Voodoo Jester, WitchDoc on steroids

[Travakh]

EDIT: This guide is pretty outdated, and updating it is on the backburner; use the other voodoo jester guide

(Stole item pictures from the sticky, credit to Hucklecat, he's a bro)
Voodoo Jester is absurdly overpowered at the moment, abuse him while you can. He is essentially an unmatched early/mid game ganker and easily farms his way to the standard int hero control item loadout.

EDIT: I have adjusted the skillbuild now that spirit ward is no longer countered by an iron buckler.

Skills:
ACID COCKTAIL: Throws a projectile that bounces between targets randomly, up to 2/4/6/8 bounces. Non heroes are all stunned for 5 seconds. The first hit on a hero (the hero you click on) stuns for 1.5 seconds, each subsequent stun is 1 second. Heroes suffer no damage, creeps suffer ?/?/?/150. This is the skill you use to set up Cursed Ground/Maledict, as otherwise landing is is somewhat difficult. In addition at level 4 this allows very easy and cost effective jungle farming.

MOJO: Identical to Warlock's shadow word pain. 10/20/30/40 hp lost or regenerated per second for 8 seconds, depending on if the target was allied or opposed. Not imbalanced in of itself, ridiculously imbalanced with maledict.

CURSED GROUND: Curses a small area. For each hero that sustains the curse, every 100 life lost from the beginning of the curse results in an additional 10/20/30/40 magic damage taken every 4 seconds, up to the 12th second (3 ticks). This essentially amplifies all damage dealt to the hero by a huge amount because of the multiple ticks, there are graphs of the amplification effect (150% amp at level 4!). Suffice it to say that it's enough to cut down even the toughest heroes.

SPIRIT WARD: Plants an attacking ward that fires at enemy heroes, doing 60/90/120(90/120/150) physical damage per shot. This spell must be channeled. This ward unloads a very large amount of damage in a short time, but unfortunately the moment enemies see you plant it they will stun you. However, when combined with cursed ground the damage it deals is amplified, and a cursed hero that stays anywhere near the ward for a few seconds is dead. Note that this is physical damage and thus reduced by high armor. (Helm of the black legion no longer reduces spirit ward damage which strengthens the skill greatly)

Witchdoctor is balanced in dota because of his lack of significant direct damage other than his range attack (ward is easily walked away from). Curse->Mojo guarantees easy kills early game and does ludicrous amounts of damage from levels 6 to 11.

Skillbuild
1. Cocktail
Cursed Ground
Cocktail
Cursed Ground
Cursed Ground
6. Spirit Ward
Cursed Ground
Mojo
Mojo
Mojo
11. Mojo
Cocktail
Cocktail
Ward
Stats
16.Ward
Stats the rest of the way

Two levels in cask are typically sufficient to land the maledict in the early game. Ward is unnecessary early because of the strength of Mojo and the difficulty of placing and channeling it in a useful position without being interrupted or killed.

OPTIONAL: Although I believe you need two levels early game, you can pick only one level in cask and put the other into mojo to try and get a very early gank.

Item Build
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/accessories/item1pretendercrown.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/accessories/item1pretendercrown.jpgPretender's Crown x2 - 185x2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/accessories/minortotem.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/accessories/minortotem.jpg Minor Totem x2 - 53x2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/supplies/item12runesofblight.jpgRunes of the Blight - 90

Standard +6 stat loadout. Keep in mind Jester doesn't typically have the mana pool to do more than one cask->curse->mojo combo before being completely drained. Do not spam your spells.

Buy/Build
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/accessories/crushingclaws.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/accessories/crushingclaws.jpg Crushclaws x2 - 150x2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Initiation/item6fortifiedbracelet.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Initiation/item6fortifiedbracelet.jpgFortified Bracelet x2 - 175x2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Relics/item11Marchers.jpgMarchers/Boots - 500

DEPENDING ON THE SITUATION
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Weapons/punchdagger.jpgPunchdagger - 500
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/accessories/neophytesbook.jpg Novice's Book - 1000
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Supportive/codex.jpgCodex L1 - 1350

or

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Secret%20Shop/manatube.jpg Manatube - 875
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/accessories/blessedorb.jpg Blessed Orb - 2100

The choice here is between improving your spike damage and picking up sheepstick for team fights. In unorganized games codex is almost always the better choice, as combined with mojo it's 720 unavoidable damage on the maledict, which kills everyone under 1500 health without a sweat. On the other hand, early sheepsticks allow for very high damage stacking from your death ward, and are invaluable in team fights. The additional all around stats and mana regeneration also help a great deal when babysitting teammates.

Build Late
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Secret%20Shop/acolytesstaff.jpgAcolyte's Staff - 2700g
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Supportive/totemofkuldra.jpgBuild totem of Kuldra if you haven't already
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Initiation/posthaste.jpgPost-Haste - 2200
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Weapons/platemail.jpg Platemail - 1400g
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Secret%20Shop/acolytesstaff.jpg Acolyte's Staff - 2700g
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Protective/item11frostfieldplate.jpgFrostfield Plate - 600g

The sheepstick is the go-to disable and crucial for team battling, and its other stats gives Jester the regen and stats he needs. Shivas boosts survivability a great deal and adds another 200 damage to the spike on the maledict.

OPTIONAL ITEMS
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Protective/shrunkenhead.jpgShrunken Head - 3910g

Great item on witchdoctor if you want to get your ult channel off all the way. I personally find it difficult to choose this item over sheepstick early, however, because the hex is that much more valuable, and you likely won't have time to farm both and your shivas. If you pick this item up, pick it up right after sheepstick and pick up the next item - forgo shiva's entirely.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Combative/staffofthemaster.jpgStaff of the Master - 6000g

The stats make it a great survivability booster, and improving the ult is a nice touch. There are better options for raw survivability, though, and the improvement to the ward dps is countered by an assault cuirass.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/snagg3r/HoNItems/Supportive/hellflower.jpgHellflower - 5025g

Cheap damage, good silence, infinite mana, but every item I've listed so far should be higher priority (maybe except codex) because this item does nothing for your survivability and a disabler jester shouldn't be autoattacking that often. Pick it up for pub carry jesters.

Playstyle
Last hit and harass. Jester has one of the highest base damages of any hero and has good lane staying power with his heal. Don't bother going for the kill if solo until level 5 (L3 cursed ground), if your teammate has a direct damage spell a level 3 kill is usually viable. Casking is a superb escape mechanism, and your heal should make you essentially immune to opposing harass and ganks, given proper situational awareness.

Into midgame, the combo is easy enough. Avoid initiating fights, as good opponents will see the cask and spread out. Otherwise, cask->cursedground->mojo->codex->ward if the cask still has them locked down. Remember that cursed ground has a short cast range, if at all possible cask at close range to immediately light off the cursed ground. Whatever you hit should die.

This doesn't change late game, but you need to coordinate with your team in terms of locking down opposing carries, saving teammates with appropriate sheeps and casks, and shredding enemy tankers with cursed ground.

Keep in mind that voodoo jester is one of the more speedy and cost efficient int farmers once his cask is level 4 - one cast of cask will clear a camp while you autoattack stunned creeps. Consider leveling cask to 4 early and ignoring mojo if you had a bad early game and don't have either your codex or sheepstick parts deployed.

BUDDIES
(Icons: Pyromancer, Thunderbringer, Blacksmith) - Standard int heroes with heavy direct damage complement your cursed ground quite well.
(Icons: Swiftblade, Jereziah) - Heroes that require positioning complement your cask and can up your cursed ground ticks.

ENEMIES
(Icons: Jereziah, Demented Shaman, Accursed) - Because cursed ground calculates the difference in hp between ticks, healers will ruin your day and prevent cursed ground from being effective.
(Icons: Predator, Jereziah, Magebane) - Magic immunity and magical damage reduction also hurt your cursed ground's effectiveness.

[aeriander]

Wouldn't you want to start with boots to run away from possible ganks?
Also, how do you cope with such a high mana cost with no early regen items?

[Travakh]

Wouldn't you want to start with boots to run away from possible ganks?
Also, how do you cope with such a high mana cost with no early regen items?

Boots are not for escaping, they're merely for improving map mobility. More hp resists ganks, the stuncask can stop a gank in its tracks.

And you cope with the mana cost by not spamming spells. You throw one damage combo, and if low on health, you go back to base to heal when things become suspicious. As an int hero with high growth his base regeneration is quite high.

[Liquidsword]

You only need 1 point in the stun in order to get kills with maledict.

The bouncing is nice when you're going up against several heros, which isn't until late early to mid game.

I usually don't even touch the ult until level 7+ too since you can't even casque+maledict+ult on his mana pool at 6 unless you took a bunch of int items.

If you're playing in a pub game I usually take codex/enhanced marchers/assassin shroud.

If I were playing him competitively with an organized team I'd most likely attempt to get a Kuldra staff after enhanced marchers, though codex is always nice on him.

[TurooX]

start with bottle, when you reach lvl 6 cast the casque start the reg with bottle cast maledict then ult. You will have enought mana for them all if you use the bottle right.

[Galvor]

what item is sheepstick?

[SyKot]

what item is sheepstick?

Totem of Kudra. Now is like more mouthstick or whatever that thing is lol.

[Lethe]

Voodoo Jester is a messed up hero. If you skill him like a witch doctor, he is actually inferior since voodoo restoration >> shadow word mid/late game (shadow word=mojo).

Yes you can solo him with ease just like you would solo old warlock. I don't advocate any particular skill build with him. All his skills are better then stats though, and depending on the situation you will want to play around with his skill build.

[Lolpewpewpew]

Dumb noob question: why use totem of kuldra instead of, say, Hellflower which provides more damage, more mana regen and ias?

[Guile]

because a HEX is always going to be an important item..

[Lolpewpewpew]

because a HEX is always going to be an important item..
:confused:

[SuperStanos]

:confused:

You know that clickable ability on Kuldra that makes a hero useless for 3.5 seconds? That's really good and can turn the tides far better than a Hellflower can.

[Travakh]

Voodoo Jester is a messed up hero. If you skill him like a witch doctor, he is actually inferior since voodoo restoration >> shadow word mid/late game (shadow word=mojo).

Yes you can solo him with ease just like you would solo old warlock. I don't advocate any particular skill build with him. All his skills are better then stats though, and depending on the situation you will want to play around with his skill build.

He traded his mid game push assist skill for gank assist + low-cost babysitting skill. This is neither a good or bad change, just modifies playstyle slightly.

[Marko_RS]

Imba hero, if u are near and he used stun curse and ulti, u can say goodbye...

[prof]

Havent played him, but i liked the way he looked more in dota..

[ddewe]

Witch doctor was one of my favorites in dota, but I've almost only played -ar and therefore never played jester and I had no idea about the shadowpain-thingy, now I know for sure and I will absolutely use him way more, thanks for a great guide :)

[Travakh]

Dumb noob question: why use totem of kuldra instead of, say, Hellflower which provides more damage, more mana regen and ias?

Oops, missed this. Hexing an opponent locks his movespeed to 100, meaning if you plant your ward properly your ward lands many, many more hits. Totem of Kuldra also gives you all around stats and hex is more useful in team fights.

Hellflower is for int heroes that autoattack in team fights, such as puppet master (superb item on him), as it's a main damage item. Witchdoctor should almost never be autoattacking.

[Lethe]

Where is shrunken head in your build? I don't see it.

[Jo]

Witch doctor was allways one of my favorites in dota and I still play him alot in HoN.

Mostly I agree with your item build although I normaly go one null+trees->void stone and pick ward at 6, I then Make a situation where I'll get a kill from it early which usally works.

In original dota I allways liked getting power threads strength on him(!) since everything about them is awsome on him but usally get phase boots now instead for the simple reason that everyone else seems to, really sucks to delay the hp and as boost though.

Shrunken head is defiintly third on my list and will pretty much be mandatory for organized games, probably even sooner than I usaly do in pugs. Finish of with shivas or more hp. After he gets his sheepstick he's an supreme farmer.

very unhappy they removed his aoe heal, allways thought it was the only viable endgame heal in dota.

[Travakh]

Where is shrunken head in your build? I don't see it.

I put sheepstick over it as I discount his ult heavily. It's a good item for him and I'll note it in once I get around to editing the guide, but it's unnecessary if you rush sheep and play as a disabler/support.

Plus one bad experience when I bkb-warded and got bashed out of the channel, way back in .56 or sometime near there

[akitoes]

I fail at maledict.
Do i need portal key ?

[Travakh]

I fail at maledict.
Do i need portal key ?

No, keep in mind the length of his cast point and the very short cast range. Don't cask at max range.

[Bastila]

Too bad we can't lothar/cloak after we cast our ult anymore. It was an amazing plus for this hero and many others... personally I don't know how they missed letting heroes channel and then cloak while continuing to channel.

[Jo]

on a related note, two times so far I've seen his ward keep fireing and doing damage even after he's dead, like full on 6 shoots plus (until it was done basicly). This provided some lulz

[Lethe]

on a related note, two times so far I've seen his ward keep fireing and doing damage even after he's dead, like full on 6 shoots plus (until it was done basicly). This provided some lulz

that was a bug, it has been fixed.

[spudwinkle]

good guide. great feedback.
:D

[CoinOpGenius]

great guide but i would like to note that the first time i used him i did suprisingly well (and i consider myself a noob) with frostifield plate and went 11/4/20 (i think the best ive ever done though it may have something to do with the hero lineup lol

[RowSkin]

Good guide but very difficult to follow for anyone that has not played DotA. You switch between the dota and hon names for things a lot but only give the hon names with the descriptions so I had to have to other pages open and search through them to find out what you were talking about.

[Iz1]

I dont know... but i never got the same gamefeeling with him like with witch in dota... but anyway very simple with maledict to get some tripple kills ;D

[SOULstealerZ]

You only need 1 lvl of cocktalis,maybe none because it's not so hard to hit with cursed ground,and once you do it cast mojo 1 basic attack and target is probably dead.Bring back aoe heal instead of mojo!

[TheReaper]

If you are able to farm quickly, I would be inclined of getting Staff of the Master over Totem of Kuldra.

Why you might ask? Well, not because of the damage bonus but because this way, his ultimate at level 16, will hit 3(three) heroes and jump onto another one. So 4 heroes are getting attacked by your ward.

Add a shrunken head, or a Jereziah to shield you, and the enemy team is pretty much pushed back to the well if not killed, or the enemy push can be pushed back quite easily. This advantage is a GREAT asset in mid game where they tanks dont have so much hp. Just Maledict and place the ward, if you have at least 1 stunner its gg.

Anyway, it depends on the game/oposing team/situation. But I tried this in my games and it never failed me until now :)

[Travakh]

I'll have to revise this guide again because helm of the black legion/iron buckler is again bugged and blocks ward damage.

Spirit ward's dps is kicked to the curb by a block item

[elevator13]

I'll have to revise this guide again because helm of the black legion/iron buckler is again bugged and blocks ward damage.

Spirit ward's dps is kicked to the curb by a block item

I tested it in Practice, it seems like the block numbers like -20 and -40 show up but no damage is actually reduced.

[SumSauce]

Bastila - "Too bad we can't lothar/cloak after we cast our ult anymore. It was an amazing plus for this hero and many others... personally I don't know how they missed letting heroes channel and then cloak while continuing to channel."

you can still do that with him, saw it today. just shroud right after you cast your ult, and you'll be invisible for the duration. incredibly cheap because they cant stun you out of it (without wasting dust)

[iOP1]

You Dont even need his ward at lvl 1-10, If anything Mojo Deals A Large Amount of damage early game With Cursed Ground Applied. (500+) approximately.

[Llama]

Too bad we can't lothar/cloak after we cast our ult anymore. It was an amazing plus for this hero and many others... personally I don't know how they missed letting heroes channel and then cloak while continuing to channel.

Ive tried it, it works just like it used to.

Mojo+curse is also something like 1200 dmg at both level 4 (before reduction) I worked it out sometime ago

[Thysios]

WD was fav hero in DotA and imo he is better then HoN's version, his ult did chaos dmg and i think maledict was better then the new one.

[Llama]

Why you might ask? Well, not because of the damage bonus but because this way, his ultimate at level 16, will hit 3(three) heroes and jump onto another one. So 4 heroes are getting attacked by your ward.

The boosted ward doesn't bounce, its only 3 targets at level 3 (2 targets for level 2 boosted and vanilla level 3, and one target for the rest)

[mataCRO1]

codex on voodoo FAIL !

[mataCRO1]

Coctail and Cursed max ASAP....get assasin shroud ASAP not stupid codex...waste of gold...after shroud get staff of master.

[SUNSfan]

nobody's ultimate is improved more by SotM than voodoo

[Juke_Box]

codex on voodoo FAIL !

elaborate when making statements like this.

I believe it can dominate early game. If you can get it within 10min mark, it dominates, especially now that mana cost is only ~100.

I would go as far to say that its core on pubs, but only for players who can juke effectively.

[TBAG1]

i dont get why people consider getting shroud as core(or getting it at all). Of course it's cool "durr hurr there is a ward but no voodoo jester!?!?!1?" "wtf? is bug or maybe?" but really as soon as they get gem, wards or "waste dust" as they say (apparently 180g is a waste) your cool kid gimmick is obsolete, you have no survivability because you rushed an item that gives you no hp at all, and you're basically deadweight.

[BigHustles]

I really liked your dark lady guide. It shows u edited this guide today but should i assume its up to date since u have that message at the top saying to use the other voodoo guide?