Nevermore The shadow fiend
I have decided to write a guide for the Nevermore, the Shadowfiend because he is one of my favorite heroes in DotA Allstars, and in my opinion, very hard to play. His primary nuke can be devastating, his Necromastery can destroy last hit depending heroes and his ultimate also can be devastating. Now that sounds a little bit to imbalanced, but it isnt. Shadowraze definitely requires some skill(although not as much as most think), Necromastery requires some serious last hit skills and his ultimate is only useful if timed correctly and if you are able to use it. His ultimate needs an item. Let it be Lothar’s Edge or Black King Bar.
The Shadowfiend should be played as a carry hero, so farming and staying alive are very important for him.
Skill Build
Level 1. Necromastery
Level 2 and 3. Shadowraze
Level 4. Necromastery
Level 5. Shadowraze
Level 6. Necromastery
Level 7. Shadowraze
Level 8. Necromastery
Level 9. Presence of the Dark Lord
Level 10 and 11. Requiem of Souls
Level 12 – 14. Presence of the Dark Lord
Level 15. Stats
Level 16. Requiem of Souls
Level 17 – 25. Stats
Additional notes
Item Build
This actually is the main reason why i decided to write this guide. So many items work on the Shadowfiend. I think the best idea to get to a decent item build is thinking in steps, so let’s start:
Step 1
The very first step is buying 2 Circlets and 2 sets of Tango’s, that is for me the ideal start on the Nevermore.
Step 2
Buy Bottle. For a hero who always should solo mid this will always remain the best item. It establishes your lane control. Get it AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Step 3
Buy Boots of Speed.
Step 4
Lothar’s Edge or Black King Bar? It depends a lot on your line-up. Against an line-up with Beastmaster and Magnus, BkB has very little use, since both ultimates go trough BkB.
Anyway, get one of these items as soon as possible, just after Boots of Speed.
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Step 5
In my opinion, staying alive is the MOST important factor for a carry hero. So in my opinion, Bracers are almost always preferable over Wraith Bands. So now use your 2 Circlets that you have already bought to finish your Bracers/Wraith Bands. If you go for Treads, you only have 2 slots left (Power Treads, TP-scroll, Bottle, BkB/Lothar’s), so you should buy 2 of them. With Boots of travel, you have 3 slots left, so get 3 of them.
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Step 6
Boots of Travel or Power Treads? In this version, my opinion goes for Power Treads. Boots of Travel is more farm orientated. It mostly depends on the current game. Are we losing, need i to get powerful fast? Get Power Treads. Do we have 4 (early game) ganks heroes, do i need to be the powerful one later? Get Boots of Travel. Again, my opinion goes for Power Treads, but for a more farm orientated game, go for Boots of Travel. If you go Power Treads, you should get or a AGI Treads, or STR Treads. My vote again goes for STR Treads. REMEMBER: When going for Power Treads, ALWAYS CARRY A TP-SCROLL, I REPEAT, ALWAYS CARRY A TP-SCROLL. With that being said, remember that Power Treads takes two slots(Treads + Scroll(s)). Anyways, extremely late game, always get Boots of Travel. It saves you a slot +it makes you able to teleport anywhere on the map where a creep is, that ability is invaluable.
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Step 7
So you have finished what i call the core build, so what now? In my opinion, the very two best items after the core build are Stygian Desolator and Helm of the Dominator. As you notice, they both are Orbs, so you cannot get them both. They both are cheap (the other even MUCH cheaper), and they both give you mid game bonuses. Stygian isn’t one of the best very late game items, so you should buy it before the 40 min mark. Stygian is also a lot more expensive. So you should get Stygian if you are farming decently well mid game, and you need some quick assistance to your team get Stygian. However, if your team does need quicker assistance, and you aren’t farming that well get Helm of the Dominator. Other items like Mjollnir and Butterfly own, but they take TOO long to farm
An other advantage of Helm of the Dominator is that it can be upgraded to Satanic, which is one of the power items very late game.
You won’t have enough item slots, you should sell a Bracer/Band or Bottle by now. I would go for selling Bottle.
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Step 8
Buy Butterfly. It not only gives you tremendous DPS, it also helps a lot against heroes like Mirana and Terrorblade by now. Again you won’t have enough item slots, sell a Bracer/Band or Bottle now.
Step 9
Filling the last slots.If you went Helm of the Dominator, you should finish Satanic. With Stygian, you should go for Buriza by now. Again you won’t have enough item slots, sell a Bracer/Band or Bottle now
Step 10
This is the last step
.If you went Boots of Travel, you will have one slot (semi) free but if you went Power Treads, sell it and get Boots of Travel. Now you shuld get Heart of Terrasque.
Strategy
First off you should buy 2 Circlets of Nobility and 2 Set’s of Tangs. You don’t need very much early regeneration because you are going for Bottle anyway.
In 90% of all cases you should go solo mid. Solo mid is the most ideal lane for the Nevermore. He can farm there undisturbed and he can fight uphill to get the maximum out of his Razes and last hits.
The Shadowfiend has the potential of a great solo hero. Yet against some heroes, he is gonna lose horribly if not played extremely cautious. Your worst solo enemies are these, especially the first one;
Viper the Netherdrake
Boush the Tinker
Dual lanes, such as the Slayer and the Skeleton King
Your best bet against these heroes is using Shadowraze to it’s maximum.You can hit creeps at 900 range then (Raze has a 225 AoE ). A Viper cannot hit you from there. Remember when facing heroes as Viper, always wear a TP-Scroll, so you can always teleport back to base when you are getting Orb-walked.
The most important factors for carries are staying alive and FARM. Farm is possibly the most important thing in whole DotA, no hero can go without farm, and especially not carries.you really should have reached the 200 cs by the 50 minutes mark, preferably even a little sooner.
The things that “make” Nevermore is his ability to farm and his early lane control. He is one of the very few agility heroes that have such lane control. Yet don’t go too aggressive in your lane. Even with a hero with so potential, you should play “careful”. This all because you cannot afford to die. A 0-0 Nevermore with 100 cs does better in general than a 5-3 Nevermore with 70 cs.
Coming back to the things that make Nevermore, he isn’t naturally the most powerful carry, not by far. Any Terrorblade rapes Nevermore by the 60 min mark if they are almost equally farmed. But Nevermore can farm more than any other hero in the game because he has the potential of destroying creep waves in less than 3 seconds, over and over again. Of all carry heroes, Nevermore is probably the weakest, yet with his potential to farm, Nevermore suddenly gets a lot stronger. That is why Nevermore should always have the most creep score in the game. This is of course not always possible, but you should at least try to.
If you have chosen to get Boots of Travel, you must have a different play style then when you would have gone for Treads. With Boots of Travel you should always look for the spot in the map where there are a lot of creeps. Use your Razes to destroy the wave and take another wave. Then go back and get some neutrals and wait for your TP to cooldown again. Remember, don’t go in the dangerous spots unless you surely know that you cannot be ganked or that you can escape the gank. Always watch your mini map, not only to look for nice farm spots, but you should always know for 50% where the enemies are.
In team battles, it depends a lot on your items how to play. For example, you wait for the best time to use your Black King Bar. When magic immunity is activated, walk further in and make sure to kill at least one enemy support hero (Lina/Lesh/Lich/low HP heroes). Make sure you don’t die directly after the 9 second during magic immunity.
However, if you have Lothar’s, you must make sure they cannot spot you when you go invisible. So you depend more on your (supporting) allies that they can save your ass with Sentries for example.
Anyways, in general, make sure not to die in team battles, if you survive during it, you are doing fine. Preferably go stand behind trees, make sure you are attacking enemy heroes and get as much razes off as possible. Now your tanking ally should go in (Axe/Sven for example). If you can THEN activate BkB and get Requiem of Souls off. When having Lothar’s you must initiate, however, you have to make sure your allies will go in after you so that you can back off a little.
You can in general playing carries like this: Always wear a TP-Scroll and farm and farm. Then you see your team is having a fight, and TP to your team. Rarely YOU should be the one looking for a gank. It’s ok to assist in ganks (although also not too much), but you’d better farm and only be there during important battles.
Farming
Now we have reached the last part of the guide and the most important one FARMING.
Early Game :- you should try to reach the maximum amount of souls as soon as possible, you can do this with last hit or with Shadowraze. Try to mix both methods to reach the best result. For me, early game is almost over when you have level 4 Shadowraze.
Mid Game :-so it goes as fast as possible, use 2 Razes to destroy a whole creep wave, i always do it like this: Attack a creep at maximum range with your normal attack. Then use the 3rd and then the 2nd raze
Late game:- Late game comes when 2 Razes aren’t enough to destroy a whole wave. If you aren’t pushing (so intentionally farming) you must attack all creeps once, and then use press 2nd and 3rd raze (X and C). You also can attack all melee creeps twice and the ranged creeps once and then use Shadowraze (X), you will have enough damage for that by now. “Why shouldn’t i just use X and C first and then attack the remaining creeps?” I have done this for a long time, but after experience i noticed that you ALWAYS miss at least 2 creeps. With the same easiness (first attacking, then Razing) you will get all the creeps
This is the end of the guide hope this helped you with playing nevermore
:-Darkstar619
Subject: Post ur Hero strategies here...wid the heroes name (offcourse) 
