Hero
Witch Doctor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Channels a high damage death ward. | |
A bizarre figure shambles across the land, searching for any opportunity to apply the morbid arts of Prefectura Island. Filling a skull with noxious powder, the Witch Doctor throws this Paralyzing Cask to stun enemies in succession. To his allies, Zharvakko is a fountain of health, curing ailments with Voodoo Restoration. To his foes, he is the source of curses and Switcheroos. Notoriously known for Maledicting his adversaries and forcing them to relive the agony they will inevitably receive from his Death Ward, few can match Witch Doctor's versatility. | |
Roles: | Support Nuker Disabler |
Complexity: | |
Adjectives: | BadTeeth, Potbelly, Nose Legs ( 2 )
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Bio[]
▶️ "Malpractice makes perfect."
Lore:
A wiry silhouette hitches forward—uneven 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.
Alias:
WD
Voice:
Abilities[]
Launches a cask of paralyzing powder that ricochets between enemy units, stunning and damaging those it hits. Each bounce deals more damage than the previous one. Deals 0.8 damage to creeps.
Base Damage: 50
Damage Increase per Bounce: 10/15/20/25
Creep Damage Multiplier: 1.5
Stun Duration: 0.8
Spell Block / Reflection Notes:
Blocked upon impact as primary or secondary target.
Does not stop bouncing or increase in damage when blocked. The blocked instance still counts toward the number of bounces.
The Witch Doctor recycles the bones of fallen friends and foes, using the powder as part of his arsenal of charms and alchemy.
- The initial projectile travels at a speed of 1200, subsequent projectiles travel at a speed of 1000.
- However, all projectiles bounce in 0.1-second intervals.
- Cannot bounce on the following units:
- On invisible, invulnerable, hidden or attack immune units.
- On enemy Couriers.
- Can bounce on units in the Fog of War.
- Since the projectile cannot be disjointable, already airborne projectiles can bounce to and off of units affected by hidden or Spell Block sources.
- The initial target is not counted towards the bounces, resulting in a total of 3/5/7/9 ( 5/7/9/11) instances.
- All bounces together can deal up to 180/400/770/1350 ( 350/665/1170/1925) to heroes (before reductions).
- All bounces together can deal up to 270/600/1155/2025 ( 525/997.5/1755/2887.5) to non-hero units.
- For how much damage each bounce Paralyzing Cask deals on each level, and with the cask bounce increasing talent, please refer to the chart below.
- The projectile can bounce on the same unit multiple times, but only when another target was hit between the bounces.
- The stun duration treats clones, creep-heroes, Roshan and the Spirit Bear as heroes, but treats illusions as creeps.
- However, the damage treats illusions, clones, and creep-heroes as heroes.
- The cask first applies the debuff, then the damage.
- If Paralyzing Cask is cast multiple times, the previous cast's bounce counter gets reset.
- All Paralyzing Cask instances from the source use the same bounce counter, instead of each instance having an independent counter.
Base Heal per Second: 10/22/34/46
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5
Zharvakko's hocus pocus is not limited only hexxing his opponents and is quite adept at curing ailments.
- Voodoo Restoration does not interrupt Witch Doctor's channeling abilities upon toggling On / Off.
- Disabling Witch Doctor does not toggle Off Voodoo Restoration. However, he cannot turn it off himself while disabled either.
- While Witch Doctor is invulnerable or hidden, all effects of Voodoo Restoration still applies. In this case, the mana per second cost will not be consumed.
- Heals for 3.3/7.26/11.22/15.18 health (+ 0.66% of max health) in 0.33-second intervals (before reductions), starting 0.33 seconds when toggled On.
- The heal is provided by an aura and lingers for seconds.
- The mana cost is also bound to the aura, this means when toggled Off, the ability still heals and drains mana for seconds before stopping.
- The ability toggles Off if Witch Doctor does not have enough mana to support another heal instance.
- However, the lingering buff continues healing, despite the lack of mana, providing up to 2 possible heal instances for free.
- Neither affect invulnerable nor hidden units.
- Fully affect ally Couriers.
Curses all enemy Heroes in a small area, causing them to take a set amount of damage each second, as well as bursts of damage every 4 seconds based on how much health they have lost since the curse began.
Damage per Second: 12/18/24/30
Damage Interval: 4
Duration: 12
Certain voodoo magics can make an enemy regret engaging the Witch Doctor.
- Checks the affected units' current health 4 times, once as the curse is applied, and then every 4 seconds for the duration.
- The burst damage is based on the difference between the hero's current health and its health as Maledict is applied.
- This means the bigger the difference between current health and health upon receiving the debuff gets, the more damage the bursts do.
- Vice versa, the lower the difference gets, the lower the burst damage. Therefore, getting healed during it reduces its damage.
- It also means it does not matter how affected units lose health, as it directly compares its health values, not damage values.
- This is how much of the lost health is re-dealt as spell damage by Maledict, depending on when the health was lost during Maledict on each level (before reductions):
- The damage per second component deals damage in 1-second intervals, starting 1 second after the debuff is applied, resulting in 12 damage instances.
- Together with the bursts, it deals a total of 15 damage instances.
- The bursts happen 0.1 seconds before each 4th damage tick, so the bursts happen after the 3rd, 7th, and 11th damage tick.
- With no other sources of health loss or heals, Maledict can deal up to 188.5/320.9/483.6/680.2 ( 276/463.8/690/959) damage to a unit (before reductions).
- The debuff can be placed on illusions and creep-heroes.
- Successive casts neither update the damage values nor damage intervals, but refresh its duration.
- Affects invisible units and units in the Fog of War.
- Neither affects invulnerable nor hidden units.
Voodoo Switcheroo
- Requires Aghanim's Shard to be unlocked.
- Disjoints projectiles upon cast.
- Witch Doctor is invulnerable, hidden, and prevented from acting for the duration.
- Death Ward based on its current level is summoned at Witch Doctor's location.
- Death Ward and its Ability Upgrade notes fully apply. If it is not learned, Voodoo Switcheroo does nothing upon cast.
- Voodoo Switcheroo cannot be canceled prematurely and always lasts for the full duration unless Witch Doctor dies during it.
- The Death Ward has its attack speed reduced by 40, attacking slower than a regular Death Ward cast.
- With its 0.22-second attack rate and the 40 attack speed slow, it can attack up to 9 times.
- Can deal up to 177.27/272.73/368.18 ( 300/395.45/490.91) damage per second to a single hero.
- Can deal up to 585/900/1215 ( 990/1305/1620) damage to a single hero (before reductions).
Death Ward
Summons a deadly ward to attack enemy heroes within its attack range. Lasts a maximum of 8 seconds. Death Ward has 50% bonus accuracy.
Max Channel Time: 8
Ability Disjoint Notes:
Witch Doctor performs a ritualistic dance, one that haunts the dreams of those who live to recount it.
Death Ward | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Summoned Ward | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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- The Death Ward can be controlled to attack a specific target or to stop attacking altogether.
- Both the attacks and the bouncing attacks of the Death Ward prioritize heroes when choosing its primary target.
- The projectile's damage on the primary target has the following properties:
- Deals pure attack damage based on the current level sourced to the Death Ward itself.
- The damage can trigger attack modifier and on-hit effects, but does not ignore evasion.
- Death Ward can target or the projectiles may fire toward attack immune primary targets despite being fully immune to attack damage.
- The pure attack damage and spell damage is sourced to the Death Ward itself, meaning certain on-damage effects (e.g. Blade Mail) react on the ward rather than on Witch Doctor.
- Bulwark only redirects the primary projectile.
- Neither reduces the damage of the primary projectile nor the bouncing projectile.
- The Death Ward spawned always faces east no matter which direction Witch Doctor is facing.
- Since the unit's attack projectile originates from the front of the unit model's skull, Death Ward has to turn and face the target before attacking within its radius, except in the 23° circular sector area marked green.
- With its 0.22-second attack rate and the max channeling time, the Death Ward can attack up to a maximum 37 times.
- Can deal up to 295.45/454.55/613.64 ( 500/659.09/818.18) damage per second to a single hero.
- Can deal up to 2405/3700/4995 ( 4070/5365/6660) damage (before reductions) to a single hero for the entire duration.
- Attacks from the Death Ward have a percentage-based accuracy, which prevents its attacks from being missed by 50% from evasion or blind effects.
- Stacks multiplicatively with other outgoing accuracy sources.
- After the channeling stops or is interrupted, the Death Ward is now phased and will expire in 5 seconds.
- During this time, the Death Ward provides a 5-second 1200 and 800 ground vision at its location.
- Attacks from the Death Ward now bounce toward the closest enemy units within 650 range and the same projectile can never hit the same unit twice.
- Cannot bounce to invisible units or on units in the Fog of War.
- Cannot bounce to attack immune secondary targets.
- Acquiring Aghanim's Scepter immediately upgrades the current Death Ward instance.
- The bouncing projectile's damage has the following properties:
- Does not perform instant attacks.
- Deals a fixed 65/100/135 ( 110/145/180) regular pure spell damage per projectile.
- The spell damage is neither based on the Death Ward's attack damage values nor the damage value received on the target.
- The damage does not trigger any attack modifier or on-hit effects and ignore evasion.
Paralyzing Cask Calculations[]
Level | Paralyzing Cask Damage Increase/ Bounce Hit | |||||||||||
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Base | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | ||
Hero Damage | ||||||||||||
Level 1 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | |||||||
Level 2 | 50 | 65 | 80 | 95 | 110 | 125 | 140 | |||||
Level 3 | 50 | 70 | 90 | 110 | 130 | 150 | 170 | 190 | 210 | |||
Level 4 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 | 150 | 175 | 200 | 225 | 250 | 275 | 300 | |
Creep Damage | ||||||||||||
Level 1 | 75 | 90 | 105 | 120 | 135 | |||||||
Level 2 | 75 | 97.5 | 120 | 142.5 | 165 | 187.5 | 210 | |||||
Level 3 | 75 | 105 | 135 | 165 | 195 | 225 | 255 | 285 | 315 | |||
Level 4 | 75 | 112.5 | 150 | 187.5 | 225 | 262.5 | 300 | 337.5 | 375 | 412.5 | 450 |
Talents[]
Hero Talents | ||
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+45 Death Ward Damage | 25 | +2% Max Health Voodoo Restoration Heal |
+25% Maledict Burst Damage | 20 | +75 Death Ward Attack Range |
+300 Health | 15 | +2 Cask Bounces |
+75 Maledict AoE | 10 | -25% Voodoo Restoration Mana Per Second |
Notes:
- The health talent increases the max health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.
Recent Changes[]
<div> <div class="updatetablehead"> <div id="version">Version</div><div id="description">Description</div> </div> <div class="updatetablebody">
- Death Ward
- Aghanim's Scepter no longer grants True Strike.
- Death Ward
- Reduced damage from 70/105/140 to 65/100/135.
- Voodoo Restoration
- No longer deals a base 10/22/34/46 magical damage per second.
- Increased base heal from 10/22/34/46 to 20/30/40/50.
- Talents:
- LVL 25+t41.5% Voodoo Restoration max health as heal/damage per second ➜ +2% Voodoo Restoration max health as heal.
</div> </div>
Recommended Items[]
Starting items:
- Tango sustains health so Witch Doctor can stay in lane.
- Healing Salve also restores health.
- Clarity sustains mana for Witch Doctor to use abilities.
- Observer Ward provides vision that may prevent enemy ganks or catch enemies when they are off guard.
Early game:
- Magic Stick is a useful health/mana restoring item if the enemies in lane are casting many spells. It can later be built into a Magic Wand.
- Boots of Speed give a speed boost, offering better escape and catch-up. They can later be built into Arcane Boots.
- Urn of Shadows gives early healing and damage for participating in ganks, and can be built into Spirit Vessel.
Mid game:
- Magic Wand is good for burst healing and mana while providing bonus attributes compared to the Magic Stick.
- Arcane Boots provides Witch Doctor with an increased mana pool, as well as the ability to supply himself and nearby allies with mana.
- Glimmer Cape can also be a good item which grants invisibility while casting Death Ward. Good support item which can be cast on allies/self while in danger.
- Medallion of Courage is a cheap item which reduces an enemy target's armor. Since Death Ward deals physical damage, using the Medallion of Courage on a low armor hero greatly increases the damage dealt by your ultimate.
Late game:
- Spirit Vessel lets Witch Doctor keep allies healthy in combination with Voodoo Restoration, and the percentage-based damage is devastating with Maledict.
- Black King Bar provides Witch Doctor with an increase to his low health pool, as well as spell immunity, preventing most enemies from cancelling your ultimate.
Situational items:
- Rod of Atos can be good as a pickup item for Witch Doctor support. It helps root enemy heroes, setting them up for a Death Ward.
- Scythe of Vyse gives Witch Doctor a large increase to his mana pool, as well as additional attributes and the ability to hex an enemy target. The ability to disable an important enemy target is crucial in the late game.
- Linken's Sphere is a useful item for Witch Doctor for the same reason as Black King Bar. While it only prevents one single target stun, its cooldown is much shorter and can be used on priority allies to increase their survivability.
- Refresher Orb will give great health and mana regeneration for Witch Doctor. And will also allow him to use his abilities and items twice in succession.
Dota Plus Progress[]
Main Article: Hero Challenges
Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.
Relics | Voice Lines | |
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Bronze |
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Silver |
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Gold |
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Platinum |
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Master |
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Grandmaster |
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Equipment[]
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Trivia[]
- Witch Doctor is sometimes called "The Walking Fountain", referring to his support abilities Voodoo Restoration and Death Ward.
- Witch Doctor's last hit response ▶️ "Pills here!" is a reference to "Left 4 Dead", another title from Valve, where the players can notify the other survivors that they found pills. The survivors would say "Pills here" upon finding some.[1]
- Witch Doctor's original name in DotA was Vol'jin, a reference to the character from the "Warcraft" universe. Vol'Jin is the warchief of the playable race, the Trolls.[2]
- Witch Doctor's fun name in DotA was Moose, taken from the player DL.Moose who played the Witch Doctor.
- His dying line ▶️ "Bad medicine.." is likely a reference to Bon Jovi's popular old classic "Bad Medicine".
- Witch Doctor's name, Zharvakko, is maybe a reference to the popular novel and film "Doctor Zhivago".[4]