So, i have really been enjoying playing Vengeful Spirit recently, however, i very rarely see her in games!

Her stun seems pretty effective
Her Armor Debuff is fun
+Dmg aura? yes please
It seems like her swap, can be very handy.

Do people just hate her? Is she not as awesome as she seems to be?

She's a great hero that can be build a lot of different way. You usually see her picked or banned whenever Enigma is picked, since her swap goes through BKB, especially is Beastmaster or Magnus have been banned out.

The problem with Venge is that her stun is short range. Also, I don't think she's good at being a 5 support. I think she does better as maybe 3 or 4 instead of 5.

A force staff is fantastic on her as she can swap and then force out of danger, while throwing her stun. With her decent Agi game, she can also deal decent damage in the mid-late game if she gets a few items. A yasha or even a deso on her is devastating.

I've always had a soft spot for Venge, and not just because we share initials. She was one of the heroes I was determined to learn early on, and as a result I have a terrible win rate with her. She's absolutely one of the most unique heroes in the game who can severly disrupt an opposing team's teamfight plans, but also requires a particular mindset.

Her auto attack range is abysmal, making it tougher to harass/lh/deny during the early phase. Squishy as heck, but needs to put herself in harms way to do anything.

Like Sven, has one of the greatest level 1 stuns in the game. Like Sven, never has the mana to use it as often as she'd like.

Like Veno she's one of the rare support agility heroes. Unlike Veno she can never really get rolling unless she's played as a carry or benefits from a lane that lets her get rolling. She can push lane with her Wave, but she can't take down towers or slow/finish heroes after they disengage as effectively as Veno can. On a similar note though she's less likely to steal kills than Veno is. Her W gets kills that are otherwise unattainable.

Leveling her Q gives her an awesome nuke. Whether you want to or not is up to you. Leveling your Q gives you an extra 75 damage/0.1 stun time per level, but your W gives you an extra 5% damage buff on every unit you hit per level (11% with 1 level) as well as the ability to possibly finish off any heroes trying to make an escape with minimal health (75 HP removal when maxed). Your E gives anyone in close proximity to you an extra 8% damage per level (after 12% on level 1). Your carry is going to love you for your W and E

Her level 1 ult has awful range, and is hard to use correctly (heck at levels 2 and 3 it can be hard to use optimally). Pub Venges will tend to prefer the aggressive swap (bring a hero in for the kill) as opposed to the defensive one (swap your carry when he's about to get stunned/hurt big time). But guess what, that terrible range means you're going to have difficulty swapping weak heroes from the back line to your front line without putting yourself in a bad situation.

I agree she shouldn't be a 5 as she'll need items to give her the ability to contribute in a fight without being insta-squished and/or targeted early on so other heroes can get their mojo on.

All that said Venge is the manliest of the ranged heroes. You'll get to set the tone for early fights, played effectively you'll be adored by your carry as you can save them in ways only Omniknight can beat, while still being able to contribute in fights and improve their damage in ways he can't. As a roamer you have a strong stun that can be followed up by dragging a hero into a favorable position. But you'll also need a team who both gets Venge and also realizes that she's a tough hero to play right.

People usually only pick venge if the other team picks enigma, her swap goes through his bkb so and will instantly stop blackhole INSTANTLY

Like vodka said her auto attack range is really short and because of that she isnt the strongest babysitter for a carry because she's going to get harassed alot herself too

people would rather get shadow shaman because he has 2 stuns and can push really well
people also like leshrac because he has really good pushing power too! his stun might have a huge delay on it but most of the time your going to pair him up with someone to set up his stun.

anyway i digress..

+'s
Amazing stun
Swap goes through bkb and instantly stops channel spells
Damage aura.. more damage never hurt someone
Insanely strong ganker

-'s
short range
Needs more than just a wand or boots to be really effective
Can be subbed out for Lesh or Shadow Shaman if you want to push harder which teams like to do alot
Smaller mana pool in comparison to her stun's mana cost which you are wanting to use alot since you can gank so strong with her