Hero
Witch Doctor
   18 + 2.3
13 + 1.4
22 + 3.3
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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. Paralyzing Cask is a somewhat-unreliable stun that requires multiple enemies to bounce between to be effective, but can provide a barrage of stuns to the enemy team if they are grouped together. Death Ward has the potential to be one of the most damaging ultimates in the game as long as he is able to channel the spell uninterrupted.
Bio
Zharvakko, the Witch Doctor▶️ "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.
Voice:
Abilities
Launches a cask of paralyzing powder that ricochets between enemy units, stunning and damaging those it hits.
Cast Range: 700
Bounce Distance: 575
Number of Bounces: 2/4/6/8 (
4/6/8/10)
4/6/8/10)Hero Damage: 50/60/70/80
Creep Damage: 75/100/125/150
Hero Stun Duration: 1
Creep Stun Duration: 5
20/
80/
The Witch Doctor recycles the bones of fallen friends and foes, using the powder as part of his arsenal of charms and alchemy.
- The cask travels at a speed of 1000.
- The projectile bounces in 0.3-second intervals.
- Can bounce on the same unit multiple times, but only when another target was hit between the bounces.
- Cannot bounce on invisible, invulnerable or hidden units, but can bounce on units in the Fog of War.
- Multiple casks from the same hero both reset and share the remaining number of bounces between all instances.
- Can deal up to 150/300/500/750 ( 225/400/625/900) damage to creeps, or 100/180/280/400 ( 150/240/350/480) damage to heroes (before reductions).
- All bounces together can deal up to 225/500/875/1350 ( 375/700/1125/1650) damage to creeps, or 150/300/490/720 ( 250/420/630/880) damage to heroes (before reductions).
- All bounces together can deal up to 225/500/875/1350 (
- The cask first applies the debuff, then the damage.
- Illusions are treated as creeps, while Roshan and creep-heroes are treated as heroes.
Heal Radius: 500
Base Heal per Second: 16/24/32/40
Mana Cost per Second: 8/12/16/20
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5
Max Health as Heal per Second: 2% 0
35/
Modifiers [?]
modifier_voodoo_restoration_aura
Death
modifier_voodoo_restoration_heal
Undispellable
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.
- Heals for 5.28/7.92/10.56/13.2 health (+ 0.66% of max health) and costs 2.64/3.96/5.28/6.6 mana in 0.33-second intervals, starting 0.33 seconds after toggled on.
- The heal is provided by an aura. The buff lingers for 0.5 seconds.
- The mana cost is also depending on the aura.
- This means when toggled Off, the ability still heals and drains mana for 0.5 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.
- It does not affect invulnerable or hidden units.
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.
Cast Range: 575
Radius: 180 ( 480)
480)Damage per Second: 7/14/21/28
Lost Health as Burst Damage: 16%/24%/32%/40% ( 41%/49%/57%/65%)
41%/49%/57%/65%)Burst Damage Interval: 4
Curse Duration: 12
30/
105/
Modifiers [?]
modifier_maledict
Death
modifier_maledict_dot
Death
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 entirely based on the difference between the hero's current health and its health as the curse got applied.
- This means the bigger the difference of current health and health upon receiving the debuff gets, the more damage the bursts do.
- Vice versa, the lower the difference gets, the lower is the damage of the bursts, so 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 damage by Maledict, depending on when the health was lost during the curse on each level (before reductions):
- 0–3.9 Seconds: 48%/72%/97%/121% ( 124%/148%/172%/196%)
- 3.9–7.9 Seconds: 32%/48%/64%/80% ( 82%/98%/115%/131%)
- 7.9–11.9 Seconds: 16%/24%/32%/40% ( 41%/49%/57%/65%)
- 0–3.9 Seconds: 48%/72%/97%/121% (
- Deals its own 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 109.9/249.6/423.1/634.8 ( 161/360.7/603.7/895.1) damage to a unit (before reductions).
- The debuff can be placed on illusions and creep-heroes.
- Does not affect invulnerable and hidden units. Affects invisible units.
Voodoo Switcheroo
Ability
No Target
No Target
Affects
Self / Enemy Heroes
Self / Enemy Heroes
Turns Witch Doctor into a Death Ward for 2 seconds. Death Ward has -30 Attack Speed. He is hidden during this time.
Death Ward Attack Speed Reduction: 30
Duration: 2
70
250
- Requires Aghanim's Shard to be unlocked.
- Turns Witch Doctor invulnerable, hidden, and unable to act for the duration.
- The Death Ward is summoned at Witch Doctor's location. It is based on Death Ward's current level.
- If Death Ward is not learned, Voodoo Switcheroo does nothing on cast.
- Same notes as for Death Ward and its upgrades fully apply.
- Voodoo Switcheroo cannot be canceled earlier, but it is dispellable.
- However, since Witch Doctor is invulnerable and hidden for the duration, most dispels cannot target him.
- Only continuous dispels such as Demonic Purge and Nullify can remove the spell if the debuff was applied before Voodoo Switcheroo was casted.
- In these cases, the spell ends immediately, wasting its mana and cooldown.
- The Death Ward has its attack speed reduced by 30, attacking slower than a regular Death Ward cast.
- With its 0.22 second attack rate and the 30 attack speed slow, it can attack up to 7 times.
- With the current attack rate and damage, it can deal up to 0 ( Lua error in Module:Calculate at line 35: in expression "v1*3.1818181818182 round2".</span></strong>/) damage per second to a single hero.
- Can deal up to 0 ( Lua error in Module:Calculate at line 35: in expression "ceil(3.1818181818182*2)*v1".</span></strong>) damage to a single hero (before reductions).
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Death Ward
Affects
Enemy Heroes
Enemy Heroes
Summons a deadly ward to attack enemy heroes within it's attack range. Lasts a maximum of 8 seconds.
Cast Range: 600
Max Channel Time: 8
Bounce Distance: 650 80
200
Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:
Death Ward attacks have True Strike and bounce between nearby enemies.
Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:
Grants a new ability: Voodoo Switcheroo.
Witch Doctor performs a ritualistic dance, one that haunts the dreams of those who live to recount it.
- Death Ward automatically attacks enemy heroes within its attack range, using ◉ Standard auto attack rules.
- Upon being created, the ward attacks the closest enemy hero to it. After that, it follows default auto attack rules.
- It is possible to manually give Death Ward an attack target with A or Right Click an enemy in range.
- With Unified Orders with Ctrl, Ctrl+ Right Click an enemy in range will command Death Ward to attack the target.
- It is also possible to stop the wards from attacking with S (only works when the auto-attack option is ◎ Never).
- Can only attack heroes, including clones and illusions, excluding creep-heroes.
- The damage source is the ward itself, meaning certain on-damage effects react on the ward rather than on Witch Doctor (e.g. Blade Mail).
- Death Ward's attack damage is not reduced by Damage Block.
- With its 0.22 second attack rate, it can attack up to 37 times.
- With the current attack rate and damage, it can deal up to 0 ( Lua error in Module:Calculate at line 35: in expression "v1*4.5454545454545 round2".</span></strong>) damage per second to a single hero.
- Can deal up to 0 ( Lua error in Module:Calculate at line 35: in expression "ceil(4.5454545454545*8)*v1".</span></strong>) damage to a single hero (before reductions).
- Provides 1200/800 range ground vision for 5 seconds at its location after the channeling stops.
- With Aghanim's Scepter, attacks from Death Ward have True Strike and bounce towards the closest enemy heroes within 650 range, including clones and illusions, excluding creep-heroes.
- Does not perform instant attacks. The bouncing projectiles are entirely spell-based.
- This means they do not trigger any attack modifier or on-hit effects, ignore evasion, and count as spell damage. However, damage block affects them.
- The bouncing attacks deal damage based on the damage amount calculated for the leading attack. Attack damage amount is calculated upon attack begin.
- Does not bounce on invisible units or units in the Fog of War. One projectile can never hit the same unit twice.
Talents
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
| +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
Main Article: Witch Doctor/Changelogs
Version
Description
- 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.
Recommended Items
Gameplay
| 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. The Witch Doctor Maledicts his adversaries, forcing them to relive the agony they will inevitably receive from his Death Ward. | |
| Roles: |  Support  Nuker  Disabler
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| Complexity: | 
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| Adjectives: | Legs ( 2 )
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Audio
History
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.
- The line ▶️ "Ask not for whom the spell tolls." is a reference to John Donne's poem "Meditation XVII".[3]
- Witch Doctor's name, Zharvakko, may be a reference to the popular novel and film Doctor Zhivago.[4]
Gallery
Model
Wraith-Night artwork
Concept art
Concept art
Concept art
Concept art
Ability icon progress
Hero icon progress
