HOW to play PUDGE and make your enemies tilt so hard (7.06f)

The way Pudge is meant to be Played.

After you read this guide, you will no longer be a walking fat ****ing creep watching your teammates fight and hooking oxygen 24/7. As a bouncing 5k-6k player, I have nearly 1k Pudge wins with a 3.2 Kill-Death Ratio and almost 60% Winrate (In plain language, I have the same stats as Qupe). I will show you how you should play Pudge and how to maximum your impact because the hero is literally a hit or miss and if you're missing your hooks, you need to be assisting your teammates in other ways. You need to be always going to the path of least resistance and ganking heroes that have no escape mechanic and aren't tanky. We just won the Arcana Vote, its time to git gud

Disclaimer: This guide is for people who have an above "average" understanding of the game and hero. With that said, information and tips within this guide will still assist you on your journey of "gittin gud" hahah im 12 btw. I'll keep this guide as simple as possible

Items

Starting Build

• It is important to start with boots, tangos, 1 clarity and a smoke. When the game begins, you should be constantly moving, self sustaining and harassing. If the enemy draft has a squishy line up that aren't tanky or have no escape heros ex;(Anti-mage, Puck, QoP), then you should ask your team to group up and go for a smoke. This is how I manage to get first blood and grab that extra 290-300 first blood gold to buy and finish my tranquil boots (sometimes I let my core or mid hero get the kill, sometimes :V)
  
  
• As the game progresses, you must build accordingly to what you're up against. Refer to the purchase order outlined above if you are against physical or magic. You must also take into consideration that the items outlined above is what a Pudge will have near the end of the match. It is rare for Pudge to see level 25.
  
  
• It is highly recommended that you get your blink dagger as quickly as possible. Blink dagger is Pudge's bread and butter, it allows you to close-in on your enemies to easily dismember with a hook follow-up or vice versa.
  
  
• ** Aether Lens**: While the item is good on Pudge, it is not recommend for a variety of reasons. If you are missing hooks, you just wasted 2350 gold. This item amps your hook range, damage and your mana regeneration. It is a extremely greedy build. It does not assist your teammates aside from possibly hooking them to safety from long distance.
  
  
• ** Hood of Defiance** I can't tell you how much I love this item. For only 1750 gold, you get 8 HP Regeneration, and 25% Magic Resistance which complements with your Flesh Heaps. As well as the Active ability that absorbs 325 Magic Damage for 12 seconds. This item not only helps you live and tank the **** out of magic bursts, but you can use the active ability to farm creep stacks. Hence the name on the item, defy all those who get in your way.
  
  
• ** Soul Ring**: In theory, this item makes sense to get since it gives you mana for a hook but the 750 gold can be put towards purchasing an Urn of Shadows. Personally, I don't have mana problems, you can purchase 1-2 clarity for 50 gold and sustain your mana pool. You should learn not to throw stupid hooks because mana is precious to Pudge early in the game. Also this meta has lots of shrines, so Soul Ring is very much feasible and goes along with tranquil boots but it is an old build.
  
  
• ** Ethereal Blade** This item is amazing vs physical line ups, especially vs an Ursa or Melee cores. If you deploy ethernal blade on a hero and hook and dismember it, they will certainly die since it does massive damage.
  
  
• ** Aghanim's Scepter** It's a troll item, and expensive. You don't have the mana pool for the constant hooking and its expensive, Shiva Guards or Sheep Stick is better. Get it if you know you won or wanna be a massive douche and hook them out of their fountain for the lulz.
  
• 
  ** Ghost Scepter**: Very good item on Pudge vs physical line-up, you can rot and dismember and slowly transition to E-blade. Good against Ursa and Juggernaut.
  
• Town Portal Scroll Always carry a TP. ALWAYS - CARRY - A - TP. ALWAYS CARRY A TP, YOU SHOULD BE ALWAYS ROTATING, CONSTANTLY, ROTATING. MOVE THAT FAT *** ALL OVER THE MAP.
  

How to Gank and who you can gank successfully.

If you're trying to gank an anti-mage and Puck, just uninstall this game and don't ever play Dota 2 ever again. Without Dismember, you cannot kill any hero that has escape without a reliable stun from your teammates.

You cannot kill on your own successfully or difficult to do so: Bristleback, Lifestealer, Anti-Mage, Templar Assassin, Puck, Queen of Pain, Viper, Undying, Ursa, Huskar, Wind-Ranger and more.

Sometimes, I get lucky and I hook them near the tower, or a gap between some trees but you should avoid those outlined examples. These heroes should be generally avoided unless they are below 75% Health Points.

If you see a storm spirit or Tinker mid, stay in safelane and assist your core until you are level 2 and have your hook or level 3. Personally, I start rollin when I have my hook at level 2. You need to ask yourself the following questions 1) Who can I successfully kill 2) Which lanes need help 3) Which lanes should be pressured


Biggest and common mistakes : I've done these mistakes myself and sometimes you don't pull or stack camps for your core, or you're sapping experience from your mid laner while doing absolutely nothing. If you're having a difficult time ganking, you should make sure that your core is having a easy lane to farm without problems.

Purchase smokes You should constantly be smoke ganking. Usually mid-lane is warded, but if you are under smoke and have a level 3 hook, they will not expect it a hook. I've hooked people so many times under smoke that they get so tilted from dying or they actually abandoned the game.

Here's some hook spots. Make sure you don't dwell here for more than a minute.

Hook Spot 1
Hook Spot 2
Hook Spot 3

(I'll add other good spots or maybe a video in the future)

Fighting and Impact.

Pudge does receive a notorious reputation for being a hit or miss hero but his impact in games solely depend on the player. You can so do much with little farm. Pudge is the sort of hero that doesn't need much farm, just a couple of key items for him to utilize his full potential. It is common to see Pudge players with GPM's of 350-450 with an average of 5-15k Networth. Pudge's power comes from his ability to reposition heros, take heros out of the fight for a moment, scare the opposite team without knowing where the next hook will come from and most importantly, his ability to dismember heros that activated Black King Bar. Pudge is the only hero that can pierce and stun a hero that has activated his BKB. He's literally a walking abyssal blade.

During fights, Pudge is either used as a safety mechanism or played as an initiator. For example, if you're fighting against a Faceless Void, Pudge will stay back and hook people out of chrono. If you're pushing high ground, Pudge can stay back and hook people to safety if they're caught in a chain stun or he will try to hook someone from high ground. In complicated fights, Pudge can hook enemies to place them out of position while initiating another core hero to take them out of the fight, for example dismembering an Earthshaker so he doesn't Echo Slam your entire team.

With that said, positioning as Pudge is important. You're either going to blink into someone and hold them with dismember, or you're going to stay far back to hook someone away from danger. It is also wise to dismember high value targets like, Faceless Void or Earthshaker if possible that can turn the tide of a team fight. Pudge is a very situational hero, so your actions will be life or death for your teammates. Patience from Zhou.

Lastly, it is important to note that Blink Dagger and forcestaff are vital items for Pudge. These items allow you to kite, and kiting is important on any hero, especially on Pudge. If there's alot of AOE on the opposite team, make sure to turn your wind lance into a Euls sceptor.

The Art of Hooking.

Hooking. Being a dirty hooker takes patience, focus and timing. You need to understand that your hook has a travel speed. Pudge has a 1300 maximum hook range (can be increased with Aether Lens). Your opponent is a moving target, nobody is going to stand still like a ****ing donkey waiting to be hooked (sometimes they do, lol). Here's some tips to maximum that you're not wasting mana on hooking air and actually increasing your odds of striking a direct hit.

• 1. Under no circumstance should you walk up to an enemy hero and attempt to throw a hook. You should always attempt it while the hero is under a stun spell or slowed.
  
• 2. Sometimes you see a kill so close to you that it makes your **** so hard and all the blood rushes down into your pants. When that happens, you get excited, you miss your hook and they know you're there. Be patient, wait for them to stop and hit a creep or try to last hit a low creep that's within your trajectory. If you know he's gonna hit that creep, throw it in that direction.
  
  Will add to this list with pictures. Will be edited shortly.

Talents

His level 10 talent tree in my opinion is the only one that makes you think on whether you should get the extra health bonus from the +8 Strength selection or the 2% mana regeneration. The rest are a no-brain. If you have a crystal maiden on your team, you select 8+ Strength. Her aura will give you mana. If you think the opposite draft doesn't require you to get the additional strength bonus, usually against magic line up, you can opt in selecting the regen. In most cases, I select +8 Strength, 70% of the time.

As for his other talents, Pudge lacks ****ing armor, you always get +5 Armor. End of discussion. When you get tranquils + Wind lance (Speed stacks), you dont need more movement speed.

Always get 150 GPM. Always. I'm not even gonna waste time elaborating why.

For level 25, you get 1.75 Stack, it increases your damage, your health, makes you fat and juicy and increases the damage of your Ethernal Blade by a **** ton if you have lots of flesh heap stacks. 120 damage rot is pretty useless, and underwhelming, you just kill yourself faster and doesn't justify the massive bonus from the 1.75 stack talent.

Creeping / Jungling

I have seen some people purchase Iron Talon, since it allows you to slowly jungle some camps. It's not recommended and your best bet would be getting a early hood of defiance and using the active spell to farm since you block 325 of your own rot damage with 25% magic resistence including Flesh Heap passive. Also 500 gold is a waste and Pudge needs all his money. Once you get your momentum going, you can rot creep stacks fairly early if there's no safe opportunity to gank or pressure lanes. Pudges sole purpose in this current meta and life is to make your enemies life miserable, inflict fear and make them turtle within their side of the map.

Pros and Cons

One of the most important items.

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tp
In real-estate, they say - location, location, location. In Dota2, ROTATIONS, ROTATIONS, ROTATIONS.


ALWAYS, CARRY, A, ****ING, TP. ROTATIONS = KILLS = MONEY = FLESH HEAPS = ??? = PROFIT.