When should I buy blink of Shadow Fiend?

I see it built in pro games, but I can never fit it into my build and have it not feel like a waste of money and pace.



Blink is hard to purchase if you're not already ahead. It's doesn't help with survivability,as they should be using insta - disables if they are ganking you.

Normally, Power Treads + Black King Bar is your core so you don't just get raped by casual aoe damage. then Yasha into Blink.

If you can afford to farm Blink before Black King Bar, you must be winning your lane, which is improbable, as you're the easiest to gank mid-hero in the game short of Zeus.

If you don't know why you're buying it then don't buy it. It's not worth it if all you use it for is Blink -  Requiem of Souls.

Usually it's a really aggressive item that allows you to solo kill people with your huge nuking and autoattack damage and level lead from mid. Defensively it can be good after a Black King Bar in order to get your ult off and position yourself to blow up one hero without being focused by 5 in fights.

I only started buying it on Shadow Fiend after I got really really comfortable with the hero enough that I could easily recognise places where I could have killed someone if I had a Blink or a Blink would be doing more for me than w/e else I bought. Shadow Blade getting nerfed into the ground cemented the transition.