Rhasta the Shadow Shaman!

Introduction

Forewarning:

I'm not going into extreme detail here, I'm not showing you guys the numbers or going into any advanced theory crafting, I'm just going to give you a fairly basic Rhasta build so you have something to work with and I hope this helps.

His Story:

Born in the Bleeding Hills, Rhasta was just a starving youngling when picked up by a travelling con-man. For two pins of copper, the old con-man would tell your fortune. For three, he'd castrate your pig, for five, he'd circumcise your sons. For a good meal, he'd don his shaman garb, read from his ancient books, and lay a curse upon your enemies. His strange new youngling, part hill trowle, part...something else, worked as an assistant and lent an air of the exotic to the con-man's trade. Always one step ahead of cheated customers, one town ahead of pursuing patronage, the two trekked across the blighted lands until one day the con-man realized that the little youngling could actually do what he only pretended at. His ward had a gift--a gift that customers valued. And so the youngling Rhasta was thurst before crowds, and the trade-name Shadow Shaman was born. The two continued from town to town, conjuring for money as Shadow Shaman's reputation grew. Eventually, the pair's duplicitous past caught up with them, and they were ambushed by a mob of swindled ex-clients. The con-man was slain, and for the first time, Rhasta used his powers for darkness, massacring the attackers. He buried his beloved master, an now uses his powers to destroy any who seek to do him harm.

His Roles:

Disabler: Rhasta, as a disabler, focuses on techniques to help, aid and assist teamates. Of course, the disabling skills can also help to grab a kill, or just disable a target until your carry can get the killing blow.

Ganker: Rhasta is also considered a ganker as he can effectively roam the map and help his allies get kills. If you feel like you're underleveled just grab an ally and gank all of the enemies you can.

Pusher: Rhasta is one of the best pushers around. Mass Serpent Ward, is just the right solution for bringing down towers efficiently, also the ultimate can be used to farm creeps and if well placed can enable you to cut off any incoming creeps so you and your team can take out a tower.

Pros/Cons

Pros:

+ One of the best disablers in the game
+ Can singlehandedly turn the tides of a battle
+ Not really item dependant

Cons:

- Very fragile
- Slow movespeed
- Mostly the #1 target in team battles

Skills

Ether Shock
This is Rhata's only spell with which he can nuke. It's great for a little harassment in lane and getting last hits for that extra gold. So, very important!

Hex
This is the first of Rhasta's CC skills. In combination with Ether Shock you can get in a quick bit of damage and make time for your teammates to reach you.

Shackles
This is Rhasta's best disable/CC ability. Shackles can make the biggest difference in team battles. There is a lot of utility with this skill, you can use it to disable a carry during fight or you can disable the main target and your team can focus him down swiftly and move onto the next target.

Mass Serpent Ward
Rhasta's Ultimate. While these can't move, they have a lot of utility, specifically when pushing down lanes/towers, or in combination with your Shackles and/or Hex you can drop a lone enemy, they can also be used to save your life.

The Builds

There are currently two different skill builds in this guide. The first of which is what I consider to be a standard or cookie cutter build, and the second focuses on Rhasta's disables and makes him incredibly obnoxious and helpful to his team early/mid. Either build is viable and it comes down to how you like to play and how your team wants you to play!

The Standard Build:

This build takes advantage of Rhasta's disable usages, focusing Ether Shock & Shackles. No matter what hero you meet in lane you can rest assured that shackles is the right first skill. You max Hex last simply because the ability has such a high mana cost that in early/mid it's not as efficient. With this build it is key that you use Ether Shock to nuke and harass enemies that get near you in lane.

The Disabling Builds

This build has a different focus, if you choose this build you're going to make great use out of Rhastas insane amount of disable. A second level of Hex early can help A LOT for early kills and ganks. I don't believe I need to go into much more detail here as it's pretty self evident how this build will work.

Items

The item build in this guide doesn't change regardless of what skill build you decide to use.

Starting

You're starting with Null Talisman, Clarity, Tango. I don't believe much explanation is needed here, outside of the fact that I don't believe you need to start with a Bracer as the Null Talisman offers more for Rhasta at a slightly cheaper price. Clarity & Tango for sustain in lane.

Core

Boots of Travel - Some people might ask why BoT, because a lot of people tend to go Power Treads. Treads is definitely a viable option here, but I personally prefer BoT because Rhasta is a devastating pusher, and it's better to be able to freely travel across the map in a short amount of time to push or counter push or even to get into a team fight.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity - It's pretty simple this item gives you even more obnoxious disable as well as giving you the time and ability to easily land your Mass Serpent Ward, beyond that it Sage's Mask early on will offer more lane sustainability and later on Eul's will keep you going well into team fights.

Optional Core

Once you have Boots of Travel and Eul's Scepter of Divinity you'll want to look into one of these three items. They're all viable choices, but what you should get will depend on how much money you're making and what kind of situation you're in.

Scythe of Vyse - In my opinion this is the item you should try your best to get, it's incredibly expensive so you might not be getting the farm/gold per minute required to get this in a reasonable amount of time and if you feel that's going to be the case feel free to move onto grab one of the other items in the list. Basically, though, Scythe of Vyse gives you YET ANOTHER hex for you to abuse. The hex can also help you land your Mass Serpent Ward just like Eul's.

Aghanim's Scepter- This increases Rhasta's ultimate damage, which will support your tower pushing and hero killing greatly.

Necronomicon - This is a favorite for many Rhasta players (specifically back in DotA 1) for a few reasons, but the use on this item (Demonic Summon) gives you an Archer and Warrior that do wonders especially as distractions. Send them in against an enemy and when they turn to fight them pop out of the shadows and hit them hard.

Luxury Items

Finish your main core build? Have money to burn? Well grab one or all of these:

Refresher Orb - Refresh your cool downs and drop some more people

Shiva's Guard - Need some defense? Is there a hero somehow managing to escape you with all your disables? This is perfect.

Necronomicon

Aghanim's Scepter

Early/Mid/Late Game Strategy

FOREWARNING: This is just generalized information as to what you are doing, I don't feel that I need to get into anymore detail.

Early Game

In early game Rhasta is great for soloing the middle lane, but he can go bot for the Radiant or top for the Dire if you have another hero on your team that really needs middle. There isn't much to do here except last hit creeps (with Ether Shock for guaranteed last hits) and deny your opponent in lane experience, as well as light harass (Combination of Shackles & Ether Shock, but mostly farming experience and gold preparing yourself for mid game.

Sometimes, if your team is feeling aggressive and you're going with the disabling skill build you and your lane partner or the wandering ganker or the jungler can get a few early kills with your Hex ability.

Mid Game

During the mid game as Rhasta you'll mostly be moving between team battles and ganks. Your disables are invaluable for mid game ganks and fights and with the right team mates you probably won't even take much damage while doing this. Once your Boots of Travel are complete you will be very mobile and can push lanes and jump into team fights quickly. Simply by virtue of being Rhasta you are the enemy team's number one enemy, but if you successfully facilitate numerous ganks and are the defining difference between a loss and a win in a team battle the enemy will be chomping at the bit to kill you, which takes focus away from your carries! However well you are doing mid game don't let down your guard!

Late Game

By now your main item build should be nearly finished, if it isn't already. You will essentially be doing the same thing you were in Mid Game, but now you'll also want to put a bit more focus on pushing down towers if you haven't already done that in Mid. Now, though, Rhasta will require a lot of precision because you have a lot of abilities and activated items, also by this point your vulnerability should be fairly clear and you shouldn't stray too far from an ally unless you're sure there isn't a gank with your name on it.

Skill Combos

Here are a handful of combos you can make use of as Rhasta, they can obviously be tweaked for your tastes, but will give you a good place to start if you aren't very familiar with Rhasta.

Standard Instant-Ward Trapping:

Mass Serpent Ward -> Shackles -> Ether Shock

Open up by planting a Mass Serpent Ward near you and your target once placed SWIFTLY use Shackles on him and make sure your wards are targeting him as he's disabled. The target will take a massive amount of damage during this but you follow up with Ether Shock for the killing blow.

You should practice the above combo as it is your bread and butter, but if you are having issues with it or you aren't comfortable, don't fret because the item build and your abilities allow for you to get this ward trap combo off!

Hex-Ward Trapping:

Hex -> Mass Serpent Ward -> Shackles -> Ether Shock

Alright, first off make sure you have a lot of mana for this! Next open up with Hex the moment you're target is in range/close enough. Now that he's slowed quickly throw down Mass Serpent Ward and before the Hex wears off or just as it's wearing off grab him with Shackles. If the wards haven't killed him by the time Shackles wears off throw an Ether Shock at him for the final blow.

NOTE: Once you have Eul's Scepter of Divinity and/or Scythe of Vyse you can use them in place of the Hex, as I said above these items can help you set up your ultimate as well as leaving your Hex off cooldown and ready to be used on someone else. So the combo can look something like:

Eul's Scepter of Divinity -> Mass Serpent Ward -> Shackles -> Ether Shock

or

Scythe of Vyse -> Mass Serpent Ward -> Shackles -> Ether Shock

Now if you're using the Necronomicon you want to summon your units before engaging the enemy, then send them in and instant plant your Mass Serpent Ward and move through your disables and finish him off with Ether Shock.

As you can see with the item build you have many ways of utilizing your skills to keep enemies disabled and easily killed.

Good Synergy & Enemies to Avoid

WARNING: This section is based on DotA1 so some of the heroes may not be ported into DotA2 yet, but when they are they will more than likely fit.

GOOD SYNERGY

Other Stunners/Disablers & Support:
Earthshaker, Enigma, Nature's Prophet, Sand King, Spirit Breaker, Naga Siren, Pit Lord, Invoker

Essnetially, these supporters and other disablers/stunners combined with Rhasta are a devastating combination, which make for relatively easy kills.

Chasers/DPS:
Anti-Mage, Beastmaster, Morphling, Razor, Riki, Sniper, Tiny, Ursa

These heroes will help finish off practically any enemy you encounter and if they happen to get away they can chase them down and secure the kill. You may need to help them by throwing another disable if you can.

Enemies to Avoid

Drow Ranger, Faceless Void, Lion, Naga Siren, Puck, Pudge, Silencer, Skeleton King Sniper, Spectre, Tidehunter, Tiny, Ursa, Viper, Lycanthrope, Phantom Lancer

It's pretty simple AVOID these heroes, ESPECIALLY if you are solo.