Countering Witch Doctor's ultimate

So I just watched the semi finals of the ESL One NY between EG and Cloud 9, where Zai pretty much carried EG with his Aghs Witch Doctor ultimate.

The weird part was that C9 seemed to be at a loss in dealing with that. They just tried to run away whenever Zai cast the death ward.

Wouldn't an obvious solution be to pick up a Crimson Guard? The WD ult deals a ton of instances of 120 (150 with aghs) physical damage. Your entire team being able to block 50 damage out of the 120 damage seems like a great solution to this. Am I missing something here, or is there a reason C9 might not have opted to pick up a Crimson Guard?

To me, it seems like the item reduces the effectiveness of a WD's ultimate by 42%-50%. Isn't it worth picking it up just for that alone, when the enemy WD has an Aghs?

http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Witch_Doctor

WD ultimate doesn't get affected by damage block, so Crimson Guard won't help. I guess you just have to get a BKB piercing stun, or make sure you get the jump on them. Or you just have to hope that he never gets to farm his BKB.

I really think EG just outdrafted C9. They just left C9 with no map control, they always had the jump on C9, they had more mid-game damage. I think it just was a really good draft.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense, thanks. Learning new things everyday...

And I completely agree.. EG just outdrafted C9 totally..

Taken from doto wiki : Death Ward's damage is not reduced by Damage block (i. e. Stout Shield, Vanguard, Tidehunter's Kraken Shell).

You can't block the damage, it doesn't work.

I saw that game, what won the game wasn't Witch Doctor, but the fact that C9 had no counterpush, and rather weak teamfight. Essentially they lacked a proper initiator and it hurt them a lot, Legion Commander isn't supposed to yolo initiate teamfights like that.

Jumping on Witch Doctor with something like Abyssal Blade on Spectre or Brewmaster does the trick. However the real issue wasn't that, it was that C9 had no answer to 5-man push.

Wait... does Guardian Angel block it, then?

Yes it does. Or you can just do something as simple as throwing a shuriken at him while he's channeling with Bounty Hunter, for example.

Windrun avoids all damage from his ult, tested and proven!

I can't believe that no one has said Ghost Scepter. yes you take more magical damage but you cannot be right-clicked. this includes getting attacking from WD Death Ward. there problem solved.

Assuming no BKB, Jakiro's Ice Path does a pretty good job as well!

I don't know if it's just at around my level or not, but i always see Witch Doctor getting picked. Had to get some ways around it. Eul's Scepter of Divinity works, but you have to get your positioning spot on.

Generally the best way around it is for your team to be in initiators. Lock him down and it's, normally, a huge part of their teamfight gone. Had a couple of rage quits because he couldn't get it off!

Or, play aggressive, the only thing better than completely countering it is making him waste it. Get a couple of Manta Style's and an illusion hero and if he's a bit skittish he can drop it on some aggressively roaming illusions. Then take the fight to them knowing your safe for 80 Seconds.

Ghost Scepter and stuns. Silly.