Voodoo Jester

Skill Build
1 – Acid Cocktail
2 – Cursed Ground
3 – Cursed Ground
4 – Acid Cocktail
5 – Cursed Ground
6 – Spirit Ward
7 – Cursed Ground
8 – Acid Cocktail
9 – Acid Cocktail
10 – Mojo
11 – Spirit Ward
12 – Mojo
13 – Mojo
14 – Mojo
15 – Stats
16 – Spirit Ward
17 – Stats+
Justification / Modifications:
Cursed Ground takes priority as the strongest non-ult nuke in the game, and Acid Cocktail is taken secondary due to it’s incredibly strong uses as both a crowd control skill and as a farming tool. Mojo is taken last, as it helps sustain pushes, but it is worth taking over stats.
If you play as a pure babysitter you should take only take 1 level of cocktail, max mojo first, cursed ground second and take ulti at 10+11. This guide focuses on a more ganky style of play tho.

Lane Starting Items:
Monkey Courier or Wards, 2x Runes of the Blight, Mana Potion, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
Bottle >> Power Supply >> Marchers >> 1-2x Fortified Bracelet >> Steam Boots

I consider Bottle core, even if not playing mid. The main reason being that invis or haste will offer you an almost guaranteed kill when ganking due to the nature of cursed ground. Power Supply is needed, as your “combo” takes up a lot of burst mana. Bracelets and Steam Boots to compensate for his lack of vitality. If you get Bracelets before Steam Boots consider leaving Steam Boots on Int to be able to get your combo off more reliably. Switch to str later when your Mana Pool is big enough.

After Core:
Staff of the Master >> Shrunken Head >> Portal Key >> Kulrda’s Sheepstick

Staff of the Master has a good stats gain while building it (more Mana allows you to farm faster with Coccktail) and almost doubles your total damage output on a well placed curse + ward! After that get Shrunken head to be able to cast Spirit Ward uninterrupted. I advise to get SotM first as this route is usually faster and offers more direct benefits (exceptions versus very heavy disabler teams obviously). If the game still goes on after this get Portal Key for perfect positioning and eventually the All-Star Kuldra’s.
Note that Voodoo Jester can be an excellt Babysitter but he also is a Ganker and maybe even Semi-Carry in some way. Usually there will be a hero in the game who is suited better for buying wards. However if no one else does so you should at least help buying wards.

Alternative Items:
– Assassin’s Shroud: Some people swear by it on Voodoo jester; I think SotM and Shrunken Head have a much higher Priority and after that Portal Key gets the job done better. But the choice is yours.
– Codex: Interesting Synergy with Curse, but the same problem as with assassin’s shroud: Your other Items are better and more important! And a lategame codex is weak.

Information:
Roles: Ganker, Roamer, Babysitter
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 3 – Medium
Farming capabilities: 3 – Decent
Item dependancy: 3 – Medium (Pretty Heavy for an Int hero)
Power:
– Early Game / Lane Control: 3 – Medium
– Mid Game / Ganks: 4 – Strong
– Late Game / Team Fights: 2 – Weak (Medium with the right gear, ult loses power as enemies stack armor)

30-Seconds-Guide:
– Always Curse first when possible. Then Mojo, Stun and finally place the Ward. If your enemy is running away you can stun first and follow up with a curse.
– Voodoo Jester is a decent solo mid, as he can use the runes to great potential and is a very vital ganker from level 6 on!
– Acid Cocktail is very effective in the jungle and on crepe waves and must be used to farm neutrals/creeps a lot in order to get your items.
– You are not a particularly good babysitter and giving up last hits early game will hurt you a lot. Try to either go to an aggressive long lane or solo mid.

Counters:
– Contrary to popular belief, his ultimate does physical damage not magical, while the damage from cursed ground is magic. This makes it though to counter as you can’t simply stack armor or magic armor.
– Barbed Armor should work well. Activate it when standing in his ultimate should kill him pretty quick (Note: I did not test that yet)
– You can’t drink from your bottle or apply a healing potion while cursed ground is on you. The only item-wise way to heal yourself is power supply and astrolabe. So get at least a power supply and use it after cursed ground is on you, this will reduce the dot damage you take.
– Shrunken Head does not remove the curse but stops its damage while the magic immunity runs.
– Jereziah is an excellt counter to voodoo as he can heal through/protective charm cursed ground, preventing it from doing any damage and his ultimate completely stops Voodoo Jester’s ward from doing any damage.