Item Build

Oh boy, the controversial part of every guide. Let me preface the item section by saying that this isn't hellbent on being the most optimal competitive itemset ever, nor will I offer or suggest a completely concrete item build. All of this is completely and entirely subjective to the individual game being played. A great deal of factors ranging from player skill to hero makeup to personal preference go into the item build. On top of that, Demented Shaman is an oustandingly flexibile hero as far as items go as there are a ton of items that will suit him well and help him be a better hero, and I'll make sure to look at as many of them as are suitable.


With that said, I do have an overarching theme to the majority of my personal item choices, and that is sustainability, or more accurately, mana sustainability. Mana = health for Demented Shaman, and as long as you have the former you'll have the latter.






Starting Out

• This is the starting build I will run on about 95% of my games as Demsham. The three totems provide necessary starting stats and all three of them will be used for future items (2 for a power core, the last one for the shield of the five for your Plated Greaves). The two sets of Runes are taken despite your ability to heal, as you'll spend the vast majority of your time in lane harassing and will take some creep damage in the process - you should be saving your mana primarily for Entangle to facilitate kills and for Healing Waves that are necessary for both you and your lanemate after a bout. The mana potion is there to help recoup mana in the event that you need to go spam happy in a fight.
• Note that the last box is occupied by both a courier and wards. It's entirely dependent on your team for which of these you'll get. If someone else gets a courier then get wards and toss them up on river/rune spawns, but the vast majority of time while pubbing you'll be buying the courier. And if there is one item here that you should never ever ever skip, it's the courier.

• A riskier starting build, this will net you no additional health or mana. This build does, however, provide you with the best base damage, some EHP for both you and your lanemate in the form of AR, as well as hard mana regeneration. If you feel comfortable in your ability to perform well with your lanemate then this is a great build to start with, and one I'll often do in pubs as in the majority of the time I'll be building a Nome's Wisdom at some point. The only debbie downer side of this build is that you don't have either wards or a courier, which again, makes it situational depending on your team. I will very very rarely ever start like this in a game I care about winning, but I wouldn't be completely miffed if someone did.

Items Which are Never Ever in Any Practical 5v5 Situation Acceptable to Start With



NEVER. Foregoing the point that this is a bad item to start mid with anyways, the only reason I could see someone taking it first is if they were soling mid. You should only ever be soloing middle in the most dire of pubs where you're the only practical candidate (which means your team failed at picking already), but in the event that you are you wantstats for damage to better last hit and deny. Odds are you'll be facing off against another ranged hero and will rarely be spamming any of your spells for any kind of damage, really. And with your pitiful base health pool, one good ranged disable and you could give up Bloodlust easily.



I mean, I really don't know how to explain how bad of starting item marchers are other than that you're giving up SO MUCH in the way of potential stats and regen for an item that will serve no immediate purpose in the confines of the early laning phase. Starting with marchers is a picardfacepalm.gif.

Early Game


.....->


This is what my inventory will start to look like by the end of the early game and once you start leaving your lane to roam/gank/push/defend. As far as build order goes, assuming you started with build no. 1, I'll buy both a Scarab and a Major Totem from the outpost while laning. If the opposing lane is spam happy with their spells I'll take a Mana Battery from the outpost as well. From there I'll run myself Marchers and aGuardian Ring (to finish the Ring of the Teacher) and the Power Core recipe if I bought a Mana Battery. Then starts the long haul to save up for aNeophyte's Book, all of your lose items combining into the 100% awesome Nome's Wisdom (which I'll talk about in greater length below).

The Boot Debate



Well it isn't really a debate anymore as in 99% of practical situations you should be getting Plated Greaves. Good movespeed, stats + armor for EHP (the armor is actually great, as if you're following my suggested build you'll end up with 25ish armor by the time you finish your core, and at no sacrifice to your ability to support), and an active ability which is absolutely fantastic for pushing. They're support boots extraordinaire and you should take sincere advantage of them as such.


The reason these boots are so awesome is mostly for the active ability. When used the boots will essentially give everyone near you a free Iron Shield for 25 seconds, including creeps. That last part there is the important part, because creeps with the shield buff are basically capable of completely tanking another creep wave, in addition to eating a lot more punishment from a tower. That makes these boots pushing machines for creep waves on top of the fact that Demsham is already a ridiculous pusher himself. Also note that the cooldown on the buff is only 20 seconds while the buff itself is 25 seconds, so essentially these boot are actually worth a good +7 armor for you all the time.



The other acceptable option is Post Haste. Awesome movespeed buff on top of your already decent movespeed is great for survivability and the teleport gives you an irreplaceable map control ability. The only downside glaring downside is, of course, that it costs more than a pretty penny and you shouldn't really be farming your face to the wall as you have other items to spend money on; you really should only be getting Post Haste if your team is rolling in cash.


When To Upgrade


It would seem that a lot of people place a great deal of emphasis on upgraded boots, but rushing for upgraded boots is hardly necessary for a lot of heroes, especially support heroes. Demsham's base movespeed is already above average so regular Marchers will suffice just fine for the majority of the game
and I would argue that you should at the very least finish your Nome's Wisdom before looking to upgrade, if not your Astrolabe as well.

Homecoming stones are a given for any hero. It's always a good idea to always have them on hand and you should for the rest of the game. The provide you extra mobility as well as survivability. Also being the Tryhard support player you are, you'll also be tasked with laying down wards as often as possible. Having vision of key strategic points on the map is an enormous advantage, and can literally win games in and of itself. Wards of Revelation can be used for counter-warding and for catching heroes with invisibility trying to farm lanes.






Mid Game


During the midgame is where we'll really start to buildup our core of sustainability items. You'll notice a running theme here, that all of these items have passive mana regeneration on them. As we've already discussed, you'll be spamming your spells like a Demented Shaman should, and more thus more important than just total mana is mana sustainability. You really, really need the regen. The more you're able to spam your spells the longer you can stay in the field.


Also note that I'm not suggesting you get all of these, just that all of these are all viable core mid-game items to get.

Nome's: 2240 gold.................Astrolabe: 2306 gold


My personal favorite mid-game item build. I'll will rarely ever finish a game without both of them.


Recently nerfed Nome's Wisdom, while no longer being the powerhouse of an item it used to be, was not nerfed without reason. Considering all the benefits of the item for the gold, it did facilitate unrealistic play with support heroes in the early game as this single item gave you nearly limitless amounts of mana while being easily acquired by the 10-15 minute mark. Regardless, the item is still good for the money and is easily acquirable early. It provides you with all the stats you need and a healthy support aura


Astrolabe, the king of all support items. The item by itself offers you a decent chunk of EHP in the form of +5 to all stats in addition to +5 armor. Stats, however, is the last reason we take this item, as its real worth lies in the heal. In addition to Healing Wave, with this item you have another AOE heal to throw into the fray in team fights. At 250 HP the heal is in no way isignificant either. The cooldown is pretty hefty at 45 seconds, which limits your capacity for spam healing, and keeping that in mind you should really hold onto the heal for when it really matters; blow it frivilously and you might find yourself in a situation where you could really use it and it'll be on CD. Also a cool thing to note is that the +2 armor buff from your boots and the +2 armor buff from Astrolabe stack, so there's another 4 armor for your team, bringing the total to 8 extra armor for your team when you factor in Nome's aura.


The great part about the both of these items is that you'll never need more than 1000 gold in your wallet at one time to get all the pieces. This makes them easy to farm, even through the occasional death that may occur in team fights.







Void Talisman: 1500 gold


Why the Void Talisman consistently remains the least used item in the game is absolutely beyond me. It was always a decent, but situational item, but since the removal of the magic armor reduction while active this has easily skyrocketed to one of my favorite items in the game. Despite not having any passive mana regeneration it's getting a special mention here in the midgame section because people really need to pay more attention to it. You being the pro support hero you are will more often than not have a gigantic target painted on your forehead for the opposing team's carry. With this you can give a gigantic middle finger to him and anyone else that would do any kind of diving for you. With the myriad of carries that have blinks/pseudoblinks/good intiation abilities, many of them will use it specifically to get to you in a team setting, and when they do you can pop this and watch them stare at you for 4 seconds while still being able to heal and support your team. Not to mention this is a pretty hard counter for heroes with physical abilities (like Panda/Deadwood/Corrupted Disciple). Regardless, if the opposing team at all posses a significant physical damage threat to you (which is almost always) you should be getting this item at some point. Oh and the +7 to all stats is certainly nothing to forget. This is a ridiculously good item for the money people. Use it more.







Nullstone: 4675 gold


The Nullstone is another item that's never a bad choice for Demented Shaman, and addresses some of his survivability problems will remaining useful for him on the whole. You're getting +25 damage, +15 attack speed, +285 health, +195 mana, +0.6 base mana regen, +200% passive mana regen, as well as +6 health regeneration to take the edge off. If you find that you're up against a team with a lot of single target disable and they seem to be saving some specifically for you then this item can be quite the lifesaver, as it blocks a surprising amount of disables. It's not necessarily hard to farm for either, and you get the benefit of a Sustainer while farming for it. Thanks to its recent buff, its also had 500 gold cut off the recipe cost, making it that much more available.







Stormspirit: 2800 gold


The Stormspirit really gets less credit than it deserves, and is an incredibly functional item for a lot of intelligence heroes. Yes I know it's rather light on stats, but hey +10 intelligence is +10 damage, another 130 mana, another 0.4 base mana regeneration, and it provides +150% passive mana regeneration as well, which qualifies it as part of our core of regeneration items. The two fun parts of the item are the +25 base movespeed (which takes your above average speed hero and really makes him above average speed, even better for chasing) and for the active ability. The active ability disables the target and makes them invulnerable for 2.5 seconds, and the little known part, or at least the under appreciated part, is that you can use it on not only enemy targets, but on yourself as well. As we discussed earlier, you'll often have quite the target painted on you, being the "squishy intelligence healer" you are. In the team fight if you find that you're quickly being targeted, the option to make yourself invulnerable will accomplish two things: One, it will make you untargetable for nukes, and two, the other team has the option of holding onto their nukes and waiting out the 2.5 seconds while the rest of your team is ripping into them, or moving on to other targets. I've found that the later usually occurs, and at the very least it can cause some disconnect and confusion. Otherwise, it's great as a general disable, an interrupt, and a tool for slowing down people chasing you or people running away from you. It really is a fantastically useful item in most pub games.







Hellflower: 5025 gold


A good alternative, and one that I run from time to time is the Hellflower. It's the ultimate combination of damage and regeneration for intelligence heroes, offering +60 damage, +30 attack speed, +260 mana, +.8 base mana regen, and +225% passive mana regeneration. It's active ability will silence the target for 5 seconds, and cause them to take 20% of all damaged caused while the silence was active as true damage (a mini Cursed Ground, if you will). It is the best bang for the buck for intelligence heroes as far as DPS vs. gold spent goes, the only draw back being that it offers you little if any benefit to your survivability - no health, no extra healing, no armor, and the silence, while it may occasionally save you, is certainly no disable. The main reason I've taken this item in games is as a counter to specific heroes on the other team. For example, say Vindicator is on the other team, and no one on your team has a reliable silence, throw this on vindicator at the start of the fight and you've given your team 5 seconds to spam the hell out of their abilities and get him down. Also note the massive 900 unit range on it. If tempest and his port key ulti are becoming a problem you can stay way out of the fight with this and silence him and soon as he comes in, etc etc.


This item also shares the same farmability as the above items; you'll never need more than 900 gold in your pocket to get all the pieces, and you continue to reap the benefit of each Greater Arcana as you're building it.







Kuldra's Sheepstick: 5675 gold


What isn't there to love about Kuldra's Sheepstick? It's a buyable 3.5 second disable, and despite being expensive on the whole, it's well worth it's money. You get +35 damage, +10 attack speed, +190 health, +455 mana, +1.4 base mana regeneration, and +200% mana regeneration on top of the aforementioned 3.5 second 800 range instant-cast disable. The best part about this item is that 100% mana regeneration and the disable pop out of thin air - there is no recipe to buy, it's an autocombine item, and yet you end up with these two great bonuses. The item as a whole is much greater than the sum of it's parts, and for that it is awesome.


The *only* pitfall of this item, at least for rushing it in the midgame as your only regeneration item, is that it is hard to farm for. You will need 2700 gold and later 2100 gold in your wallet at once to buy the necessary parts, and this can be difficult to pull off if you're dying occasionally in team fights or if you can't find time farm out some lanes in between defending, pushing and team fighting. People attempting to farm it out will often often go off on their own to get better farm as well, and really as primary support you should never leave your team's side to go item farming. Leave that for carries.







Sacrificial Stone: 5050 Gold


Personally the Sacrificial Stone is my least favorite item to get for Demented Shaman as a core regeneration item. It certainly does it job as far as sustainability and survivability go and the bonuses scream support, but Demented Shaman is, if anything, a very offensive minded support character, and without any raw stats the Sac Stone offers you nothing in the way of offense, which is poor for a character whom relies mainly on their auto-attack as a source of damage. It is relatively easy to farm for, however, and if you have your heart set on it for the bonuses then it certainly isn't a terrible choice, it just wouldn't be my first one.

Impractical Mid-Game Items Which are Generally a Waste of Gold



The Restoration Stone is an item with terrible stats for it's item cost and an active ability that does you little to no good as all of your abilities have short cooldowns to begin with.



It offers you no primary stats aside from raw mana, which you have no use for at all as you already have ridiculous intelligence gain, and thus it offers you no additional survivability. Not to mention that you don't need burst mana regeneration, you need passive mana regeneration which will sustain your constant mana use, and this item only gives you 3.33 mana/second if you're blowing it as soon as the cooldown comes up.

Late Game Luxury Items


You'll be well into the game by the time you're getting any of these items, and now that you've established some sense of sustainability mana-wise that let's you stay in the field as long as necessary while spamming your heart out you can start building some luxury items... if you happen to get the gold for them.


Also keep in mind that all of the mid-game items make good late-game items as well. If you picked up a Hellflower for your first mana sustainability item, but want a Sheepstick next that's perfectly fine. This is merely a list of items that I wouldn't get until after having first gotten one of the items from the mid-game list, at which point the game would probably have moved into the late-game stage.

 or 
Astrolabe: 2306 gold.........................Nome's: 2500 gold


Both Nome's Wisdom and the Astrolabe are mentioned again just as a reminder, because if you didn't pick either of them up in the mid game it's never too late for either - both of them are that awesome. Keep in mind, though, that if someone else on your team has built one of these it would be redundant to build another.







SotM: 4300 gold


Staff of the Master is an awesome lategame game option. It takes your ultimate, increases the radius to the point that you'd have to be a blind to miss with it, and increases the duration another 6 seconds to make it that much more potent. We're talking +/-30 armor at the end of it's duration, so good for teamfights/pushes/defending/younameit. On top of that it's an all around good stat item. +390 health, +280 mana, +0.4 base mana regen, and +10 damage and attack speed. It's by no means necessary, but it is my 2nd favorite late game choice.







Puzzlebox: 2450 (4450) gold


The Puzzlebox is an undervalued item that sees little use, thanks mostly to it's ambiguity. People don't really know what it does nor that it has ridiculously awesome damage potential. I blame most of that on the fact that, fully ranked, it is relatively expensive, and people who do know that it summons creeps don't want to spend gold to have to deal with microing minions. Regardless, enough can't be said about how great of an item this is for you. The fully ranked creeps do great damage, move extremely quickly, and need little micromanagement. On top of that, together they will burn more mana off of a target than Magebane and the melee creep provides a 1000 unit Reveal range for any invisible heroes that may lurk close enough. Past the creeps the item itself offers you some nice stats, giving you +266 health, +312 mana, +0.96 base mana regen, and +24 damage. This is easily my favorite late game item to get.







Frostwolf Skull: 5900 gold


The Frostwolf Skull has seen significant overhaul in the last few patches, and in its later iterations has been a much more friendly item to work towards, thanks to its vastly improved build up. Through all of its changes it has remained a great late game option for Demented Shaman (if you have the time left in the game to farm one out). You're already great at chasing/kiting with Entangle, and with a Frostwolf Skull you become Godlike at it. You're essentially buying Arachna's rank 3 Webbed Shot, as your auto attack will now slow the target by 30%, as well as the item itself providing a ****load of stats. This item will net you +675 health, +525 mana, +1 base mana regen, +35 damage, and +25 attack speed. And while the stats certainly are nice, the main reason you take it is for the movement slow. 30% is a lot. And as the effect is now applied to single target spells, when this stacks with entangle you essentially bring people to a crawl.







Tablet of Command: 2040 gold


The Tablet of Command is another item that sees little use due to the stigma it received in its previous incarnation, but thanks to recent buffs it has become a significantly better and an often viable item as well. Since it was changed to hard stats it provides you with a nice chunk of health as well as damage and mana, and the active ability is a great one. This item is an especially hard counter to channeled spells of all kinds as the push is a physical effect and goes through magic immunity, so even if that Tempest or Glacius or Forsaken Archer has a Shrunken Head, you'll still be able to interrupt them with this - and even if they don't get Shrunken Heads, it's still makes available another interrupt. Past that the push is situationally useful, but it can still be put to good use for making kills or escapes happen.







Frostfield Plate: 4700 gold


Frostfield Plate is an interesting item. I like it, but I'm not crazy about it. It's relatively cheap for a late-game item, but it still isn't easy to farm for thanks to the Acolyte Staff component. It offers you no actual HP, but gives you EHP in the form of armor - a lot of armor. The active ability is great both for chasing and escaping, or even just laying down some extra damage and disable in the middle of the fray. On top of that you're getting +390 mana, +1.2 base mana regen and +30 damage. It's definitely not bad, but at the same time if you've been following my personal recommended build then you've already got >20 armor by now while not having a tremendous amount of raw HP. At this point in the game depending on how much AR/HP you're sporting you may want to look at something offering raw HP for the better EHP gain.







Barrier Idol: 3653 gold


Depending on the amount of magic damage nukes on the other team, a Barrier Idol may be in order. If there are a lot of magical nukes, you'll at some point want to at least spend the 400 gold for Mystic Vestments, if not the 2050 gold for Shaman's Headdress. But as support you may find yourself tasked with the building of the Barrier Idol for it's active ability, which when used will grant your teammates a shield that will eat the next 400 magic damage - a great way to initiate a fight against a magic heavy team.







Shrunken Head: 3900 gold


The Shrunken Head is another one of those items that's never a bad decision on any hero. If you find yourself being constantly focused and disabled down, building a Shrunken Head can vastly increase your survivability. For it's duration you'll be immune to the vast majority of disables out there, as well as to magic damage. On top of that you get some extra health and damage, both useful stats for you.

We Clearly Won But They're Not Conceding and I've got Gold Laying Around So Meh Why Not Items
Or: Despite being "intelligence hero items," these are never acceptable to waste gold on while it counts.



Codex: 2850 (8250) gold


It's expensive for the stats it provides, and it serves little purpose for Demsham outside of blatant killstealing which you shouldn't be doing in the first place.







Barbed Armor: 2200 gold


A lot of people like to debate its usefulness nowadays, and thought it is seen much more commonly on a good deal of heroes, considering its cooldown nerf and the fact that I don't believe you should ever be putting yourself in a position to tank significant enough damage for this to be worth it (you really don't have the health pool to support it anyways), I would still say this is a comedy choice on Demsham.

Itemization Conclusion


I would remind everyone again that all of the itemization portion of the guide is subjective, and everyone has their own opinion on what's best. Given the nearly limitless number of situations and hero makeups that you could find yourself in I would argue that it's even impossible to qualify a "best" item build for 100% of the situations. These are all merely suggestions that are meant to be taken with a grain of salt. That being said I do stand by my sustainability style of itemization, and believe it to be a fundamental necessity to playing Demented Shaman well, which items you use to get that sustainability is up to you.