Erm, wtf are you talking about?
Shamans are a great class with the best defensive capabilities readily available to them, better than priest/paladin. And the int cost for SA is certainly worth it, considering how great the spell is. It's just that shamans are a heavy preparation class if you want to do outstanding things(so get some lvl 40+ vials to get sanc brewed and quaff it, get staves etc for other buffs and more).
And what is that about shamans levelling hard? They get axe and frenzy, you need nothing more.
I have a lvl 46 shaman who got there in less than 50 hours using unenchanted weapons totally and if I haven't promised myself to keep Yotbol till age death he'd be my main for some time now and not put on a shelf.
Only change that should happen to shamans is actually to add a timer on the voodoo victim so multivoodoo can't be abused.
PS: Basically I rolled this char to actually dual-voodoo kill everyone(and I mean everyone, even elf paladins or halfling mercs) in the game to get this wimped after a river of tears(since logical arguments on the forum aren't taken into consideration), but the 2nd shaman never really levelled up. Anyone willing to plvl a darkie shaman and help me make the class a bit less abuseable?