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Witch Doctor Dota 2 Guide: Best Build, Abilities, Talents, Strategies, and Lore
Witch Doctor is one of the most popular heroes in Dota 2 patch 7.40b. He is a strong laner, deals fantastic damage all game, and sustains his team. In the hands of both beginners and experts, Zharvakko the Witch Doctor is a powerful pick.
In this guide, we will discuss how to play Witch Doctor, the best builds and facet choices, and how to remain relevant late-game.
Who is the Witch Doctor?
Witch Doctor is also known as Zharvakko, a wiry, mismade figure who mastered fetish, hex, and staff over several lifetimes in the island highlands of Arktura. He crosses the battlefield with an uneven gait, hunting for the weak point where his power will land hardest.
Witch Doctor represents affliction and mercy at once. Allies under his care find their wounds healing; enemies find no such luck. He can be your best friend or your worst enemy — and he decides which.
Abilities Explained
Witch Doctor's kit is built around setup and sustain. He punishes clumped enemies and rewards patient channeling.
Gris-Gris (Innate)
Witch Doctor's Gris-Gris is a Tier 0 neutral item that he starts the game holding. It can't be dropped or placed in the backpack, and its value climbs passively by 1 gold every 3 seconds.
Whenever Witch Doctor dies, 100% of the gold he loses from that death gets added to the Gris-Gris instead of being lost for good. He can consume it at any time to cash it out and remove the item permanently.
In practice, Gris-Gris works like a built-in comeback fund: it turns death from a pure gold penalty into a delayed payout, and it gives Witch Doctor a passive gold-per-minute trickle on top. Most players hold onto it and cash it in to help finish a key item.
Paralyzing Cask
A bouncing projectile that stuns and damages the nearest enemy unit, then bounces on to the next nearest enemy, and so on. All casks from the same source share one bounce counter rather than each having its own.
The cask keeps bouncing even if a target has Spell Block, since Spell Block only negates the damage instance on that unit, not the bounce itself. Lotus Orb can reflect the cask back at Witch Doctor, and Kraken Shell will cleanse the stun off affected units.
Paralyzing Cask is strongest when enemies are stacked close together — two heroes standing near each other can be kept stunned almost continuously as the cask bounces back and forth between them.
Voodoo Restoration
A toggled aura that heals Witch Doctor and nearby allied units over time, draining his mana every second it stays active.
Toggling it on or off does not interrupt Witch Doctor's channeling abilities, and disabling him won't turn the aura off automatically — though he also can't toggle it off himself while disabled. While Witch Doctor is invulnerable or hidden, the heal still applies but the mana drain pauses.
Maledict
Maledict curses all enemy heroes in a radius, dealing a steady damage-per-second tick plus periodic burst damage based on how much health each target has lost since the curse was applied.
Because the burst scales off current health lost rather than raw damage taken, healing a cursed target reduces the burst they take.
Death Ward
Death Ward is Witch Doctor's channeled ultimate. It summons an invulnerable ward that rapidly attacks nearby enemies, ignoring evasion on its hits.
Because Witch Doctor must channel to keep the ward active, anything that interrupts channeling — stuns, silences, hexes, or abilities like Eul's Scepter — can cut it short. Rubick can also steal it outright if it isn't protected. A well-timed Black King Bar is one of the most reliable ways to guarantee the channel goes uninterrupted.
Gameplay Strategies
What is the Best Facet for Witch Doctor?
The first choice people make is which facet to pick, Malpractice or Cleft Death. Both have the same win rate, so it comes down to player preference.
Malpractice causes enemies who die under the effect of Maledict to explode and damage other enemies in an 800 radius. The damage is 75% of the next burst.
Cleft Death allows Death Ward to hit two targets. The main has a penalty of 5 damage, while the secondary target receives 65% of Death Ward damage.
Of the two facets, Malpractice feels significantly more conditional. It requires enemies to die to actually do anything, which isn't always guaranteed. It also is less useful late game. Maledict has a fairly short cast range, and landing it later on isn't a high priority for Witch Doctor.
Cleft Death is what I typically go for. You deal slightly less damage to one target, but you deal way more overall. The clincher here is that Aghanim's Scepter causes both Death Ward attacks to bounce, which is incredible damage late game.
What is the Best Skill Build for Witch Doctor?
The most effective skill build this guide recommends for Witch Doctor is to max Maledict by level seven, with two points in Cask and one point in Death Ward. Players can then finish maxing Cask or start investing in Voodoo Restoration.
I prefer maxing out Voodoo Restoration early. The heal AoE and amount increases per level, and 50 HP per second is huge in the mid game. But there is no wrong choices here and Witch Doctor has a versatile skill build.
What are the Best Talent Choices for Witch Doctor?
While his skill build my be flexible, his talent choices are not. Witch Doctor has clear better options at each talent choice, except level 10.
Reducing the mana cost on Voodoo Restoration goes a long way to maintaining it. The spell recently received a buff with 2 less at max level, but it's still expensive to keep on. The level 10 talent helps with that. However, if you're getting bursted down first in fights, then 200 health could be the better option here.
At 15, an extra proc of Maledict is a huge power spike. Maledict deals more damage with each burst, and adding an extra one greatly increases its lethality. Two extra cask bounces looks very underwhelming compared to that.
At 20, an extra 1% max healing goes a long long way to keeping your team alive. It's unlikely Witch Doctor will die first in fights, so he can turn on his heal, stay a bit behind, and sustain his allies. The level 20 talent negates all damage over time abilities and makes the whole team more durable. Extra attack range on Death Ward....yeah, let's skip that.
At 25, more damage on Death Ward helps. As mentioned before, Cask is rarely worth upgrading, especially not at the cost of a talent point. At 25, Witch Doctor could have an Aghanim's Scepter, which further incentivizes this choice.
How Do I Build Witch Doctor?
There are two schools of though on how to play Witch Doctor in Dota 2. One prioritizes healing allies, the other on hurting enemies.
If you're looking to hunt enemies, then an Urn of Shadows is needed, with a possible Vessel Upgrade. Blink Dagger helps land your abilities and catch enemies off guard with Cask. Aghanim's Scepter and Shard are both mandatory. A Glimmer Cape or BKB is needed to ensure your ultimate isn't interrupted.
This is an aggressive play style, and requires consistent kills to make it work and aggression. I think it's fine but too conditional to work in some games.
If you are looking for a more stable approach, then you can go for aura items instead. Guardian Greaves is cheaper than ever and the dispell remains incredibly useful. You can then purchase a Holy Locket to further amplify your healing.
Urn and Aghanim's upgrades remain worthwhile, but we delay scepter in favor of defensive options instead. The benefit of this build is that you can take objectives without worrying about losing health, as Witch Doctor keeps everyone max health.
Gameplay wise, both are relatively similar. You stay behind in fights and wait for enemies to approach for you to throw your stun-curse-ultimate combo.
In the meantime you keep your healing turned on and try to keep as many allies alive as possible. If you are more aggressive, you'll generally jump second, after your main initiator catches a couple of enemies.
Witch Doctor is fairly simple in gameplay, but this guide aims to showcase some of the nuances in his skill choices and gameplay. Apart from casks, all his abilities are fairly straight forward and rely mostly on good positioning than anything else.
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Featured Image Source: Valve
