Witch Doctor Support - Hero Build 6.81 Strategy and advice

"Do no harm. Chaaah! What fun is that?"

Zharvakko the Witch Doctor is a ranged intelligence Hero who can take on the role of a support or a ganker. A master of voodoo curses and healing arts, he possesses several positioning-dependent crowd control/damage spells as well as a heal that scales well into the late game. Maledict is one of the most powerful damaging spells in the game, and is fittingly enough quite hard to hit properly - but when applied at the right time, Malediction can curse someone to suffer a slow, humiliating death as they limp back towards safety

This guide is meant to explain in details the following item build and to further detail some of the strategies which are talked about in my In-game Supporting Build for Witch Doctor.

Which doctor you expecting?

You expect a Witch Doctor to support, to heal, to ward and to Cask a bunch of enemies under a perfectly channeled Death Ward's heavy fire before healing your whole team using Voodoo Restoration. And that's the main reason why Witch Doctor is so much fun to play.

Unfortunately, it's hard to position Witch Doctor correctly in order to make great combos, not even speaking of not dying before you can actually try anything. Only practice can help you doing great things with Witch Doctor as a walking HP-fountain warder-support.

Shadow Blade is never an option.

I'm not even considering nobrain Aghanim-Shadow Blade-BKB pubstomp-builds as an option here for a single reason: there is no need for you to read me - or anyone else - to find out how to do such a thing, and as fun as it might sound, it's really not reliable if you're not already pubstomping since the beginning of a game, except if you're the only one able to deal any damage in your team, which is even more concerning about your draft in the first place. The definition of pubstomping actually implies you could also go Satanic, Refresher or late-game Midas and still win anyway.

I had such item builds more than once

Pro and cons

Pro

• High early damage output
• High auto-attack range
• Versatile stun
• Can be used to push, depush, harass, easily stunlock two or three people, engage and jungle
• Durable in lane
• Can easily make periodic harass or autoattacks useless thanks to Restoration
• Awesome ultimate if used properly
• Goes through BKB, people tend to forget that the damage dealt is physical
• Great synergy with mana regening items
• Urn of Shadows, Medallion of Courage, Eul's are perfectly viable on Witch Doctor
• Maledict potential
• Huge potential with teammates with burst damage and spells that gather enemies together

Cons

• Channeled ultimate
• Needs excellent positioning
• Mana management in lane
• You have to time your Casks and your toggles of Restoration not to run out of mana prematurely
• Maledict's set up
• Needs good coordination or an expensive Cask/Maledict/Death Ward combo
• No true escape
• Restoration doesn't help against permaslows
• Death Ward drops in late game
• Enemies might have a lot of armor (either bought or through agility)

• Benefits from move speed
• Tranquil Boots and Eul's Scepter huge movespeed boosts works perfectly with Witch Doctor, improving his positioning.
• Benefits from HP regen and armor
• Tranquil Boots' regen and armor buffs, Medallion's buff and Hood of Defiance's HP regen along with Restoration make Witch Doctor surprisingly tanky. Most people won't expect Witch Doctor to be so "hard" to kill: you might want to use this to your advantage.
• Excellent responses

Early mana management

 

Convenience mana threshold

These are « convenience » thresholds below which you’ll have trouble to combo correctly and thus might miss opportunities.

Level	Threshold	Expected manapool	Expected items	Spells
1~3	210	312~390	None Basilius	(Once) (10-second-long)
4~6	270	425~500	Sage's Mask	(Once) (10-second-long)
6~9	340	500~615	Sage's Mask (Void Stone*)	(Once) (Once) (Periodic use**)
9~11	340 420	615~700	Sage's Mask Void Stone (Eul's*)	(Once) (Once) (Periodic use**)
11+	460 490 540	>702	Eul's (Force Staff*)	(Once) (Once) (Periodic use**)

 
Notes:(*) Items in brackets might not be bought yet in difficult games
(**) Items granting mana regen such as Sage's Mask or Void Stone helps you toggling on/off way more often than you can in lane as you'll recover mana faster. Indeed, as it costs mana per second with a quite low initial cost, it's not very relevant to count its mana cost along with your other "instant" spells, which require you have the set amount of mana before you start the combo.

Critical mana threshold

The only real critical threshold consists in being able to Cask someone or to heal yourself for some crucial seconds, depending on the context:

• Are there one or multiple people following you?
• Are there allies or allied structures nearby? How far are they? Do the allies come help you or also fleeing?
• Are you escaping with a crippled ally? Will he make it (e.g. poison)? Could he survive something like an incoming God's Wrath if you heal him for some more seconds?

Level	Critical Threshold	Minimal manapool*	Options**
1~3	120	312	(Once) (10 sec)
4~6	150	425	(Once) (10 sec)
6~11	160	500	(Once) (10 sec)
11+	200	702	(Once) (10 sec)

 

Notes:(*) Mana pool at levels 1, 4, 6, 11. Take extra precautions against enemies like Silencer or Outworld Devourer which are a real threat when it comes to your mana pool and Intelligence during the laning stage, and consider a Magic Wand accordingly.
(**) Option meaning one choice or the other, of course. 

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

Fog of War

Don’t forget that the Cask can now bounce onto units that are hidden by Fog of War.

Illusion detection

If the Cask stuns a hero for 5 seconds, you know it's an illusion.

Avoid being a premature caskator

In the early stages of the game, this is the only active spell you’re going to use. You shouldn’t use it to gank when it is not at least at level 3, except if the enemy is staying in lane with a low health pool and that the Cask is not going to bounce between a high number of targets, which would waste it. Don't hesitate to give a try if you’re planning a gank with your mate(s) and know you’re planning to get a kill.

Emergency casking

You should normally try to keep it when you’re not very safe in your lane (being harassed or suspecting a gank) in order to stop any incoming assault.

Jungling

When you have sufficient HP regen (normally as soon as you get your Tranquil Boots), you can go in your jungle and farm some of the medium/hard creep camps to get the extra gold you need to improve your stuff and buy the wards/TPs. Don't forget that this is possible thanks to the 5-second-long stun on creeps.

Cask/Death Ward combo

You should also try to set up ganks, either alone if the enemy are not well-organized or do not fear enough Witch Doctor as soon as you get your ultimate. Engaging with your Cask when two enemies are isolated from their creepwaves to maximize your stun’s power and immediately follow with a Ward. You need to be well positioned before you actually stun.

Pushing/depushing

Compared to many other heroes (Lion, Skywrath Mage) who are also supports, your Cask proves somewhat useful to push and depush when you hit mid-game, combined with your Voodoo Restoration at higher levels. While launching your Cask, use your Voodoo Restoration and have enemy creeps attacking you as you heal your own creeps out of danger. Don't forget that this is possible thanks to the 5-second-long stun on creeps, summons and illusions.

Voodoo Restoration

In lane, Voodoo Restoration will heal you and your surroundings this way:

• 160HP = 100 mana (level 1, 10 seconds duration)
• 240 HP = 150 mana (level 2, 10 seconds duration)

Death Ward Restoration

Don’t hesitate to use it when you engage or when you channel your Death Ward, it won’t interrupt it to toggle it on/off.

Restoration > Tangos

This is the spell which allows you not to buy any tangos and salves and keep your money to grab a Sage’s Mask as soon as possible. Indeed, it proves more efficient to boost your mana regen to activate Voodoo Restoration when necessary (especially since the initial mana cost and the mana/sec cost lowers from patch to patch) than wasting money in tangos and salves (except if you buy some for you carry...) and, even worse, clarities.

Mana regen is key

Witch Doctor’s mana regen should be at least around ~2 at the earliest stages (level 3-6), which means that you can use your Voodoo Restoration around once per minute safely without depleting your mana pool too much. Consider a wise use of your Restoration: toggle it on when you and your lane mate are both hurt, when you and/or you mate is chased to avoid him being hunt down to death. Witch Doctor is definitely not only about positioning, but also depends on good timing to make best use what is left at your disposal in the first 10 minutes.

Restoration counters periodic damage

Voodoo Restoration can be used to push/depush when you have the mana to sustain it (~5/6 mana/sec, when you get your fully built Eul’s, or at least the Sage’s Mask and Void Stone). Have the creeps attack you while you restore your own health and your creeps’ at the same time. In the end, your creeps should be fully restored and ready to assault the next enemy wave. It also reduces the damage dealt by poison. However, Restoration won't help you survive constant slows such as Drow Ranger's frost arrows or Viper's poison.

Spread as wide as you can

Voodoo Restoration doesn’t help you survive burst damage if you're right in the middle of the battlefield (you should easily recover from a distant God's Wrath which didn't killed you), except if you can escape in time. Try to spread teamfights over time to maximize the effectiveness of your heal on yourself and your allies, retreating under the heal while you’re chased and then turning back to fight again when you’ve regained enough health.

Rush your Tranquils if Restoration is not enough to survive a terrible match-up in lane

Don’t hesitate to spam Restoration more often than what is advised if you’re really in trouble in lane, but then try to get your Tranquil Boots as fast as possible, so you’ll just have to back some a couple of seconds to regain your health so it won’t cost you any mana, and you'll be able to keep your Restoration only for teamfights of allies in need. Don't forget that if you're really in a terrible lane, there is always a way to recover the lost gold and experience a few minutes later in the game by clearing some of the jungle camps. Your goal then is just not to die and hope one of the other lanes won't feed until you're able to get your main components or successful ganks. Don't forget that enemies harassing you extremely hard are normally pushing the lane, so you have to take this to your advantage and request/set up a gank before the enemy gets out of control if one of their dive succeeds.

  

Maledict

Range: 525
Radius: 165
Duration: 12
Damage Per 4 Second: 20/40/60/80
Extra Damage Per 100 HP Lost: 16/24/32/40

I'm not ready!

This is the spell that you’ll consider not to use at all for a very long time in this supporting build. The Cask is way more useful to set up ganks, jungle and control the lanes than Maledict, the only use of which being to ensure that you’ll kill someone who has some kind of escape.

Save your mana

I recommend you use this skill only when you have more than enough mana to use Cask, Ward and a little bit of Restoration, which is not likely to happen before you get an Eul’s and some levels anyway. This being said, you normally won’t upgrade this skill during the laning phase, and can wait until level 8, where you Cask will be maxed and you Heal upgraded to level 2.

Wanna heal or wanna kill?

I received high criticism regarding the fact I didn't consider leveling Maledict until late in the game. I have been told that Maledict maxed-up early is extremely efficient, which I agree with since the damage dealt by a well-placed Maledict followed by other sources of damage is tremendous. However, you'll lose your ability to sustain if you prefer to put one level in Cask, then go for Maledict (and maybe one level in Restoration). Maledict should be more profitable in a ganker/roamer playstyle, which many consider to be better on WD than him actually being a support. You can see some reactions about it here:

Originally posted by radiantyellow:

Not utilizing Maledict regardless of your role in the team is unfavorable, its true that getting Cask is great for team fights but if you want gold and contribute to killing the enemy, I'd advise that you level Maledict over healing (not saying you don't level healing); its much better to kill an enemy than to let them get away which might lead to you getting flamed for not leveling Maledict

Originally posted by radiantyellow:

I would also like to add that Witch Doctor isn't as effective as a support compared to other support heroes, he's better playing offensive, initiating (even though he's not very good at it but is still viable) and as a ganker.

Ideals conditions

Try not to waste this spell, but don’t hesitate to use/put points in it under these specific conditions :

• Bursting a hero who has any kind of escape or can turn invisible. You have to agree with your mates, otherwise, you’ll never deal enough damage except if you cast a Death Ward just after a successfully bouncing Cask and a Maledict.
• Grouped heroes, either after a spell (Vacuum, Skewer) or just because they’re always turtling together.
• Laning with heroes such as Lion, Skywrath Mage, Lina... who can deal an extreme amount of damage within the 4 first seconds which follows a Maledict.

Situations where you should reconsider

Do not try to use this spell in the following situations:

• The enemy has a full bottle, salve, any strong/spammable heal that will prevent it from being useful (remember that the damage will not increase because you deal damage, but because of the gap between the starting health and the health the target has at the end of the duration. If you target has healed theirselves more than they took damage, Maledict will be completely useless.
• It prevents you from having enough mana to use at least your Cask.

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*)

Channeled ultimates require skill

It sure is channeled, but it is more your skill at placing yourself correctly more than the super-expensive items you can buy such as BKB or Shadow Blade (lol) that will ensure a successful Death Ward. Keep the following advice in mind:

• Don’t channel your Death Ward if the enemy team still has strong disables.
• Try to channel your Death Ward in places where you are not directly spotted : behind trees, on top of stairs, even behind a huge spot of trees or cliff in the river. The range of the Ward has been extended to 600, so take advantage of it as much as you can. You're not Crystal Maiden, having to stay in the middle of the battlefield to deal damage, and it is a huge advantage of yours. Don't waste it by badly positioning yourself.
• You are supposed to stay behind other members of your team in huge teamfights. However, when you see isolated enemies which are unaware of your presence or don't consider you could engage yourself, use your Cask to engage and then immediately cast Death Ward to wreck them before they can even react. One more second of Death Ward is that much more damage dealt, often ensuring a kill or two in very close situations where you are whether not the primary target to be shut down or simply not able to be attacked (invisible because of good positioning or because of your Cask preventing your enemies to fight back.

Death Ward Restoration (again)

Don’t forget you can toggle on/off your Voodoo Restoration as much as you want during your channeling.

Cooperative gameplay

Don't forget you can be Force Staffed by someone else when you channel without being interrupted. Ask Valve for a Eul's upgrade which will let your allies "eul" you during a Death Ward.

Death Ward's little secret

Don’t forget the Ward deals physical damage and is most effective early and mid-game, when it is freshly upgraded (levels 6 and 11). Any armor debuff will do just fine with your Death Ward (or even your own Medallion of Courage if you somehow are able to farm really fast/are sent alone in lane). Don't forget that physical damage also means that fed agility carries or tanks in late game will take nearly no damage from your Ward.

Target locked

Select your Death Ward ("Select other units" key) and then click on the target you want to aim. It might seem obvious, but I stumbled upon persons who didn't know about it.

Turn Roshan's pit into a dancefloor

Now that the Death Ward cast range has been buffed to 600, you can do extraordinary things with your Death Ward. One of the best things to do is, when you know the enemy team is fighting Roshan, force them to go out with your Death Ward by standing left to the pit, uphill, casting your Death Ward into Roshan lair itself. If they stay in there, they are sure to be severely crippled/die. If the rest of your team awaits at the exit, the Death trap is complete.

Your Ward needs vision

If your ward is stuck between trees, it will do no damage because it won't have vision over enemies.

Early items

Do you need Intelligence or mana regen?

There are mainly three types of Intelligence heroes: those who need mana regen (e.g. Storm Spirit), others who need Intelligence (e.g. Outworld Devourer), and finally heroes who need both of them (e.g. Skywrath Mage). If Witch Doctor uses all his abilities at the same time, he'll use 510:

• 140
• 120
• 200
• 50 initial

If you consider items, you might add 100:

• 75
• 25

In other words, Witch Doctor only needs a mere 600 (at max levels) to use all of his skills simultaneously. Moreover, you've got Voodoo Restoration, which depletes your mana over time. You thus understand that Witch Doctor needs mana regen and not Intelligence items - yet not as much as Storm Spirit of course. Having a mana pool of 1500 is absolutely unnecessary, and won't help you to replenish your mana fast enough to toggle on/off your Voodoo Restoration on every opportunity.

But not building any items related to mana and going Phase Boots, Aghanim's and Dagon won't help you either. You need items built from Sage's Masks and Void Stones to be effective as a support relying on Voodoo Restoration. Accordingly, the items you build should:

• Grant you mana regeneration
• Be somewhat beneficial to your allies
• Be not made from items that cost 2000 gold each

Early items from my Build

You can find my in-game build here: Supporting Build for Witch Doctor. I will try to explain here some of the reasons behind my choices.

	Ring of Protection +2 armor (10% physical resistance for WD) Turns into a Basilius and then into Tranquil Boots Allows you to buy both Courier and Wards if needed

	Sage's Mask 50% mana regen Cheap component, available in the side shop Component for multiple items, many of which are useful for Witch Doctor

Sage's Mask will normally turn into a Ring of Basilius until you get your Tranquil Boots. They will provide more mana regen on their own when Witch Doctor is level 4 or above, thus having them disassembled past this point is the way to go.
The first Sage's Mask is then normally built into a Eul's Scepter, however, some other items can prove useful on Witch Doctor:

• Medallion of Courage
• Urn of Shadows

	Tranquil Boots Brings you to 395 movespeed High HP regeneration Allows you to jungle Even more armor Cheap components that fit nicely with your needs and starting stuff

You can argue that Tranquil Boots are selfish and that, as a support, you should go Arcane Boots. First of all, don't forget that a Void Stone is far more superior on Witch Doctor alone than the Arcane's "Replenish Mana": Arcane Boots don't even give Intelligence but only more "mana", and, according to the Dota 2 wiki:

Originally posted by Dota 2 Wiki:

Using Replenish Mana every time it is off cooldown is equivalent to [...] 1.82 [mana per second] for yourself

As time goes by, your Arcane Boots will decrease in efficiency: actually, a Sage's Mask and a Void Stone are more useful as soon as you reach level 6. Arcane Boots are definitely not boots of choice if you're planning to use them for yourself. However, you might want to talk to your allies if they count on someone to buy them, or if another support is going to buy them as well. Adaptation is key here.

Tranquil Boots along with a level-3 Cask allows you to clear some jungle camps while in lane and thus letting your carry farm a little bit more while getting xp and gold. The extra gold you'll gret is useful for you to buy your wards and TPs while not getting too late with your own personal item build.

These boots also allow you to keep your Voodoo Restoration for team fights or to heal yourself and allies. Being able to keep your precious early-game mana for others only is a strong argument for you to pick these boots over Arcane Boots, which do not allow such a strategy.

	Arcane Boots Mana Restored: 135 Radius: 600

Once again, I've already spoken about the Arcane Boots problem: they are near useless on you alone. You have to consider them if there is a real need from your whole team. Indeed, there are certain compositions where Arcane Boots will be highly profitable, more than your own mana regen for your Restoration. The fact you will have to wait until you have 1000 gold can be a risky bet in some hard early stages. Anyway, if you plan to build Arcane Boots, don't buy a Ring of Protection but try to save for an early Sage's Mask anyway.

Originally posted by radiantyellow:

As a support, you will need to get Arcane Boots to support your team, so getting self mana regenerating items is pretty greedy and doesn't offer much to being a so called "support" as titled in your guide.

Main Items

Force Staff, Eul's Scepter or something else?

There are situations where you have to hesitate. In these situations, you might want to consider Force Staff over Eul's as your first "big" item:

• You're getting focused for some reason
• You are permaslowed
• You want to combo (Bloodseeker, for example)
• You need to chase or engage

However, most of the time, you'd want to go Eul's Scepter first:

• You need more mana to be sustain your Voodoo Restoration
• You need more mana to reach your convenience thresholds more often (fast-paced games)
• You want extra movespeed (which you always want)

Of course, there are many other factors that might be taken into account. You also might want to ignore both items in favor of other situational choices (look for the corresponding entries for more information):

• Hood of Defiance
• Aghanim's Scepter

Whatever you choose to do, I don't think you can do well enough without a Sage's Mask and a Void Stone. Hopefully, if you're shrewd enough, you can build whatever you want and still having space for a Sage's Mask and a Void Stone:

An example with the Hood of Defiance:

Main items from my Build

	Eul's Scepter of Divinity Brings you to 435 movespeed (!) +150% mana regen Serves as an escape in certain situations Can be used to engage or lock an enemy while your allies are on their way

No need to repeat thrice what I've already said, the Eul's Scepter synergizes well with your skillset, allowing you to toggle your Restoration more often, to walk faster and to escape certain situations by Euling either yourself or an enemy.

Compared to burst mana gains such as Arcane Boots, you'll be able to do more things over time, rather than losing all your mana in one combo and waiting way too long - or having to back - before replenishing it. Mana regeneration over a high mana pool is something that might let you toggle your Restoration for those extra seconds when you're nearly out of mana but regenerating it fast, or throw that only more Cask in tight situations.

Originally posted by radiantyellow:

When using it offensively it only singles an enemy out, you can use Maledict when the enemy comes down but then there will be no other units/heroes nearby to make the cask bounces work to keep the enemy(s) "paralyzed" for you to get a good channel of ward.

	Force Staff Support item Allows you or any ally to escape or chase A little bit of Intel, a little bit of HP regen

Don't forget that you can Force + Cask to hunt down fleeing enemies and lock them in place (especially if they flee near creeps or neutrals or, even better, with another enemy hero), or use it to go uphills to Cast a Death Ward.

Situational Items 1

	Medallion of Courage Acts like a cheap Aghanim upgrade for your early Death Wards Huge boost to your Armor Grants +50% mana Can help a carry making kills in lane Can make last hits easier/harass nastier with some training

Now that's an item I love to do on Witch Doctor when I am able to farm early on in lane (while alone because of a jungler for example). A Medallion debuff followed by a Death Ward at level 6 is absolutely impossible to escape if you chose the right target at the right timing. The bonus armor is really great, considering all the other items that grant Witch Doctor HP regen and armor. If you intend to be aggressive and are in a position where you can actually last hit, you really might want to consider this item very early on- it loses efficiency as time goes by, like Death Ward actually does.

And, of course, it also helps your carries tear off enemies to shreds - if you position yourself correctly not to be hit during the debuff. But Witch Doctor is all about positioning, so this item will just help you improve if your desire is not to pitifully die the second following your debuff.

	Aghanim's Scepter Huge boost to your level-3 Death Ward Awesome combos with gathering spells (Magnus, Dark Seer) and AoE crowd controls

How could you speak of Witch Doctor without mentioning his wonderful Aghanim upgrade? Everyone of us is now thinking about those Youtube videos where a lone Witch Doctor is wrecking a whole enemy team too focused on whatever they do without noticing they're being shred to death by a support.

I like this item a lot, but what is important to keep in mind is that, if you set up a nice gank or engaged well, your Death Ward will also wreck enemy lines. The extra boost actually only makes it faster - and thus the enemy might also panic faster. I would at least build an Eul's Scepter before considering an Aghanim. Just don't forget to keep space in your inventory to have wards and TPs if you choose to build the Aghanim. There is literally not a single item in this game which is worth having you, as a support, deprived of vision, detection of mobility.

	Boots of Travel Maximal movespeed for Boots Lets you push/depush against certain line-ups Offensive or defensive, but I had to balance the sections

Many are the games where I feel like I need to buy Travel Boots when I've got other sources of regen or the mana to sustain my Restoration. When you feel you're going to waste way too much gold in TPs just to depush lanes which are constantly push or you want to side push, considering Boots of Travel is not a waste of time and money on Witch Doctor. In games which are given their tempo by pushes and depushes, you'll farm a lot as Witch Doctor, and thus gathering the required gold will not be very difficult.

Situational Items 2

	Hood of Defiance Magic Resistance (of course) +8HP regen along with all your other HP regens Made of cheap components Can turn into a Pipe of Insight

Zeus? Skywrath Mage? Queen of Pain? You're calling for it. The extra HP regen is absolutely amazing on a hero like Witch Doctor. With Tranquil Boots, a Hood of Defiance and level-2 Voodoo Restoration, he can regen... 34HP/seconds early game. I don't need to tell you that if you survive burst damage of distant God's Wrath's, you'll regain all the health you lost in less than 15 seconds. This combination of heals make you able to tank full creepwaves unharmed.

I really think the Hood is a very good item on Witch Doctor if you can afford it. If you choose to go for a Hood of Defiance, buy the Cloak first, followed by your Ring of Health so that it turns into a Perseverance and allows you to free one space in your inventory.

	Urn of Shadows 50% mana regen A little bit of strength

It's not bad at all to have an Urn on Witch Doctor - if nobody else has one - but there is no special synergy. All an Urn requires to be useful is that you go really aggressive in lane, maybe even before you've got your Ultimate if your lanemate's hero has got a good early game.

	Black King Bar Makes you magic immune

Unless the enemy team is full of magic burst, stuns, and that you've got nothing else to do, needing a BKB means you are out of position with Witch Doctor. You might argue that if the enemy team is only composed of hard disables, a BKB might come handy. Don't forget that the strength gain of WD is pitiful, and that even under Voodoo Restoration you won't survive an enemy carry's autoattack long enough if you pop with your BKB right in the middle of everyone. It's still a less stupid item to get than a Shadow Blade though.

	Ghost Scepter Stats Immune to right-click carries

Very situational item. Indeed, even if you can turn into a Ghost before channeling your Death Ward I can think of many more situations where it will doom you faster than anything else. Forget about this item if the enemy team has got heavy magic burst, as it'll be too risky to dare using the item. It also doesn't synergize very well with the rest of your skillset. 

Questionable Items

	Clarity Duration: 30 Mana restored: 100

I didn’t buy any clarity on Witch Doctor for months. The main reason is, I consider it as a loss of gold for many Intelligence heroes and a further delay to get your Sage’s Mask. A very early Ring and Basilius and then a lone Sage’s Mask will be way more cost-efficient and will help you all through your laning stage, and not only once or twice during 30seconds where you will have to be extra-careful and thus stay away from the fray for the effect not to be interrupted. If you manage your mana in the first place, I don’t see any reason why you should go for Clarities. You might want to talk with your lane partner about his need for Clarities, but there again, if the need arises, you can stick with your Basilius a little bit longer before eventually turning it into Tranquil Boots + Sage’s Mask. It’s up to you.

	Magic Stick / Magic Wand Max Charges: 10 / 15 Health and Mana Restored per Charge: 15

I used to build Magic Sticks/Wands almost every game, and now I tend not to consider it anymore. Both situations are a bit stupid, because you should actually consider a Magic Stick when you’re laning against Zeus (if such a thing happens) or Skywrath Mage. The advantage of the Magic Stick is you being able to buy it once in lane, once you know who you will face. Having a bet at the start of the game to know if you’ll lane against whether their Skywrath Mage or their Wraith King can lead you to waste your early gold. That’s why I wait to be in lane to decide whether I buy it or not. I usually don’t consider it anymore during mid-game, as you’ve got enough sources of HP/mana regen and not enough space in your inventory.

	Bracers +6 Strength +3 Agility, +3 Intelligence +3 Damage

I can smell some hard flaming incoming, but I just don’t like this item. I don’t tell you not to buy it or that there are useless of everyone, but I don’t see where I’m going with bracers on Witch Doctor. He has a heal, he does well with Tranquils and I always feel the strength gain won’t make any real difference if you’re not well positionned to start with. Witch Doctor has a good range, a stun, a Voodoo Restoration, can engage with his stun and wreck the enemy before he can react if he combos well. Look below for more information.

	Drum of Endurance +9 Strength, +3 Agility, +3 Intelligence,+3 Damage Active: +10 attack speed / +10% movement speed Passive: +5 attack speed / +5% movement speed

When it comes to the Drums, things are a little different. I personally hardly ever buy it but there sure are team compositions that will benefit of it. Combined with Tranquil Boots and an Eul’s, the Drum of Endurance might come in extremely handy. I would keep this item for games where you are not certain to win and need a lot of escape though.

Items	Move Speed	MS with Endurance
	305
	395
	435
	456	501

	Mekansm Bonus Health Regeneration: 4 Restore: Heals 250 HP and gives +2 armor in an area

No, Mekasm is not a bad item at all and every team should have one. I'm just saying here that if anyone else on your team could go for a Mekansm in your team, it'll be more beneficial. You do not lack health and health regen on your own, which is not the case of someone like Lion.

But the main problem with you having a Mekasm is that you'll concentrate two sources of heal (instant and over time), which will turn you into a primary target to shut down. Moreover, Mekansm require you to be in the middle of the fray for it to be useful. Except you've got something called Death Ward which does not like you to be channeling right in front of the enemy carry. Spread the sources of heal so that you maximize the chances of one of them being available at any time.

	Bloodstone Insane mana regen Great HP regen Suicide

Better if you chose Arcane Boots over Tranquils, as you'll be able to disassemble them. Now that Voodoo Restoration 's mana cost has decreased a lot, the Bloodstone - which is expensive - is not as needed as before to use level-4 Voodoo Restoration more often. However, with Bloodstone, you can let it endlessly turned on, it might sometimes help. It's all about context here.

Originally posted by radiantyellow:

[...] for the regen, I would recommend a Linken's sphere over Bloodstone any day simply because like BKB it will offer safety to channel a full ward, the regen is lesser but offers the utility that WD desperately needs if WD ever wants to cast his ward.

Other items I won't speak of

I won't speak about Shiva's Guard and Scythe of Vyse, as there is no particular thing to say about them when it comes to Witch Doctor compared to any other support or hero it could be built on.

I won't speak about Dagon and any item which combos with your Maledict as we're talking about Witch Doctor support. You won't switch from one role to another in the same game anyway, your choice has to be done before the game even begins and if your team composition allows you to do so.

Nope Items

	Shadow Blade Makes you invisible

You won't build it on Witch Doctor if you're playing as a support. It is nearly useless in any situations. If you can't channel properly without it, you're just channeling wrong, and actually it won't help you being completely destroyed by experienced players if they know where you are.

There are actually free Shadow Blades at your disposal throughout the game. They are called uphills, good positioning, or trees.

	Blink Dagger Sucks up all the fun out of you

Out there, you might encouter people who will tell you that Blink Dagger is fine on almost anybody. Don't listen to them. Not only the blink dagger can't be used to help crippled allies in any way, but it has no practical uses on you, except if you like:

• Blinking in the middle of nowhere to Cask a stun and dying
• Blinking uphill to cast a Death Ward after telling the enemy to gather in a precise spot to teamfight and having them actually listening to you and losing the teamfight and dying
• Blinking but actually failing as you received damage and dying
• Euling yourself if damaged, so the blink cooldown is set to 0 and then blinking but dying anyway because blink gives you cancer. NB: doing the same with a Force Staff gives you positive karma and tanuki balls

Warding and Detection

My starting build allows you to buy one set of Wards (either Observer or Sentries) and Courier. If you need to buy only one of those, you will still have 300 gold left, normally spent to get a Ring of Basilius right away.

The rule is quite simple to understand but difficult to put into practice: your wards and TPs are more valuable than your own personal stuff, no matter what. If there are any invisible hero on the enemy team, then this rule becomes golden. Depending on the type of heroes and the type of invisibility, different options are at your disposal:

Detection	What for?	Examples
	Heroes who escape with invisibility	Riki
	Heroes who engage with invisibility.	Bounty Hunter, Nyx Assassin, Clinkz
	You've got a tank on your team and there is no invisibility hero on your own team	Phantom Lancer (because of diffusual blade)

I tend to prefer Sentries over Dust, especially in early game since you can spam sentries in the lane you're wanting to push so no invisible hero will come unexpected. As soon as a hero is detected by your ward, ping it as fast as you can and stunlock him so he dies fast, except if you know you won't be able to cripple him. In such a case, let him roam a little bit as you gather your forces so we won't think he's detected and then assault him when you're ready.

There is no specific tip about detection when it comes to Witch Doctor, but remember to spam them, literally. When I see any invisible hero in the enemy draft, I usually end the game having bought tons of sentries. Having sentries where you want to teamight or during a push is absolutely essential, and you can begin to spend all your gold in them as soon as Tranquil Boots, Sage's Mask and Void Stone are yours.

Keep one space in your inventory for at least one TP, and another for one type of wards or dust. My builds takes into account you'll have only four spaces left at max for your own items, and five with Boots of Travel (which is a huge advantage late game if pushes and depushes are frequent). Having not enough space to keep TPs is a huge mistake, as there are lots of opportunities in which you can TP from another side of the map and deal damage with your Cask/Ward, or save your crippled and chased allies with Cask/Restoration.

Enemies matchups

Legend:

Advantage for Witch Doctor
Disadvantage for Witch Doctor

I am not dealing with Invisible heroes here that also cause trouble (Bounty Hunter, Clinkz, Riki...). I talk about them in the Warding section.

I am also neither talking about obvious counters to any Intelligence hero who has to channel (silence, stuns), nor about the fact that any semi-carry / successive burst damage will shred you to pieces.

I try to specifically deal with counters to your spells. The following table might not be exhaustive as I'm not thinking about everything. Comments are welcome.

Hero	Matchup	Reasons	What to do
		His ultimate prevents your Death Ward from being effective	Focus someone else
		His ultimate makes your Voodoo Restoration useless	Nothing if you are caught in the ultimate
		Cripples you in lane more than you can bear with your Restoration	Rush Tranquil Boots or request ganks (Axe usually pushes the lane)
		Armor and Bristleback makes your Death Ward quite ineffective	Focus someone else
		Spiderlings/zombies nullify your Cask	Excellent timing of your Cask
		You can cripple Clockwerk/Legion Commander or any nearby hero with a well-placed Death Ward if you are not the one caught in the cogs/in the Duel.	Cast Death Ward accordingly. Eul's on Legion Commander during her Duel
		If Drow or Viper decides to chase you down, you're likley to be dead. Your Restoration won't help you overtime and you Cask usually not either since they often chase you alone.	Just stay away from them until their attention is drawn on something else. Eul's or(and) Force Staff also help you distancing them.
		Io has a spell named Tether, which normally indicates she will be linked to a hero, which is a perfect setup for you Cask.	Launch your Cask when Io is tethered or is coming to gank with a Tethered ally
		Certain Juggernaut or Lifestealer players won't think they're risking something from your Death Ward if they use Rage/Blade Fury. Be careful that it will make your Cask useless though.	Use your Death Ward to your advantage and try to perfect the timing of your Cask according to the cooldowns
		Lone Druid and his Spirit Bear make two perfect close targets between which your Cask will do marvels	Launch your Cask to permastun the duo
		Phantom Lancer relies so much on illusions that your Cask is way less efficient. It also forces you to take the control of your ward to target the real Phantom Lancer or aim for someone else. PL's diffusal blade is also a real pain.	Avoid confronting PL directly and use sentries to reveal the true one, and ask your teammates to gank him accordingly
		Don't let him steal your Death Ward, even though many Rubick players don't know how to use it anyway	Toggle on Voodoo Restoration after casting a Death Ward
		You can counter her Meld with your Maledict if she tries to escape	Maledict followed by detection followed by your team bursting through her butt

Comboplays

Legend:

Good combo
Great combo

I try to specifically deal with specific synergies with your spells (Thus I'm not listing every silence/stun/cc) The following table might not be exhaustive as I'm not thinking about everything. Comments are welcome.

Hero	Combo	Reasons
		Primal Roar lets you land a good stun if Beastmaster succeeds to catch multiple people, and thus landing an effective Death Ward. Be careful that you must be quick to react as Primal Roar only slows nearby targets.
		Vacuum lets you land a perfect Maledict. Vaccuum, Skewer and Reverse Polarity let you set up a perfect Death Ward which will benefit a lot from picking an Aghanim's.
		Any armor debuff is priceless along with a well placed Death Ward. Both Slardar and Dazzle have one stun which might help to cast a successful Cask if any enemy dare save their doomed ally
		Cogs and Duel are a good setup for you to cast a Cask and Death Ward if the enemy dares approaching.
		A Death Ward in a Black Hole is something the enemy team will remember. You can also follow a successful Black Hole by a Cask so the enemy team is crippled a little bit more.
		Tidehunter's ultimate is a little bit shorter and needs you to be really reactive to combo well. Faceless Void forces you to have excellent positioning not to be caught in the Chronosphere while channeling and still hitting people, as you must be really quick to cast Death Ward before Chronosphere ends.

 Guide by Casual Doctor