Shadow Shaman
Hero
Shadow Shaman
    23 + 2.3
16 + 1.6
25 + 3.5
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Rhasta, the Shadow Shaman, is a ranged intelligence hero mostly played as a pusher and disabler, wielding abilities that make pushing lanes more efficient. When his abilities are used in intelligent combos, he has one of the longest disables in game. He is also capable of disabling multiple enemy heroes, allowing him to initiate encounters as well. Though very supportive in nature, until the late game Rhasta is capable of killing lone enemy heroes with the use of his entire skill set; meaning he is more difficult to gank than most other supports. Playing Rhasta well requires good knowledge of target priority and timing; and some minor micromanagement. His peak is mid-game, but he can continue to wreak havoc on enemies all throughout the match.
Contents
Bio[edit]
Rhasta, the Shadow Shaman▶️ "I am the intermediary between life and death."
Lore:
Born in the Bleeding Hills, Rhasta was just a starving youngling when picked up by a travelling con-man. For two pins of copper, the old con-man would tell your fortune. For three, he'd castrate your pig, for five, he'd circumcise your sons. For a good meal, he'd don his shaman garb, read from his ancient books, and lay a curse upon your enemies. His strange new youngling, part hill troll, part…something else, worked as assistant and lent an air of the exotic to the con-man's trade.
Always one step ahead of cheated customers, one town ahead of a pursuing patronage, the two trekked across the blighted lands until one day the con-man realized that the little youngling could actually do what he only pretended at. His ward had a gift—a gift that customers valued. And so the youngling Rhasta was thrust before the crowds, and the trade-name Shadow Shaman was born. The two continued from town to town, conjuring for money as Shadow Shaman's reputation grew. Eventually, the pair's duplicitous past caught up with them, and they were ambushed by a mob of swindled ex-clients. The con-man was slain, and for the first time, Rhasta used his powers for darkness, massacring the attackers. He buried his beloved master, and now uses his powers to destroy any who would seek to do him harm.
Always one step ahead of cheated customers, one town ahead of a pursuing patronage, the two trekked across the blighted lands until one day the con-man realized that the little youngling could actually do what he only pretended at. His ward had a gift—a gift that customers valued. And so the youngling Rhasta was thrust before the crowds, and the trade-name Shadow Shaman was born. The two continued from town to town, conjuring for money as Shadow Shaman's reputation grew. Eventually, the pair's duplicitous past caught up with them, and they were ambushed by a mob of swindled ex-clients. The con-man was slain, and for the first time, Rhasta used his powers for darkness, massacring the attackers. He buried his beloved master, and now uses his powers to destroy any who would seek to do him harm.
Voice:
Abilities[edit]
Ether Shock
Creates a cone of ethereal energy that strikes multiple enemy units.
Cast Animation: 0.3+1.23
Cast Range: 600
Starting Radius: 200
Max Distance: 500
End Radius: 300
Number of Targets: 1/3/5/7
Damage: 140/200/260/320 (
510/570/630/690)
510/570/630/690)
14/
100/
Blocked fully only when primary target.Modifiers
modifier_shadow_shaman_ethershock: Dispellable with death only.Originally used to open shows with the travelling con-man, Rhasta's lightning display shocks adversaries in more ways than one.
Notes:
- With the starting radius, max distance and end radius, Ether Shock can hit units up to 1000 range away.
- The complete area is shaped like a cone in front of Shadow Shaman.
- The area starts in front of Shadow Shaman, and not at the primary target's position.
- Targets within the cone area are not chosen randomly. It chooses the closest valid targets to the primary target within the cone.
- All strikes together can deal up to 140/600/1300/2240 ( 510/1710/3150/4830) damage (before reductions).
- The purpose of the modifier is unknown.
▶️ Chicken model
_icon.png){kind=icon}
Transforms an enemy unit into a harmless creature, disabling their attacks and abilities.
Cast Animation: 0+1.13
Cast Range: 500
Set Move Speed: 100
Duration: 1.25/2/2.75/3.5
13 ( 8) 70/
Effects persist if debuff was placed before spell immunity.Modifiers
modifier_shadow_shaman_voodoo: Dispellable with strong dispels.Rhasta often ended performances by turning himself into a chicken - now, the humiliation is shared.
Notes:
- Applies a hex on the target, setting its base movement speed to 100, silencing, muting, and disarming it.
- Hex instantly destroys illusions.
- Shadow Shaman's hex transforms the target into a chicken.
- The Lamb to the Slaughter and Golden Lamb to the Slaughter change the model into a lamb.
Shackles
Magically binds an enemy unit so that it cannot move or attack, while dealing damage over time.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0
Cast Range: 400 (
525)
525)Max Channel Time: 2.75/3.5/4.25/5 ( 4.75/5.5/6.25/7)
4.75/5.5/6.25/7)Total Damage: 60/160/260/360 ( 235/335/435/535)
235/335/435/535) Number of Serpent Wards: 4 Wards Duration: 7 16/ 140/
Shackles creates Serpent Wards attacking the target. Increases Shackles cast range by 125. Lasts 7 seconds. Effect does not persist and immediately ends if debuff was placed before spell immunity.Modifiers
modifier_shadow_shaman_shackles: Dispellable with strong dispels.A self-defense incantation, Rhasta developed shackles after his master was slain in the Bleeding Hills.
Notes:
- Shackles stuns the target as long as it is channeled.
- If the target turns invulnerable or hidden, the channeling stops instantly.
- Provides True Sight over the target, but only when the target was not invisible or within a fade time upon cast.
- Deals damage in 0.1-second intervals, starting immediately as the channeling begins, resulting in 28/35/43/50 ( 48/55/63/70) damage instances.
- The damage per tick is based on the total damage divided by its max channel time of 2.75/3.5/4.25/5, and then divided by 10. The duration bonus from the talent is ignored.
- This translates to 21.82/45.71/61.18/72 ( 85.45/95.71/102.35/107) damage per second.
- Therefore, the final damage dealt (before reductions) is 61.09/160/263.06/360 ( 239.27/335/440.12/535) damage per second.
- The duration increasing talent deals up to 104.73/251.43/385.41/504 damage per second.
- With both talents, it can deal up to 410.18/526.43/644.82/749 per second.
- The duration increasing
- Unlike other targeted spells, the caster vision of Shackles lasts for the entire channel duration (even if it gets canceled), instead of just 2 seconds.
- With Aghanim's Shard, places a total of 4 Serpent Wards based on its current level 100 range towards the target's north, east, south, and west.
- The wards' facing angle is set equal to Shadow Shaman's facing angle upon cast.
- Same auto attack settings from Mass Serpent Wards and its Aghanim's Scepter upgrade fully apply as well.
- If Mass Serpent Ward is not learnt, no wards are summoned.
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Mass Serpent Ward
Ability
Target Point
Target Point
Summons 10 Serpent Wards to attack enemy units and structures. The Wards are immune to magic.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0.97
Cast Range: 550
Spawn Radius: 150
Number of Serpent Wards: 10
Attacks to Destroy: 2 ( 3)
3)Wards Duration: 45
Split Shot Search Radius: 875 Bonus Attack Targets: 1 120 200/
Causes Serpent Wards to have split shot, attacking two units for full damage. Increases attack range of Serpent Wards.Modifiers
modifier_shadow_shaman_serpent_ward: Dispellable with death only.Snake charming was a big part of the Shadow Shaman's act; now Rhasta can empower the Snakes to do his bidding.
Notes:
- Places a Serpent Ward on every 36°th of a 150 radius circle, resulting in 10 wards forming a ring
- The wards form a perfect barrier, so that enemies inside cannot move out, unless they have phased movement.
- Destroying one ward is enough to allow units to walk in and out of the ring of wards.
- The wards' facing angle is set equal to Shadow Shaman's facing angle upon cast.
- Serpent Wards automatically attack enemies within their attack range, using default auto-attack rules.
- It is possible to manually give the wards an attack target with A or
Right Click an enemy in range. - With Unified Orders with Ctrl, Ctrl+ Right Click an enemy in range will commands to all wards to attack the target.
- It is also possible to stop the wards from attacking with S (only works when the auto-attack option is ◉ Never).
- It is possible to manually give the wards an attack target with A or
- Serpent Wards have a lower target priority than other units and heroes, so they are attacked by towers and creeps last.
- The serpent wards attack damage is not reduced by Damage Block.
- With Aghanim's Scepter, the wards perform instant attacks on enemy whenever they launch an attack projectile.
- This means the extra projectile is released at the same time together with the main attack.
- Therefore, it does not matter whether the primary attack misses or not, the extra projectile is still released.
- The extra projectile travels at the same speed as the primary projectile, and can be disjointed like regular attacks.
- These instant attacks do not proc any attack modifiers and on-hit effects normally. They do not have True Strike.
- However, they are affected by armor type and evasion.
- The extra attack does not target wards, invisible units, attack immune units, or units inside the Fog of War. They do target buildings.
- The secondary target is chosen randomly. There are no priorities.
Talents[edit]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| +25 Wards Attack Damage | 25 | +370 Ether Shock Damage |
| +1 Serpent Wards Max HP | 20 | +2s Shackles Duration |
| -5s Hex Cooldown | 15 | +75 Serpent Wards Attack Range |
| +175 Health | 10 | +140 Shackles Total Damage |
Notes:
- The cast range talent does not affect the max distance of Ether Shock.
- The health talent increases maximum health capacity, and keeps the current health percentage.
Recent Changes[edit]
Main Article: Shadow Shaman/Changelogs
Version
Description
- Increased turn rate from 0.5 to 0.6.
- Talents:
- Level 15 right talent changed: +100 cast range ➜ +75 Serpent Ward attack range.
- Level 25 right talent: +340 Ether Shock attack damage increased to +370.
- Aghanim's Shard upgrade:
- Reduced Shackles cast range bonus from 150 to 125.
- Aghanim's Shard upgrade:
- Reduced Shackles Serpent Wards duration from 8 to 7.
Recommended Items[edit]
Starting items:
- Tango regenerates health to Shadow Shaman so he can stay in lane.
- Healing Salve restores health to Shadow Shaman or his carry.
- Clarity is essential in ensuring that you have mana to cast your disables in the laning stage. Being able to get off both of your disables in a gank go a long way towards ensuring successful kills.
- Iron Branch is good for cheap stats, and can be sold for inventory space or built into a Magic Wand.
- Observer Ward provides map vision for his team.
Early game:
- Magic Stick ensures that Shadow Shaman has burst regen available when needed. 150 mana is enough to cast Hex if it is level 2 or lower, same for Shackles.
- Boots of Speed are important in allowing Shadow Shaman to close the gap with a target and disable them. Acquiring Boots before your opponents can often make the difference between getting a kill.
Mid game:
- Magic Wand has all the benefits of Magic Stick, as well as more stats and a higher amount of burst regen. It is important no matter whether Shadow Shaman is played as a core or support.
- Arcane Boots increases the size of Shadow Shaman's mana pool and gives him some burst mana regen; Shadow Shaman often casts his spells as a combo, so he tends to run out very quickly if not furnished with a means of mana regen.
Late game:
- Blink Dagger should be considered a core item on Shadow Shaman, no matter what role he is played in. Blink Dagger allows Shadow Shaman to instantly jump on top of a gank target and disable them with Hex, preventing them from reacting during ganks. It should be rushed as quickly as possible as a core, and given priority to obtain as a support.
- Aghanim's Scepter should generally be considered a core item on a farming Shadow Shaman, but luxury for a support Shadow Shaman. The upgrade it grants Mass Serpent Ward greatly increases the amount of damage they can do, allowing Shadow Shaman to make short work of heroes that have been boxed in or obliterate towers alarmingly quickly.
- Refresher Orb allows for two instances of Mass Serpent Wards, which is hugely useful for siege damage and encounters.
Situational items:
- Urn of Shadows can be useful on a ganking Shadow Shaman over a Bracer. It gives him the same amount of strength, making him less squishy, and the mana regen helps to maintain his mana pool. As he is a very strong ganker, Shadow Shaman can roam and get charges easily, using them for additional Pure damage in later ganks or to keep himself and his teammates at full HP for more pushing potential.
- Tranquil Boots are a situational alternative to Arcane Boots as a support Shadow Shaman. Not only are they cheaper, but they provide increased movement speed for positioning for casting disables on the enemy. The passive health regeneration also helps ensure that Shadow Shaman is at full health at the beginning of fights.
- Medallion of Courage is a very useful item, as Mass Serpent Wards deal physical damage. Placing the armor debuff on an enemy after boxing them in with the wards will make short work out of almost any hero. As well, the active can be used on teammates to give them more armor, or on Roshan to make taking the Aegis easier. It can also be upgraded into a Solar Crest to augment its bonuses even more.
- Ghost Scepter is useful to purchase on squishy casters like Shadow Shaman. Giving himself invulnerability to physical damage can buy time if the enemy attempts to focus down Shadow Shaman with physical attacks, allowing him to retaliate with his disables and nukes.
- Glimmer Cape is a strong utility item that benefits Shadow Shaman in many aspects. It can be used to help with initiation by allowing Shadow Shaman to approach enemies invisibly, and allows him to protect teammates that are caught out of position by casting invisibility on them. The invisibility also allows Shadow Shaman to protect himself while channeling Shackles on an enemy, reducing the chances of being disabled by unit-targeted spells.
- Force Staff is an inferior but potent substitute for Blink Dagger. The extra intelligence gives Shadow Shaman more mana, and the active can be used on enemies and allies, not just on Shadow Shaman himself. Purchased as a supplement to Blink Dagger, it can also be used to break Linken's Sphere on a particularly slippery enemy player, or on Roshan prior to casting other disables.
- Aether Lens is extremely powerful in Shadow Shaman's hands, and can be easily obtained through disassembling Arcane Boots. Besides granting some mana regen, the cast range increase allows Shadow Shaman to disable enemies from farther away, making him a much bigger threat in ganks and fights.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity is a powerful item on Shadow Shaman. The item itself grants Shadow Shaman more mobility, rectifying his poor base movement speed, and gives him more intelligence as well as powerful scaling mana regen to fuel his costly and spammable spells. Most importantly, however, the active can be used to instantly disable an enemy from range and then place Mass Serpent Wards on top of them, easily boxing them in.
- Rod of Atos is a good utility item to purchase. It gives Shadow Shaman more intelligence, allowing him to cast spells more often, and the additional HP makes him less squishy. The long range on the active also allows Shadow Shaman to root enemies from a great distance, adding yet another disable to his repertoire.
- Scythe of Vyse is a very powerful late-game item to purchase. On top of the extra stats, much larger mana pool, and scaling mana regen, the instant Hex can serve as a complement to Shadow Shaman's innate spell, giving him the ability to hard-disable a single target for up to 12 seconds.
- Octarine Core gives Shadow Shaman many strong benefits. It gives him more HP and mana, and reduces the cooldowns on all of his abilities, making him a much bigger threat with his spammable nukes and disables. If the increased shackle duration talent is taken, shadow shaman can achieve permanent shackles, preventing any retaliation from solo heroes or allowing allies as much time as they need to get in position.
- Shiva's Guard gives Shadow Shaman a much larger mana pool, as well as armor for survivability. The active can be used to slow enemies down on top of his other disables, further contributing to his teamfight potential.
Gameplay[edit]
| Roles: | Support Pusher Disabler Nuker Initiator |
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| Complexity: | ★☆☆ |
| Playstyle: | Much to the surprise of the travelling con-man, his newly adopted assistant could actually perform his tricks with real magic. Rhasta, the young half-troll, dazzled audiences with the lights of Ether Shock, among other things. But their duplicitous deeds soon caught up with them. An angry mob descended on the pair, killing the old master. Rhasta had no choice but to adapt his show tricks for darker purposes. He Hexes one foe, transforming him into a chicken, while locking down another with magical Shackles—but not before conjuring up a Mass Serpent Ward. Spitting fire in every direction, the Shadow Shaman's charmed snakes make short work of his disabled enemies. |
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
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Trivia[edit]
- The name Rhasta is based on the Rastafarians, a follower of a religious movement in Jamaica known as Rastafari. In DotA, his hero model and dialogue had a strong Jamaican influence and style. But in Dota 2, his theme and style have undertaken a more Native American influence, mostly evident in his attire and accent.
- Rhasta is also a Persian name and word that means "truth" or "path".
- Rhasta's Immortal Head item, Lash of the Lizard Kin, may be a reference to Pollywog Priest, who is Heroes of Newerth's direct port of Shadow Shaman. The Pollywog Priest is a frog-themed hero who, just like Shadow Shaman with the immortal, uses its tongue for its equivalent ability of Shackles (named Tongue Tied), instead of a magical net.
- Some of Rhasta's voice lines may suggest he is well versed in the art of augury, an ancient form of divining the future. In some cultures, it is believed that reading the entrails of ritual sacrifice victims could predict the future.
Gallery[edit]
Concept art (final)
Ability icon progress
Hero icon progress
