team doesn’t consist of any melee heroes because of the bonus damage and armour it provides. If your team does have a melee core and no one else has purchased one then it’s an excellent utility item to purchase.
Pipe of Insight – If you didn't buy the team's Mekanism earlier on then consider getting a Pipe as a luxury item for your team. If you did buy the Mekanism then it's very risky getting Pipe as well - it's inadvisable to have both on one hero, doubly so when that hero is a squishy support hero like Shadow Demon.
Medallion of Courage – A good situational early game pick-up, Medallion gives you some mana regeneration and armour, but more importantly it minus armour active on enemies makes your team’s physical damage output early on much more potent. Finally, it also opens up the possibility for an early Roshan attempt, even on teams that wouldn’t typically be able to take down Roshan early in the game.
Skill Build
Shadow Demon has a very flexible skill build. In short, any of his abilities can be maxed first. The build shown in the image above is the one I tend to use most as I find a max Soul Catcher build fits best into a support/utility role by amplifying allied hero damage and making early rotations and ganks stronger.
Others prefer a Poison-centric build, though I feel the drawbacks of the ability are too high for this to receive immediate priority (slow cast time, very slow travel speed, easy to dodge, requires build up of stacks); at most I would maxed it second instead of Disruption. Regardless, it’s viable to max any of his abilities first and comes down mostly to personal preference as well as intended role.
Disruption is a banish ability which also creates illusions. It is always skilled first but maxed either second or last. Disruption banishes a chosen hero for 2.5 seconds, removing it from the map entirely. When that hero returns, 2 illusions of it are created and last for 5/6/7/8 seconds. These illusions deal 30/40/50/60% of the hero’s damage and take 150% bonus damage.
While banished, the hero in question cannot be in any way attacked, but two of Shadow Demon’s other abilities – Soul Catcher and Shadow Poison can take affect during this time.
Soul Catcher is a damage amplification ability which is always skilled and second and usually maxed either first or second. Soul Catcher has a 450 unit radius but only selects one unit from within that radius at random. That unit then takes a bonus 20/30/40/50% damage for a full 12 seconds.
Shadow Poison is a magic damage ability which increases in potency based on the number of ‘stacks’ you are able to place on enemy units. It is always skilled last and I prefer to max it second or last too, but many players prefer to prioritise it and max it first.
Shadow Poison sends out of a wave of dark poison which deals 20/35/50/65 magic damage. This damage increases to 40/70/100/130 damage if you manage to get two stacks onto the enemy, 80/140/200/260 if you get three, 160/280/400/520 if you land four, and 320/560/800/1040 if you land five.
Demonic Purge is Shadow Demon’s ultimate and it is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). It is a single target magic damage nuke which also slows and purges the target. It deals 200/300/400 magic damage and slows the target for 5 seconds, with the unit gradually recovering its move speed over that duration.
Gameplay Tips
You can use Disruption to save an allied hero who is in mortal danger. Disrupting them will grant then 2.5 seconds of complete immunity from damage which may be just enough time for a clutch ability or item of theirs to come off cooldown or for your team to come to the rescue.
It’s also effective at dodging instances of damage from damage over time abilities, such as any of Venomancer’s abilities, Ancient Apparition’s Ice Blast, Warlock’s Fatal Bonds, and so on.
Similarly Disruption can be used on enemies to delay them, if for example they’re escaping and your team needs time to catch up, or if they’re pursuing an allied hero who’s on low health and by Disrupting them you can effectively put an end to their pursuit.
Be careful, however; poor use of Disruption can get an ally killed or allow an enemy to escape in some circumstances. If your team is initiating, for example, do not open with Disruption unless you’re heading up a gank, as at best it buys the enemy team 2.5 seconds to react and at worst will cause allies to miss-time their abilities and allow the enemy to escape.
Disruption can be a good set-up for difficult-to-land stuns like Mirana’s Sacred Arrow, Kunkka’s Torrent, Lina’s Light Strike Array, and so on.
Disruption is a fantastic late game defensive ability. If the enemy tea, is attempting to push high ground you can Disrupt one of their cores and use the illusions to deal significant damage. This is especially effective when playing against illusion-based carries, as you can bring you own version of their illusions to the fight.
Soul Catcher has a large radius but this is actually a hindrance for the mostpart, as it will randomly select one of the units caught inside the radius to take the bonus damage. You need to practice placing Soul Catcher so that you catch the enemy hero on the edge of the radius and avoid catching any creeps in it.
| Tip: A good way of ensuring your chances of landing Soul Catcher are improved is to start things off with Disruption. This gives you a good couple of seconds in which to accurately position Soul Catcher so that it hits the enemy hero and nothing else. |
Shadow Poison deals more damage the more stacks you’re able to get onto the enemy heroes or units. You have a 10 second grace period before the counter is reset and damage automatically dealt.
| Tip: Shadow Poison provides vision along the line it travels, so an early point is great for providing vision of treelines and fog of war, preventing effective enemy jukes. |
Alongside Soul Catcher, Shadow Poison is the only ability which takes effect through Disruption. During the 2.5 seconds when the enemy is banished you can get off a Soul Catcher and at least one Shadow Poison stack, with the cooldown set to come off as the unit comes back into the map, allowing you to get off a second stack fairly easily.
Although Demonic Purge only deals fairly moderate magic damage (200/300/400), remember that this is amplified by Soul Catcher if you Purge the enemy that got caught by Soul Catcher.
| Tip: Although the damage from Demonic Purge does not go through spell immunity, the slow effect and removal of positive buffs are not, so you can use it on enemy cores that activate Black King Bar if they’re very mobility-based. |
Shadow Demon’s standard ganking combo is: Disruption > Soul Catcher over Disruption > Shadow Poison > Demonic Purge > Shadow Poison & right clicks.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
