I'm currently adding more info to some chapters (Bad enemies mostly) and then i'm going to kick some people for critique.

- Get HD images, these are from youtube and kinda bad.

The images used are Dr Facilier from 'the princess and the frog'. I currently use low-res screencaps, i will use hq images soon (need to get my own pc first).

So, after a long while, i'm back. And i intend to finish this guide.

A long time ago, back in 6.56, i wrote a fairly good guide on Vol'jin, the witch doctor. That was back at the old side, and it covered all the basics.

Note that every build or idea will be affected by your playstyle. Take what i say, practise it and make it your own - only that way, you can fully utilize anything.

I'm often flamed for some of my item builds - for instance, Skadi is my item of choice. This is because of playstyle preferences, so feel free to change it.

If you don't like the guide, that's your problem. If there's inconsistency or errors in the guide, that's my problem. Please comment on the latter.

I know i don't explain all of the basics - there's misc guides for that. I'm not going to show you in a picture - just try it. Trial and error is the best learning method people, so obey the Earth Mother.

As of yet, there's no changelogs from the time of publishing. It isn't published.

The goals are:

1. To offer a comprehensive introduction to the witch doctor


2. To provide a reference and analysis


3. To delve deeper into the secrets of letting the forumers appraise you

You have seen many terms already. You think you know what they mean. Unfortunately, these terms aren't universal. Some see potm as a carry, some see her as semi-carry/ganker.

in this guide:
Basic items / Core items: The things you really need. Things like urn/bottle, that are really helpful and especially fit the heroes theme.

Luxorious items: The expensive items you want to have. Nothing is said about actually having them every game. Nothing is said about you having a lane to farm so you can get them. Instead, its just an analysis why those items are good for vol'jin. Analyzing why something is good/bad makes you look at a hero more in depth, and thus is good practise. We don't usually let warlock farm, but we know refresher / guinsoos are good for him.

Support: I see support as the healer type. Necrolyte, warlock etc. Unfortunately, vol'jin only features lots and lots of killing, and something to get back up after that. Thus, i don't see vol'jin as support. He isn't there to heal, but to kill.

Ganker: Hero that is used for ganking specifically. If you're not picking it/him for anything else, its a primary ganker. In my opinion, vol'jin is a primary ganker. You're getting him to kill things.

Semi-Carry: A hero that i used for ganking, support or disabling. Can be used to carry if the needs arises.

Disabler: Heroes picked for disabling things. Examples: Rhasta,sven,raigor.

Carry: A 'carry' carries expensive items. He's the one you're playing ganker/support for. Basically, what we usually do is exert lane control so that that guy can afk farm for 30min.

The guide's mascotte is Dr. Facilier. He's a character featured in 'The princess and the frog'.

He's a witch doctor, a scoundrel, a plotting villian. And that's what a witch doctor should be. Both his magic and theme are the same as what i think it should be.

So i made him guide mascotte. The images are, at this moment, low-res and not really clear. I've added subtitles and i'm going to try and get bigger, high res images for the guide. For now, you just need to look closely. But ince 90% isn't going to read this, is going to scroll through the guide without reading anything, that doesn't matter. At all.

Vol'jin is one of the most agressive heroes in game. If you look in his skillset, you see 'kill', 'kill', 'kill them more' and 'get back up to kill'.

He has the most powerful amplifier in game - you can't deny it, and you needn't even deal 50% of their hp and they're dead.

Next up, he has stuns, heals and a dps ward that shoots fire. How good can it get?

Vol'jin is used in competive now, unlike when i first wrote this guide.

Why you ask? Because at last, people understand the overpowering agressive lane you get when using vol'jin+sven (for instance).

Now, this gives us an indication. During early game, vol'jin should be in an agressive lane. Sven, VS, crixalis, these are the kind of heroes you want with him. Especially sven / crixalis are good examples. Ranged AOE disable, deal damage themselves.

Once early-mid game drops in, you should change to ganking. Nothing keeps your carry save like dead heroes everywhere. Not to mention that it is fun to kill the enemy. Over and over again.

During late-mid your role starts to change. You're no longer the primary killer - instead, your job is to kill the support, and speed up the enemy carry's dead. Since, at this point, your EHP is low compared to most others, you shouldn't be in the front lines.

This carries on to lategame where your primary role is landing casks/maledict and heal up the rest of your team for pushing.

Vol'jin has stats. Seriously though, every hero has. But how do they compare?

2.9 Intelligence gain which is quite high for a primary stat gain. However, most int heroes are in the 2.5 - 3.4 region, with a few exceptions. Its a good stat gain, but it's only a bit above avarage for intelligence heroes.

1.4 Agility gain which is quite avarage. And since your primary damage is maledict / death ward, that doesn't matter at all. You've got enough gain to get some armour and to shadow walk, and that's what we want.

1.8 Strength gain - It isn't high and with vol'jin's low armour, it makes you very fragile. 35 HP / level isn't as much as we want.

So, our stat gains show us that we want to focus on Armour and HP. So basically we're going for EHP.

His missile speed (1200) is one of the best. It is very easy to lasthit with vol'jin - ranged, high missile speed, high damage, high primary stat gain. Together, this makes him very, very viable for a solo lane, and his ganking abilities amplify this.

Skillbuild:

1. Maledict


2. Stun


3. Maledict


4. Stun


5. Maledict


6. Ward


7. Maledict


8. Stun


9. Stun

Explanation:
First few levels, enemies hp is low. Maledict + shadowwalk deals the most damage.

Then, around lvl 3, the enemy will get some more agressive and probably a few ganks come in. Casks are a great anti-gank device.

Maledict still needs to be maxed, for the sheer killing potential it possesses.

Core items:


Explanation:
An urn is filled up in now time using vol'jin. The nuke is great because it deals damage over time in conjunction with maledict. It has a long casting range, making it perfect for chopping the last chunk of hp, even if it is just to be sure.
The heal makes the ganked-lane more stable, since you can heal that (probably) carry hero so that he can farm in peace. That's the purpose, ain't it?

Soulring+Bottle ensures that you'll never run out of mana. Add Voodoo restoration into that equation, and you can gank all day. Seriously, you got to base because the chicken is in use.

Magic wand doesn't even need explanation. Boots are mandatory, ofcourse.

Now, these are the luxorious items i recommend:
Dagger is an excellent item if you have some teamfight-orientated allies, such as crixalis/raigor. They will blink in and do a large disable and damage. And what's better than to be right next to them with maledict/death ward? This tactic usually gives you 2-3 death enemies.


Aghanims is a great item. Normally, you deal bounces. Bounces get reduced by armor. Say i deal 100 damage to rhasta (30% armor red) which bounces to davion (87% armor red). Then, rhasta gets 70 damage, and davion gets 9.1 damage. However, when this becomes multi-target, rhasta still gains 70 damage, but davion gets 13 damage. This should illustrate the difference between multi-targetting.

Now, add into that that multi-targetting increases the threat range of your ward, because it doesn't matter where the 'primary' target is, and you're good to go.


Guinsoos is a great item to add that disable to your team. It also gives you the mana regen to keep up Voodoo regen. These 2 together make it an excellent item, especially if your team is already winning but wants to push harder/more.

If you're relying on your death ward as primary dps, then you should definetly get a bkb. This little thingy ensures that, 95% of the time, you're able to do a full channel. Not to mention dodging spells and ganks with it.


Is my item of choice. This item gives you everything, from regen to hp to some extra dps. The slow / ias / damage give me the ability to shadowwalk people into the abyss while the armor/hp keeps me alive. I love this item. Especially when i'm not in need of extra disables, more dps, regen, when i only need to get some more hp for myself, then i buy this item. Which is half the time in my case.

Is a cheap item that gives you a dodge/getaway. It grants you extra ms, which never goes to waste. Next up, it also gives you a lot of regen, which is great in conjunction with voodoo regen.


When the enemy has assigned you as their primary target, you want a blademail. After that, stack up some hp, and you're probably going to laugh at them killing themselves during maledict.

Is obviously the best item ever. It gives ms, dps, last will vs aoe enemies, and truesight. This item can never be dismissed as a valid choice, especially vs invis heroes, AOE carries and in your pushing lineups.

Is one of the best items. It increases your threat range, since you can be at one side of the map and then at the other end, without too much teem in between. You don't spend money on tp's anymore, and you can countergank as soon as you see the gank incoming.

Vol'jin should take some initial farm during the laning phase. Why? Blabla support doesn't need farm?

Simple. That farm goes to things such as upgrading the chicken, wards, urn and bottle. Each of those items has one purpose; dominating the game so that your carry may farm.

That soon ceases. When you got an urn, you can already start ganking. Or killing whatever is in the lane. Just kill enemy heroes, that's the basics.

Now, if all goes well you should see your income rising from the money you get from the kills and assists. How to spend this income? Read up on the luxorious items a few chapters back, because they're situational. That's what you get for playing support/gankers.

Midgame is about killing things. Lategame is about disabling and amplifying so that your carry kills. And yes, its exacly the same thing, only in lategame, they're gonna kill you back. So take a bit more caution or hide behind the carry.

If you're on the offense, you want to land that maledict. This means that its probably saver to have your ally land a disable, then you followup with casks/maledict and profit.

In many games, you want a dagger for offensive play. Why, you ask? Because its so much easier to land maledict, especially when it hits them hard. Example: Magnus skewers from the river at mid to the tower, where 4 heroes of the enemy team are pushing. He catches them in his ultimate. You blink in, land maledict and throw casks. Magnus uses his shockwave, while you setup a ward. Meanwhile, an ally tp's the tower and throws his aoe nuke. Now, each of the enemy heroes has at least 700 hp lost, is maledicted before most of that damage (After magnus' ulti). this means that any hero within that circle below 1.5k hp is dead. Yes, that's quite neat.

On the defence you're probably not getting as much farm. You're actually quite happy to have your core, and you spend your time trying to keep them away from your carry. Chances of a wardwar are imminent, and you really need to minimalize your farm.

I'd say that if you get an item, you'd buy necrobook. It covers hp / dps issues, its a great item for counter ganking (Man, do they go raging if they're accidently blowing up the last will summon). Next up, bkb. It enables you to get away from ganks and gives you the time to be very, very threatening. Which surves many purposes, including fearing them from finishing off your carry.

Solo ganking strategies usually revolve around the following two situations.
A1) The enemy hero is farming and no ally seems to be near.
B1) You encounter 2 enemy heroes in the river.

In the case of A1, you're just going to linger around in the bushes till only the target and 1-2 creeps remain. This ensures that you'll be able to land 3-4 seconds of stun on his head, giving you enough time for maledict/ward shadowwalk so that he dies. Its very easy and effective.

In the case of B1, assess the situation carefully. Are you able to kill off one of the enemy heroes before the 4/5 seconds stun run out? If so, can you tank the nuking of the other one? If you're not dieing by it, or those two heroes really need to die, you can go for it. Ofcourse, allies come up as factors in your equation as well. Think if the risk involved is on equal terms with the profits. If so, or profit is higher, go for the kills.

An example of the first. Your VS is laning on bottom lane, against an enemy necrolyte. He's been having problems keeping the lane for some time, so necrolyte has to die. (Seriously, you're vol'jin. The enemy has to die whatever excuse you got.) VS pushes the lane a little, so that Necro stands next to the top of the trees at bottom, but isn't close to her tower. VS stuns her, and you throw cask from a distance (which probably will take those 1.6 seconds to travel) and maledict necro. (At this point, necro will have around 1k hp). You and VS starts attacking her, and necrolyte throws a heal. Now, probably another bounce comes in, making her stunned again. you and VS just go for your natural dps and for sake of the sure kill, you're swapping her back from the tower and dps some more. Worst case scenario? The gank is successfull, but both of you lost around 500 hp. You cast urn on VS and go back to ganking. Best case? You two only lost around 250hp and made some decent money.

I feel that the most effective vol'jin kills enemies. Everything screams 'kill'. Even voodo - its not a burst heal. Its not even a solid heal, it endangeres the patients and yourself during the heal. One AOE stun and you're a goner.

Meaning that he isn't meant to be played as a healer-support, in the sense of a hero that stays next to the carry to protect and heal him.

If vol'jin protects something, that means he's going to go after the enemy, throw bottles at them, curse 'm with ancient voodoo and then sell their souls for more power.

Casting range: Imagine your casting animation (IE targetting circle). Put one in front of your hero model. Put the second against it. That's your cast AOE, the second one is on your maximum range.

Some notes about maledict. It deals magic damage, so its not a real 40% amplify, but a 30%. Yes, this matters; if one deals 1000 spell damage, after resistance, you're dealing only 300 magic damage after res.

Now, a quite simple analysis shows us the total implification:

We cast maledict, and before tick one, we deal X damage. We take normal magic resistance (75%) into account, so the damage amplify becomes 30% per tick.

First tick: 30% of X
Second tick: 30% + 30% of 30% of x = 39% of X
Third tick: 0.39 + 0.3 * 0.39 = 50.7% of X

In total, 119.7% of the damage is done again. That's huge.
If you land after the first tick and before the second, its still 69%.
If you land after the seocnd and before the third, its 30%.

Seriously, the latter equals dirge's ultimate. It is collateral damage!

Deals /60/90/120, 1 bounce / 150, 3 targets at once/ chaos damage. The death ward has a dps of 200/300/400x2/500x3 chaos damage. It has a high range, but a low casting range. If you can, you want to channel it from a position that is hard to access. For example, the trees between scourge mid lvl 1 tower and the jungle ramp there are excellent.

Now, some background about the confusing damage type. In the original warcraft, units had an armor type: unarmored, light, medium, heavy, hero, divine. They also had an attack type: normal, piercing, chaos, hero,magic.

For instance, "Divine" armor had a high resistance against almost everything, but.. Chaos still dealth full damage to it.

A damage versus armor type adds in a little scaling. For example, magic damage deals 175% damage versus heavy armor. Chaos damage always deals 100% damage.

After that "scaling", the armor value is added in. This is what we normally do with "armor", since all heroes in dota have hero armor.

This also tells us something really annoying: Your ultimate gets reduced by armor and damage block (vanguard,poor mans, stout). Vanguard isn't too bad a counter, but luckily for us its high damage at a high attack speed. It isn't going to reduce much of our dps.

Then, bounces VS multi target. Luna has bounces; medusa has multi-target. With multitargetting, you can hit a target in front and behind you ; with bounces, you can't. By bouncing, each hit gets reduced by armor. So say rhasta, with -30% armor prot, gets hit. The bounce goes to davion, with 87% reduction. Then, only 13% of 70% of your damage gets dealth.. With multitargetting, our threat-area increases for multiple heroes, while the damage is higher. Its a win item.

Casks are really not so hard to land. It searches for a unit within 600 AOE that isn't the primary target and randomly bounces to one of the next ones.

They only stun for 1 second each, so you want to maximize it. When 2 heroes are together, the first will get stunned for 5 seconds and the second for 4 seconds. When 3 are together, the first will get stunned for 3 seconds, the second as well, and the third for 3 seconds. Yes, that's the same, cause 9/3 is 3.

It isn't so much as 'landing the stun' as it is 'timing the stun'. You want a situation where the enemies get hit by all casks, and isn't on the edge of your area. Also, you want to be able to attack him, so if he's in a position where he can walk under the tower (for example) before the next casks hits, its a no go.

Now, honor to whom deserves it. If you don't get it, just remember that its entirely random.

These are more general thoughts about the heal. For your information: It heals at a 0.33 second interval, 40/second total.

No, featuring a high-mana AOE healing spell doesn't make you a healer. It isn't burst healing. It's like, the most dangerous thing to do - using voodoo regen in somebody's threat area. You're going to be in 'aoe disable range' from each other. Sven throws his appartment, and you and your 'patient' are screwed.

This spell makes you agressive, yes. Agressive, in the sense that you can lose 95% of your hp in a fight, and still go on to pushing afterwards; the threat is gone, and you got a 40hp/s heal for the pushing.

Its a spell best used in a situation where you win teamfights, but can't make the best out of it because you're on low hp and don't dare to push.

This chapter features items that are often bought, but seem strange. Items such as dagon that are often featured in pubs, but don't seem to fit him as well as it seems are listed here.

It also features a list of good allies and bad enemies.

Now, what heroes are good allies for vol'jin?

Is a great ally for you. He has a disable and high damage. On top of that, his global nuke + dot is great for finishing people off. Since those who survive after you gank them generally do that with very,very little hp, AA finishes them off easily.

has a long range disable/damage. He gives you +50% hp, which is more EHP during ward channel. And X marks the Spot gets them back into your ward dps.

has high damage, a silence (keep channeling boys) and if they want to walk out of your AOE, they get more damage and disable.

they want to walk away from you as fast as they can. That implies a straight line or a lot of juking. Elune's arrow is great for a high damage nuke in those cases. Next up, starfall deals enormous damage and the disable from Elune's arrow is a full channel.

gives one of the most agressive lanes in dota. His AOE high damage stormbolt (usually reffered to as 'throwing an appartment block') gives you damage, time to deal damage. Next up, armor+ms buff helps you both in tanking and chasing.

has high long range nuking power and disables one or two enemies for a long time. Her focusfire also helps a lot. Especially using a hammer / anvil on them works wonders with windrunner.

has a slow, he has wild axes and he has a roar/split/stun ultimate. He's another gank hero, and the two work well together.

is a combination that always gets the attention. Unfortunately, it isn't that good. The requirements for setting up the combo (close range huskar + maledict) are the same for a ward/maledict kill. It is however, extremely fun to do and it'll be listed for that.

works well, since he's a suicidal bastard that hooks in, sets up them ministuns and cogs, and waits for it to die. If the enemy is stuck in place for 4-5 seconds at least, we can use that for a ward. Cogs+ward almost makes the kill all by itself.

is a funny combo. He provides -armor, which helps the ward's dps (after all, the ward is reduced by armor). He keeps you alive, and keeps you from dieing during ward. His slow/dot/ministun is also great.

Tide has a slow/nuke for the laning phase. Next up, he got an AOE Disable ultimate covering half the map. He's an excellent ally.

is one of my favourite heroes. He works well with vol'jin. Cold snap + ward = not getting away. Ward + Blast = Free channel. Maledict+one of his high damage combinations is a dead couple o' enemies.

is a hero that comes close fast, has a stun and has bash+high ms for chasing. Together, that makes him a decent ally.

has a 'pull' ultimate. Also, he deals high damage (Midnight pulse) and has an annoying damage/stun. Together, that makes him one of the greatest allies for vol'jin.

With his long disable and high burst damage, centaur makes an excellent ally for vol'jin. Since he can jungle and will generally go for the blink dagger, he's going to make food of the enemy.

vendetta+stun and vol'jin is happy. Great ganking ally, but a bit of an overkill.

High burst damage + Maledict. Need i say more?

High damage nuke/stun, -armor, swap. Quite easy, and very effective.

packs a lot of stuns, damage, and more stuns. Easy maledict+ward there.

nice damage, slow, a stun, a dot. I'd say he fits the picture.

Okay, seriously? By now you need to get the picture. Disablers are NEAT, high damage works, both are awesome.

Panda has high health, evasion (against ward), high physical dps and can laught at you with his freaking panda's. Panda is easily a strong counter against vol'jin, because he can just walk up to you and smash you into the river.

features long range disables and damage. Meteor, Hurricane, Defeaning blast, Cold snap and forge all counter your ultimate. Unless you have a bkb, a decent invoker can counter your performance very hard.

can jungle, and a decent one will have a blink dagger. With his high damage pulse/ultimate, his annoying stun and the ability to disable everything for a long time, he's able to make you lose a lot of kills.

Again, long ranged disables and X marks. He can disrupt your combo's.

With the ability to instagib you with his combo, his high hp and the tendancy to buy some decent armour, this hero is a pain. When he gets his blink, you're done for. Also, his new Tree animation is clearly an indicator of eternal damnation.

has heals and the nomnomfernal. Unless you have a purger or bought a diffusal in your team, he's going to land that thing on your ward, breaking the channel. Then, that huge infernal is going to walk up to you, and he's going to smash you. Which is bad.

he has a ranged AOE stun that has quite some damage. He's a physical dps that deals high damage pretty quick. And then there's the fact that he's a strength hero and usually goes armlet. Tanky buildup, high dps and a stun. Yes, we see the bad enemy since in there.

If this bugger gets his blink, there's only one thing you can do. Ghost sceptre. Else, you're probably going to get chopped up into little pieces. That would be bad.

Is one of the most annoying heroes. His Hawk sees your ganks. His piggy keeps you away. His stun is long ranged, hurts like hell and then he's going to throw axes. Oh, had i mentioned that he is a physical dps with high hp? yeh, i thought so.

Long ranged high damage stun. It's kinda bad if you're ganking, channeling the ward and all, and she goes "Chpauw" and you're halfdead and stunned for a few seconds.

Now, i think the tendancy here is also clear. High HP physical dps's and long range disables screw you up. The new heroes also deserve some noticing, but we'll wait for the rebalance.

Previous sections pointed out that we only need to deal 46.1% of his total hp, so that it dies. Now, with a huge damage ward, some allies, you're easily around 700 damage. that's a dead 1518 hp hero.

What do you need the dagon for? Kill stealing? Making an overkill? guys, 461 damage is a dead 1k hp hero.

Yes, pubbies go by this item. It doesn't boost your weaknesses, nor your strength. Yes, you kill things. Yes, you would've done so otherwhise. No, this item surves no purpose for you. If you want an extra nuke, get more urn charges.

I'm going to thank Lycan, our brave mod that can't handle mathematics, for being a friend which brought me to dota, and being there when i need him most. I'm also going to express my gratitude for icefrog and the beta team, the people that bring us new content every time.

Also, if you're unsure about certain things, such as "shadowwalking", you need to read through lycan's guides.

Replays will come as soon as i'm able to pull whatever i need off my old hdd. Sorry, my computer didn't like the coca cola i gave him.

Guides by lycan:
Forming and Becoming a Pack 1 - DotA Guides
Forming and Becoming a Pack 2 - DotA Guides
Form and Become a Pack: Part[3] - DotA Guides
[Warding]The Eye of The Wolf - DotA Guides