Head-to-head Dota 2 7.41f win rate from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41f, Lich wins the Lich vs Shadow Fiend matchup: Lich beats Shadow Fiend in 60.31% of 64,249 ranked matches.
Picking Shadow Fiend into a Lich is a serious risk. Lich has several tools that directly answer what Shadow Fiend wants to do. Sinister Gaze is a positional nightmare for a hero who needs to stand still to land his Shadowrazes, pulling him into the open for an easy kill. Frost Blast provides a cheap, spammable slow and nuke that's very effective against a hero with low starting health. Even Frost Shield is a problem, blunting the physical damage Shadow Fiend relies on after he farms up a few items. Lich simply makes it hard for Shadow Fiend to play his own game.
The trouble starts in the lane, where Lich can constantly pressure Shadow Fiend, making it difficult to secure last hits and build Necromastery souls. In mid-game teamfights, Lich’s main job is often to find and disable the Shadow Fiend. A good Gaze or a well-placed Chain Frost can completely derail his fight before he can use Requiem of Souls or activate a BKB. This forces the Shadow Fiend to play defensively, waiting for Lich’s key spells to be used on someone else before he can safely commit, which can cost his team valuable opportunities.
How the matchup shifts across skill brackets — Lich's win rate against Shadow Fiend in recent ranked matches, split by average match rank. Ranks with too few recent matches are omitted. These rows use the last 30 days of quality-filtered ranked matches, all patches in that span combined — a wider window than the patch-scoped count above, so the per-rank match totals can exceed it.
| Rank | Lich win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 53.47% | 692 |
| Crusader & Archon | 54.42% | 2,683 |
| Legend & Ancient | 56.96% | 3,304 |
| Divine & Immortal | 54.55% | 1,023 |
Lich's win rate against Shadow Fiend in each recent balance patch — whether this matchup is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Lich win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41f | 60.31% | ▲ +5.4pp | 64,249 |
| 7.41e | 54.87% | ▲ +0.7pp | 317,770 |
| 7.41d | 54.15% | ▲ +0.9pp | 252,648 |
| 7.41c | 53.27% | — | 102,751 |
Move this data into a draft
Lich starts on Radiant and Shadow Fiend on Dire. Add the other eight picks to see whether this head-to-head edge survives the full draft.
Data updated Oct 5, 2026.