Witch Doctor - a life threatening support

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my guide to Zharvakko the Witch Doctor. He is one of the most fun support heroes to play, but playing him requires quite a lot of skill and good decision making as his spells are hard to master and he is very squishy. This guide will focus on his agressive capabilities, so you will need good team coordination in order to lane, roam and gank effectively.
If you aren't familiar with the hilarious mayhem Witch Doctor can unleash, I have a video which will make you understand why i love playing him so much: Play Video This is my first Dota 2 guide, so constructive criticism is very appreciated.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Good attack range makes him great at harassing
• Good roamer due to the high base movement speed
• Has one of the best damage over time (DoT) spells in the game
• Amazing teamfight damage with Death Ward
• Uses voodoo magic

• Squishy
• His stun is unreliable and very situational
• Maledict and Death Ward have insanely low casting range thus are hard to cast effectively
• His ult channeling is easily breakable

Item build explanation

The starting items don't need a lot of explanation. Get a courier or wards for your team, spend the rest of the gold on regen, some mana potions and branches for the stats. If you are having problems surviving on the lane, get a bracer ASAP, otherwise go boots first. You should also get a magic stick from the side shop if you're facing a nuker like Zeus.
Phase boots should be your next priority as they will help you land Paralysing Cask/Maledict on fleeing opponents. The extra dmg they provide is great early game too.
The next thing you have to do is to check if anyone on your team is making a Drum of endurance. If the answer is no, you should definitely get it since the movement speed boost further expands your succesful gank chance, and the stats are great for WD.
When it goes into lategame, you need an item which enables you to use your ultimate effectively in teamfights. Most of the time you will need a BKB, so you can channel your ult through mass Crowd Control spells (ie. Ravage). However, if the enemy team lacks AoE i almost always get a Shadow Blade since you actually can activate Death Ward and go invisible while channeling. Other luxury items worth getting are Aghanim's Scepter for total mayhem while using your ultimate. Scythe of Vyyse is also great as it provides an almost infinite mana pool and good stats, as well as a very reliable disable.

Abilities explanation

Paralysing Cask - Q
This is your disable - look at it go!. Unlike other disables it is very tricky to use effectively, as it bounces between your target and other nearby units. This means that you don't want to cast it nearby enemy creeps and when the enemy is singled out, as the stun duration per bounce is only 1 second. The ideal situation for casting this spell is when you are chasing two opponents after a good initiation, so you will need to force such situations by setting up ganks and tower dives with your team. The cask is also quite effective for jungle ganks, as the enemy will be close to neutral creeps.

Voodoo Restoration - W
An AoE heal for you and your allies. In my opinion it's a bit lackluster skill, as it drains your mana pretty fast and the heal is much, much weaker than Juggernaut's ward. Some people like to get one level in it as it can save lives, but in my opinion it is unnecessary for laning and too weak for surviving ganks. Get it if you are getting owned in the laning phase.

Maledict - E
This is the skill that makes Witch Doctor a huge threat when the enemy is not cautious enough and thats why i like to max it first. It is a powerful damage over time ability which gets stronger if the enemy takes damage while under effect of it.
The way you should use it is to cast it before starting the fight, so the damage amplification will ensure a kill. As the casting range of maledict is very low, you have to be almost in melee range to use it, but once you land the spell, it should be easy for your lane or gank partner to dish out his dmg.

Death Ward - R
This has to be the most fun skill in the game. Witch Doctor summons a Death Ward at desired location which spews projectiles at enemy heroes. This spell can dish out a LOT of damage, but your positioning has to be great because like Maledict, it has a very low casting range. This means that you will need to be in the middle of a fight in order to constantly hurt your enemies. Remember that this is a channeled ability, so you need to wait until enemy disables go off, or get a BKB/Shadow Blade so you will be in some way invincible while dealing the damage. Getting the third level in this skill causes the projectile to bounce between the target hero and other heroes once, and getting Aghanim's scepter makes it bounce up to four times, so ideally you are able to damage the entire enemy team using one ward.
You can go rambo and try to solo kill two or three heroes using the Cask - Maledict - Death Ward combo but you got to be in a PERFECT position to pull it off and i don't reccomend it.

Gameplay

Laning phase
In the beginning of the game, your job is to dual lane with someone who needs farm (not necessarily a hard carry). You should be busy at all times, denying creeps, harassing enemy heroes when they come close to the creep line and if you're on the safe lane, stacking and pulling the neutral creeps so you can get a bit of free exp and money while denying your opponent's farm (DON'T DO SINGLE PULLS as it messes up lane control).
If your laning partner has a disable, you should try to land an unexpected maledict, as it will probably end up being a kill if you both follow it up properly.

Roaming/ganking phase
If you are having a good time in your lane, it is time to buy boots and go roam. Your goals are to ward in a way that ensures your lane won't get ganked. After warding you are free to do the following:
-Go gank one of their lanes
-Help your midlaner secure a rune and go gank with him
-Go back to your lane and continue stacking and pulling

Midgame/pushing phase
This phase depends a lot on the current state of the game. If you have a hard carry in your team you have to give him breathing room for farming. It means that you must prevent ganks by warding and babysitting him as much as possible. You should also defend towers at all costs as they make your carry safe.
If you have a lot of pushing power in your team you need to take out towers to shut down their carry. It is also a great oppurtinity to use your ultimate when big teamfights emerge.
After the 10 minute mark NEVER go alone anywhere without vision, as you probably become dead meat in every 1v1 situation.

Lategame
As you may know, getting into the lategame means that as a support hero you become the weakest one on your team. In the ideal situation you will have your survivability items like BKB or Shadow Blade, but if your ganks weren't succesful or your lane got owned, you probably will get there with only a magic wand, phase boots and hopefully a drum.
This doesn't matter a lot since your carries will probably demolish their whole team if they got enough farm. Your job is to ALWAYS be ready for a teamfight, as its outcome will depend heavily on how well you use your ultimate.

Friends and foes

Friends
Heroes that work well with Witch Doctor are heavy nukers and disablers, since Maledict will amplify the burst damage enough to ensure kills. My favourite lane partners are:

• Tiny - huge burst damage and AoE stun good for setting up Paralysing Cask. This combo is great for getting double kills but keep in mind that Tiny isn't a real carry.
  
• Chaos Knight - lacks burst damage, but if you get lucky with his stun you can easily pick off almost any enemy.
  
• Axe - INSANE damage over time and great lane presence, especcialy vs melee heroes. If the enemy lane doesn't play extremely safe they will fail hard. As with Tiny, Axe cannot carry the lategame, but he is a great threat early and midgame.

• Tidehunter
  
• Magnus
  
• Jakiro
  
• Earthshaker
  
• Silencer