The Curse of Valve’s Recommended Items: Shadow Blade
Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade? For Blink Dagger, its purpose is obvious for supports, as it unlocks the potential for long range initiation with stuns and ultimates. Timing windows in Dota surround when an Earthshaker or Sand King buys a Blink Dagger. Shadow Blade’s purpose is a little more nuanced when it comes to fulfilling its uses for initiation, escape, or split push. What is not subtle, however, are the three heroes whom Valve has recommended Shadow Blade as a “core” item: Drow Ranger, Kunnka, and Sniper. It’s no surprise that Shadow Blade is among the top 3 most built items on these heroes in pubs, much to the detriment of everyone involved. Shadow Blade sits next to other core items, such as Power Treads and Magic Wand, misleading players to believe that it is just as essential. Kunkka has better synergy with Blink Dagger (since critical strike does not interact with Shadow Blade’s bonus damage), while Drow Ranger and Sniper are better off not building the item at all.
Blink Dagger For All
Unless you’re using Slark, whose unique skill set can capitalize on Shadow Blade’s benefits, Blink Dagger is more often the superior item. It has advantages in cost--in gold and mana--and it has more versatile uses across a broader swath of heroes. Support heroes almost never build Shadow Blade, now that Glimmer Cape has taken its place for heroes like Crystal Maiden or Witch Doctor who want to channel their ultimates while invisible. There are two major reasons to build Blink Dagger as a core item:
- To initiate with a stun or slow. (e.g. Slardar, Batrider, Axe)
- To initiate and maximize the impact of an AOE stun. (e.g. Tidehunter, Tiny, Sand King).
For all other purposes, in the vast area of mobility, Blink Dagger is still the superior item. As an escape tool, ever since Shadow Blade’s cooldown nerf, it fits more favorably with split pushing heroes, such as Invoker or Nature’s Prophet. It’s only in the niche cases among few heroes that Shadow Blade has a case for being a competitive item with Blink Dagger.
You’re Doing It Wrong
The top 5 users of Shadow Blade this week
Is there a reason why pub players are picking Shadow Blade, if for any reason other than it being among the recommended items (in either the core or suggested category)? One explanation could be the value of invisibility among average pub players. Despite buffs to Dust of Appearance and reduced costs of Sentry Ward, invisibility remains invaluable when no one buys either. This isn’t about late game scenarios where your carry has no slots for Dust, and the map is wide open to preempt Sentry Ward placement. It’s about the common scene where three teammates fumble into a gank, and the enemy Drow Ranger enables Shadow Blade and walks away.
Shadow Blade here is being used as an escape tool, and it’s in this case where pub players are doing it wrong. You can’t depend on a 2800 gold item to get away when it’s countered by a 180 gold item (though this will depend on your MMR bracket). For heroes like Sniper or Drow Ranger, who are too squishy to initiate, the money is better off spent on stat items, like Yasha.
As an initiation tool is where Shadow Blade recoups its cost. Shadow Fiend can channel 
Requiem of Souls on top of an unsuspecting enemy hero, almost guaranteeing an instant kill with damage up to 1440/2160/2880 (at levels 1/2/3). Dragon Knight also benefits from Blink Dagger, but as a strength hero he benefits more from Shadow Blade’s attack speed buff, with Silver Edge being a natural upgrade with it’s Sange component.
The difference between Shadow Blade and Blink Dagger as initiation items is that Shadow Blade puts pressure on the map by a core (safe or midlaner more often) instead of a support. Missing cores that can initiate are more difficult to anticipate than missing support heroes. Cores disappear and reappear on the map all the time, whether to farm the lane or the jungle. Sometimes you’ll see pro players use the threat of a missing core to put an enemy team on alert, then using that space to farm instead. It’s why heroes with solo pickoff potential such as Windranger or Lina can be more devastating in the mid-late game with Shadow Blade instead of Blink Dagger. Shadow Blade allows you not only to initiate but to stealthily move around the map, underneath enemy observer wards. For heroes that can best use it, it’s the threat of “my carry can pickoff your carry” that gives Shadow Blade an edge over Blink Dagger.
Shadow Blade Is A Situational Item
When Valve puts Shadow Blade as a core item for a hero like Sniper, it edges out Blink Dagger in the situational category. There’s not much reason to have both. In the process, players are misled to believe that one item is better, by necessity, than the other. In Dota, everything is situational. Some things are more situational than others, but it’s rare that one choice is always the best, and that’s why we keep playing.
Sources: Headline image by Nannou
1st lol
1st huehue
2nd lol
То чуство когда ДБ пиздит обзоры у метагейма
This is silly, shadow blade now is amazing just due to silver edge. I normally get it on SF for characters like PA..
^situational...depends on the enemy picking pa in the first place or any other passive dependent hero
i think for sniper sb is arguable....but it really seems like a good item on drow
a good drow player can do a really good job with invisibility
as for kunnka it makes sense to considering how easy his ulti is to dodge
you need to realise that once a player gets accustomed to the game he will very rarely follow the recommended items blindly...it's really for the inexperienced players who have no idea how to play their heroes that recommendations are really important
it's a great tool for newbies and really indispensable for them....it enables them to have a good idea how their hero is to be played and they can always experiment later on with items that they become familiar with in time
for drow and sniper especially...considering how weak they are in a man fight that stealth factor definitely helps particularly in the lower skill brackets
I completely agree I see to many low level players (mainly because I am kinda new, although I know a fair bit about the game thanks to purge), I've seen a cm with midas pick it up when she could have gotten a blink and/or glimmer, Drow uses it as an escape but it doesn't give her or her team an advantage, and an legion try to use it as an initiation when blink is much better and a lot of other supports pick it up, of course as a support I just buy dust then gem and they are screwed because they feel safe.
The only way I see it working is as a late game item when the enemy team won't expect it or on gankers like tusk or alc, maybe even shaman that want to attack heroes trying to farm, but mid game blink completely changes how some heroes play
Can't wait to get out of low level games.
Recommended items are usually used only for the first ~four months one plays DotA. Afterwards they play their heroes as they see fit and adapt their playstyle to what works - I played a game where a Shadow Shaman nearly won our clearly lost game by building BOTs and a Shadow Blade and went to work ratting.
Also, currently the Enchanted Mango has a win rate of 34.38%. Together, we as a community, have the ability to fix this problem and end this horrific tragedy. Please help. It is our duty as gamers to give this item the respect it is due.
im a scrub, but i see no way blink is a better pick than shadowblade on sniper, aside from blink being useless as initiation on him, shadow blade gives attack speed (headshot) and can build into silver edge, for maim and passive disable
SB (read Silver Edge) against heroes like PA/Spectre etc that are all the rage right now? Stronk.
SB on sniper/drow -- just get a blink to initiate/replace yourself.
Try sniper with treads - s&y - blink. Try saying SB is good on him after you've tried...
This is exactly the kind of an article, that will have a great impact on how inexperienced players play. A noob reads this, thinks to himself, that ok, blink dagger is the way to go on sniper, and there you have it, 25th minute first item dagger, with absolutely no clue how to use it properly and the game is ruined. :)
Shitty article
If your MMR is only 2k, pick sb, but please when you already 4k don't buy sb again unless you use slark
It's all about the attack speed on sniper - max headshot first, get maelstrom ASAP, shadowblade after = rly good AS quite early into the game (that's not even taking into account that you might have a hero who can cast an AS buff like Ogre Magi and turn you into a DotA 2 sentry gun).
DISCLAIMER: I'm low mmr.
ty sir good notice
Great read. I need to get much better with a blink dagger.
the person who wrote this article hasn't even played dota in 5 months lol...
Can you please stop advocating shadow blade on SF for jumpscare requiems? In anything above 2k mmr that will get you killed by the rest of the enemy team.
Techies with Dragon Lance and Divines is like Sniper but better
Crap article.....just delete this article admin
What you are not considering is the initiation factor. Assuming you play vs supports who drop a sentry at the start of every fight, if you shadowblade into them you'll get a successful initiation.
On Drow it's also a tool to go for ganks and pick offs. By the time she has shadow blade she'll bring a lot of damage and should be able to solo most heroes.
Good article. SB is one of the most useless items in Dota.
fuck this uselles item )
Article written by 2.5k mmr wannabe pro. #notworthreading
Awesome post, very helpful! Thank you :)
^ @foobar Then this article is not for u, and nobody cares about your negativity/trash opinions
ditm noob
I want to preface this first by saying that I am no means an amazing player. I currently sit at 4825 solo MMR.
This article is actually just wrong. The only good bit of advice is advocating that Shadow blade is situational, as it is. But the fact that you essentially cast the item to the side and say it is a poor item on heroes like Drow full stop and a yasha is better, is completely ludicrous.
If you are buying shadow blade as a sole means of escape then yes it is a horrible waste of investment. But it also brings a lot to the table as well. Getting it early enough allows you to pressure the map and get solo picks, limiting the enemies capability to farm. It also means that getting it early enough allows you to snowball, not only getting you picks and more gold but meaning the enemy supports then have to invest in detection which is irrelevant if you are using it as a split push/ pick off tool. Blink dagger is not better in every way. Blink dagger gives you 0 stats, 0 damage, 0 attack speed. A Drow at level 7/8 at 12 mins with shadow blade is going to have a lot easier time picking someone off when the very first hit takes more than 1/4 of the heroes HP bar. Do the same with blink and you might not get the kill, or it takes 2/3 seconds longer for incoming TP rotations and you end up trading, or backing off, not getting the kill and that's 30/45 seconds of time completely wasted with no returns.
You also completely miss out a huge part of shadow blade as an item now, being that it upgrades into silver edge, which provides break. You also say that a Drow ranger is too squishy to initiate, which again is only true in the scenario that you provide, yes if you are taking a 5 on 5 you don't want your drow to be at the forefront. But then if that's your only teams source of initiation you don't take 5 on 5s, you dodge, get picks offs into objectives.
The other point of shadow blade only being used as an escape on heroes like Drow ranger is also on prevelant at lower MMRs, if you are in a position to be getting ganked by 2-3 people then you are out of position anyway. Would a 2k player in that scenario blink in time before dagger gets disabled by hero damage? To take it further It could cause him to be even more out of position because he just wants to farm this 'last wave' which he might have cleared earlier with more attack speed/damage. Yes that's being pedantic, but then so is this whole 'article'. Id say that it was written by a salty player that just lost 3-4 games and is losing Drow/Sniper shadow blade as a scape goat, but according to your profile you haven't even played a game in 6 months.
This article completely misses the point.
Prove how Blink Dagger is useful for escape more than a Shadow Blade for scrub 2k MMR players who are not good with positioning?
BD gets DISABLED for 3 secs on taking damage which is more likely the case because of bad positioning by 2k players and is bullshit useless for escape.
SB does not get disabled and is an easy escape for 2k carries who do not position well and for 2k noob enemies who do not buy sentries and dust. SB now upgrade to SE, did you forget that it helps carries more now?
This article is SHIT and misses the point completely. However BD is a superior item than SB (only in the hands of good players)
?
When did sentry wards get their cost reduced?
Rhetoric is weak in the writing. It is because it is.
LOL 2K SHITS SAYING THAT SHADOW BLADE IS GOOD. AHGHASHDHADJHQKWDKJ
ROFL this article is SHIT at best , what is the one part of the AMAZING sliver edge? a shadow blade...... silver edge removes passives which can be absolutely game changing, and on cores like drow ,sniper, legion it normally means the difference when engaging against enemy cores with OP passives i.e PA.
2k ppl who buy sb/se will never get to 3k+. Main benefit of blink dagger is the possibility to initiate from HG, to blink over the trees and other places you need to run over. Okay not many 2k ppl have a good reaction to do blink out, but as for the pros or ppl who really trying to improve their skills blink dagger is the ultimate weapon that gives them advantage in position.
In 4k MMR games sb can give an advantage for the first use of it, but no more - in next encounter there will be sentry or dust. I've saw a lot of games where slark/drow/any ganking carry was immediately focused cos they were in shadow walk and got in range of sentry. Legion Commanders have more chance to miss opportunity to duel with shadow blade and so on.
As for an item to disable passives.. well if you pick silver edge against PA, then i have a bad news for you - you will waste 2800+2050+300=5150 gold when you could buy MKB 2400+1500+1500=5400.
This article has a good point - sb/se are not good items to improve your skills, but the author didn't find necessary words to prove it. DoTa 2 is not a one player game. Of course 2k ppl don't know the fact, that after 9-14 minutes of game the lane stage of the game is over and it is time for team fights, split pushes or space creating in case if you have hard carry. Blink daggers will give an advantage of initiation and mobility.
You can don't believe author or me or any other people. Just watch how pro teams play - EG, OG, EHOME, Alliance and others.. just count how may blink daggers are bought in those games. As for shadow blades, i bet you will see max 1-2 of them in 10-20 games. The last shadow blade on drow in pro game was bought by CTY.. and guess what? They've lost, what a surprise))
Focus on simple idea - if you want to become a good player, you need to improve your skills and macro game thinking. Blink dagger is the best item to train those skills. Shadow blade is an anchor that will make you to stay at your lvl.
Lina + Blink has always been a dangerous combo. I haven't played Lina with that build but I've seen others and they've often solely led my team to victory/hell (depending on side). Also, SF is pretty squishy and with a good enemy team, SF is gonna be roasted anyway.
Blink Dagger and Shadow Blade are often compared as filling the same/similar roles, but the difference is not black and white.
To properly compare Blink Dagger and Shadow Blade, you have to consider the uses of each, and the pros and cons - most people can see the strength of invisibility on heroes, and the uselessness when it's countered, but if you stop here, your analysis is incomplete, and you've missed the point.
Stats: Blink Dagger has none, Shadow blade gives damage and attack speed - desirable attributes for any right-clicking carry.
Positioning: Blink Dagger is *the* best positioning item in Dota 2; Shadow Blade only works if the other team is unprepared.
Cost: Blink Dagger at 2250, or Sblade at 2800 - however, you only need to save up 1400 at a time with Shadow Blade - much easier in a faster game, and you get *some* stats to speed up your farming speed - gold saved for a Blink Dagger is gold sitting idle.
Cost to opponents: This is one of the big issues that is often missed - Detection counters Shadow Blade, but someone still needs to buy the detection. A Shadow Blade will cost the other team as much, if not more gold as it costs - if it doesn't, they're not buying detection, and your Sblade is much more effective. Your Blink dagger is only worth as many heroes as you can kill with it. Further, the 'safe' roaming range of enemy heroes is limited to where their detection reaches - anyone not carrying detection can only farm where the supports babysit them, or where sentries guard them - you lose an item slot, and a 6-slotted carry cannot solo-kill someone with a Sblade and fast reflexes (Chain-stuns and instant-bursting the hero down aside).
Utility: Finally, I want to speak about the utility of Shadow Blade vs. Blink Dagger. Everyone knows that Blink dagger is the better positioning tool, being able to pass over terrain and cliffs, position for ultimates better in fights, and escape (if the other team buys detection). Given the importance of wards, it's significant that Shadow Blade is the better tool for bypassing them, which allows the bearer to get closer to their target before alerting them, unless ward spots are constantly Double-warded (again, very expensive for the supports). Slahser's Silencer guide/build includes a Shadow blade, and one of his main uses is to turn invisible before passing common ward spots - a Blink Dagger, barring all other factors, is much less adept at this (comparably, you may be able to Blink over/out of the river, running the risk of running past a ward anyway.
Redundancy: Regarding multiple blinks or multiple sources of invisibility - multiple blinks on a team aren't necessarily a bad idea, although a team will likely find that the lack of stats will cause them to fall behind in damage (unless they're making the most use of their teamfight/AOE spells). Multiple sources of invisibility, however, are almost always a bad idea - if you counter one invisible hero, you've likely countered every invisible hero on the other team.
One of the big criticisms I have of the cookiecutter Shadow Blade builds come when the team already has an invisible hero, like a Bounty Hunter or Riki - and the Sniper/SF/Drow insists on buying an item that has already been countered.
Overall, Blink Dagger and Shadow Blade have their uses to Spellcasting and Right-clicking heroes respectively. I propose that the comparison between the two is a poor one, however. As for inherent biases - I don't like buying Shadow Blade. It has a tendency to make the wielder feel cocksure and invincible - resulting in their repeated death. On the other hand, Blink is one of my favourite, and most bought items. Make of that what you will.
fuck everyone who buys shadow blade unless they're playing slark or on the enemy team (in that case thanks for ez frags)
This article is speculative at best and makes a lot of dumb points.
Shadow blade on DK doesn't provide any more initiation than a Blink Dagger would. Blink is faster, more reliable, can't be countered by sentries, gives you unparalleled mobility, the list goes on. Shadow blade. Stats, Initiation but can be countered by sentries, escape but can be countered by sentries/dust, Minimal Burst Damage. Heroes like Wind and Lina can be just as threatening with a blink as with a shadowblade. More-so in fact considering the emphasis on Windrangers positioning in how successful her ganks are.
I would go as far as to say that blink dagger could use a nerf considering the power it provides, but then again I think it's just fine at the same time, it's always picked up because there is immense value in mobility. Positioning and response time mean everything and Shadow blade just doesn't deliver when you need a fast shackle or lightstrike array. Invisibility is a fun toy for <2k's but above that, it has to be used precisely and carefully or else the enemy can punish it's employment severely and benefit more from it than you did.
You know what else lets you move around the map undetected by observer wards? Smoke. An item that is great for teams working together to achieve objectives around the map and progress the game. Shadow blade may provide a similar effect but it is singular and can only work towards achieving goals a single person can achieve, which generally means finding a gank on a support or an underfarmed core. After that you have no follow up, your team isn't with you and you just have to leave and go back to what you were doing. It doesn't benefit your team as a whole and just serves to make you feel better by enabling some cheap kills that lead nowhere in the long run. Kills don't mean a lot even when they do.
The reason kills and deaths in high skill Dota are so important is because a coordinated team will be able to punish the gap in the enemies defences swiftly and effectively. In this kind of skill bracket invis will rarely go unpunished and if you do try to go for a kill with it, you won't get much out of it, chances are you might actually end up dying. Blink provides all the utilities you claim we can get from Shadow Blade, without any of the downfalls, with all of the added bonuses and with the benefit of working with your team and not against it.
To put it simply
Shadow blades are generally for selfish play, and they're shit really. Your arguments are just full of holes and half of them don't even make sense. Get someone with 4 Digits in their MMR to write your next article please.
Comparing shadowblade to blink dagger is like compering apples to oranges. both items help you escape or initiate but that's where the similarities end. while blink dagger is the better mobility item shadow blade is far more versatile than a blink because of your ability to constantly pressure the map as soon as you get it. if you have a shadow blade the enemy carry is forced to stay under tower while you are off the map. blink is an item for heroes that like to quickly iniate with no risk, however it gives you no stats and is far easier to counter with observer wards. both items have their uses but you cannot compare them because of the difference in roles they perform.
OP has a very narrow view of the game and should probably git gud before trying to lecture other players.
In 5k, I don't even see shadowblade being built on anyone except for Slark. It's just so easy to deal with on other heroes, 180 gold counters the 2800 gold item
A lot of theorycrafters here.
I buy Shadowblade and Silver Edge on Slark obviously, and Spirit Breaker. I like knowing that I have the element of surprise when charging and don't have to worry about getting spotted by wards.
If this is going to be a series of articles, can you address Mask of Madness next? Why do people still think it's remotely okay to put it on Spirit Breaker?
You should try buying shadowblade for riki.I have %99 winrate with that item on riki and maybe over 50 matches