▶️
Many hands make light work.
This article is badly written or needs more information. Please help the community by updating it. Read this formatting guide first.
Bad against...[]
- Dragon Knight can simply tank and destroy all Shadow Shaman's Serpent Wards.
- Luna's high magical damage burst from Lucent Beam and Eclipse can take advantage of Shadow Shaman's low health and strength gain.
- Without Black King Bar, Luna's Lucent Beam and 0.25 Eclipse Mini-stun talent for Eclipse can be used to disable Shadow Shaman while he is channeling Shackles.
- Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Eclipse combined with 0.25 Eclipse Mini-stun can repetitively stun Shadow Shaman, and can even discourage him from even trying to use Shackles.
- Luna is a natural Black King Bar wielder, and almost none of Shadow Shaman's spells can bypass spell immunity, except for Mass Serpent Ward.
- Bear in mind, however, that if Shadow Shaman gets a jump on Luna first, he will be able to use Hex to disable Luna and burst her down before she can use Black King Bar, Lucent Beam or Eclipse. In addition, Moon Glaives cannot bounce on Mass Serpent Wards at all.
- Mirana can disturb Shadow Shaman's channeling even if he is under the effect of invisibility thanks to Sacred Arrow.
- Mirana armed with an Aghanim's Scepter is known to be able to quickly burst down heroes - especially supports. Together with Ethereal Blade the bullying towards Shadow Shaman can continue for the whole match.
- Waveform allows Morphling to escape from Mass Serpent Ward
- Morphling can interrupt Shadow Shaman while he is shackling an ally with Adaptive Strike (Strength).
- With Ethereal Blade Morphling can quickly burst him down before he even has a chance to react.
- With all 5 Meepos available, all of Shaman's wards will be disposed of very quickly.
- All of Shaman's disables are based around single target control, and he can at most only disable two Meepos, allowing the rest to easily lay waste to him, be it during the channel duration of Shackles or by using Earthbind.
- Riki is known for being a successful support killer, something Shadow Shaman is very vulnerable to.
- Smoke Screen is particularly devastating to Shadow Shaman. With neither his various disables nor a solid health pool Shadow Shaman is usually dead. This forces Shadow Shaman to buy a Force Staff if he finds himself in this scenario and buy Sentry Wards if you have the money.
- All abilities from Shadow Shaman can very vulnearble steal from Spell Steal.
- Rubick can interrupt Shackles by casting Telekinesis.
- Reincarnation allows Wraith King to survive Shadow Shaman's initial chain of disables and Serpent Ward attacks.
- Short cooldown of Wraithfire Blast is ideal for interrupting Shackles.
- Due to their high attack speed, Summon Familiars will destroy Mass Serpent Wards quickly, granting Visage a massive amount of gold.
- Visage can use Stone Form of the Familiars to cancel Shackles. Aghanim's Shard upgraded Stone Form also allows Visage to use Stone Form himself to cancel Shackles while restoring his health.
- Grave Chill can make Shadow Shaman's bad movement speed and attack speed even worse.
- Visage is also a natural Bloodthorn wielder, which allows him to silence Shadow Shaman and make him more vulnerable to damage.
Others[]
- Meepo can kill Mass Serpent Wards very quickly, while Shadow Shaman's mostly single-target disables are rather ineffective against Divided We Stand.
- Nyx Assassin, Bounty Hunter and Slark can all sneak up and kill Shadow Shaman, Nyx being particularly deadly. Shadow Shaman must watch out for Slark carefully, as he can break either (but not both unless he makes a mistake) of Shadow Shaman's disables, with Dark Pact and leap out of a serpent ward ring. These heroes, however, rely heavily on escape and are themselves not very durable and none of them can survive a full lockdown with Mass Serpent Ward. Having Sentry Wards can turn Shadow Shaman from prey to predator.
- Omniknight can dispel Hex or Shackles with Heavenly Grace. He can also heal teammates who you disabled. The same goes for Abaddon's Aphotic Shield.
- Pudge, Legion Commander and Axe will make the match a living hell for Shadow Shaman, since they are known for surprise attacks from the fog and quickly killing low HP heroes. They can also interrupt Shadow Shaman's channeling, Legion being especially problematic, as she can use Press the Attack on an ally who is hexed as well.
- With 4 active abilities, Shadow Shaman is weak against silencing foes such as Silencer, Drow Ranger and Death Prophet.
- Arc Warden with his Magnetic Field will protect allies from Mass Serpent Ward.
- As a caster, Anti-Mage's Mana Break and Mana Void are highly effective against him.
Items[]
- Phase Boots allow its owner to easily escape a ring of Mass Serpent Wards if they find themselves trapped in it.
- Orchid Malevolence and its upgrade Bloodthorn will make Shadow Shaman completely useless in teamfight and a very easy target to focus and kill.
- Force Staff can be used to escape from Mass Serpent Ward but not from Shackles. Force Staff can later be upgraded into Hurricane Pike to chase after Shadow Shaman.
- Lotus Orb can reflect Hex and Shackles back at Shadow Shaman.
- Linken's Sphere prevents Hex and Shackles, although Shadow Shaman can simply use Ether Shock to pop it out.
- Dragon Lance allows ranged heroes to safely destroy Mass Serpent Wards from a distance. Dragon Lance can later be upgraded into Hurricane Pike to chase after Shadow Shaman.
- Black King Bar makes Shadow Shaman unable to do almost anything. And besides Mass Serpent Wards, Shadow Shaman does not have other solutions to counter it.
- Abyssal Blade's stun can interrupt Shackles even if Shadow Shaman is spell immune.
Good against...[]
- Mass Serpent Ward rips apart Huskar quickly due to his poor armor.
- As soon as Huskar jumps in, he will be vulnerable to Shadow Shaman's disables if he does not have Black King Bar.
- Shackles prevents Chen from acting, and damages him while healing Shadow Shaman, also allowing Shadow Shaman's allies to kill him faster. Aghanim's Shard upgraded Shackles can also summon four more Mass Serpent Wards to attack Chen while he is disabled. And to make things worse, Chen has no way to cancel Shackles on his own, and must rely on Centaur Conqueror or Mud Golem creeps under his control to be able to do so.
- Ether Shock and Mass Serpent Ward can often not only kill Chen's allies before he can save them with Hand of God, but they can also be used to destroy Chen's creeps easily thanks to their high damage and area-of-effect.
- Hex will prevent Chen from any attempt to save himself or his allies with Hand of God.
- Shadow Shaman can provide an excellent counter-initiation against her Rebound. His abilities can shut down any of her tower dive attempts in the laning phase.
- Shackles keeps Marci stunned for an extended time, wasting her ultimate. A combo with Mass Serpent Ward only makes things worse for her, as her armor is low.
- Mass Serpent Ward can kill lots of treants if played defensively.
- Mass Serpent Ward, Hex, and Shackles can catch and kill a Nature's Prophet trying to use Teleportation.
- Can easily interrupt and disable Spirit Breaker with hex if being charged.
- Shackles and Mass Serpent Ward instantly destroy Refraction
- All of Shadow Shaman's abilities totally ruin Terrorblade: Ether Shock destroys his illusions, Hex prevents him from using Sunder or Manta Style in bad situations, Shackles not only that prevent him from using Sunder, but he has no way to cancel it and Mass Serpent Ward can help Shadow Shaman push faster than Terrorblade even in Metamorphosis.
- Shadow Shaman's many disables can lock down Weaver. Even with Linken's Sphere, Weaver might not be able to escape should Shadow Shaman uses Shackles quickly enough following Hex.
- Mass Serpent Wards can make short work of Weaver once he is locked down.
Others[]
- In general, squishy heroes that rely on escape often struggle against the amount of disables Shadow Shaman can bring. Queen of Pain, Anti-Mage and Storm Spirit are among these.
Items[]
- Blink Dagger cannot be used while being affected by Hex and Shackles.
- Manta Style cannot be used while being affected by Hex and Shackles. Hex can also destroy instantly one of its illusions.
- Even though Ghost Scepter and its upgrade Ethereal Blade can protect its wielder from being attacked by Serpent Wards, Shadow Shaman can still use his Ether Shock and Shackles abilities whose magical damage will be amplified against ethereal targets.
Works well with...[]
- Shadow Shaman's high duration channeled stuns can make for a good combo with Blade Fury in the early game.
- Just like with Juggernaut, Shadow Shaman can disable enemy heroes long enough for Ursa to make them his meal.
- If a hero is Shackled, Troll Warlord can make full use of his Fervor ability to gain the full amount of attack speed.
- Shackles combined with Life Drain can pick off most heroes at any point in the game
- Shackles will hold an enemy in place long enough for Legion to easily Duel, and gain bonus damage.
- Shackles will hold an enemy in place long enough for Monkey King to easily get Jingu Mastery stacks, and gain bonus damage.
Others[]
- Heroes that don't have a hard or instant disable greatly appreciate his presence( Storm Spirit, Faceless Void, Gyrocopter, Clinkz etc.)
