Lonewaft's guide to Shadow Shaman

Chapter Title

Hi, I'm lonewaft, and I'll be bringing you the ultimate Shadow Shaman support guide today. Shadow Shaman is a very powerful farm-independent support that can babysit carries or push very well. His aoe nuke, his two POWERFUL, LONG lasting disables, and his high damage wards are very good in all aspects of team play. The only downside to Shadow Shaman is as all int heroes, a low health pool, and because his spells cost lots of mana, he is short on mana in the early game as well.
Shadow Shaman should be laned with a carry or someone who has an unreliable nuke like Lina or Leshrac to get kills.

Pros / Cons

Pros Good AOE nuke Pushes very well Has two disables Does not need many levels to become powerful Does not need much farm to become powerful Aghnaims makes ult VERY powerful

Cons Low HP Expensive spells BKB makes him useless Low movement speed

Skills

Shadow Shaman has an arsenal of powerful skills that make him an overall great support.

Ether Shock is a multi-target nuke that gains damage and number of targets hit with each level. This is Shadow Shaman's only nuke, but it is very powerful as the damage does not diminish with each additional target hit like most multi-target nukes. You should use this to either farm when your carry is gone or push lanes. You can also use it to harass the enemy hero, but due to its high mana cost, this is not recommended.
Usually Ether Shock should be maxed first, but if you are with a high-damage dealing early-mid game carry, you can max hex or shackles first.

Hex is a regular hex disable that gains duration with each level. Hex is very powerful not only because it turns the enemy hero useless, it also removes damage block and armor which makes it very useful against high armor heroes or high magic resist heroes. You should always hex the biggest component of the enemy team like AOE stunners ( Tidehunter Earthshaker) and Shackles carries. Hex should be maxed second after ether shock.

Shackles is a channeled disable that gains duration and damage dealt with each level. Shackles is a very good disabling spell that keeps heroes in place for a long time, it can be used to setup stuns or it can be used to hold the enemy in place while the carry goes to town on them. It should be maxed third because hex is more powerful than Shackles in most cases.

Mass Serpent Ward is Shadow Shaman's ultimate, that increases in damage dealt with each level. MSW is a very powerful summon that allows for fast pushes of towers and fast hero kills. You can use this by casting it on towers to bring it down quickly, or placing it in the middle of a teamfight for its damage against heroes. You can get solo kills by Ether shocking, placing MSW, then shackling while MSW melts the enemy hero. Do not place MSW by it self if there are no creeps around you, as MSW has low health and will be killed easily by enemy creeps or enemy heroes.

Items

Shadow Shaman does not need very many items to become an effective presence in the game. The only items he should always have is Arcane Boots, observer wards, and sentry wards.
Shadow Shaman should just be a ward ***** the whole game because he needs no farm. However if he can buy it, he should get Mekansm as well for the support role, and a Eul's scepterfor the mana regen because his spells are very expensive.
ALWAYS BUY WARDS. NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
If anyone on your team asks you to buy wards, you already failed.

If you get lots of gold, definitely the #1 item to get would be an Aghanim's Scepter, then maybe Pipe of Insight or Shiva's Guard or even Refresher Orb.

Play Style

Early Game

Shadow Shaman should focus on harassing the enemy and ensuring the carry gets farm. Do not spam your spells in the early game because SS just cannot handle the manacost. Save shackles and hex for ganks or kills, if your carry gets ganked, Hex someone and shackle the chaser and sacrifice yourself. Better a support die than a carry in any situation. Buy wards to counter ganks and acquire Arcane Boots as quickly as possible.

Early-Mid Game

Once you hit lv6, you become a pushing machine. Start to spam your Q to push lanes, and with help of other heroes, push down towers. With a creep wave, your serpent wards can take down a tower in around 20 seconds with hero help. After pushes, back off and participate in ganks. Use hex and shackles to hold enemies in place while your carries melt them to death. Roam lots because your Shackles and Hex are VERY good disables that almost always guarantees a kill. Do not overextend too much though because you are pretty squishy. Keep buying wards, but try to get a Mekansm as soon as possible. Once you get a Mekansm you should get a Force Staff and then a Pipe of Insight.

Late Game

Keep pushing towers and disabling carries. However once enemy carries get Black King Bar your roles become more limited. Focus on using Arcane Boots and Mekansm, Force Staff people away from danger,use MSW to help in teamfights. Once enemy carries' BKB wears off, hex and shackle them, it will guarantee kills. If you have money buy Aghanim's Scepter or Orchid Malevolence.

Cool Strats

Force Staff/Blink Dagger SS (Agressive)

Force Staff or Blink Dagger both gives SS very good mobility, but it is especially useful on him because his hex and shackles can stop a hero in their tracks, and sometimes because of Rhasta's slow movement speed, you end up losing the chase. FS or BD yourself and shackle the enemy, or forcestaff a hero ahead.

Eul's ward trap (Agressive)

Eul's Scepter can help you set up Mass Serpent Wards. You Eul's the enemy hero, place the ward around the cyclone, and then they will be trapped inside the wards. If you shackle immediately after the cyclone ends, you can even make sure they wont blink away.

Atos escape (Defensive)

Rod of Atos can help you escape or save heroes. If you are being chased or an allied hero is being chased, Hex them, then when they follow, Rod of Atos to slow them, if they are still on the chase, use Shackles to stop them in their tracks.

Agressive Shadow Shaman

This is a very ridiculous strat, that unless you're sure you're playing against bad players or you have good players on your team, you shouldn't use.
Shadow Shaman will rush an Arcane Boots, Bracer, and Force Staff. This will allow him to be slightly tanky, while having enough mana/mana-regen to use Ether Shock many times. What he does now is either push lanes with Ether Shock or stack jungle, and clear the jungle with Ether Shock. He will rush a Necronomicon.
Here is the fun part.
Roam around the map, look for solo heroes. Once you see them, Hex them, Use your Necronomicon, and Shackles as soon as hex is over. Use the necro archer's q as well to burn their mana. Hopefully, at the end the hero will be so low, you can finish them off with an ether shock, or you can forcestaff to follow them and autoattack to death. Necrobook increases your int and strength pool, not to mention it adds a mana burn, a huge pure damage attack(potentially), and true-sight at level 3.

Friends and foes

Shadow Shaman goes great with carries and unreliable stunners.

Friends

His best lane partners include

Shackle while he spins for maximum damage.

Shackle or Hex while he just stacks damage and melts the enemy hero.
Outworld Devourer
Babysit these heroes so they can get their farm to become powerful.

You can shackle to set up stuns or hooks for these heroes.

Enemies

His worst enemies include
Nyx Assasin
for the mana-burn.
He is also food for nukers like

He is rendered useless to

because of his natural BKB.

also shut him down because without spells Shadow Shaman is useless.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading my guide, I hope you succeed in becoming the ultimate support!