Witch Doctor

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-dependant 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.

Tips

 * Try to wait on casting Death Ward in teamfights until the enemies have already used some of their stuns, making it less likely you will be interrupted.
 * Casting Death Ward from a hidden position such as the trees, or uphill in the fog, makes it much harder to disrupt.
 * At rank 1, Voodoo Restoration is the most efficient form of AoE healing in the game based on mana-spent-per-hitpoints-gained. It is often a good idea to invest a single point into this skill during early laning and then max it later after your other abilities once you have the mana regen to support the higher cost.
 * Paralyzing Cask is most effective when there are just two enemies close together. Under ideal conditions you can stun two enemies for up to 4 seconds each with this skill.
 * Casting Maledict on opponents will often immediately force them to retreat for fear of taking crippling damage while under its effects. You can use this to make enemies flee who would otherwise easily kill you or your allies. If they do not flee, then at best they're trading themselves for you.

Trivia

 * Witch Doctor is sometimes called "The Walking Fountain", referring to his support skills Voodoo Restoration and Death Ward.
 * The Witch Doctor will sometimes say "Pills here!", referencing Left 4 Dead, another game made by Valve.
 * Witch Doctor's original name in DotA was Vol'jin, a reference to the character from the Warcraft universe.
 * Vol'jin is the chieftain of the Darkspear tribe, where the playable race of trolls in World of Warcraft originate.
 * Witch Doctor's fun name in DotA was Moose, taken from the player DL.Moose who played the Witch Doctor.