Doctor Done Three Ways

Introduction

'ello there, I'm onewithsin, and this, is my Dota 2 Witch Doctor Guide. A bit of background on The Doctor and myself; I started playing Dota 2 a little under a year ago and in that time have amassed a W/L record of 125 and 80 with WD. I quickly found him to be my favorite hero and grew up with the game playing him almost extensively. After all this time, I feel I should share my experience and hopefully give other players fresh ways to play and craft their own Zharvakko, The Witch Doctor.

Zharvakko the Witch Doctor is a Ranged Intelligence hero that typically is played as a support with huge team fight potential and importance. Being one of the two heroes in the game with both a stun and a heal he is a unique feature. He also has a built in death combo with Maledict and Death Ward.


Witch Doctor Bio

A wiry silhouette hitches forwarduneven of feature and limb, bizarre of gait, relentlessly criss-crossing the battlefield in search of that vital weak point where his talents can do most good, and most harm. Whether broken or mismade it is not clear, but still, none can doubt the power carried in his twisted physique. A long staff thumps the earth as the Witch Doctor advances, deploying a terrifying arsenal of fetishes, hexes and spells. It is a body of magical knowledge learned over several lifetimes in the island highlands of Prefectura, now wielded with precise accuracy against his enemies. Witch Doctor is your best friend, or your worst enemy--healing allies and laying waste to all who oppose him.

Items

I will be covering three different build styles witch are my preferred general build [Build One], a quick laning into ganking build [Build Two], and what many people call The Walking Fountain Build [Build 3]. Each are relatively unique from each other.

Note:, I almost exclusively play Witch Doctor as offlane. I feel that his potential contribution is wasted if he is the safelane support assigned with pulling/stacking/roaming duties. Along with that, he has high sustainable harass to keep the enemy core carry and/or support behind your own.

Note:, when I have Soul Ring with starting items, I am referring to only buying the recipe. You would typically do this to save courier time from your mid as you can buy the remaining components [Sage's Mask and Ring of Regen] from the side shop. I will go into more detail about this pick up later.

Build One

Starting Items

Courier, Tango, Branch x2, Soul Ring Recipe, Observer Wards
With this build I feel more like a 5 role support that with good plays can easily transition into a 3. Getting both the courier and wards frees up the other support to get sentries [if needed] or extra tangos to split between them and the carry.

Fast Pick Ups

Flying Courier, Soul Ring, Arcane Boots, Mekansm
Buying the Flying Courier right at three minutes is vastly important now with the new courier speeds that happened with the most recent patch. Finishing the Soul Ring by about minute five is ideal, with one level of Voodoo Restoration you will heal for more than the 150 life it costs to activate by the time the bonus mana is removed from your pool. This is what makes his offlane sustainability so high. Picking up Arcane Boots at around thirteen minutes [or after Mekansm if your laning partner does not need additional mana from you] further elevates your ability to harass and heal. Eventually the enemy safelane will have to either retreat to the fountain, buy additional regen, or if the lane has kill potential, simply die. Offlane Witch Doctor at this point is purely about attrition.

Mid Game Cores

Mekansm, Bloodstone, Aghs
At this point in the game, around twenty minutes in you will want one, or if at all possible two of these three items. My personal preference is Bloodstone if you are getting assists/kills as the extra charges will allow you to keep a level four Voodoo Restoration on full time very quickly . Aghs would be the better pick up if you have a great teamfight make up [see Teamfight section]. Mekansm is better the earlier you get it and does eventually drop off, especially when compared to Voodoo Restoration. If you don't have the Mek by twenty five minutes, it might be best to leave off getting it this game.

Final Touches

Shiva's Guard, Aghs, Shadow Blade
Aghs is an obvious pick up as it greatly enhances your Death Ward while providing some survivability. Shiva's Guard is also great in the same way as it does a 200 damage blast in a large AOE that slows - and the slow is what allows Death Ward to continue to hit for much longer than it might otherwise would. Keep in mind that you can activate Shiva's Guard AFTER you have started to channel. Shadow Blade has movement utility, ambush capabilities and can help extend your Death Ward to it's full eight seconds if the enemy team doesn't have a way to combat the invisibility. Keep in mind that you can activate Shadow Blade AFTER you have started to channel.

Build Two

Starting Items

Tango, Salve, Clarity x2, Branch x2, Smoke
This is the GankDoctor build so you need as much roaming capability as possible early, and this means lots of regen items. The two branches can be substituted for helping with the courier/wards, but the smoke is a necessity at spawn.

Fast Pick Ups

Boots, Rod of Atos, Urn, Dagon
You will need to get boots as fast as you can, even if it means getting a bit of farm from your carry. The next item is one of necessity. Urn will give you more sustainability and recover capability between ganks while also being an offensive weapon [especially when paired with Maledict]. Dagon even at level one can be very lethal to even the most tanky heros early with two or three levels in Maledict. Rod of Atos ensures that non-stunners/silencers/blinkers will get the full brunt of eight seconds of Death Ward while also greatly increasing your health pool.

Mid Game Cores

Rod of Atos, Dagon levels, Shiva's Guard, Orchid
Hopefully you were able to pull off several ganks by twenty minutes netting you and your team enough space to farm freely and get some death gold. If all these are going well you will have Brown Boots, Urn, a Dagon and at least one of these, or possibly more. The Orchid works as a great tool AFTER the enemy decides to either fight or run - not as an initiation tool. You want to use it right before you start to Death Ward so that the damage amplification will have it's full effect. Shiva's guard is great at this point if the enemy has high physical dps and likes to fight back.

Final Touches

Scythe of Vyse, Orchid, Aghs, Shivas, Max Dagon
All of these will make sure that the enemy, even if they start to get away, will die regardless thanks to Maledict. Of particular note is that if Atos is falling off or there are lots of blink daggers on the enemy team it can be sold off and replaced with a Scythe so that they simply will not get away again. Aghs may not be needed at all if your team has enough lock down without you. A Maxed Dagon is perhaps the most important of all items to pick up for late game - especially if the enemy team has been able to tank up.

Build Three

Starting Items

Tango, Salve, Branch x3, Glove of Strength
This is a standard set of starting items with a Glove of Strength thrown in to help start work towards an Urn early while providing a little bit more health. It can be dropped for courier or wards if needed.

Fast Pick Ups

Arcane Boots, Soul Ring, Urn
Arcane Boots over Soul Ring and Urn this time, even if your partner doesn't need the mana because you do. Having two levels of Voodoo Restoration early is a huge drain on the mana pool but can really pay off - especially if you are trilaning.

Mid Game Cores

Mekansm, Pipe
This is where you really start to shine in pushes and long teamfights. I almost always go Mek before Pipe [if Pipe is even needed] but there are some games where I even skip getting Soul Ring and Urn to get a pipe first.

Final Touches

Bloodstone, Scythe of Vyse, Orchid, Eul's
Idealy your items by this point [~30-35 mins] are Arcane Boots, Urn, Soul Ring, Mekansm/Pipe leaving you two/three slots left. Ideally you would finish out Soul Ring into Bloodstone to make you a truly durable walking fountain with so much sustainability your entire team may never have to back again. The other three disable items are really dependent on if you can afford them before the game is over and on what the enemy team consists of. Scythe is obviously the best but by far the most expensive and hardest to purchase. Orchid has great synergy with Maledict and Death Ward but could be near useless if the enemy is almost entirely right click damage. Eul's is a personal favorite item of mine for the 150% mana regen, cheap price [as compared to the other two] and 40 extra movement speed that stacks with your boots.

Skills

The Witch Doctor has a very unique skillset, a reliable chance stun, an aoe heal that is toggle capable, damage amplifying DoT along with one of the most powerful teamfight abilities in the game. Welcome to the skills portion of the guide, where I will go over each skill individually, discussing some pros and cons of each, along with general practices of usage.


The Skill Notes are directly from the Dota 2 Wiki.

Paralyzing Cask

Cast Range: 700
Bounce Distance: 575
Stun Duration: 1 (5 on creeps and illusions)
Damage: 75/100/125/150 (50 to heroes)
Number Of Bounces: 2/4/6/8
Cooldown 20/18/16/14 Mana 110/120/130/140

Notes:

Targets can be hit multiple times, as long as another unit is struck in between the bounces.
Will not bounce to enemies hidden by invisibility, but will to enemies in fog of war.
Can hit the main target up to 2/3/4/5 times, making the max damage done is 100/150/200/250 (150/300/500/750 to creeps).
Paralyzing Cask will bounce to magic immune units but won't stun them
Paralyzing Cask is not disjointable.

Summary
Paralyzing Cask is your semi unreliable stun. Some people write off maxing this first for reliable bonus damage [Maledict], or if in a passive tri-lane, being the rejuvenation source [Voodoo Restoration]. In almost all cases though I have found that with skill and manipulating the bounce odds, maxing Cask first is always the best choice. Limiting the amount of possible targets for the bounce [waiting until their creep count is down to 1 or 2 [single hero] or 0 or 1 [dual heroes], will maximize the chances to get the most stun duration and interruption as possible. The interruption is really what Cask is good for, only having half a second or so to run in a direction before the target is stunned again, makes landing skill shots much easier [Pudge Hook, Lina Stun, Leschrac Stun, PoTM Arrow, ect] as the target has shown exactly where they want to be going. If offlaning [as I prefer with The Doctor], chasing jungling heroes or the pulling support into the jungle is very possible with cask as it will bounce to the neutral creeps even without vision on them.

Voodoo Restoration

Radius: 500
Mana Cost Per Second: 8/12/16/20 (50% of the heal amount)
Heal Per Second: 16/24/32/40
Cooldown 0 Mana 20/30/40/50 initial

Notes:

Heal is applied in 0.33 second intervals.
Cannot be toggled while silenced.
Does not grant charges to enemy Magic Sticks or Magic Wands.
Can be toggled while channeling without interrupting it.

Summary
Voodoo Restoration is the best HOT [Heal over Time] heal in the game at almost all points. The amount healed is equal to twice the mana cost per second at all levels, making it very efficient to leave on at low levels and late game with high mana regen. At level four and 40 health per second the aura is practically a Heart of Tarrasque for anyone near you. Knowing when you have the mana pool to raise Restoration up a level is very important in keeping it useful - too soon and you won't be capable of sustaining its usage long enough - waiting too long can mean that it doesn't heal enough even if you always have it on. An important note about Voodoo Restoration when pushing [especially if solo split pushing] is that it will heal your creeps as well, making a sustained push much more possible after you ditch the wave. Depending on if I am getting The Mekansm or not [thus getting Soul Ring and Arcane Boots much earlier] I will either max this second or third.

Maledict

Range: 525
Radius: 180
Duration: 12
Damage per Second: 5/10/15/20
Extra Damage Per 100 HP Lost: 16/24/32/40
Cooldown 20 Mana 120

Notes:

Damage is based on the difference between the HP values currently and when Maledict was cast. Any health restored during Maledict will also reduce damage from the next ticks.
Maledict debuff cannot be purged nor can units be denied while under its effect.
To clarify, extra damage doesn't count for every full 100 hp lost, but as a percentage of health lost, so for 150 hp lost, you'll take not 16, but 150 * 16% = 24 damage.
Damage is dealt in one second intervals, with extra damage dealt every 4 seconds (3 times in total) before the static damage. E.g., for level 1 Maledict, you'll get 5, 5, 5, extra damage+5, 5, 5, 5, extra damage+5, 5, 5, 5, extra damage+5.
Becoming magic immune while under the effect of Maledict will block the damage but will not remove the effect, meaning it is still possible to die if magic immunity wears off before Maledict does.
At level 4, assuming standard magic resistance, Maledict will theoretically amplify any health lost before the first tick by +110.7%, along with a base 293 pure damage. Burst heal mitigates that with equal effectiveness, and constant hp regen will work double time as well (+8.4s worth over the 12s duration).

Summary
Maledict is the skill that ensures kills in ganks and if well placed multiple heroes in teamfights as well. While it is not a straight damage amplification skill such as that of Shadow Demon's Soul Catcher, it does do DoT ticks of increasing [as long as they are not healing] amounts. Each tick of damage does count as extra damage for the following tick, stacking upon itself. This means getting as much damage down as possible before the first tick even happens. A good combination with Maledict is other heros with burst damage [most spell casters, Dagon] or a reliable stun to allow for a large amount of right clicks. Keep in mind how much damage a wave of creeps with only one target can do as well.

Death Ward

Cast Range: 600
Channel Duration: 8
Ward Damage: 60/90/120 (90/120/150*)
Number Of Targets: 1/1/Bounces Once (Bounces 4 times at all levels*)
Cooldown 80 Mana 200

Notes:

The Death Ward is invulnerable, and is only destroyed if Witch Doctor is interrupted or its duration expires.
The Death Ward can be controlled, and made to attack a specific hero.
The Death Ward has a 700 attack range and attacks every 0.22 seconds. The bounce range for the level 3 (or Scepter Upgraded) Death Ward is 650.
The Death Ward channel can be maintained while invisible; activating Shadow Blade doesn't interrupt channeling because it's a Wind walk based ability.
Can deal up to 2182/3273/4364 (3273/4364/5456) chaos damage per target over its duration.
Aghanim's Scepter will cause the ward attack to bounce to the entire enemy team (1 main target + 4 bounces = 5 enemy heroes)
Each bounce, including the initial attack, can be evaded normally.
Death Ward can't target or bounce to Ethereal enemies but does full damage to spell immune ones.
Death Ward's damage is not reduced by Damage block (i. e. Stout Shield, Vanguard, Tidehunter's Kraken Shell).

Summary
The Death Ward or The Dance as some call it is what makes The Doctor so feared in teamfights. Doing huge damage to a single target [before level 3 and Aghanim's Scepter], transitioning into a single bounce at level 3 [or four bounces at any level with Aghs], it is a skill to be feared. Knowing this, you are typically the first or second target in a team fight - either to outright kill you or to react to this ultimate. Being such a powerful ultimate it does have restrictions and downsides. First, it is a channeled ability, meaning anything that moves you from your location [Vengeful Spirit's Swap], any stun or stun-like ability [Faceless Void's Cronospehere or Naga Siren's Sleep] and silence will end it. Also, you [not the ward placement] must have vision of a hero for the ward to attack them. You are also in a stationary position, giving the enemies with skill shot abilities [Lina's stun, Pudge Hook, ect] a great chance to land and end your fun.
So Sin, how do we stop these terrible things from happening? Well there are a few different things. You can hide in the Fog of War yourself [A typical place for me is on Radiant side on the ancient's hill placing the ward down ground, or on the hill behind the top tier 2 tower, placing it down ground when on dire and pushing mid. Or when fighting in the jungle simply hiding behind a neutral camp and placing the ward on the other side.] to prevent the enemy from knowing exactly where you are - as the ward can be placed away from you. Another, much more common example is simply a Black King Bar - the only real downsides of using a BKB though are that you MUST activate it before you drop the ward as activating BKB cancels channeling, and that after just a few uses the BKB duration is shorter than the total of your ulti. A similar but much more situational pick up is a Linken's Sphere - blocking only one ability but if the enemy only has a few direct disruption abilities available it could be all you need, never getting weaker as the game goes on. Another situational but perhaps the best item solution out of the three is a Shadow Blade [so long as the enemy do not have ground target stuns, such as Lina, Sand King, Nyx, Lion]. The benefit of using a Shadow Blade over a BKB is that you can casually activate it to run to an objective faster, or escape a gank and activate it AFTER you have started your ulti. The reason this is good is that if you start to ulti and the enemy has a reliable stun that travels [Sven's Storm Hammer is my greatest enemy] you can disjoint it by going invisible, allowing you to still channel while having the enemy waste a valuable disable.

Team Work

Being played mostly as a 4 support or sometimes as a 3 semi-carry, The Doctor can work alone, but is best played with others that can take advantage of his healing, Dot and unique stun. Here I will pick out some of the best pairs in the laning phase and in teamfights, along with some of the most difficult enemies you will come across.

Laning Allies

Kunkka, Sven, Doom, Abaddon, Venomancer, Bristleback, Centaur Warrunner, Lifestealer, Omniknight, Lina, Luna, Spectre, Phantom Assassin, Undying, Venomancer, Wraith King

All of these are great laning partners for a dual lane, either safe or offlane. All have either great chase potential in either slows, stuns & damage, or enough tankability coupled with Voodoo Restoration to dive a tower to secure the kill. My particular favorites are Kunkka, Sven, Doom, Bristleback and Omniknight as they also pack AOE nukes [or in the case of Doom and Omniknight] great auras.

Teamfight Allies

Axe, Centaur Warrunner, Disruptor, Earthshaker, Elder Titan, Enigma, Faceless Void, Jakiro, Lesrac, Lich, Magnus, Omniknight, Phoenix, Queen of Pain, Sand King, Silencer, Slardar, Tidehunter, Treant Protecor, Undying, Venomancer, Warlock, Zues

Really anyone with big AOE lockdown or damage is a huge asset to The Doctor. With AOE stuns such as Tidehunter's Ravage keeping the enemy locked down long enough for Death Ward to deal lethal damage - or some damage such as Sand King's Epicenter, Maledict can really dig in to well beyond lethal.
Another good sect are threats that are simply bigger than you, such as Anti-Mage, Bristleback, Chaos Knight, Death Prophet, Legion Commander, Shadow Fiend, ect. Having the target on them means you can do as you please during the fight to win as fast as possible.

Bad Patients

As discussed above, there are several ways to severely limit your impact in teamfights. Here is a list of some of the Worst Patients.

Lina, Sand King, Nyx, Lion, Invoker, Bounty Hunter, Shadow Demon, Outworld Devourer
Each of these are relatively common pick ups in the game and all have a channel disrupting ability that can hit you from a distance. Bounty Hunter, Nyx and Invoker are particularly bad as two of them can be invisible before they ***ult you and Invoker's Tornado can be cast from so far you won't even know it is coming at you before you start to channel.

Silencer, Puck, Tidehunter, Sven, Warlock, Earthshaker, Faceless Void, Magnus, Elder Titan, Trent Protector, Bloodseeker, Disruptor, Jakiro
All of these enemies have large AOE abilities that can cancel your ultimate or outright kill you before you can do anything at all. Of particular notes are Silencer and Faceless Void - as nothing can prevent them from ending your channeling if they cast their ultimate on you. Most of the remainder of this list can only really effect you after you start to Dance, so if you simply hold off and wait until after they have used their ability, you can counter right back with yours.

Slark, Bloodseeker, Clinkz, Bounty Hunter, Nyx, Riki, Faceless Void, Slardar, Drow Ranger, Lycan, Spirit Breaker, Lifestealer, Phantom Assassin
Each of these will typically either pick up an Orchid or a Skull Basher [or have innate bashes], making these some of the hardest to deal with counters to you in the game. Of particular note are Bloodseeker, Clinkz, Bounty Hunter, Nyx and Riki - Bloodseekers silence can be cast from an obscene distance while the other four are all invis hereos that can either stun or silence you right right, or will most likely pick up an Orchid regardless.

Easy to Treat

Finally, the list of people you can **** all over and they really can't do much about dying. These are usually problem heroes for spell casters as they either have innately high magic resistance, some damage shield or purchase hoods/pipes for their own well being. Some are also just sticky to keep locked down, like blinkers.

Abaddon, Anti-Mage, Broodmother, Chaos Knight, Lifestealer, Nature's Profit, Omniknight, Templar Assassin, Tidehunter, Lone Druid

These are typical problem heros for various reasons. Fortunately, due to your ability to heal so quickly mid/late game [regardless of item pick ups], along with your damage, you can typically handle most of these enemies completely alone with an ambush.