Dota 2: How to Build Witch Doctor as a Tank

In my first article about Dota I presented a build proposal for the Witch Doctor, detailing his abilities and proposing a build focused on healing (which you can check out here) using Bloodstone to improve your skills, mainly Voodoo Restoration and Maledict.

However, with the current wave of patches we saw the debut of facets in the game, which changed how some heroes act and interact, enabling new lines of play and one of the Doctor's facets resurrected an old build from some time ago.

Voodoo Festeration

Doctor gained three facets. Headhunter, Cleft Death and Voodoo Festeration, with the latter being the focus of this article.

Voodoo Festeration turns the Doctor's healing ability into an aura effect that deals DPS to enemies, in addition to increasing the area of ​​effect, consuming mana while it’s active. Therefore, the build proposed here focuses on this ability and its potential to make the hero a true tank capable of withstanding everything that’s thrown at him.

Hero Build

Based on the same idea as the build I presented in my first article, you will start the game as Support 5 with traditional support items and at the end of the Lane Phase you will change your stance, acting more like a Support 4/Tank.

The main objective is to support the Carry in the safe lane until you release your level 6 skill and take down the tower. Next, you must have equipped Arcane Boots to guarantee mana supply, Aghanim’s Shard to release your second Ultimate and have started acquiring Bloodstone, which provides Spell Lifesteal and increases the area of ​​effect of your skills.

Spell Lifesteal is an important concept here, as it’s the heart of this build. Voodoo will provide healing per second to you and deal damage per second to enemies. The more Spell Lifesteal you have, the faster you’ll heal. However, only different sources accumulate the spell lifesteal bonus, so you will need other items to accompany the Bloodstone.

Kaya and Sange is the perfect item for this. It not only offers bonus spell lifesteal and normal lifesteal but also improves intelligence and strength attributes, as well as providing bonus life regeneration by 25%, Slow Resistance by 25%, mana regeneration by 50% and reducing mana loss by 25%, which basically allows you to keep Voodoo active almost 100% of the time.

With Radiance, the Witch Doctor will receive 20% attack evasion and a bonus of 55 attack damage points, but the main reason for using this item, which is one of the most expensive in the game, is to keep it activated to cause 60 points of damage per second in a radius around you, in addition to causing enemies within the radius to have a 15% increased chance of missing attacks. The biggest advantage here is that the area damage dealt by Radiance counts towards Bloodstone's lifesteal spell and provides more sustain for the Doctor as he burns his enemies.

Last but not least, you can also count on items like Aghanim’s Scepter, to improve your ultimate, and Shiva’s Guard to finish the build. Shiva's has a special space, as in addition to making Doctor even more resistant, it can also be used to slow enemies and amplify damage from all sources, including items, such as Radiance.

In some cases, you may be forced to opt for other alternatives, such as doing Blink Dagger instead of Glimmer Cape, or prioritizing an Aeons Disk in the middle of the game, but in general, the healing provided by the build will be more than enough as long as you follow the strategy correctly.

And speaking of strategy, let's address this point from here on.

You may be wondering how you will farm all the money needed to buy items like Radiance and Bloodstone so quickly, the answer is simple. As soon as the lane phase ends, move around the jungle and farm the creeps in the camps by combining Paralyzing Cask and Voodoo. If you already have the Bloodstone, you can do this with some ease and, if you actively participate in combat while farming, you can easily purchase the other items.

In combat, don't forget to always activate Bloodstone before using Death Ward, as the ult is channeled and Bloodstone interrupts its effect. After casting Maledict, use your Voodoo aura to damage the fleeing enemy and take advantage of the curse's effect.

Combine Death Ward with Glimmer Cape to ult and become invisible, leaving the enemy's field of vision. If you already have a Shard, as soon as you come out of invisibility or at the end of using Death Ward, you can connect the Voodoo Switcheroo to “ult again”.

I started playing ranked games again at the beginning of the year and I have been using this build, and have won all the games I have played using it so far. As I said in my first article, Witch Doctor is my favorite hero and, recently, I reached the mark of 116 games with this hero and a 54.3% winrate, something I'm proud of since I play Dota much more for fun and at a much lower game volume than most competitive players.

So I can say that this is my favorite build at the moment, and it’s very efficient, whether in a competitive or casual match.

I conclude another article here. Leave your questions, suggestions, criticisms and/or compliments in the comments. Thanks for reading, and see you next time.