Dread Shaman...

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Dread Shaman...

#1 Post by Luftwaffles »

Here's a proper thread where people can discuss the Dread Shaman and how you play him. No flaming or bullshit, keep it clean. Replays are alright if they're good (like I can stop you if they're not).

Here are some comments I have about him since c4 was released:

- Mass Regeneration; did it get buffed? Because it's awesome. Everytime I play a Shaman it's a headache since he can keep spawns and himself alive easy between waves.
- Totem elementals spawn more often now and are very useful; Earth elemental is godly (Water/Fire elementals less so but still useful). He's like a buff Shardling- doesn't spawn so often but can tank and dish out some pain to towers when he needs to.
- Shared Pain is fairly useful, especially if you're maxing Regeneration as well, and is very funny vs. PK'rs. However, I find most DS' need allies when I play them to use Shared Pain effectively before it gets to 50%+ (having a Dryad/AA around to heal DS helps immensely).
- Elreth plays a really good DS and I'll get him to post in this thread.

Whenever I play DS I never put more then a point or two in Expunge and only go Shared Pain if they're not dispel-heavy. I don't usually think about items since you can't always get them, but in a reasonable game I usually pick up an Orb of Life.

*Also sorry about the thread name, it's kind of retarded but whatever. Deal with it.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#2 Post by Dark_Nemesis »

You need to add how each spell is useful and how it relates to his other abilities, and to even to items--consumes and permanents alike. One, you could say that maxing expunge and using summons to "trap" heros etc. Or buying the blink totem + slow aura :lol: Things like that.

Also, you say shared pain is quite useful....ok....how? Explain this. Convince us this skill is worth investing into.

[Reaper] Removed some off topic junk.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#3 Post by SeasonsOfLove »

Based on the last time I played Shaman, which was admittedly a long time ago, here's my thoughts:

Shared Pain is a gigantic pain in the ass to anyone without a dispel because it can destroy them if they're stupid about it
Mass Regen is a wonderful, wonderful spell for supporting both spawns and other heroes
Expunge isn't worth more than 1 level until late-game
Totems, I have no idea what's changed

And DN, this is a discussion thread of what people think works well strategically. Not a guide. Not yet, certainly. So chill out for a moment.

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Re: Dread Shaman...

#4 Post by Dark_Nemesis »

thread of what people think works well strategicall
Well yes, but that kinda went with my points.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#5 Post by jamn455 »

Chill dude, if you don't have anything useful to contribute, then don't post.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#6 Post by Dark_Nemesis »

WOHA....

Nothing useful?

Reread what I posted.

Wait....here:
Also, you say shared pain is quite useful....ok....how? Explain this. Convince us this skill is worth investing into.
You need to add how each spell is useful and how it relates to his other abilities, and to even to items--consumes and permanents alike. One, you could say that maxing expunge and using summons to "trap" heros etc. Or buying the blink totem + slow aura Things like that.
If this isn't useful then tell me what is Jamn. :?
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#7 Post by Luftwaffles »

@BGB

Yeah Mass Regen is pretty dope. What are the stats on higher level Expunge? Does it reduce cooldown or increase the hold time? I don't even know '-.- I've never bothered to read it. I'm not sure when's the last time you played with Totems; pretty much the Elemental talent is worth its crystal now. I find Earth is awesome to throw down since it's really hard to see and the selection size isn't big, so it's hard to aim at.

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Try and stay on topic there's no need to flame people in this thread.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#8 Post by aegir ravenking »

Expunge is supposed to slow more and last longer at higher levels, but back when I last looked it up it was known that the extra slow effect didn't work. That was about a year ago so I have no clue if it was fixed. Otherwise higher damage to summons and higher mana cost were the only changes.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#9 Post by Luftwaffles »

Ah I see. I never usually bother levelling it past 1 but I don't actually play Shaman that often. He's fun though and good to have on your team. He's a bitch to play against as Inf.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#10 Post by aegir ravenking »

I only skilled it up to 6 for the stats on it(and all his skills at the time), I put it up on the Wiki many moons ago, but it got wiped at some point.

Anyway, agreed the shaman is a bitch to play against. While he is probably the hero I am best with, I just get bored with him. Throw up mass regeneration as needed, drop a totem every 15 seconds or so, share pain with anyone that comes around. You actually don't kill anything till late game.

Still there is something about killing a Runeknight by charging into his grandrune.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#11 Post by Dark_Nemesis »

Gee, am I the only one that consistently maxes expunge? Rather strange. I have always considered it by far one of his stronger skills.

Meh, I donno, but for me it's a must for an awesome DPS build. Can't really live without it.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#12 Post by Luftwaffles »

Does it reduce the cooldown?
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#13 Post by Dark_Nemesis »

What, lvling it out?

I believe so. Like most skills.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#14 Post by Sparda963 »

I used to play a mean ass shared pain build way back in like 1.8 or something. Key skills are shared pain and mass rejuvi. Max out the orb of life, and str rings, and put crystal into str. You dont want any dmg mitigation as that reduces the dmg your doing to them as well, so massive ammounts of hp and regeneration of said hp are what we are lookin for.

Key uses for this are when an enemy is charging at your base with spawns, SP him, rejuvi yourself, hump his adds, and watch him run like a little bitch, do this right in front of your towers so they thin out the adds in the process.

Another use is on offense, rushing at a base with adds of your own to knock it down. Enemy hero ports in, SP him, rejuvi yourself and your adds, go hump a tower till enemy hero dies or you get low.

Having health pots is a must for this build, as well as a few blink wands to get out of nasty situations.

This is a build to play to harase the piss out of enemy heros, you wont rack up to many kills, but the enemy heros will dread being in the same quadrant as you as well.

If your going against a RK a point into expunge is awsome too, expunge him, then SP and watch him fall over.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#15 Post by Cokemonkey11 »

The couple times I've played Dread Shaman I enjoyed it, but I feel like I can't really put a specific build together.

I prefer his bounce talent and some straight up damage with him.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#16 Post by Luftwaffles »

It is a good talent but it is very expensive.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#17 Post by Dark_Nemesis »

used to play a mean ass shared pain build way back in like 1.8 or something. Key skills are shared pain and mass rejuvi. Max out the orb of life, and str rings, and put crystal into str. You dont want any dmg mitigation as that reduces the dmg your doing to them as well, so massive ammounts of hp and regeneration of said hp are what we are lookin for.

Key uses for this are when an enemy is charging at your base with spawns, SP him, rejuvi yourself, hump his adds, and watch him run like a little bitch, do this right in front of your towers so they thin out the adds in the process.

Another use is on offense, rushing at a base with adds of your own to knock it down. Enemy hero ports in, SP him, rejuvi yourself and your adds, go hump a tower till enemy hero dies or you get low.

Having health pots is a must for this build, as well as a few blink wands to get out of nasty situations.

This is a build to play to harase the piss out of enemy heros, you wont rack up to many kills, but the enemy heros will dread being in the same quadrant as you as well.

If your going against a RK a point into expunge is awsome too, expunge him, then SP and watch him fall over.
This is got to be the funniest post I've seen in a long time....

Plus it adds to what I was saying in my own thread about a straight tank-style shammy. I'll have to try it out, sounds interesting and fun. :)

[Edit] I usually don't get extra attack, too expensive, seems better to put crystal into an additional attack or agi.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#18 Post by Cokemonkey11 »

Agreed, the attack stat is quite expensive. I prefer putting primary attrib until it's more expensive than attack, then start alternating them.

You'll get advantages besides just damage this way too.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#19 Post by Reaper »

Shared pain can be really annoying with the way sparda mentioned. I always steer clear of shaman when he is SP + rejuv.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#20 Post by aegir ravenking »

Just did a game as Mr. Shammy to check expunge again, it does seem to be working, though the immobilize seems to be only half duration on against heroes. Also yes the cooldown drops quite a lot(like most dispels). While I think I would still prefer skilling totems or shared pain, it would make PKing much easier.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#21 Post by Luftwaffles »

Prolly decent if you're alone but may as well just get a friend to take a hero with a stun or something and just put the one point in it.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#22 Post by Dekar »

For the last months I played totems + regeneration or expunge.

Totems are so versatile:
Deal AoE damage when needed: not spamable due to high cooldown though, but good damage
Detect insivible: Inf and annoying DW counter
Massive AoE slow: counter against melee heroes, trapping heroes, makes people stop completly if combined with expunge
AoE dispel over time: best anti BP skill imo, just owns everything dispelable
Cyclone stuff: propably useful should you get ambushed, least used for me

Add free summons to them and a shitload of additional effects with his ultimate: Need to get away? turn invisible!

Definitly the very best support skill in EotA.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#23 Post by Elreth »

Couple thoughts

For shared pain builds -> Like sparda said, tons of regen and no armor. Orb of life, Talisman of the Sun, lots of Hp pots, and Amulet of Health are great favorites. Max mass regen and the anti mass regen talent, then get up in their faces before you do shared pain so if they dispel it off themselves at least they get hit by the talent. The ult effect on shared pain should be amazing but im pretty sure it doesnt work right, or at least not the way I would interpret the description. Be careful with expunge since it will remove their shared pain but if theyre already at one hp I believe it has slightly higher range than your attack if theyre running. Fire totem can also be good if you believe youre about to take tons of damage and theyre nearby, might go off right as they realize they need to run. Earth bind totem is amazing of course. Every once in a while ill take the dragon summoning art and sick the dragon on them since hes a decent high hp chaser if you only need to finish them, but a friendly infi works much better.

For other builds -> Massive totem and regen should do very well. Build up an army of sludges and keep them at full hp with regen and watch the gold pour in. Command tower your creeps to another lane if you want and just slaughter them. Sometimes, on inn lane, I like to block off the bridge with my sludges, kill all the enemy spawns for a wave or three and then turn on my ult and rampage their base with 2-4 sludges and a mess of spawns. Earthbind totem is pretty amazing and a level 6 skyfury will keep about a base and a half worth of creeps in the air at a time. One time a long time ago I got bitched out for abusing skyfury which I found amusing. Oh and of course, cleansing totem with your ult on provides AE mana regen and will continue to do so even after your ult wears off as long as you dont summon another totem so if you only want one level in totems then you can just keep it up in a safe spot always...

On expunge -> Sometimes it is fun to just max earthbind and expunge and watch their frustration rise. When I do this I always get nets for added fun. But anyway it is great against powerful summons or things like lightning sentries. It has a lot of problems like being very difficult to pull off one of its greatest moves, dispelling mind fog and other tiny dummy spell effects since it is near impossible to target them. Also can target regular spawns which can be.. frustrating. A trigger to basically undo any cast on a regular spawn would be nice, or the talent I mentioned in another thread. Of course if the enemy has RK, Roth, and GT and yes this happens more than id like then weeee expunge expunge all the way home.
Last edited by Elreth on July 20th, 2009, 3:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Dread Shaman...

#24 Post by Dark_Nemesis »

I tested Shared Pain and while it seemed to work right, I still find my original build to be much more satisfying (imo). Oh, and as Elreth stated, his ult effect may be broken, didn't test it extensively enough.

I usually grab an attack orb right off the bat and put one into expunge, then heal, then totems. Then switch between expunge and totems all the way. Getting ult whenever possible. May forgo expunge slightly and focus on heal+totems, but that tends to hamper my Pk build. Buy a dmg helm as well, for the armor mostly. Later game stack agil rings and slowly upgrade. Sometimes will play a hybrid shammy, and invest in a skill orb or dragon's. Straight dmg/agil seems to work the best though, and boy does the cash flow in....

It can also be harder then hell to earn a steady income without investing into attack of some sort. Fire totems don't cut it, and without a heavy dmg build for PK'ing/farming, you're basically restricted to summons and an int robe if your lucky :|

If I'm feeling totally cruel and without mercy (and have some extra gold), I will grab the blink totem and repeatedly beat the hell out of escaping heros....funny too: Expunge/slow totems/blink totem=possible escape? haha.....no way!

Too, it's aways fun to blink in front of an escaping hero, drop a slow totem and a skele summon; then completely mob rape them X_x Overall, if I could only get one item for shammy, that would definitely be it.
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Re: Dread Shaman...

#25 Post by aegir ravenking »

I seem to remember thinking that the Fury/shared pain didn't look like it was reducing the amount of damage I was taking, but still increased the amount the victim was taking. However I suppose that could have also been from the extra attack speed.

A note on hero torturing with Shared Pain though, a dispel alone shouldn't be able to stop you, however two can. You can just drop a sky, earth, and/or expunge to buy time for SP/regen to come back online against one.
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