Fishing for heroes with Pudge. (A guide to high bracket hooks)

In this guide I will discuss how to predict what your enemy is thinking when you are playing pudge.

20% luck
80% Skill

Basics to prediction. (A high bracket guide) caution: Not for use on noobs.

When versus a Pudge one feels a constant need to move about in fear of getting hooked.

One deals with this easily by buying observer wards.

Now for a Pudge, observer wards are one of your greatest counters to landing a hook and an easy way for you to deal with this is "Smoke of deceit" Make sure your team knows you are using up their smokes.
This item allows you to move freely through wards without being seen, all the enemies have to rely on is a miss call. (or a well placed sentry ward)

The enemy not knowing where a Pudge is on the map is your greatest weapon. It makes players uneasy and prone to making simple mistakes.

My personal favourite mistake is the "Let's all zig zag constantly then Pudge won't be able to hook us"
<--Example.

Now the reason why this is bad for them is as simple as this: They are giving you time to catch up to them and rot dismember. If you are not comfortable with yourself being able to make the hook on an occasion like this simply phase boots catch up rot and dismember.

Now some other mistakes are as simple as hiding behind ranged or melee creeps expecting that you will hit the creep and not the hero.

This can be dealt with by simply placing yourself in the right position to snag him through the creep wave or after the creep has died.

<--Here is an example.

There is a small aoe hitbox on the end of Pudge's hook when placed right you will hit the target you are aiming for.

Force staff and Pudge

Since blink dagger was, is and always will be banned on pudge(WELL THEN) (Which we should all be happy about) Pudge players are limited to force staff for trick hooks.

Here is a little example of using a force staff to get a suprise hook on your foes.

Timing and patience.

Now the one thing every Pudge player needs is a bit of patience, landing every hook in every game is not a very likely thing to happen so do not get angry or upset when you miss a hook.
You win some you lose some.

Timing.
Something you all need to work on, the difference to a hook that hits or a hook that misses can be a split second early or late.

Heroes teleporting onto a lane tower after they have backed or respawned.
Killing a hero who has done this leaves them so far behind in the game its borderline cruel.
Think to yourself when you see a person Teleporting into a lane "Is he the first person to teleport onto this lane?" If so. Time yourself 2-2.5 seconds Depending on your distance from tower and HOOK HOOK HOOK!

Quick example.

=============================================================
Now another thing required in timing is invis hooks. These can be tricky things
because anyone running from Pudge with invis has multiple directions they can take to avoid a hook. It's up to you to choose which path you think they have taken.

In this video I choose one easy path I think they have taken when they have up to 10 other paths to take. So really the odds arent in your favour. It's up to you to choose the right path.

Now I choose this path because I've ran down river with rot on assuming they would run.
Now they would not follow me with rot on so I choose one of 3 directions they could take and
Hook.




-- Example of possible directions --

Dealing with a turtle defense.

Playing a Pudge while pushing for a Tier 3 tower you have a very powerfull tool to counter turtles.

Force Staff, Hook.

There a few places a team will stand while defending their Tier 3 tower to avoid getting engaged on.
Heres a quick preview on possible places your enemies will stand.
There are many more but most people won't think for a second that you will try and forcestaff, hook one of them out. (Now make sure you have backup for this plan otherwise you might get jumped on quicksmart)






This video shows 3 of the main spots I look for a quick snag on my fishing rod.

This is not a fool proof method but if you can quickly snag and drop a high priority hero it will benefit your push greatly.

The don'ts

Things to look out for when hooking:

* Undying's Tombstone Summons. (Will block hook)
* Mud golems. (Will block hook)
* Magic immune heroes in a 1v1 situation. I.E (Naix, Omniknight)
* Clockwerk with battery assault on (Only when you want to dismember)[/b]
* Nyx assassin is a wonderfull thing to hook. (When his carapace is on CD :D)
* Hooking a Naix is one thing that can turn on you very easily without backup

Situations where you are by yourself looking for a gank not knowing where the enemies are.

[gabo]

Great guide SkitZa. I know its a little to comment on this but it is a really helpful guide. I watch a couple of videos of Dendi and was wondering how he hooks a hero behind a creep. I thought it was just luck but then I saw your guide and now I know how to hook like the pro's! Thanks a lot I'll try this now LOL

[Luccha Lofar Lafanga™]

A nice GUIDE thnx

[Willow]

Haha well, Blink dagger was thought of by many players to be one of those items Pudge should never be able to buy and I agreed with that but they changed it and I have no need to change this guide because force staff = Best pudge :)

[Tom Nook is my bitch]

"Since blink dagger was, is and always will be banned on pudge" You can buy blink dagger on pudge.... I know this because one my clanmates actually did it while playing pudge in a pub match....

[Wav]

Great guide thanks for the tip

[Bigkok]

great

[76561198049987961]

myself darksoul u can see my comment too dude thanks a lot u knw i have been through so many fcking guides matches shits.... but non hlped me as wat ur guide helped out i dont knw how but it surely hlped me LOL

[Drago]

Very useful guide! The hitbox information was particularly nice as I was not aware of that. Good presentation as well.

[L'eternauta | ∫ (f'g)=fg-∫ (fg')]

pick pudge
feed like a russian
rage quit

[Kukurikapu]

the small aoe box is wtf... ddnt know that.. just now lol