Necrophos + Shadow Fiend

Why this works

Setting up for Shadow Fiend’s Shadowrazes often requires lockdown, which Necrophos doesn’t provide outside of his ultimate. This lack of a reliable stun or root from either hero makes it difficult to coordinate their damage. While Necrophos can use Death Pulse to keep a frontline Shadow Fiend alive longer, their core abilities don’t directly amplify each other. Shadow Fiend’s negative armor aura, Presence of the Dark Lord, does little to boost the magical damage that makes up nearly all of Necrophos's output. They can feel like two independent damage dealers playing near each other rather than a coordinated pair.

This pairing puts immense pressure on the rest of the team to provide all the control. Without stuns from their supports, enemies can often walk away from Necrophos’s drain or simply run at Shadow Fiend and force him out of the fight before he can land his spells. Both heroes want to dictate the tempo of a fight around their own key cooldowns, but they lack the tools to help each other do so effectively. The result is often a draft that has plenty of damage on paper but struggles to apply it reliably when a fight actually breaks out.