Nagash's Guide To Pudge Middle Lane (Updated)

You mention a lot of heroes who will beat pudge mid... the thing is every hero outlanes pudge unless you get good hooks off. I've recently had a lot of fun picking axe against pudge mid. Just run at them and spin till they die.

Yes the starting items are the recommended and the recommended is VERY good. It has 2 pots for hp, a calirty for an extra hook, some branches for nice stats and a guantlet to make a bracer or urn into later. and no i do not like the pudge build you suggested. Pudge needs kills due to the fact his farm is easily harassable early game the rot does not due too much damage to you (you will only be using it if you hook someone anyway, that or to secure some last hits which with, i never do.) If you land a hook you dont auto attack, they will just escape if you do. you walk behind them drowning them in rot. More rot = more damage when you get a hook. This is what I personally suggest, but I do see where you are coming from sir! I think if you would like to gank side lanes instead of force middle lane to "F" off. 2 kills and you can make mid wish it were in another lane, and when mid is secure, then I like to gank. But if you wanted to get some side lanes kills i think your suggested skill list would do just as good if not better.

Now, not to say I am much an avid pudge player, but isn't the most optimal skillbuild Rot - Meat Hook - Meat Hook - Rot - Meat Hook - Dismember - Meat Hook and then getting either Flesh Heap or stats before getting more pointys in rot.

I know it is generally looked down upon to get more than 2 points in rot until you have a few kills and Flesh Heap because of the high amounts of self infliced damage you will recieve from using it.

Also, your starting item build looks like the one that Valve recommends.

Finally: while the Boots I can agree are pretty open, in a lot of cases I think Armor >>> Heart of Terasqu because if you have the farm to get a heart, you have probably stacked a lot of HP and so armor givfes you a lot more fighting power.

Heart does give you sustain though, so there is that to consider.

I would agree with getting rot first, but it really does not make that much of a difference, as long as you have lv3 hook at lvl 5. The reason for rot first as i see is basically:
1 - It helps with last hits at lvl 1 if you time it right, so if you have trouble with last hits it could be a good idea.
2 - you won't really be going for the hero kill at lvl 1, and even if it is a great harassing tool if you land it, it will be hard at 1 point anyways due to the small range, and it will eat half your mana pool. As I see it it's better to save mana for when you think you can kill your opponent (usually at lvl 4 or lvl 5 if you can hook him into rot + tower fire, or at lvl 6 with hook + rot + dismember combo).
Pretty good otherwise, will try to post more opinions if i have any. Keep up the good work^^

You know as long as I have played Pudge (since the first few years of dota, around 6 years maybe?) I have had to make a few decisions on what to level first. but if you can get a single hook at level 1 then will already have to go back to base or heal up with a pot or a tango. If you are fighting a sniper mid you don't really want to clash with him. you want him to get close enough to make him fear you. He is much to far for him to want get near you, and with ranged heroes having such low health getting one good hook is almost getting on good kill. But I agree, I agree, if you have someone like blood seeker mid (idk why he would) but if so then by all means: get rot first.

Nice and simple, thank you so much for not going bottle first and instead rush it.

As forties kill build I agree with maxing hook first but skill rot first to help with an early clash.

You must be dendi

Why thank you so much I did not notice the skills missing. Also the shadow is not even my idea. I have personally never gotten one. But I thought meh it looks good on paper. And I end up getting an urn before boots as well. Thanks for seeing my mistaks!

"Hooks are 90% Skill 10% luck (DO NOT FORGET THIS!)"

my hooks are always 100% luck.

I wouldn't suggest getting Shadow Blade on such a late game, especially if you're gonna get Force Staff. Reason being after Agha, your Hook + Rot just can't kill off targets as fast as it used to. In fact, I wouldn't even work towards Shadow Blade at all. On paper it might seem cool but in real games, especially against players of the higher tier, it's just meh since supporters do set up wards and dust are carried all over the place.

Can you repair your skill build? Skill Point 12, 13, 14 are suppose to be in Flesh Heap right?

Normally I would go:

>

>

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Any boots will do, but the point is Urn of Shadows will have a higher priority than boots because you will cut down your own hp while using Rot, unless there's a hack that allow Regeneration rune to always spawn, I don't suggest getting a complete pair of boots before urn.

So instead if Shadow Blade, get your supporter to buy Smoke of Deceit instead.