Dread Shaman

Summary

Strength	15	+1.65
Agility	18	+1.45
Intelligence	19	+1.75
Primary:	{{{Primary}}}

Se'ra

Hero history/fluff info goes in here

The Dread Shaman is an Agility based support hero with a unique 5 in 1 totem dropping skill, and the ability to hit 3 opponents per attack. He is very versatile and has a lot of utility as well as two snares. However, he lacks any reliable spell damage. Due to the lack of offensive spells and his multi-hit capability, he is best used as a Damage Per Second(DPS) hero and healer.

Base Dmg: 29-35 which is lousy!
Damage Per Weapon Improvement: +6-9 which is below average.
Attack Speed: Above Average
Attack Range: 600
Armor: 8
Dread Shaman has average stat gains, with no clear emphasis. In fact, as an AGI based hero, that is his slowest stat gain! He does have a faster base attack than many heroes, including Arcane Mistress, Arcane Archer and Tactician. The bonus damage for a Weapon Enhancement is slightly below average, which is more than compensated for with his faster attack speed and ability to hit multiple targets.

Skills

Extra Attack [Passive Self Buff]

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Hotkey: Q
n/a

Innate

0

0s

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All attacks bounce and hit 2 extra targets.

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This skill is what makes the dread shaman strong at DPS. His damage per hit starts out poor, but any bonus damage and attack speed gained effectively is multiplied by 3 in most cases. (it averages out to about a 2x gain) This makes dps pumps very efficient. Note that the additional bounces do FULL damage, unlike the standard warcraft version.

Mass Regeneration [AoE Heal]

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Hotkey: W
Conjuration

Heals over time in an area.

Spell Details
Level 1	20s	60	{{{range1}}}	Heals 100 + 1.0 INT points over 5 seconds.
Level 2	20s	80	{{{range2}}}	Heals 200 + 1.4 INT points over 9 seconds.
Level 3	20s	100	{{{range3}}}	Heals 300 + 1.8 INT points over 13 seconds.
Level 4	20s	120	{{{range4}}}	Heals 400 + 2.2 INT points over 17 seconds.
Level 5	20s	140		Heals 500 + 2.6 INT points over 21 seconds.
Level 6	20s	160		Heals 600 +3.0 INT points over 25 seconds.

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Mass Regeneration is a very strong ability and is one of the few area effect heals. It adds a heal over time buff to all in the AoE and is valuable for pushing in addition to healing yourself and allied heroes. Note that the healing time and efficiency increase as it is leveled up. However, the healing per second generally stays the same... and actually DECREASES at higher INT levels! Regen is useful as a pre-emptive buff due to this due to its long duration and relatively slow damage recovery period. However, it is not suited to quickly healing an ally that is about to get killed. Its low 20 second cooldown make it ideal for frequent use.

Shared Pain [Damaging Debuff]

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Hotkey: E
Necromancy

Affected hero takes damage when Dread Shaman is damaged.

Spell Details
Level 1	?s	60	{{{range1}}}	30% of damage taken also taken by target. 60 second duration.
Level 2	s	75	{{{range2}}}	42% of damage taken also taken by target. 75 second duration.
Level 3	s	90	{{{range3}}}	54% of damage taken also taken by target. 90 second duration.
Level 4	s	105	{{{range4}}}	66% of damage taken also taken by target. 105 second duration.
Level 5		120		78% of damage taken also taken by target. 120 second duration.
Level 6	?s	135		90% of damage taken also taken by target. 135 second duration.

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Shared Pain is a very weak ability that should be avoided. It is a debuff cast upon single target heroes only. Then, when the Dread Shaman takes damage, a percentage of it is ALSO taken by the target(s).

The use case goes like this: Cast Shared Pain on a foe. Then run into combat and find a way to take lots of damage. Try not to kill yourself in the process. Hope they cant dispel the debuff. Hope you have lots more HPs than them (including your healing), because even at lvl6 it only does 90% of the damage YOU take. And finally, hope you or someone can deliver the killing blow because Shared Pain will not actually kill anything (similar to poison).

As can be seen, outside of a straight up hero duel, it just isn't very useful.

Expunge [Dispel/Disable]

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Hotkey: R
Abjuration

Dispels buffs and stops enemy movement. Move is gradually recovered

over time. Damages summons.

Spell Details
Level 1	s	45	{{{range1}}}	Target dispelled and movement slowed
Level 2	s		{{{range2}}}
Level 3	s		{{{range3}}}
Level 4	s		{{{range4}}}
Level 6		85		Does more damage to summons. Can't tell any other difference despite tooltip.

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Expunge is a strong versatile spell. You will only want to pick up one point in the skill as higher levels do nothing but up the cost, despite the promises of the tooltip. Cleansing totem is generally better for dispelling, but expunge may be used in a pinch to dispel friendly OR enemy heroes. The primary use for expunge is to snare an enemy hero so they can be killed or at least beat up more while they attempt to escape. Use this often on enemy melee heroes that get too close in a battle. You might not kill, but you can do a lot of damage for only 45 mana. One good combo is to Expunge to slow a hero, catch up, then drop an earthbind before they can escape for a double-snare punch.

Make sure you are careful with your targeting, as nothing is worse than watching an enemy Time Cleric with a Heal buff get away while the creep next to her gets snared... or worse yet, snaring a friendly hero!

Totemic Mastery[AoE Buff/Selfcentered]

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Hotkey: C
Conjuration

Drops one of 5 totems. Indefinite duration until destroyed or shaman drops another totem. ONLY ONE totem can be active at any given time.

Spell Details
Level 1	60s	50	{{{range1}}}	Hotkey W - Cleansing Totem. Dispels 1 effect every second from friend and foe and damages summoned units.
Level 2	60s	40	{{{range2}}}	Hotkey E - Earthbind Totem. Slows enemy movement by 30%
Level 3	60s	60	{{{range3}}}	Hotekey R - Fire Nova Totem. In 5 seconds, destroys itself and deals 130 +1.3INT damage in a small area.
Level 4	90s	70	{{{range4}}}	Hotkey T - Skyfury Totem. Picks up a hostile unit in a medium area of effect every 3 seconds, cyclones them for 8 seconds troops, 2 seconds heroes.
Level 5	60s	50		Hotkey A - SpiritWatcher Totem. Provides longrange vision of about 2000 range and sees invisible stuff.
Level 6	60s	95		Cleansing Totem rank6. Dispels 6 effects per second and heavy damage vs summons.

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Totem Mastery is your signature ability, and gives the shaman a lot of flexibility. Each totem is discussed in turn. Note that taking a new level in totem mastery will DESTROY any existing totems. You will have very little luck with several of these totems when enemy heroes are present, since they can just target them and kill them quickly.

Cleansing Totem - Very handy for countering several hero abilities, especially undead. Its long cooldown prevents much use though.

Earthbind Totem - This is your hero killer. Dropping this close to an enemy will be a significant help in preventing them from escaping from your allies.

Fire Nova Totem - Useless if an enemy hero is present, it does a lot of damage and scales very well. Mid to lategame, you can run behind to the archer/mage troops and detonate this to make lots of money and nerf the push. To do this, you must stay put for 5 seconds or they will target the totem and ruin it. It is useful, but not as much as you might expect.

Skyfury Totem - A great escape and pushing totem. It has a long grab range and the cyclone will help your troops focusfire the enemy and push through to the archers/mages. It can disable a lot of troops, thus saving your troops a lot of damage. It is sometimes usable to trap an enemy hero by surrounding their cyclone if they are close to a corner or building.

Spiritwatcher Totem - The detect invisibility can be useful against Infiltrator and Nephilum. Otherwise, not very useful.

Ancestrial Fury [Misc.]

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Hotkey: T
Necromancy

60 second duration. Slight buff to attack. Misc effects: Mass Regen - adds armor for 15 seconds. Expunge - drains mana. Shared Pain - redirects some damage taken. Cleansing Totem - Provides mana in an AoE. Fire Totem - Stuns on explode. Earthbind - Adds dmg to nearby melee-based allies. Skyfury - Attacks nearby foes. Spiritwatcher - Turns hero invisible.

Spell Details
Level 1	180s	120	{{{range1}}}	+15% attack speed, +5% move speed. Regen: +8armor. Expunge: 100+INT drain. Shared Pain - 15% redirect. Cleansing: 15 mana per second. Earthbind: 20% dmg. SKyfury: 15 dmg per 0.4 seconds. Spiritwatcher: 120sec of invis.
Level 2	s		{{{range2}}}
Level 3	s		{{{range3}}}
Level 4	180s	240	{{{range4}}}	+60% attack speed, +20% move speed. Regen:+32 armor. Expunge: 280+1.6INT drain. Shared Pain - 60% redirect. Cleanse: 30 mana per second. Earthbind 44% melee damage. Skyfury - 30 dmg per 0.4 sec. Watcher: 120sec invis.

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Your ultimate does a LOT of stuff. Note that after Ultimate wears off, any bonus effects stay which is especially strong on totems. Also note that the bonus effects have NOTHING to do with what level the base-skills are, other than duration possibly.

Attack/Move rate - A nice self-buff that is strong when sieging a base, since several other bonus effects to your spells are beneficial when doing so.

Mass Regen - The armor bonus is very helpful when sieging a base. The heal and armor combined help overcome the constant tower damage.

Shared Pain - untested. In theory, it makes the foe take damage from shared pain, and actually TRANSFERS some of the damage you would have taken to them as well. (Shared Pain doesnt transfer..it just copies a percentage of the damage to them)

Expunge - Mana drain is a nice bonus, but it does not actually manaburn the target. It is very efficient to use a 45 mana spell to drain hundreds from enemy heroes, so always use it when you active the ultimate. When ultimate is active, DO NOT expunge yourself or allies though to dispel! You will mana drain your ally which will result in many cries of "noob"...

Cleansing Totem - The mana bonus is really awesome, creating a droppable fountain for all intents and purposes. Make sure you have enough mana for both the ult and the totem and you can quickly regen yourself while soaking XP from a fight. Make sure to drop this a ways back, as enemy heroes will pop this on sight. This is a good use of your Ult, to replentish your mana. Your allies will love you too.

Earthbind Totem - The bonus to melee heroes is solid when sieging a base or in large battles. The standard slow effect makes it difficult for an enemy hero to show up and lure your troops off, making it do double duty.

Fire Nova Totem - Worthless. Nothing should survive your fire nova anyways, so stunning the near-dead survivors accomplishes little. You will never ever hit a hero with this other than blind luck.

Skyfury Totem - Solid in a big fight as it does decent damage (from 38 to 76 DPS) in addition to its normal effect.

Spiritwatcher - Useful when using Ult/Cleans for mana recovery. Right before Ult expires, if you are maxed out on mana, drop this for the invisibility. It might be helpful so you can appear behind an enemy hero and drop earthbind and start DPSing them down. Otherwise it is useless, since if you are seen vanishing, they kinda know to expect you...

Skill Build

1 Mass Regen
3 Expunge
5 Totem Mastery
7 Regen
9 Totem
11 Regen
13 Totem
15 Ultimate
17 Regen
19 Totem
21 Regen
23 Totem
25 Ultimate
27 Regen
30 Totem

You want to pick up Expunge early for the snare. There is no dire need to have the regen/totem skills maxed as early as possible, unlike most heroes skills.

General Strategy

As you can see, Shaman is all about utility and versatility. His healing is very strong and his two snares can help kill enemy heroes. However, he is severely lacking in offensive capability. Fire Nova just doesn't cut it.

So this is why I recommend DPS, as an INT-based shaman simply cannot do anything but spam heal. You become a weak version of the Oracle with a dispellable heal and a Fire Nova instead of geyser. I wouldn't wanna make THAT trade...

So, you therefore want to improve your damage as much as possible to take advantage of your multi-hit, and reasonably fast base attack speed.

Early Game - Your Regen will help you push and negate any nukes that may fly your way, and keep you from needing any healing potions except maybe 1 or 2 for emergency. Look for good opportunities to Expunge any enemy melee heroes that linger too long on the front lines. Your troops and long range attack will punish them for their insolence. Try to save 200 mana for your mana recovery combo at level 15.

Mid Game - Your attack will still be pretty weak, but if no heroes are around you can run behind the tanks and drop a fire nova totem to wipe out mage/archers. Use your ranged attack to bounce around mages/archers if possible without taking excessive damage from enemy ranged heroes. Remember that you can heal and your attacks will bounce unlike theirs. Healing is very important.

Late Game - With a few items, your autoattack is pretty strong. You can wipe out small clusters of troops with fire nova. Your heal is maxed out and lasts for a long time. Use it on your troops whenever possible.

Items and Enhancements

As mentioned you want to pump your attack speed and attack damage. AGI is great for attack speed and move speed.

I would recommend the Battle Orb for your first item. It gives you cheap and very efficient attack damage pumps which is multiplied by the multi-hit property. Orb of skill would be great, but you REALLY need the +damage, especially since your starting damage is so pathetic.

DO NOT get the Orb of Fury!!! It will mess up your attack, such that you are firing blanks from then on! Literally... you will toss absolutely nothing 100% of the time and do no damage.

Do NOT get the Gloves of Crit either. When a crit occurs, it disables your multiattack. This is ok sometimes, but overall it actually decreases your damage.

Once your orb is maxed, there are several other items you can pick up which are less efficient but useful. In no particular order, these are:

• Sun Talisman - You don't need the HP-regen so much, but the other properties are great: More HPs, attack speed, movespeed, manapool.

• Dragon Heart - I would not pump this item up until last, but even at base level, the attack damage is beneficial, and the mana regen boost is extremely strong since you cannot really spare an orb or helm slot for a dedicated mana-regen item. 60% mana boost is a LOT. Plus, the dragon summon really helps your weaker early offense.

• Helm of the Executioner - Heavy attack damage makes this a winner, although it is about 40% less efficient than the orb of battle for this purpose.

• Zephyr Thing - This is an excellent item, as the attack speed is great to have. Blink is incredibly useful for the Shaman for escape or hero pursuit. Blink + earthbind is massive ownage vs fleeing heroes. Remember, your offense is limited to your autoattack, and this is the best way to actually get kills. Don't upgrade until very late, as it is too expensive just for a quicker cooldown and faster attack.

• AGI gloves - Not as useful as crit gloves should be, but its still a solid choice. Helps with hero pursuit, adds a bit of damage, and gives a big attack speed boost.
  

• Leather Armor - An efficient item with lots of useful abilities. The attack speed is welcome, as is the armor and evasion.

Note: If against a hero lineup that can inflict massive damage in a short period, you may need the sun talisman or another HP buffing item for survival. You can heal most damage, but that doesnt matter if you get 1-shotted by the Infiltrator...

Crystal wise, I recommend spending over 50% of your crystal on pumping your Weapon Upgrades for more damage.

You do NOT need any bonus skillpoint, so put your crystal to better use. An armor pump or two is beneficial, although you will be more vulnerable to nukes than attacks. Spread out your attribute pumps, and take one of each. There is no need to specialize in one particular attribute.