This was the first post-Essentials Dungeons & Dragons release and the supplement was designed to be compatible with both the Essentials line and the base game.

[2] Shannon Appelcline, author of Designers & Dragons, wrote: "Heroes of Shadow introduces a few classes who had been somewhat missing from D&D 4e.

[1] The table of contents lists the follow sections:[3] Appelcline also highlighted the three new races for 4th edition: "None of them were particularly notable in the annals of D&D, but each had a bit of historical depth.

[1] On the development of this book, Senior Creative Art Director Jon Schindehette said the "Heroes of Shadows game supplement focuses on the darker characters in the Dungeons & Dragons universe.

However, I don’t feel that WotC has done a sufficient job making the definitions clear, and so I would say that this book very heavily favors Essentials content.

[...] I think that what this book tells us about the direction for 4E D&D that WotC is taking is that new class design will be following the guidelines set forth in the Essentials products.