Well Maya comes with a whole load of shaders. All of these have channels that can be mapped with textures, ie; colour and bump and specular are probably the most used.

I dont think you should bog yourself down with the technicalities of whats the best shading technique. I myself use sss very rarely, as its a slow process to set up and achieve correctly.

Also bear in mind that, you can use any type of shader in Maya and still do it/use it badly. Its down to the artist to make best of the tools and experience he/she has to achieve the desired effect.

Jay