How Shadow Fiend and Spirit Breaker perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41e, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Shadow Fiend and Spirit Breaker win 52.93% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 4,600 matches.
Creating space for a greedy core is Spirit Breaker's specialty. His constant global pressure forces rotations and keeps enemies out of Shadow Fiend's preferred farming zones, allowing SF to accelerate his item progression safely. Mechanically, Charge of Darkness provides a perfect setup, holding a target in place for Shadow Fiend to easily land a full sequence of Shadowrazes. The added lockdown from Nether Strike can then guarantee a devastating point-blank Requiem of Souls on a key target.
This ganking potential comes online in the mid-game, where the pair can hunt for pickoffs and translate them into objectives. A successful gank massively boosts Shadow Fiend's gold and momentum. The whole plan relies on coordination, though. A Spirit Breaker who charges without his partner nearby accomplishes little, while a Shadow Fiend who has to abandon his lane for every fight will fall behind on farm. The two heroes often want to be in different places on the map, which can create friction.
How this pairing performs across skill brackets — the duo's team win rate 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 | Team win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 53.14% | 1,750 |
| Crusader & Archon | 52.50% | 4,343 |
| Legend & Ancient | 52.98% | 3,635 |
| Divine & Immortal | 51.95% | 1,334 |
This duo's team win rate in each recent balance patch — whether the pairing is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Team win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41e | 52.93% | ▲ +1.4pp | 4,600 |
| 7.41d | 51.50% | ▲ +0.3pp | 322,629 |
| 7.41c | 51.16% | ▲ +1.8pp | 140,899 |
| 7.41b | 49.39% | — | 144,803 |
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Data updated Aug 12, 2026.