Shendelzare Silkwood

Shendelzare Silkwood a.k.a Vengefull Spirit

Once a mighty warden and sister of Mortred, the maniacal laughter of her sibling and the chakram of hers covered in her own just drawn blood is a sight that even today still haunts Shendelzare. Hearing the laments of her loyal daughter, Elune decided to not forsake her, and she graced her with a new body along with the ability to harness powers from the nether-world and a fighting spirit only owned by those who have met death itself. Shendelzare now leads the Sentinel's army, fearless of what could come at her, an avatar of the dreadful emotions within the soul of her former self.

Hero Analysis

If we start with taking a look on Vengeful's abilities, we see two very excellent ganking oriented ones. Stun in a no-brainer and swap allows for so easy ganks it hurts. Your swap and stun make ganks so plain and simple which means not going around ganking is a waste of abilities potential.

Now, I tend to see many low-tier players get a lot of damage items. Sange & Yasha, Stygian Desolator and Butterfly are probably the most popular. They tend to play Vengeful Spirit as some sort of carry hero; nonetheless semi-carry. The main reason for this is most likely her Command Aura and then Terror to back up the damage. Sure, Command Aura gives a lot nice damage, but before we get too hasty, let's have a look at her stats gains. Few heroes have as low stats per level as she has. Stats-wise she is very weak - both for her health and her agility. By herself she has low stats and compared to other power house carry heroes like Terrorblade and Skeleton King this is terrible. In other words, her stats don't back up the idea of a true carry at all. On a second note, and most important, her ultimate works utterly against this way of play. Later in the game, a good swap basically equals giving yourself away. In other words, spending thousands of gold on damage items when you swap yourself completely inside your enemies' ranks and then die seconds later would be a complete waste. You can compare this with recklessly running straight into your enemies with any other carry hero. However, we're not going to neglect using Swap at all, because the ability itself is just so great. You can literally pick one of their heroes you want to kill before the fight even begins. If they have a nifty hero say Earthshaker or Void, doing a good swap will give you a so many times better edge in the combat. Neglecting using Swap is a terrible way of thinking, but it mostly equals you dieing as well which means carry items (and especially spending time farming for them) would be a waste.

The conclusion is that we want to play Vengeful Spirit as a ganker and then later as an initiator and a ward bitch that hardly needs items at all. Farming for carry items is a waste of ganking potential and even if you do so, you can't outcarry your enemies' carry hero because you have low stats and you will just swap and die.

Skill Build

Level 1 - Magic Missile
Level 2 - Stats
Level 3 - Magic Missile
Level 4 - Stats
Level 5 - Magic Missile
Level 6 - Nether Swap
Level 7 - Magic Missile
Level 8 - Stats
Level 9 - Stats
Level 10 - Stats
Level 11 - Nether Swap
Level 12 - Command Aura
Level 13 - Command Aura
Level 14 - Command Aura
Level 15 - Command Aura
Level 16 - Nether Swap
Level 17 - Terror
Level 18 - Terror
Level 19 - Terror
Level 20 - Terror
Level 21-25 - Stats

Justifications

Magic Missile early game is a no-brainer. So is Nether Swap when possible. Stats will be taken during your "low level periode" which of course means around 1-10. Your stats are terrible as they are, and since you're a "swap" ganker, you first of all need health to survive when you swap yourself, e.g. inside towers, and you need mana to stun multiple times. Command Aura is nice, but not necessary and it's %-based which means its effectiveness increases later in the game thus meaning taking it around middle game will be just as good or even better. During the early game, nukes and other spells do the main deal of killing anyway, and not some extra %-damage so it's not very necessary around here.
Terror isn't necessary at all either in the early game because it takes up unnecessary mana and you don't need to decrease your enemies' combat abilities at all; you need to stun and swap them. During the middle game, Command Aura is of higher priority so it will be skilled after the last level of Nether Swap.

Item Build

Core items



Boots of Speed is a no brainer. 3 Bracers (preferably 3, yet 2 will do) are bought for mainly survival purposes but they also give you fine mana and also a little extra damage which both support you very nice in ganking. Most importantly they're cheap which means they require very little farm thus you can roam and gank much better and it also allows you to ward bitch much better. Bottle is bought for roaming rune race purposes which basically means grabbing the runes when they're up opening the opportunity to much better and much more succesful ganks. One Scroll of Town Portal should be kept in your inventory at all times except when you start at the fountain after picking. Once you return to buy the first time, one ought to be bought immediatly though. It's very important that you can get around or get back fast and painless.

Secondary items



Though I titled this as the secondary item build, it doesn't mean it's "just optional". It means you're supposed to buy these while you're working on your core items (note: not after but while you're working on your main items).
Anyway, you ought to buy a chicken and eventually upgrade it to a crow unless another from your team does so. Anyway, once the chicken has been upgraded (with a mana upgrade too!), you ought to start buying wards.
Seeing that you're so little item dependant (your main job pretty much consists of stunning and swapping) you're the perfect hero to do ward bitching throughout the game. You don't need items at all to swap a hero and when you do so, your job is completed. In higher tier games, map control means a lot and Vengeful Spirit is without question a very excellent candidate to buy wards while she roams, ganks and initiates. Basically very simple but very, very effective.

Luxury items for the public players or the rich bitches

Either you are rich bitch or you play a public game. Anyway, if you've finished your core items and still have an awful lot of money to spend, here're a few items I recommonend spending them on. If you're playing more seriously though, don't fondly hope to buy these items. Atleast don't aim for it but just keep the opportunity in your backpocket untill later.



Seeing that you're a ganker, Boots of Travel can serve you well later. Power Treads aren't really needed, even though Shendelzare lacks health. Boots of Travel aren't a much either, but nonetheless they're still better in general to you than Power Treads are.



Heart of Tarrasque would definatly be my prefered luxury items if I were to buy something expensive. It's obvious that increases your survivability a lot because of the health/strength. This means you can most likely get out again after you've swapped something thus making you able to cooperate much better in team battles with new stuns and etc to follow up and also keep your Command Aura among your allies instead of just dieing recklessly after swapping.




I know I said some bad stuff about Sange and Yasha around the top of the guide. I'm sorry Sange and Yasha, I didn't mean it :<. Anyhow, it's not that Sange and Yasha is very good, but it provides some sort of survivability, both through health but also through some extra increased movement speed. I would definatly prefer Heart of Tarrasque over this item, but I wouldn't totally neglect this either as it, after all, increases your survivability a little bit which most often makes this item more suitable for public games. I wouldn't get it in a higher match though.



First of all, Kelen's Dagger got nerfed after 6.50 and second of all your hero cannot use it at all . Lothar's, however, provides you with a reliable escape mechanism (to some extend atleast). Neither is this item a terribly good choice, but it's not terribly bad either. It's not very usable to initiate though as you still have your mega-long-ass-range swap that requires close to no positioning or run-ups to your heroes so you don't need to catch up on anyone. It's merely used to get away from bad situations.

GamePlay Strategies

Choosing a lane: Try to get in a dual lane. Preferably with another one with nukes. Even more preferably another one with disables. Triple lanes (if your team does so) is fine as well. Solo lane, however, are bad, because it makes you unable to roam. Roaming is important when you get a little higher level while farming is bad. If you solo a lane and leave it too much your lane opponent will get horribly free farmed.

Roaming: In higher level matches, roaming is also a choice. Vengeful Spirit doesn't awfully need experience, neither does she need gold. On the other hand she's a brilliant ganker. These things combined make her an excellent hero for roaming purposes. However, roaming often requires your team to be organized and know what you're doing. Atleast they need knowledge of your purpose to some extend. Also, seeing that roaming doesn't benefit you personally, it has to beneficial for your team. Taking that you play public level games, it's probably not gonna be much of a benefit for neither of you, so I propose you lane normally which of course isn't wrong. However, if you have an organized team, roaming with Vengeful Spirit can be a very valid choice. Also, if you choose to roam, buying Bottle as your first item is probably the best idea as it gives you perfect control over the runes which allows for much better ganks and it also (of course) gives you back lost health and mana.

Creep pulling: If you're laning at Sentinel's bottom or Scourge's top as Sentinel or Scourge respectively, perform creep pulls on the neutral creep camps when possible. This will make you and your lane partner optimize the experience that you can get as much as possible. It will also pull your own creeps further back for awhile which puts your enemies in a better position for you to gank. Doing creep pulls is very easy and takes nearly no practice to learn. Yet it is very effective and it gives you so many benefits. Try to do it as often as possible.

Check your ally's mana: If and when you try to gank with an ally, try to quickly give his mana pool a check. If you know he has a nuke/stun but don't know if he has enough mana, you're literally gambling.

Time your stuns: Often when you play with an allied disabler, try to time your stuns in such a way that they do not overwrite each other. "Double-stunning" doesn't prolong the stun time, they merely overwrite each other. Instead of throwing 2x2 seconds stun at the same time, try to throw one of them first and after two seconds, throw the other one. Timing your disable with your allies' is easy, very important and ten times more effective. Don't just "recklessly" throw your stun. Timing is important!

Swap to interrupt: Nether Swap interrupts channeling effects. If a hero is channeling a spell (e.g. Enigma's Black Hole, Crystal Maiden's Freezing Field, Sand King's Epicenter) or is trying to teleport away (Scroll of Town Portal, Boots of Travel) and that for some reason you can't use Magic Missile to interrupt them, use Nether Swap instead. Many times, interrupting channeling effects like ultimates or people getting away is important, so don't hessitate doing it.

Don't be afraid to swap: So many times I see Vengeful Spirit players using the arguement: "I won't swap because then I will die". This is like a 100 % contradictory to Vengeful Spirit's playstyle. Give a heck if you die! As long as you can pick any hero from your enemies that you want and that your allies can kill him it's everything worth it. Especially in big fights later in the game if you can just take out that niffy Earthshaker or the carry Razor before the two team fronts encounter each other, then you should be more than ready to sacrifice yourself as it will most likely turn the combat so much around. Not wanting to swap because you're afraid you might die is one of the most horrible things you can do. Hence, just do it! However, on a second note, during the early game it might not always be fully worth it though, but from the middle game and above don't hessitate using swap. Do it as soon as you can. If your team is ready for it, the fast the better.

Buy wards and place them too: First of all, don't forget to buy wards. The only exception where it's not all necessary to buy Observer Wards would be in public level games, but else always do it. You're the number 1 ward bitch. Also, there's an unwritten rule that says that the one who buys the ward, places them. When and if your animal courier is a mana upgraded crow, use it to place Observer Wards around the map.

Let your teammates get the kills: The primary objective when ganking a hero is of course to kill him. But if it's obviously he's going to die no matter what he does, try to let your teammate get him. You don't need money as much as they do, so getting assist is a much better benefit for your team. However, if it's not truly obvious that the target will die then don't hessitate to take him. It's better that you get him than he gets away. Anyhow, just try to let your teammates have as many kills as you can, so stop being selfish. E-peens aren't being compared by last hitting heroes but by succeeding the ganks.

Use Terror after Nether Swap: During the late game where you will most likely swap yourself into 3-4 enemies, using Terror before you (likely) die as a last will is a very good idea. When you swap yourself into the middle of them you're perfectly positioned to get off a good Terror so just do it.

Swap to save your allies: If your ally is getting ganked while you stand further back, then save him. It's much better that your enemies kill you instead of him. Your life is not important as his (mostly atleast). If you can save your carry hero at the cost of your own life it's everything worth it.

Use your ally as a middle way when chasing: Sometimes, though not often, you might be chasing an enemy which has a rather big lead. Between you and him, however, is one of your allies chasing too. If your ally cannot disable him, then swap you and your ally to get up on him and then use Magic Missile to stun him. This is a rare, though not unique occasion and some times it can be good to swap one of your allies so you can get up on your enemy in order to disable him and kill him. In other words, you ally's step ahead is your step ahead.

Swap when approaching: When you push something for instance, the very first thing you should do - and should be ready to do - is to swap. As soon as you see a hero, swap him into your allies immediatly. Don't hessitate doing it. That also means that it's often effective to stand a little in the front so you're prepared to swap.

Rune race: Try to rune race as much as possible. Rune racing is a term of checking the runes and try to grab them every time. Don't be silly and run all the way from bottom to top just to grab a single rune every time of course, but you ought to check your side's rune spot every time it comes because runes make it 10 times easier to gank. The team that wins the rune race often wins the gank war too.

thx to 1st post "Ingolf@dota-allstars.com"