With good stats and a slow built into his basic Shamir has the potential to be both a damage dealer and crowd control, unfortunately this doesn't happen early as the slow is not very strong and the AoE damage he provides maxes at 25%. Although his slow will build stacks to increase his attack, other heroes' damage starts where Shamir's ends. With awakenings things improve and he can inflict immobilized, but he remains lacking in some respects.