Vol'Jin The Witch DoctorHere's the picture, int hero with 600 range, pretty good damage, and a decent walking speed, all this combined makes him quite a user friendly hero. His hp is relatively low (although not as low as Pugna) with a decent mana pool. For skill sets you guys can check out
here.
After some pondering I decide that there would be 2 builds available,
pusher or
nuker, whereby I would touch on the latter as the items present in DotA as of the moment is IMHO, too weak and cannot really make a big impact in the game unless the heroes' own skill set is able to complement it well.
For the
nuker build, this is how it goes:
ItemsDagon/
Kelen's Dagger of EscapeBlack King Bar (optional)
Aghanim's ScepterUpgrade
DagonSkill SetMaledrictch
Stats
Maledrictch
Stats
Maledrictch
Death Ward
Maledrictch
Stats.....
You guys get the picture, so according to this build what you'll be getting is a sturdy int hero that can get the last hit pretty well and can take a pack of punch. Basically, you can't really do much in the beginning unless the guy is a noob but then again, with the stats you are gaining, you'll be long standing on the field. There is 3 things you should do in the early game (lvl 1-6), farm, farm and FARM. Just keep your cool and keep the exp denial going at the same time.
Now regarding the dagon or dagger of escape first is really up to you, if you have disabling heroes on your side that can partner with you pretty well, you'll definitely want Dagger of Escape. This is because not only the Death Ward is a
channeling spell, it has an annoyingly short casting range, 200 to be exact, plus the death ward only have 200hp with 0 light armour so if you can't get the kills going early to mid, you're pretty much toast late game. Stun --> Dagger in --> Maledritch --> Death Ward. If there are disabling heroes at the opposition, you might want to put in BKB after you get your Dagger so that your channeling doesn't get disrupted. Maledritch should get the kill for you if you din manage to finish the job. At lvl 4 its 25hp/sec for 12 sec, and 40 bonus dmg every 4 sec for every 100 hp lost since the hero is cursed, go figure yourself.
If you are doing solo-ing, you'll need Dagon. It'll be Maledritch --> Dagon --> Just shoot. Death ward is a bit a waste of mana but since you ain't mana intensive and you are scared you might not kill off the hero then just go ahead. Just remember the 200 casting range, which IMHO is a serious handicap. Without the death ward Dagon 0 + Maledritch should work up to 720 damage not factoring hero resistance to Dagon and hero hp regen. Since you ain't mana intensive you can actually spam dagon just to annoy the enemy heroes, the cooldown is fast enough for u to achieve that.
Some have already replied me that the nuker build isn't that efficient and I admit it does lose to the likes of Lina Inverse (hey who can win that biatch anyway

) but it is way way efficient than the pusher build as the pushing build ain't that great anyway, I find myself out of mana most of the time, necrolyte can do the job better anyway. Although the Death Ward is as strong as ever the casting range is well.... you know what I have already said about it. But at least with Aghanim Scepter you get an additional 30 damage bonus at each lvl at lvl 2 onwards it can already bounce attack. So if you can do off with many kills with Death Ward, you might consider rushing for Aghanim Scepter.
In both builds I will not recommend the first skill as it isn't worthwhile the skill points cause without other units around the stun would not bounce and the bouncing is too slow anyway (as slow as chain nova) although it could bounce back to the same unit stunning it again it is at random and uncontrollable when the numbers becomes big.
In conclusion, too bad for you guys as this guy ain't the type of hero that can go beyond Godlike easily but hey, it'll be fun planting Death Wards and see all the enemy heroes running screaming for help
This post has been edited by Yukito: Feb 25 2006, 11:35 PM