Shadow Demon Finally Gets Noticed
It’s easy to predict the least played heroes in Dota pubs, before taking a look at our win and pick rate page. It’s not surprising that many of these heroes are also among the lowest in win rates. The rare few who do pick these unpicked heroes can’t even win with them. First, you have the usual lineup of heroes that requires controlling multiple units or summons: Broodmother spiderlings, Chen creeps, Naga Siren illusions, Visage birds, Meepo Meepos. Then there’s heroes whose mechanics can be beyond an average player’s understanding and skill: Io, Oracle, Earth Spirit, and finally, the recent late bloomer in recent tournaments, 
Shadow Demon.
Despite his unpopularity in 6.88 pubs (6th lowest pick rate), Shadow Demon is having somewhat of a resurgence in recent tournaments. To compare, during ESL One Frankfurt, he was picked 6 out of 190 games. But at the two most recent premier events, he was the second most picked hero at The Summit 5 LAN and the most at the Starseries LAN, where Team Secret has first picked Shadow Demon five times in their series against Digital Chaos and Complexity Gaming. But despite his high favorability at these tournaments, he was also rarely banned. It’s a sign that rise comes at a time where he has long disappeared from both professional and public consciousness. So where did it all begin?
A History Of Buffs
Shadow Demon’s patch changelog
Shadow Demon has received buffs nearly every patch since 6.79, missing a note in 6.83. That’s close to three years of incremental changes, none of which had amounted to much success in the meta, which is why he continued to receive those buffs. It’s a familiar story arc for many heroes that rise in popularity. Sometimes it’s heroes that received major changes that become meta picks, but more often than not it’s the hero that finally gets noticed, after one final tweak. This was the case with Windranger, who rocketed to the top of our pick rate list in 6.84, where her Shackleshot cast point was reduced from 0.3 to 0.15. It punctuated a series of buffs since 6.81.
Shadow Demon has had every skill tweaked. Over three patches, 
Shadow Poison has had its mana cost, duration, radius, and stack counts buffed. [missing skill: shadow-demon-soul-catcher-5422] cooldown was rescaled. And with his new Aghanim Scepter upgrade, he joined Doom in an exclusive group, out of the hundred heroes and hundreds of skills and item abilities, who could apply Dota’s new Break mechanic through spell immunity.
But it was the three consecutive buffs to 
Disruption, from patch 6.86 to 6.88, that dragged Shadow Demon out of obscurity. All three were buffs to the illusions that the spell generated, and in turn they unlocked a new side to the spell’s offensive potential, when before it was used primarily as a setup for another stun or as a defensive spell to nullify single target disables or buy time for elusive carries, like Weaver and Ember Spirit.
This also comes at a time where heroes like Terrorblade, Luna, Juggernaut, and Alchemist are coming into the meta—all popular pairings at the StarSeries LAN. Past level one, Disruption illusions deal more damage than Manta Style illusions (33% melee, 28% ranged), and at all levels they take less damage at 150% (350% melee, 400% ranged for Manta). The only issue was that they didn’t last long enough. Since patch 6.86, the illusion duration has increased, over two buffs, from 8 to 14 seconds at level 4, a 175% change.
All of this only adds to Shadow Demon’s utility. He already had everything you wanted in a support. A potent wave clearing spell, a defensive spell, an offensive one, a disable, and now he has offensive synergy with the current meta heroes.
A collection of abuses
From the Manila Major to Starseries, Shadow Demon has been on an upward trend in competitive play.
This game was only one out of two Shadow Demon picks throughout all of 101 games of the Manila Major LAN finals. From rat doto to horse doto, Alliance displayed some new, roundabout ways to break high ground during the Manila Major group stages. Though the mechanic of [missing skill: centaur-warrunner-return-5516] with his illusions is well known, it was usually too gimmicky to incorporate. And it may still be. Centaur is nowhere close to being part of the meta, but this was a neat showcase of a cheese strategy, taking advantage of Disruption’s illusions 150% damage received. Shadow Demon hadn’t received his last 6.88 buff yet, but this was a sign of things to come.
Fnatic, along with Team Secret, has favored Shadow Demon strongly in recent tournaments. And they’ve found success, recording a 7-2 record with SD over the past month. That reputation led Digital Chaos to pick Shadow Demon, against Fnatic, to deny the hero at Starseries. Before that game, they had played the hero twice in the last six months. Fnatic has commonly paired their Shadow Demon with Terrorblade, but their use with Luna at The Summit 5 was a throwback to an older combo.
In typical Team Secret fashion, they find how to to extract, or abuse, the most out of their strategies, in this recent matchup against Digital Chaos at Starseries. They had two kills at 23 minutes and were already knocking on DC’s high ground. By 28 minutes, Arteezy was six slotted on Alchemist, and abusing the Octarine-shortened cooldown of Manta Style to the fullest. Despite the kill score difference, Team Secret were already snowballing on the strength of their draft. Shadow Demon’s illusions just made breaking high ground that much easier.
This new offensive potential for Shadow Demon elevated him into the professional meta, but it may also bring him out of the gutters of pub play. His skills are a little finicky for pubs, but using Disruption as an offensive, pushing spell doesn’t require good timing or positioning. You just click and send the illusions in. It’s a no risk scenario that can’t backfire, like an ill-timed Disruption would. Pros are certainly maximizing Shadow Demon’s newfound potential. Everyone else should hop on too.
first pls
2st pls
2nd here
4?
Back to the topic: i play sd long time ago, he is always a good hero i think. Can save teammates or inhilate. GOod and strong early/mid game, but he really can fuck up the teammates if u can't use good :D (1 week ago i save enemy am from tide ravage, my team don't like me)
;p numbr doesnt matter
5th www
@projector you've never played him
^stats don't lie hahah
Работяги, сделал качественный русский перевод статьи, добро пожаловать!
https://vk.com/wall-125039490_1176
Hi there! That was just a russian translation of your article! Thanks!
io arcana 2016. make it happen
Ebola Demon is back
12 huhu
13th comment
First comment to spell out "first."
w8ing for nerf ^_^
rip SD next patch
@DRAGON TALES Nope. I'm a moderator on this site and none of you got the actually position you're requesting. There's a hidden comment above all. Sorry guys! Maybe next time.
i have almost 1000 matches on Riki
Good to know that one of my Heroes Will be rising. See you soon at TI
He has finally been noticed. I've been waiting for that to happen for about 3 years.
Both SD and ET are so good at amplifying carry's potention, it's not even funny.
ET gonna get nerfed to shit next patch for sure.
I've been playing Shadow Demon since 6.84 and I knew he wasn't shit
ive been playing this guy before he was cool
What the fuck dotabuff? Is there any hero profile page for Abbadon? I can't find it! http://www.dotabuff.com/heroes/abbadon not working.
just not a game winning hero with or without skill
I betcha Valve wanted SD to get noticed... After a few buffs in a row they were like " come on now, get noticed..."
Here's a heaps good SD guide for those new to him
http://www.dotafire.com/dota-2/guide/unlocking-shadow-demons-potential-6-88-24383
Last month I was just suggesting for my team to pick it against tide,timber, & omni(5k bracket) then it started to get famous ..weird @_@
just want to say
#TeamIO
Did you seriously just write a full article just to talk of one of his skills? Damn, Dotabuff... feels like you didn't even want to talk about him, but you needed to, cuz' he was abused by the grands. Damn, what a shame. When you do this one heroes article you put so much effort on it, and try to talk about all his skills and posible builds! I'm not a HUGE fan of Shadow Demon, but as a Dota 2 appreciator and always learning I demand a full article on this guy, with full atention on him.
While I think ANIMAL could have phrased it more politely, I agree with him, it would have been nice to have a bit more explanation on his other skills. His ulti in particular looks very underwhelming on paper. Why is it an ulti? The bkb piercing part make it worth it?
I main Meepo and Visage under 2k with good winrates, so have always liked the bizarre and underpicked heroes :) I've been eyeing SD for a while but just can't figure out what "his thing" is on paper. I now know a lot more about Disruption and why it's good, so thanks for that :)
wish shadow poison spam shadow demon got buffed.
shadow poison is so fucking annoying.
i laned with this kotl and sd once, and that kotl kept giving mana to the shadow demon.
and actually shadow demon as a carry can deal a lot of damage with disruptions and soul catchers. do not underestimate the right click potential of carry shadow demon
Notice me senpai!!!
Actually before the Summit and Starseries, Wings has already used it twice against Newbee at Nanyang. First on Game 1 winner final where Medusa's Disruption illusion denied Newbee's highground defense, second was on Game 2 grandfinal.
This game 2 was a ridiculous one, Newbee has a farmed TB and was in no way behind Wings, but Wings has a farmed Luna with Butterfly. Suddenly Wings started to send Luna's Disruption Illusion at top. T3 top just melt and they proceed with racks. Newbee cores can't do shit without MKB there and they lost the racks and also the fights that follows and GG, just like that.
Ebola DEMOOOOOON!
Friendly reminded not to play SD in pubs sub 5k mmr, ESPECIALLY as solo support, cause people are dumb and don't know both how the hero work and how to play with it. You'll just lose your nerves while they afk farm.