Dota 2 Heroes – An Introduction to Rhasta the Shadow Shaman

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   August 30th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Rhasta the Shadow Shaman is a ranged intelligence hero who is very dependent on level. He has the ability to push both lanes and towers.

His first ability is named Ether Shock. It is a great farming, lane pushing and harassing skill. It is a single target skill that, when used on an enemy unit, will deal 320 damage. The great thing about the skill is that the damage will hit up to 7 units in a cone-shaped Area of Effect (AoE). The skill has a range of 1000 and due to a cool-down of merely 8 seconds, you can only imagine the extent of devastation this skill can cause early game. Of course you will require quite a bit of mana to spam it, but this can be easily taken care of by rushing Arcane Boots.

Shadow Shaman’s second skill is called Hex. Doing exactly what the name states, the ability will turn the target unit into a cuddly critter, a sheep to be more precise, for 3.5 seconds. The thing to remember about sheep units is that their movement speed to a 100 and any damage block or evasion is disabled. Also note that hex disables experience gain for heroes.  Using Hex on an illusion will instantly kill it.

Shackles is the name of Rhasta’s third ability. It is a single-target skill that will only deal 40 damage per second, but will hold a unit in place for a whooping 4.75 seconds. The only catch about casting this ability is that it is a channelling skill, so a simple mini-stun will cancel it.

Now we talk about Shadow Shaman’s ultimate Mass Serpent Ward. It is a very powerful skill as it summons 8 serpent wards, all of which deal anywhere from 69 to 73 damage. These wards are not able to moved, which is why they are so often used to take down towers. They also deal splash damage, which can be very useful in team battles as well and the fact that you can trap someone inside the wards as well make them great in almost any situation.

Aghanim’s Scepter can be picked up by Shadow Shaman as it improves his ultimate by increasing the damage of each serpent ward from a maximum of 73 to a maximum of 100 damage.

As mentioned before, Rhasta has the ability to shine in numerous situations, but his main strength definitely lies in his ability to support his allies. Shackles may have a downside to it because of it being a channelling spell, but do not let that make you undermine it as trust me when I say that it is an extremely useful skill. Shackles and Hex can be combined to keep an enemy carry hero for quite a bit of time and both the skills can also help you to keep your foe in the range of your Mass Serpent Wards.