Shadow Shaman and Lion: War of the Disablers

Lion and Shadow Shaman are often seen as pretty similar Dota 2 heroes – both champions are disablers, commonly known when teams lack teamfight or gank abilities. They are very good at countering super agile heroes who often have to choose a good position to stay alive. And both Lion and Shadow Shaman get buffs in 7.07, thanks to the hex structure change.

Despite their similarities, these two heroes are very different, especially in the current meta. With the arrival of talent along with indirect changes, the debate between Lion and Shadow Shaman is more complicated: “Do we want to increase lane push?”. This article will explain to you which hero you should pick in certain situations.

UNDERSTAND THE SPECIFICATIONS

In pubs, Shadow Shaman and Lion win rates are quite different. Shadow Shaman has an advantage of almost 7%. If these two heroes can be swapped, there’s no question, but Shadow Shaman is clearly the better choice.

This conclusion is not entirely true and Shadow Shaman is a better choice for the vast majority of games in the current meta. SS puts pressure on better offlaners, has a strong nuke and extremely high level 1 ‘hand damage’. This hero can farm more, thereby becoming a bigger threat in the long run. But there are still some who are on Lion’s side.

SKILL

Both of these heroes need to be well understood in order to play effectively, but when it comes to microphones and spell timing, Lion needs to use more brains. Both Lion and Shadow Shaman have the ability to catch the enemy and initiate a teamfight once on Blink, but unlike SS, Lion has the advantage of being able to finish anyone if strong enough.

Earth Spike can mostly affect two and sometimes three or more if aligned properly, especially in pubs. This skill is not very strong in the early game, but in the middle of the game it can completely change the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kt8v7fyeoY

WHEN FOUNDING ILLUSIONS

Lion handles the ball better, especially at level 20. From the start, the hero has 2 illusion-breaking abilities, and with the right talent set, Lion can clear Chaos Knight’s Phantasm.

Meanwhile, the damage of Ether Shock is not enough to help Shadow Shaman break the ball, even if the talent at level 25 raises this number to 720. At that point in the game, this amount of damage may not be enough to kill the ball, while the cost is too high. +60 damage for Serpent Ward is definitely more beneficial.

DAMAGE DAMAGE

In combat, especially when Shadow Shaman is the active side and is pushing, Serpent Wards are guaranteed to deal more damage than Finger of Death. However, there are still some situations when Finger of Death is better (single capture or assassinate the opponent’s core).

LANE CAPABILITY AND ADDED “DISABLE”

Lion’s laning ability is one of the reasons why this hero is often loved by new players. With Mana Drain, Lion can use more spells, so even if the Earth Spike misses many times, you don’t have to worry too much.

However, quite a few players leave out another aspect of Mana Drain – it steals the opponent’s mana. This is usually seen as a side effect, not the main motivation for using Mana Drain. But once used continuously on multiple heroes, Mana Drain will make the opponent cry.

Against heroes like Brewmaster, Sven, Chaos Knight, etc., Mana Drain can become an effective disable. You can capture Brewmaster after the Blink+Clap combo using hex and prevent him from using his ultimate Primal Split. In just one second, you can prevent Chaos Knight from using two more Reality Rifts.

Furthermore, Mana Drain is one of the fastest and most effective counters for dealing with Linken – it is sometimes overlooked against overly dynamic objects.

The fact that Lion’s level 1 hex is up to a second longer than Shadow Shaman’s makes it possible that the idea of ​​adding a few points to Mana Drain early in the game instead of leveling up Earth Spike first can make a lot of difference to the whole game.

FINAL WORD

Shadow Shaman is currently one of the top heroes in the current meta. SS is extremely popular (pick rate close to 20%) and has a high win rate, often being picked in professional competition. Shadow Shaman is always a good choice and picking Shadow Shaman first in position 4 is never wrong, especially in pubs, where the 3rd Roshan would be a game bug with Shadow Shaman (refresher orb for Serpent Wards) .

However, completely forgetting about Lion would be a bad thing. This hero is usually picked depending on the draft of the game, although Shadow Shaman is somewhat equal or slightly better, but there will be games where Lion really shines. Think, choose wisely and you will get the right application for both of these heroes.

Source: dotabuff