Dem Puckers

I agree that QoP is a better mid hero especially in pubs, but as an offlaner Puck is better than QoP no contest. You can really have a blast in the offlane with Phase Shift and one-point-wonder 80 mana orb, especially since almost every carry or support has disjointable skills. Unless facing some extremely specific heroes like Lion or SS, you can pretty much run circles around the enemy safelane and be impossible to catch.

I wouldn't compare Puck and Qop offlane, first is a dedicated solo offlaner who comes there primarily for the exp, second is more of a duo-offlane material and focuses on beating the **** out of enemy carry + getting some money herself or semi-supporting if she is a pos 4.

I think there's literally no reason to lane Puck mid over offlane now, this hero doesn't really scale well after Blink Dagger.

Sanvitch -

I think the major selling point on Puck is that he does (far) better in the lane than QoP does. Phase Shift does that.

However, soon after the laning stage, Puck's role in the game becomes completely different than QoP's.

For example: QoP is a #2 while Puck is a #3.

I think they both play different roles: Puck is an initiator, QoP is picked to burst.

Also, Puck fits better in the five man push/teamfight meta nowadays.

Hamster -

I should try that out... but Puck does fare better 1v1.

Are there that many match-ups that Puck does better that significantly better in than QoP? As far as I'm aware, things are pretty even, with QoP arguably being better in every melee match-up.

Why do you think Puck fits into the team-fight meta more than QoP? Given QoP is really good in skirmishes, and against large pushes.

Puck does better against QoP than QoP does :P

Honestly tho, Puck beats SF more than QoP does... Puck beats Storm more than QoP does (phase shift for overloaded attacks + silence for when he jumps you), Puck beats WR better (again, Powershot is easy to shift and windrun doesn't do as much against burst + silence + Shackle Dodge)

Not too sure about the invoker matchup, but I assume having a getaway with no cast point (Jaunt) vs having a cast point (blink) is better against Urn + Coldsnap..

Then again, I might just be biased. Puck is one of my favourite heroes after all.

Shadow Fiend. No seriously, SF wins mid against QoP as soon as he hits level 3, while he needs to play pretty scared against Puck who can manfight him (QoP can't).

Lina also. Ez Phase Shifts. Same thing, Puck can manfight Lina, QoP can't.

But seriously Puck's problem as a mid is not his laning stage, which is awesome. It's the fact that he's a position 3 hero, who has no scaling beyond dagger, and playing a #3 mid in pubs is pretty horrible.

Well... if you go s4 style with Dagon, you can bully the supports a bit (assuming there's supports in pubs ;_;)