Dota 2 Heroes – An Introduction to Nevermore the Shadow Fiend

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   August 29th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Nevermore the Shadow Fiend is a ranged agility carry hero whose proficiency to farm is unmatched by anyone else in the game, thus allowing him to bounce back after even an extremely awful start.

His first ability is named Shadowraze and it is this very skill that allows him to farm like none other. It is 3 skills in 1. All these 3 skills are exactly the same in that they will damage the enemies for 300 in a 250 Area of Effect (AoE), but the difference is that each ability has a different casting range. When cast, it will deal the aforementioned amount of damage in either 200, 450 or 700 range of whatever direction you are currently facing. The great thing about this skill is that the cool-downs are not shared, thus allowing you to theoretically deal 900 damage to enemies if they happen to catch all 3 razes.

Necromastery is Shadow Fiend’s second skill. It is a passive ability that will give him 2 bonus damage for every creep kill or deny he has. There is however a limit of 30. What this really means is that when you deny or kill 30 creeps, which is quite easy when using Shadow Raze, you will gain a passive 60 damage. Also, hero kills are included in the collection of your souls. Unfortunately, if Shadow Fiend dies, he will end up losing 50% of his souls, forcing him to spend time replenishing them.

Nevermore’s third skill is named Presence of the Dark Lord. It is not a reference to the villain in Harry Potter, but is in fact another passive skill of the Shadow Fiend. This one will reduce the armour of enemy units by 5 in a 900 AoE. This in conjunction with other minus-armour skills or orb items can be a devastating blow to an enemy, including the big, bad and mean Roshan.

Requiem of Souls is a powerful AoE ultimate that has direct utility with his Necromastery ability. When used, Shadow Fiend will release damaging lines in a large 1475 AoE. Each line will deal a 160 damage and reduce enemy’s movement speed and damage by 25%. For every 2 souls stored, there is 1 line, which basically means you can have a maximum of 15 damaging lines. The farther a unit is from the centre of the ultimate, the less damage they will take. Now remember that the 25% reduction in damage and movement speed is for units in a 675 AoE. Yes, it does sound a bit complicated, but if it makes you feel any better, just activate your ultimate when the enemies are close and hope for the best. Oh, did I mention that it takes 1 second to actually cast this?