DotaFX Pudge Guide - All Choppin' Mate

A guide for those Pudge players who wants to have a decent pubgame. This detailed guide is for you. Know how to play Pudge the decent way, but of course your hook skills is still up to you... DotaFX

Introduction to Pudge

Pudge is the most picked hero in Dota 2. Pudge is strong as a solo mid but can be easily countered. He is a very strong late game hero especially as a tank but it depends on his early and mid game. He's one of the most incredible hero to gank with because of his hook, dealing high damage early game and providing a sneaky way to kill a hero. When he gets fat as he can through his third skill, flesh heap, he becomes very tanky and damage grows up. He's not that popular in the competitive scene because he doesn't really provide much team work as the other heroes, though we've seen popular players exploit this hero to its maximum potential.

So we bring you this guide that will help you open up different gameplays of Pudge and play it to its fullest potential.

Bio

Role: Durable/Disabler

Lore: In the Fields of Endless Carnage, far to the south of Quoidge, a corpulent figure works tirelessly through the night--dismembering, disembowelling, piling up the limbs and viscera of the fallen that the battlefield might be clear by dawn. In this cursed realm, nothing can decay or decompose; no corpse may ever return to the earth from which it sprang, no matter how deep you dig the grave. Flocked by carrion birds who need him to cut their meals into beak-sized chunks, Pudge the Butcher hones his skills with blades that grow sharper the longer he uses them. Swish, swish, thunk. Flesh falls from the bone; tendons and ligaments part like wet paper. And while he always had a taste for the butchery, over the ages, Pudge has developed a taste for its byproduct as well. Starting with a gobbet of muscle here, a sip of blood there...before long he was thrusting his jaws deep into the toughest of torsos, like a dog gnawing at rags. Even those who are beyond fearing the Reaper, fear the Butcher.

Skills:

Meat Hook - Launches a bloody hook at a unit or location. The hook will snag the first unit it encounters, dragging the unit back to Pudge and dealing damage if it is an enemy
Ability: One target
Affects: Enemies
Damage: Pure
Distance: 700/900/1100/1300
Damage: 90/180/270/360
Cooldown: 14/13/12/11 Mana Cost: 110/120/130/140







Rot - A toxic cloud that deals intense damage and slows movement--harming not only enemy units but Pudge himself.
Ability: No target
Affects: Enemies
Radius: 250
Slow: 20%
Damage: 35/60/85/110







Flesh Heap - Gives Pudge resistance to magic damage, as well as bonus strength that increases each time Pudge kills an enemy Hero or it dies in his vicinity. Flesh Heap is retroactive, meaning it can gain charges before it is skilled, which then become active
Range: 450
Magic Resistance: 6%/8%/10%/12%
Strenght Bonus: 1/1.5/2/2.5






Dismember - CHANNELED - Pudge chows down on an enemy unit, disabling it and dealing damage over time. Lasts 3 seconds on Heroes, 6 seconds on creeps.
Range: 160
Damage per second: 75/125/175
Cooldown: 30 Mana Cost: 100/130/170

Aghanims upgrade.

Damage per second: +1.0x strength

Basic Gameplay of Pudge

As a ganking hero, Pudge is best when he gets early ganks, his hook can just destroy the enemies if you don't miss it. If you decide to take the middle lane, try to setup as much ganks or kills as possible, though the number of this depends on skill and the enemies' wards and awareness/cooperation. Rune-♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you can, go get some kills top or bottom lane depending on the position of the rune or the necessary ganking spot which your team decides. If it's necessary, buy smoke to advert enemies' vision from wards.

Get stout shield if there's range hero on mid, 1x salve, 1x tangos and farm your bottle or if there's melee mid hero you can go 2x Gauntles of strenght for Urn of shadow. If the melee hero is not that harassive and can't last hit well against you, you can just buy a tango then two set of branches, then rush your bottle so you will have an early advantage against the hero.





or











There are typical late game item builds for Pudge and this includes:


Heart of Tarrasque






Boots of Travel






Black King Bar






Blink Dagger


/

Force Staff







If you are laning against a range hero try to last hit as much as you can while getting less harass to get your bottle and whenever a hook is possible:
1. Hook him, if he's high HP hero try to hook near tower so he'll get some dmg from your tower.
2. If it's low HP hero just hook him and use rot during following him.
3. If it's hero that can blink and he knows how to do it, you won't get early kill unless he won't go rambo

If you are laning against melee hero you can last hit and do some denies.
Pudge is not the kind of hero that needs a Hand of Midas, it's better to get your boots fast (or blink, force staff) then gank somewhere, help your carry get a kill, help your offlane survive more. This is your job, killing, ganking, getting Flesh Heap stacks to improve your HP and Physical DMG.

Required Items, You need this mate'

Basically the items you need with Pudge:

Bottle - Solves Pudge's Mana Problems and Heals you Up from Ganks and harasses from your lane.





Boots - Mobility





Smoke of Deceit - A number of these to avoid detection from Observer Wards, helps you gank easily.





And...


Town Portal Scroll - This badboy is used by ever pro players... You should know the reason why they always keep one in their inventory (Unless you have Boots of Travel or you're Tinker, but you're Pudge :P Live with it)






As for wards, you can buy for yourself or ask your teammates to buy one for you.

Laning with Pudge, Choppin' with Pudge

The usual lane for Pudge is mid but there are different cases in which Pudge lets other heroes like OD or Shadowfiend take middle lane.

In the middle lane, your goal is to rush Bottle and level up as fast as you can. Deny is less important since Pudge can easily destroy enemies with his skillset. The advantage of Pudge is that he is melee - easy last hitting, he has a huge base HP, a decent atk animation and a good skill to outlane someone. But this doesn't always apply and sometimes, Pudge takes a hard time to find a decent middle lane. Example is OD against Pudge matchup wherein OD should come up on top whether its denies, last hits or level. Situations like that needs a skilled Pudge player to outlane a hero that outlanes him.











Baiting a hook

* Use bait-hook to your advantage.




Focus on last hitting and sometimes deny a creep whenever possible. Do not get a last hit that you know you'll be punished for, either a huge harass or even a first blood. Do not get overaggressive, mind your positioning and look for openings. Once you exploit those openings, even if its just a harass, it counts as a small win as these factors can take them off balance and feed you the middle lane.

Once you get your bottle, game starts to change...
Priority no. 1 is getting runes. There's no "WHY" in this scenario because:
1. You can gank with runes.
2. If you don't get the runes, the other side will and will try to use it against you, don't exploit these little factors to them.
3. It refills your bottle.
AND DON'T EVER LET A HASTE RUNE BE WASTED, If you see one, get it immediately...

DotaFX Extra Tip:

Mindgames

If you suspect that they don't have observer wards (easily readable, if they don't get runes), you can easily play a twisted show wherein you go to the rune spot and go back empty handed but the real thing is you're just waiting for the right time to take the rune.

EXAMPLE: Rune is on top and its haste. You go to a fogged area for the opponent side and then come back later as if you checked the rune spot. The opponent would definitely check for your bottle and they will see that its empty. They'll go for bot then...

An easy way to put your enemy in a level disadvantage and an easy rune for you.


If you find timings, you can gank with a teammate or just by yourself and find a kill. This will boost up your early game since early levels means early kills.

Mind your surroundings, search for observer wards. Buy an early gem if you must.
You can check easily for Observer Wards if you come to gank a lane and they quickly respond to it.

In these situations, you must carry Smoke of Deceit so you are not detected by pesky wards.
You can hook under your smoke and it won't break invisibility if you miss a hook.

Don't forget their middle lane though, even though you're exactly in the middle lane, don't forget to gank it as well. Abuse the night time around 4:00 - 8:00 and try hooking in fogged areas that they won't expect you to be there. Since they won't expect you to be there, there's a less chance that there is an observer ward spotting you out. But be aware if you just walked in one, a good tip is to walk past a spot twice.

After the first 10 minutes of the game, expect alot of awareness from your enemy, this is where teamplay comes along. Ganking alone is not viable anymore, the more sufficient way to find kills is to make someone bait a gank in the lane you are ganking. If someone makes a move and the opponent bites the bait, you go in and butcher someone.

Different Style of Playing Pudge

There are few different situations in which you can play Pudge
1. Tanker Pudge
2. Support Pudge - unusual? no :))
3. Gank-Ho' Pudge

These playstyles differ in every situation of the game or can be the preferable choice of the player himself.
We'll explain these types one by one.

Tank Pudge

This playstyle focuses on getting as much health points and armor as you can, stacking your heap as much as you can and getting item such as Heart of Tarrasque, Blademail, Shiva's Guard, Pipe.
And as tanky as it can get, this Pudge style needs money and a lot of kills to get more heaps. Rotate somewhere, hook, get a kill, enjoy your next stack on Flesh Heap.

You have to get kills whenever you can, help your teammates if it's possible get treads or Boots of Travel to be everywhere when they need you. Bassicly That's it

Though killing is natural for pudge, if you have a hard carry or good initiator, you may let them have the kill since they need the full kill gold more badly than you, just stay within the area to get a flesh heap.

The usual luxury item build for this style:

Heart of Tarrasque - 1k+ HP, +2% HP regen






Blademail - You're a tanker, tanking damage will be good but returning them as well? GG WP






Shiva's Guard - More armor, reducting attack and movement speed of your enemies, imagine combining the slow with rot... :(((






Heaven's Halberd - Some healthpoints and the ability to dodge and disarm.






Boots of Travel - You need a tank somewhere? Coming...






Pipe of Insight - 30% more magic resistance + 400 absorbed.






Assault Cuirass - Armor and Attack Speed aura, this is a good item concerning the number of flesh heaps you get, if you get tanky you get damage as well. Just thinking of Assault Cuirass on Pudge, players think that its not good. Well you guys are wrong in 2 reasons:
1. You save 1 slot for your carry.
2. Tanky = Damage for pudge, imagine assault cuirass, it compliments both.

You might want to get an early pipe or an early urn for the Early stages of the game since this helps pudge gank/kill and survive ALOT!

Find a teamfight and go in it, tank some damage while your teammates are destroying the enemy.
You can die, the point is - enemies must focus you, because that's your role. Meanwhile your carries are just raping them. This is the easiest gamestyle of Pudge since you're there to tank, Tank, TANK!!!

Support Pudge

This is the complete opposite of the Tanker gamplay has to offer.


This build requires a support player since this gamestyle are for supports.
Keep in mind that you won't get many items fast as you can with the other Pudge gameplay.
This guide also requires a player who has a good decision making, good item choice and good timing for every situation.

Support Pudge also requires a lane partner which you can support. You have to babysit your carry and don't let him die.
Your job is not taking any last hits. All you need to do is support, ward, support, ward. You can get smoke and help for the other lane to get a kill, but you have to be careful. Your carry will stay alone, he is not supposed to die.

If your lane partner got a stun or slow you can try to hook enemy and get a kill, it's much easier when the enemy is not moving :)) or you can just save your carry with rot, slow the chasing enemies, if they get low enough, kill 'em = EZ!!!

The items that you would love to stick with if you are playing this style are:

Mekansm - The support item of all support items... understandable...






Heaven's Halberd - if you find the gold to farm it, this can be useful as you disarm a hero and dismember another one, literally removing them from a fight...






Scythe of Vyse - if you also find the gold to farm, another form of disable... Dem dis disablezzz....






Arcane Boots - MANA OMNOMNOM...






Tranquil Boots - HP Regen while afk, imba MS even if its broken... literally a broken item for supports... GG... MS OMNOM, EARLY HP REGEN OMNOM...



AND OF COURSE, SMOKES, SENTRIES AND WARDS :)))

It's a typical pudge support. He's not that easy to play, but he's very useful. If you are not the best in last hitting, choose this style, or the tanker. You don't have to last hit, just take care about your team mates. The most important thing are wards and good placing, to sometimes kill or let your carry live his life to the fullest.

Life of a Support - Intermediate Warding

This are the advanced and useful warding spots you would want to consider:


A. Radiant B. Dire *-good for the team side #-general

1-4. Gives rune vision.

1. A* You see the path that the lane opponents would take to gank your lane and sometimes the mid laner's path. Either he goes for the lower path or the upper path on that spot, they will still be spotted by the ward, unless the middle laner is Mirana, Tinker or any other heroes with long range nukes, they'll be hiding near the level 1 jungle.


2. A* This allows you to prevent ganks from the middle lane if they ganked your lane without smoke. Your mid laner can also see the rune or whether his lane opponent is taking the rune or ganking other lane giving him awareness and some mind presence.

B. Although this is an unorthodox spot, this could sometimes be useful since it gives your mid laner the awareness for ganks since the ward on the cliff doesn't give a vision near the Dire trees beside the tower and also the half part of the river. This ward gives the vision to both avoiding ganks on that side of the lane. It also gives vision to the radiant side of the cliff in front of the ward on day time, giving the dire team opportunities to spot supports warding or wondering on their dreams to gank middle lane, giving you time to react whether its to go back, or punish the ganker and kill him with FIRE!!!


3. A. Provides your midlaner the rune vision and incoming gank attempts from top if they're aren't smoked.

B* A godly placed ward for your midlaner especially for long range nukers. Honorable mention is Tinker, Mirana and Invoker, also yourself.


4. #Rune vision while preventing ganks from either team, that is if they aren't smoked, middle for radiant and dire while top for dire.


5. A* Spot some gank-attempts when you go past the second tree entrance.
B*You can see your enemies incoming from the right side, 100% safe if the gank isn't concealed by smoke. If u see them, just go back.


6. A*Typical ward for radiant as it can spot the whole middle lane. It can give the radiant's middle laner the time to be aggressive, defensive and the awareness of ganks.
If they dewarded you, do the same, buy sentries and try to deward the sentry they placed. You can also place wards in little places so enemies won't know where you placed again your wards.

Gank-Ho' Pudge

This is the most useful Pudge role. Go lane, pick up levels of hook, gank someone, Easy !. Later stages of the game??? Pick someone off then force a teamfight without that particular hero. Later get blink or forcestaff, even both, it gives you a lot of mobility to jump on the enemy then ulti him or hook if he's still far, force satff gives you escape and helps you in following people.
The best lane for the Gank-Ho' Pudge is the middle lane, you can get a lot of experience and maybe some last hits there depending on your mid lane opponent, you can get some kills on your own or by making some ganks bot/top. You need experience to max out your hook, you need gold to get the best items for ganking. Sometimes you can have some trouble on mid against heroes that Pudge doesn't really like: Viper or QoP - they won't let you farm good, Invoker - Quas Wex - if he is good or if he is iceiceice, you're dead 'mate - Quas Exort - you can't hook him unless you want to get busted down, only chance to win is if Invoker is very noob.

To protect you from the enemy's wards u can purchase smoke, you're undetected by wards but beware of sentries.

The usual luxury item build for this style:

Heart of Tarrasque






Black King Bar






Blink Dagger - Chasing Power, Escape






Force Staff - Chasing Power, Escape






Scythe of Vyse






Assault Cuirass






Shiva's Guard






Pipe of Insight






Basically everything you can get your hands on... WHY THESE ITEMS??? You're a gankwhoore, Pudge is meant for ganking so getting tanky and a bit of a support would be beneficiary for your team. The only upside for this is you take mid and supports actually support you :))

Items Worth Getting

These two items are a bit off considering the hero characteristics but it is fun to try it out...

Drums of Endurance - %MS and active aura for you and for your teammates, Chasing power






Shadow Blade - Chasing Power, decent atk speed and Ghost Walk, insta smoke...

Items Not Worth Getting

These are items that are not recommended for the Pudge.

Eye of Skadi - Rot is slowing enemies down, you don't need another slow, you're also not a carry







Armlet of Mordiggian - Your health points is already high, you don't need anymore damage, again you're not a carry. Get this if the game is stupid enough to feed you an armlet.






Satanic - You are not a damage dealer, so every lifesteal here like Satanic or Mom is not good idea, get a Heart instead.






Manta Style - You're not Dendi, want to remove track? Wait for it! MS? Drums, Yasha is good though but you're not upgrading it so why get it, so is SnY... Best for Trolling though...






Refresher Orb - Wait, what? You're not hexOr... but if you are, get this :)))

Leveling up Skills and Stats

This is the usual stats for Pudge:
Levels:
1. Rot
2. Meat hook
3. Meat hook
4. Rot
5. Meat hook
6. Dismember
7. Meat hook
8. Rot
9. Rot
10. Flesh Heap
11. Dismember
12. Flesh Heap
13. Flesh Heap
14. Flesh Heap
15. Stats
16. Dismember
17 -> 25. Stats

This is the most common and I think the best skillbuild for Pudge.

But if you want a more tanky one:

Levels:
1. Rot
2. Meat hook
3. Meat hook
4. Rot
5. Meat hook
6. Dismember
7. Meat hook
8. Flesh Heap
9. Flesh Heap
10. Flesh Heap
11. Dismember
12. Rot
13. Rot
14. Flesh Heap
15. Stats
16. Dismember
17 -> 25. Stats

Getting two points early on Flesh Heap gives you strength advantages and more magic reduction.

Heroes Pudge Loves to Play With

There is just one hero to be honorably mentioned here and that is:

Omniknight - This bastaard is Pudge's best buddy because of these four reasons...






1. Purification - Heal Pudge whenever he's close to death or for just helping him damage a hooked enemy.
Hooked someone? Let me help!







2. Repel - Rot Damages you? Let me help! Enemy stuns? Let me help again.







3. Degen Aura - Rot Slow? Let me help!






4. Guardian Angel - We started initiating, we get initiated? Let me help!









Other heroes that provide heal or avoids Pudge from dying like Dazzle, Undying, etc.

Heroes Pudge Hates to Play Against

The Two worst heroes to play against:

Of course!

Omniknight - This bastaard is worst friend too!!!

















1. Purification - Heal teammate whenever he's close to death or for just helping him damage when pudge hooked teammate.
Hooked someone? Let me heal you!






2. Repel - Rot Damages you? Let me help!







3. Degen Aura - Rot Slow? Le Slow Pudge






4. Guardian Angel - Pudge initiate? Let me help!








ANOTHER ONE???





Pudge also hates this guy:



Along with Anti-Mage






EITHER WAY:

Quas / Wex - Want to hook? NO MANA. Hooked me? TORNADO. I can't tornado... GHOST WALK







Quas / Exort - You want kill? COLD SNAP. No life? Sunstrike. One on one right-click dmg? Alacrity

TRUE STORY :((((

Tips 'n Tricks

Dead mate :P



* Wards work wonders!!! A Pudge with pro warding skilzzz is OP.
* Smoke works wonders!!!
* Gank as much as you can.
* When enemy is in trouble, try to save them with hook.
* Usually carry a dust.
* If an enemy is standing still, hook them just a little further away from where do you think they are going if they see the hook incoming for a 100% hook accuracy whether they stand still or they move to the direction you anticipated.
* Try last-hitting with you're attack along with rot so you increase your chance of getting the last hit, since if you miss it and the hp left is like 50 or less, you guarantee a last hit with rot. Avoid doing this though against a range hero.
* If you want to last hit and you're against a range hero, try to make him go away by going past the creeps then aiming for the last hit. Make sure you don't get much harass.
* If you're against a melee hero, going in with rot is usually better than using hook a further distance, use hook first if you're against a ranged hero.
* In the middle lane, try to bait out 1-2 hooks to see which direction he's going to take, usually if they see a bait hook they'll be going for the direction they anticipate your hook so going for the opposite or straight direction guarantees a 60% hook, that's how Dendi goes for a guess hook.
* If you can't land a sure hook, tell your teammate to stun for you or just go in and Dismember an enemy.
* Hook 'em mate.

Conclusion

Pudge is a very good hero when you have a decent skill of prediction and map awareness. He is also a decent hero to play if you want to improve those skills as Pudge is a medium level hero and requires minimal knowledge of the game, aside from the warding and stuffs.

That's all folks, thanks for reading the DotaFX guide for Pudge.


GL HF GUYS!!!

-DotaFX

[p0p1t0]

you guys should do search about hook hitbox if they are all different on every hero,or same

[bluefoG<]

[Prometheus]

excellent

[W200ME]

Gr8!

[撕扒打]

nice

[М. Дзедун]

you help me tnx))

[HAKkiM]

bad

[76561198108456216]

thanks

[Dragan]

Bane should be in "Heroes Pudge Loves To Play With"

Trying to land a hook? Let me help!

[Xeph]

i am enlightened... i wil try to use what i have learned xD