Witch Slayer Guide HoN

  

Pros:
+Good Ganker, Roamer
+Can solo if required
+Strong lane presence with Mana Drain and a multitude of disables
+Slew of disables which keeps him relevant late game
+Good INT gain
+Good babysitter, but also excellent in an offensive lane
Cons:
-Squishy
-Slow
-You’ll be support/ward ***** for most of the game
-No farming ability whatsoever
-Terrible stats aside from INT

SKILLS

Graveyard (Impale): Line AOE stun/nuke.
Range: 850 (counting AOE)
Casting Range: 500
Stun: 0.5/1/1.5/2 seconds
Damage: 60/130/200/260
Cost: 100/120/145/175 Mana
Cooldown: 12 Seconds

This is your main skill and stun. Fairly long AOE but aim it behind your target (if they?re running) so you don?t miss with it. You can hit multiple enemies with this, so try to.

(as mentioned above, the range for Graveyard is actually 850, not 700, but the animation is about 700 units)
Miniaturization (Voodoo): Exactly like Pollywog?s hex.
Range: 500
Hex: 1.25/2/2.75/3.5 seconds
Cost: 110/140/170/200 mana
Cooldown: 13 Seconds
Exactly like Pollywog?s hex or Sheepstick. Use it to disable carries in teamfights, help out ganks, elude foes and what not. Very powerful, but requires a chunk of mana.

Power Drain (Mana Drain): A mana drain that has to be channelled.
Range: 600/650/700/750
Drains 20/40/60/100 mana per second for four seconds.
Cost: 10 Mana
Cooldown: 25/20/15/10 Seconds
Don?t stand around teamfights using it or you?ll get bushwhacked. Very powerful when used in lane to deny mana dependant heroes juice for their skills. Spam it, it has a short cool down. Note that you can also use this spell on neutral and ranged creeps in case there are no heroes in sight. However, this is not a reliable source of mana regen, you WILL need external sources to aid you as you’re wandering around ganking.

Silver Bullet (Finger of Death): Like Pyro?s ult, Level 1 is 50 damage stronger than Pyro’s, but Blazing Strike starts outdoing Silver Bullet by Level 2 and 3.
Range: 700
Damage: 500/650/850 (600/800/1025 with SOTM)
Cost: 200/420/650 mana (625 with SOTM)
Cooldown: 150/90/55 Seconds (50 seconds with SOTM)
Use it to critically damage enemies (carries) in teamfights so they can be focused and killed faster. Cooldown is short at max level so it is somewhat spammable.

BEFORE

AFTER

SKILL BUILD

• Graveyard
• Power Drain/Miniaturization
• Graveyard
• Power Drain/Miniaturization
• Graveyard
• Silver Bullet
• Graveyard
• Mini
• Mini
• Power Drain/Mini (if you got Power Drain at 2/4)
• Silver Bullet
• Power Drain/Mini (if you got Power Drain at 2/4)
• Mini/Power Drain
• Mini/Power Drain
• Stats
• Silver Bullet

This is pretty simple. Impale is your standard stun and AOE nuke, and useful for ganking and stopping ganks, so it is maxed first. Note that it costs a lot of mana even at level 1 so don?t be using it to farm or anything. You?ll get your money from ganking and brief periods of farming when the enemy team is all missing or dead. Your ult is always good, so get it.
As for either Voodoo or Mana Drain at level 2/4, ask yourself whether the enemies in your lane are heavily mana dependant (ie they need mana to own you) or not (they don?t need mana to own you). IE, don?t get it against Predator who will just autoattack you while you?re channelling, same with Arachna, etc. Get it against guys like Legionnaire, who really needs mana to use Taunt, and basically any nukers. Be CAREFUL while using it however, especially against a hero like Soulstealer. Pro Soulstealers will triple Demon Hand you while you Mana Drain them.
If you’re babysitting or facing an aggressive lane, sometimes you need a level of Miniaturization to stop your carry from getting his ass killed. So if you need another disable, get it.
A good tactic to get a few seconds of unimpeded mana drain is to Impale your enemies and then cast it on them. If they aggro you after the stun, they?ll draw creep aggro and hopefully take some damage while you autoattack them until they back off.
ITEM BUILD

Dual Laning

OR
1x Runes of the Blight
1x Health Potion
1x Mana Potion
1x Courier/Wards
3x Minor Totems
Hey, you?re a support. Get the goddamn courier/wards. You can grab a Mana Battery at the Outpost.

Solo

OR 

1x Mana Battery/Courier
4x Minor Totems
2x Runes of the Blight
If you think your opposing solo?er is a spammer, get Magic Stick. If you don?t have a team courier (cuz you?re playing a pub and people suck), get a courier.

Early Game

Boots: For movement speed, which you need for good ganks.
Power Supply: Great item, gives you mana, stats and health. This item once fully charged gives you more mana than a full Bottle. Some people have said “oh it’s useless WS doesn’t need it!” but they’re dead wrong. This is perhaps one of the greatest items in the game and realizing its value will seperate the bads from the goods.
Bottle: Ideal health and mana regeneration for the roaming ganker. Keeps you topped off, even better when you find runes to aid your ganking.
Homecoming Stone: Duh. You need it to respond to ganks on your other lanes, to get out of trouble, and to quickly get out or back into the action
Wards: You?re not a carry, you don?t need items. You need to keep your team safe, and wards do this. You can also counter ward by buying the blue ones and killing enemy red wards.

Mid Game

Glowstone 

For much needed health and mana that will keep you in the game. You can upgrade it later to either Staff of the Master or Sac Heart. This item is perpetually underrated, but no other item gives you HP and MP in one easy, economical package. Yeah, you can get Bracers, but they don’t give you much mana. Yeah, you can get Talismans, but they don’t give you much HP. Glowstone gives both, and with your Power Supply, it’s usually enough.

Plated Greaves or Ghost Marchers 

Phase Boots are good for chasing as you’ll creepwalk, and the added damage doesn’t hurt. On the other hand, since my build doesn’t get Bracers (you need the slots for TPs and Wards), Plated Greaves provides that much needed EHP through armor that adds to survivability. The active ability also increases your supporting ability. The choice between Phase and Greaves is largely up to you, but Plated Greaves are the better option for survivability, and a great set of shoes for any squishy caster.As for Post Haste, yeah it makes you fast…but it costs a lot of money, and you’re not exactly a great farmer (even if you do have an AOE nuke) so it’s not like you need the ability to quickly farm creep waves like Soulstealer or Moon Queen. Just carry the Homecoming Stone. 

Core Items

Now there are four item build paths you can take.
One, you can increase your offensive nuking power.
Two, add more disables.
Three, pure support.
Four, gank master.
Two is preferred, because you can NEVER have too many disables, unless your team comprises Lion, Rhasta, Bane, CM and VS. =3

Build 1 (Nuker/Killstealer)
 

-Upgrade Glowstone to Staff of the Master (ideally around 20 minutes)
-Build Codex (Dagon)
-Go around nuking people to death
-Upgrade Codex to Level 5
-Pray your team has won by then
This is strictly for pubs and noob games. Make both the enemy and your team rage with your nuking POWER. Note that if you do this, you are a scrub, but I am letting you know your options. With the amount of burst damage you can put onto one character, you might think you’re useful in fights. But it costs way, way too much to upgrade to max level Codex, money that you would only have if you’ve been killstealing anyway. And you are one hero who DOESN’T need money. Sheepstick gives you pretty much unlimited mana and disables a hero long enough for YOUR CARRY (the guy who is meant to be killing people) to own face, and stats to help you survive. Codex doesn’t. But do what you want, you already know it’s a bad idea to use the build.

Build 2 (Disabler)
 

-Grab a Manatube which aids your roaming gankiness.
-Work on Mystic Staff (+25 Intelligence item).
-Buy Blessed Orb (+10 to all stats).  Now you have your Kuldra’s Sheepstick, and two 3.5 second hexes. Imba? Maybe. If the enemy team has two carries, hex both of them in team fights and let your team beat on them.
Afterwards, if you REALLY need another disable for some reason, get Eul’s (Stormspirit). This makes you fast, and gives a 2.5 second disable which is very poor in comparison to hex, as they are invunerable during the disable (meaning you can’t beat their face in). It also gives mana regen, but sheepstick already provides unlimited mana, so what’s the point? However, if you want to permadisable some fool with your FOUR DISABLES, Stormspirit is an acceptable option. Personally I would just get a Bloodstone (Sac Heart) after the Sheepstick.

Build 3 (Pure Support)
 

If for some reason you’re the only support on your team, or you have support heroes who decide to buy Eldar Parasite or other stupid **** instead of doing their job, you can play support (seeing as you’re not item dependant at all). 

-Get Astrolabe, you should have some Minor Totems left over after your Power Supply to build it. Use it to heal your team’s ass.
-Build Shaman’s Headdress (2x Trinkets of Restoration, Mystic Vestments, Helm of the Victim), another Refreshing Ornament, and finish BARRIER IDOL. Use it in team fights when your team initiates or is initiated on to negate shitloads of magic damage (Lich’s ult, Behemoth’s ult, etc).
-If you can farm it early, Ring of Sorcery is one of the best team mana replenishing items. But it’s not like you need the bigger mana pool or the burst mana regen from it seeing as you will have Bottle, Power Supply and Mana Drain. So this isn’t really a good option, and it is lacklustre during late game. But hey, if you’re gonna play support, go all out. Ideally, however, you’ll farm yourself a Sheepstick after Astrolabe and Barrier Idol.

Build 4 (Uber Ganker)
 

-Buy a Portal Key for unparelled positioning, escaping, and other annoying teleportation crap. Now you have the jump on anyone during a gank.
-Buy wards and put them down in areas where you can gank the enemy (ie their jungle).
-Buy up a Puzzlebox and upgrade it with your gank money. One of the most damaging items in the game if you can disable the enemy and let your minions beat on them. Oh wait, you have six seconds of total disable, longer than Succ’s ult (counting the time the enemy is in the air from Impale which your Puzzlebox Minions will use to close the gap).
Now you are a ganker par excellence. Combined with other stuns, you will be putting up enormous amounts of damage on the enemy during ganks with Impale, Minion Mana Burn, Minion attacks, Silver Bullet and any other friendly attacks. In addition to this, with your Mana Drain and Mana Burn from the Puzzlebox, the enemy won’t have any mana to escape if he survives the initial onslaught.
Puzzlebox also gives you much needed HP and mana, a great item overall (if you can micro). You will be pro if you buy it and use it properly.

Late Game/Luxury Items

Kuldra’s Sheepstick

This is a great item for pretty much any and every INT hero. If you didn’t build it earlier, get it after you finish one of the core builds, because two 3.5 second hexes are awesome.

Frostfield Plate 

This, like Sheepstick, will pretty much gurantee you unlimited mana. It also makes you extremely tanky, doubly so if you have Barrier Idol on top. Shiva’s gives you yet ANOTHER disable (a slow) and an AOE nuke to boot. Too bad it’s so expensive…

Rejected Items

Helm of the Black Legion

No. I actually turned from a Vanguard-hater to someone who appreciated its worth on certain heroes (Razor, Spectre). However, it got nerfed again (20 damage block for ranged heroes vs 40 for melee). With the 40 damage block, I would’ve considered it if you needed some survivability, but it is expensive for its very limited usefulness on your hero. You’re a combo-er, after firing Graveyard, Mini and Silver Bullet, you’re pretty much done in teamfights anyway. It does let you jungle forever, but what’s the point?

Null Stone

A bad item on pretty much any hero. It costs too much for what it does, and what it does isn’t very useful. Rather get a Sheepstick with that money.

Refresher Orb 

Oooh, I get to Codex and Ult some fool TWICE!! No. HELL no. If you have enough money to afford Codex 5 AND this, you’re doing it wrong. While it may be funny to take down an Axe with Frostfield, Barrier Idol, Behemoth’s Heart and Helm down in less than a second (you probably couldn’t even do that much damage), it is pointless. Where would you get the cash to do something like this?

Harkon’s Blade  Your stats suck, in case you haven’t realized. Your attack speed sucks, and your damage sucks. Why would you get a DPS item when you could get a Sheepstick? You are not an autoattacker, if you wanted to play a disabling-intelligence-ranged-autoattacking hero, play Puppet Master.

Hellflower

Again, you don’t need the DPS, and the silence is nowhere near as useful as a