FRESH MEAT

There is a reason why the most successful pro Pudge player says you need a lot of HP regen in your starting items.

1 Tango isn't risky if you plan on sitting on your side, just leeching some xp and getting no last hits and allowing the other mid Hero to freely farm. Against those conditions, a good mid player will always maintain the creep equilibrium on their side of the river and securing every rune (unless you skip entire creep waves just to get a rune).

Meh, starting with Branches and Tango isn't exactly "risky", I would actually say it's the opposite: even with only 2 last hits, you can get your Bottle before the 2 minute mark and refill it with the rune that just spawns or Bottle crow. But what you say about rune control is right.

By the way, what do you think about the Blink Dagger suggestion? And do you think Phase Boots are necessarily needed?

Starting with 3 Iron Branch and 1 Tango is extremely risky. Pudge isn't very good in the lane, so if you go with few stats and low HP regen, you won't be able to get out of the laning phase with what you want, which is at least a few last hits.

If you get in a though matchup, you will be zoned out of the lane, and it will take you too much time to be able to get Bottle, Boots of Speed, Smoke of Deceit and Orb of Venom, slowing down the point you want to start ganking. Bottle gives you regen if you manage to get all the runes, but pudge isn't very good in getting the runes: he is slow, has no pushing capability other than Rot which can be risky, and has no mobility ability. So getting all the runes is only possible if you lose experience from entire waves, slowing down your leveling up and your ganking potential. Also you want to be using the runes to gank, as you said, not to regen in the lane.

Two things I don't agree with:

• Phase Boots are a major investment for an item that basically gives you nothing but the ability to run through creeps: while that's really good, it's not worth 900 extra gold. I usually stick to plain Boots of Speed.
• You don't even mention the Urn of Shadows in the first build: Pudge's HP regen is pitful compared to his huge amount of HP, and a Bottle isn't enough to refill your high health pool after you get a few levels. The DoT also synergizes very well with Rot.

Dropping the Boots for the Urn, like you did in the second page, makes your build way more cost-efficient in my opinion. You still need a Bottle though, and starting off with the Bottle rush build as you do in the first page is the best route.

Also, after the Blink Dagger buff I think you can go straight Blink and then get the Force Staff: being able to jump on an enemy and insta- Dismember them is way better than chasing. I'm not talking about the "Blink into trees and hook" part because you can do that with a Force Staff too (more or less), but the single target initiation on a lone enemy is much more reliable with a Blink Dagger.

I'm happy you talk about the usefulness of a Smoke of Deceit, and I also like the Orb of Venom pick though I've never thought about it.

Nope, it's great, it's cheap, but it's 1000 gold invested there instead of force staff, which heals a little bit. Anyone on your team can build it, should ask around if anyone does it or not. If answer is no, do it, anyways you should always be up close. Thanks for pointing that out tho

+1

When I play Pudge, I tend to go for an Urn so I can heal up after each kill. Is this wrong?