Ah I also played with a fren where he maxed Ether shock as pos 5 recently.
I do understand that sacrificing the nuke potential of Ether Shock at early game is painful, but people need to understand they're pos 5, and 0.75 second per level for Hex and Shackle is amazing. lvl3 we get two points in Shackle's because you try to reserve hex just as commited initiation. Then you max Hex because it's more reliable.
Ether Shock is for pos 3 or 2 like Shaman, which is bad.
So as a support Aghs and Refresher are not your priority since you're not going to farm. You get Blink, if game doesn't favor you, go Drums, because you can just run into someone and Hex them before them manage to turn. If game seriously doesn't favor you, there's Force Staff.
Arcane Boots/Tranquil
Blink Dagger
Force Staff
Aether Lens
Anything in the support tab.
EWEWEWRWEE
I only pick Shaman when there's glass cannon like Sniper, PA, maybe AM and Jugg
And pls pick +100 cast range, it's a super boost (HEX SHACKLE BLINK FORCE SNAKES SHOCK), +35% exp gain isn't worth it since you're not farming a lot anyways
WTF I think people over value Q even more, a purely nuke damage skill for a support that has mediocre cast range, I might as well play Ogre or KotL
And the biggest problem of Shaman is W and E only shines because we need damage line up
That's why I only pick him when there's a glass cannon.
im also spamming shaman, really fun hero to play, for me always buy mana boots, then break it and get aether lens after that. So u can position yourself much better. Always try to have ur ulti on CD, meaning if ur ulti is up, is time to smoke gank and push a tower or smthing.
jesus fucking christ guys, there's mostly no set skill build for any given hero, and in case of shaman, if you are getting pushed in really hard, good luck if your team doesn't have enough wave clear to deal with it and you were wise enough to skip ether shock
idk dude , people flame me do not maxing w and e in laning phase , like do u really need that much disable in laning phase? better just nuke them to death , 1 point shackle and hex is enough disable at it is
no point maxing w, e in laning phase, u need dmg more than disable in laning phase. u will win the lane if they dont have enough regen. 1 point in W and E will do fine
"we need disable u idiot , cc > nuke" - my mid. proceed to disable offlaner for 4 second for full health because my carry is hard carry.
Too much disables but no damage to back it up is a little bit useless tho, well not unless its a tri lane then maybe maxing disables first is more beneficial.
ur mid is retard XD, usually opponent hardlane is gonna be pretty ass tanky, and in games usually u are the only support, without ur first skill is really hard to kill the offlaner, and in fact ganking is gonna be hard as well, cause low dmg, is similar to rubrick, no one max their lift first, they always max their zap, so same concept. Ur 1 point in W, E is already already 4 second worth of disable. And ur attack dmg is REALLY high for a support, plus with ur zap, is ez kill.
"no point maxing w, e in laning phase, u need dmg more than disable in laning phase. u will win the lane if they dont have enough regen. 1 point in W and E will do fine"
why win the lane by harassing when you can kill him ?
I'll say shock over w,e to be honest. Hex and shackles just costs too much, 2-1-2 max shock then hex. Helps with your push too. If you can't get levels for whatever reason max hex first then, but it drains your mana and its useless outside of fights.
Yea instead of becoming a threat with disable and nuke lets just become a disabler machine because your cores have sick dps from lvl 1 and its enough to kill heroes right?
Oh wait
Shaman is a fucking greedy support anyway if you actually want to play a pos 5 slave pick smth like ogre or cm
i love ss. always instapick ursa and go laning with ss is like having 4000 gold early advantage
Pls dont listen to all these guys telling you to not max q, especially the Cheap Laugh Guy, he even said he likes picking shaman into sniper.. That should be enough to discredit him.
With Shaman you max q always since its your farming tool and you damage tool in teamfights, after lvl 7 we can discuss what to max first.. hex or shackle, imo maxing hex is great since lvl 1 hex is terrible while lvl 1 shackle is pretty damn good. However sometimes I completely skip hex and go for 4-0-2-1 if enemy have very little disables and I know my shackles are gonna be actually useful.
Not that it's useful anyway, if I recall correctly they can phase out, if you don't disable the trapped guy and he isn't a 1k idiot he and his team is going to hit the wards anyway unless they're gonna win teamfights by not doing so.
Feelsbadman I've been playing Shaman as a disable machine all the way
I just don't see myself spamming Ether Shock for farming with 15 mins arcane boots pos 5
Just compare it yourself.
Let's suppose that you're lvl 7 and you skilled a 0-4-2-1 build, what you have to offer is 7 sec disable and 200 magic damage to a single target and that is assuming they allow you to cast the entire shackle duration. (200 damage, 7 sec disable)
If you went for the ether shock build you have 4-0-2-1, you have a 320 aoe damage (up to 7 targets) every 8 seconds and a 3.5 sec disable with 200 magic damage. (520 single target dmg, potentially over 1k aoe damage and 3.5 sec disable).
Maybe you can't see the value in being able to dish consistent damage, but the value is so high imo. Then it also allows you to farm by your own and not babysit since shaman is a terrible babysitter but more of a ganker, farmer, pusher.
Also you're not supposed to get arcanes by minute 15, if thats the case then you're doing something wrong, possibly the skillbuild and therefor the playstyle that skillbuild forces you to play.
yeah shackle levels are soo good as a "position 5"
nothing like sitting in melee range of the entire enemy team with 600 hp and 250 movespeed as a "position 5", really good play style try it out!
ether shock is useless because its a nuke and supports are about disabling guys jesus learn to play
Actually shackles adds more damage per point to a single target than shock does, shock is +60 per level, shackles is +80 per level. I could see a 2/0/3/1 build at 6 being fine. Shock is nice for farming though.
and holy hell I never checked his talents but damn 350 shock at 25? He can do ~500 dmg to a whole team.
Max ether shock 1st every time you play Shadow Shaman. That AOE nuke is one of the best spells among supports.
more points in shackles is nice in laning and all but that skill becomes super garbage when teamfights happen u almost always want max ether imo
i dont play this hero however
strangely though +1 ward hp is >3% higher win rate than +350 shock dmg. hmmm. Overall he has a pretty high win rate too which I thought was weird. I thought he wasn't as good a support as other popular ones like ogre, cm.
Why would you not max ether shock first? You can easily ether shock, shackles, then shock again. It is very unlikely in the early game that any of your allies can out-damage your 640 ether shock damage from an extra second or two of disable. Maybe if you're laning with an Ursa or something.
I almost loved the hero cuz I had like a 7 games winstreak with himbin unranked but then I played him twice in ranked and lost and never played him again.... dont max anything actually... id go for 2-1-2 by level 5 then max shackle and leave shock at level 3 and max hex... its not worth it taking shock to lvl 4 imo.... another thing you need to understand is you have to force towers with snakes not just wait when your team is pushing and put them down... if your team is behind you can tel them to push a lane and not fight while you throw snakes at another tower in another lane... this way the enemies fight at a disadvantage and they must lose something.... also remember to single pull the catapult wave when you have ult and then use the double wave with snakes to take towers... talents are super situational on this guy... for items mana boots blink lens atos( id buy atos on every hero cuz double bracer is awesome)
eeeh i would mac the hex later, because it costs so much freaking mana, too much to level it up early
I would go exactly what the guide teaches you. It works for me. Arcane Boots, Blink Dagger, Aghanim Scepter and Refresher Orb. You can buy Necronomicon or Aether Lens as situational items. Aghanim Scepter and Refresher combo is extremely powerful and I have won a few hard long games with it by placing a ton of wards at the enemy ancient.
I max Shackle first. But I only pick Shadow Shaman into supporting carries that have the damage to get early kills, so Ether Shock is completely unnecessary early on, especially when considering the fact you need 2 levels of it to make it work. I play 0 - 4 - 4. As of the current patch, Shadow Shaman's base attack damage is high enough that you can farm free lane reliably without using nukes.
Look out for solo opponents and lock them down. If no teammate is there, use Mass Serpent Ward to mow down the netted foe. Only use Mass Serpent Ward on towers when you think your team cannot push it fast enough. Placing the wards at tier 3 means they will attack the barracks as soon as the tower goes down.
not buying an escape item on SS is why so many people end the game with 10+deaths on SS or supports in general
just get a freaking force or glimmer on ANY support
As for items just buy it regular blink, force, glimmer, ghost scepter, maybe even aether lens? Aghs refresher is ultra greedy, ur not a mid player ur a support, if u have gold for aghs refresher than I would expect that the game is an hour + in length
oh god... for those commenters that dont actually play shaman plz... staphhhh. @LeFlash already explained it really well on why maxing 1st is way better than ur disable, you do so much more not only in team fights but laning/ pushing as well.
@can't be done: "ether shock is useless because its a nuke and supports are about disabling guys jesus learn to play" so i guess, rubrick shouldnt add his zap too then, he should max out his lift skill? LOL what a joke.
If you are anything under 4k you max shock because there's likely available farm all over the map. You can just about nuke medium and small camps and right click waves to 70% health and nuke the rest.
I only skill hex if theres someone who can jump me or my team and cause problems (Timber, Pa) and even then you can disable an axe, LC or slark with shackle.
u can max shacles for longer period of disable
but are u sure u can channel it for maximum time?
Don't skill ult on lion guys, having one more level in one of his disables is better. Said nobody ever. I mean his ult does cost a lot of mana and you might not be able to use it right away in a lot of circumstances, but the opportunity cost is too big.
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As someone who loves to play Pusher heroes, I always find myself fascinated by them, and would like to learn how to play Shadow Shaman this patch. He used to be my main, but as time passed, my previous playstyle of maxing Shackle first and rushing Aghs Refresher no longer seems to work, but I would very much like to learn how to play him again.
What are some good tips to being a better Shadow Shaman?