Shendelzare Silkwood

The Vengeful Spirit

The VS has fallen out of favour since a few versions ago, when people played

her as a solo player-killer. This guide is about how to play her as a

support hero. Therefore, you mustn’t be solo in a lane for long, especially

at the start, and you need to have allies who aren’t all support heroes.

This version of her does best when the hero with you in your lane (and the

rest of your team’s heroes, too) have heavy attacks (tanks) or nukes

(certain casters). Solo pushing is possible later in the game, but not

recommended as she is easily ganked.

The basics: We make Shendelzare into an intelligence-focused hero who can

turn battles and gank with her spells and items and push on her own if she

isn’t harassed (which she won’t usually be; people tend to ignore her alone

in a lane).

Your skills

Magic Missile (hotkey C)

Your basic skill and a main reason VS rocks. This shoots an icy-looking

thing that stuns the enemy for 1.75 seconds AND does quite a bit of damage

(100/175/250/325). Cooldown is medium and so is mana cost.

Command Aura (passive)

This is simple and to-the-point: it increases nearby allies’ damage by

12/20/28/36%. Helps with pushing and can be a big boost to ally heroes,

especially strong tanks. However, the area of effect is quite small, so

melee heroes/creeps may not be affected by the aura unless you follow them

closely. The aura of course affects you, so you have permanent +36% damage

by mid-game.

Terror (hotkey T)

This is not so great, but still worth getting before stats. It helps PUSH.

What does it do, exactly? It reduces nearby enemies’ armor (medium AOE, it

will get all the creeps in a normal lane situation) by 2/3/4/5 and attack

damage by 5/10/15/20% for a fairly long while (20 seconds, I think). The

mana cost and cooldown of this are very low, so you can cast it as soon as

you encounter new enemies. Keep in mind that you also have your command

aura. That’s -20% damage (and -5 armor) for enemies and +36% damage for

allies. More than enough to let your creeps completely take over the lane

and help you push solo – though you must watch out for ganks. With an ally

along, it’s a solid push.

Ultimate: Nether Swap (hotkey W)

This is a strange ultimate that defines this hero and confuses many enemies

(and allies, unfortunately…explain to them what your ult does so they will

know where the enemy will be when you cast it). The VS instantly swaps

places with an enemy hero (heroes ONLY, cannot target creeps). Otherwise

everything just continues, no stun or damage; even the enemy hero’s last

movement/attack order continues, I think. Range at level 1 is 600 (same as

the range many mages can shoot; VS can only shoot about 400), at level 2

it’s 900, and at level 3 it’s 1200. Mana cost is quite low and cooldown

very low for an ult.

Once you understand how to use this, it is killer. Obvious situations are

to stand near your tower and swap with an approaching hero, then stun them

(with magic missile) so you and the tower can bash them to death. Or even

just with creeps; if someone chases you when they shouldn’t, or just stays

close with their health too low, swap them and stun them so you and the

creeps can beat em up. If an ally is nearby this is even better. Whenever

you outnumber enemy heroes in a lane, try to swap one of them.

Keep in mind, though, you SWAP; so don’t swap with a hero who’s with a pack

of allies, or you end up getting hurt yourself because you end up right next

to all the enemies.

I imagine you could escape ganks by swapping with the hero who is sneaking

up on you from behind, because then you are way ahead of them and can run.

I have never done so, though. The items in this build make your ult even

more useful by permitting you to stun BEFORE swapping, so you deal 325 more

damage and have some extra time to deal basic attack damage.

Your items (listed in the order you should buy them)

Boots of speed (500 gold)

A must first-buy for a chasing hero whose base movespeed is only 295. You

must chase to make full use of your stun and swap.

Ring of Health (875 gold) or Voidstone (900 gold)

Buy whichever you need more (you should be able to tell how things are going

by the time you have enough gold; do you need the mana or the health more?).

You will need the voidstone to build Eul’s, so go for it if you can do

without the ring, but keep in mind that IF you buy the voidstone, you cannot

buy the ring with the stone on you (it will form perseverance, which is no

good for Eul’s). However, you could put the Voidstone in your circle of

power (which has one item slot) to avoid this problem.

Eul’s (the cyclone staff) – requires Voidstone (900 gold), Staff of Wizardry

(1000 gold), Robe of the Magi (450 gold or so)

Here we start making her into a spell/intelligence focused hero. You should

be able to afford this a little after level 6 if all goes well. Now you can

stun someone, THEN swap them, Eul’s them, and once they fall down stun them

again because the cooldown will be over. If you bought the ring of health

before building this, buy the staff and the robe before you buy the

voidstone; then when you are at the shop to buy the voidstone put the ring

down, then buy the stone which will form Eul’s, then pick the ring back up

(to avoid making perseverance and wasting your voidstone).

Oblivion Staff – requires Quarterstaff (1150 gold or so), another Robe of

the Magi (450 gold or so), Sobi Mask (325 gold or so)

This + Eul’s + some money = the chicken stick (Guinsoo’s scythe). That’s

the only reason you (or anyone else) want this item, really.

Power Treads (your boots, 610 gold or so gloves of haste, 425 gold or so

recipe) or Boots of Travel (your boots, 2200 gold recipe)

Purchase one of these at some point after Eul’s. When depends how much gold

you are making and how fast you are using up Eul’s charges (no point in

making the chicken stick until you’ve used up all your cyclones). Treads

are cheaper and will be good if you boost your attack with some agi items;

on the other hand, Boots of Travel suit the VS because she can escape ganks

AND appear suddenly when needed, which is handy with the abilities she has.

Your pick.

Guinsoo’s (level 4 recipe, 1400 gold or so)

This has the ability to hex enemies with medium cooldown, medium mana cost.

Goes very well with your stun and swap. That poor guy you swapped is not

going to be running anywhere fast.

After the above items, get whatever agility or strength boosting items you

like (you could even go for damage boosters). Personally I would go for

butterfly or Lothar’s (windwalk goes well with her abilities), but sometimes

you need more strength. That’s one real flaw with this build: because it

focuses on intelligence, your hero has quite low max hp. However, if you do

not push too far as solo, ganks should not be a problem.

Final Notes

This build can work against most any heroes; ones with very long stuns or

disables are not ideal, but unless you’re solo it should be fine. Akasha

(the Queen of Pain) could annoy you somewhat with blink and Magina (the

Anti-Mage) could be a real problem as you have a large mana pool and low

health (though stun/swap/hex etc would help you escape him, if not kill him,

since he does have low health). Rikimaru (the stealth assassin) would also

be a pain – hard to swap or stun someone you cannot see, though wards or a

gem would help and, like Magina, his HP is low.

So there you are, how to play the VS as a support hero. Stick close to some

allies, make sure they know what the hell your ult does, and pick the enemy

off one by one. You can also creep/farm easily with terror and push lanes

on your own with terror and your aura.