My Guide to Pudge

About Me

Hi guys my name is Felix. I have been playing Dota2 for 2.6 years (If I'm not wrong) and you can find me on Instagram or Twitter (@felix_denz).

This is my third guide here, so i expect my elders to give me comments and help me fix my mistakes. If there is a sameness with other's guide, it is a pure coincidental and don't sue me for it.

About Pudge

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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.

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Pudge the Butcher is the fattest hero in Dota 2, but fortunately not the slowest here. He excels in picking weak heroes and starting deliquent fights. He is not smart, but to play him you have to be smart.

Always disappear from the map and reappear again, this hero rivals even the mighty Riki (hell, he's far bigger than him). With his glorious armpits, he spreads his love and disease to whoever he eats.

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In this guide I will cover:
(*)Pros and Cons
(*)Item Builds
(*)Skill Build
(*)Hooking Locations and a little bit about hookings
(*)Friends and Foes

Pros and Cons

Pros:
(*)Tanky
(*)One of the best ganker in the game if played correctly
(*)Snowballs like ****
(*)High STR gain
(*) Flesh Heap makes him even tankier than usual


Cons:
(*)Low mana pool
(*)Not the best mid hero in the world
(*)Low base movement speed
(*)Need proper playing
(*)High concentration required
(*)PUDGE IS NOT INITIATOR SO PLEASE DON'T BLINK DISMEMBER INTO ENEMY'S TEAM CENTER.

Item Builds

This is your first items. Both Tango and Healing Salve are needed since you are spamming your Rot so extra regeneration is needed. Gauntlets of Strength is needed for the extra strength and Iron Branch later upgraded to Magic Wand or not.

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Rush the bottle ASAP. You need that rune control. At least the 4 min rune but if you can then rush a 2 min Bottle. After that either upgrade that branch to Magic Wand or sell them to rush Urn of Shadows. Both are viable.

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Which one to buy? Most people buy Blink Dagger for the easy initiation, but Force Staff is also picked up for that easy escaping. Well, both are viable. Blink Dagger is more useful for starting a gank. You can blink into FoW and start hooking for enemies. But be careful, Rot activates Blink Dagger's cooldown so use it wisely. On the other hand, Force Staff provies HP regen and INT, but your placement is not as good as using Blink Dagger as you have to guess where you will be pushed. Wrong push and you are toast. Especially when going uphill. So, both of them have their pros and cons. Pick wisely!

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These are Pudge's boots of choice. Many people confused what boots to pick. Arcane Boots provides mana, Phase Boots provides that movement speed, while Tranquil Boots provides HP regen and movement speed. Your mana issues will not be a problem since you have Bottle already, you won't be needing Phase Boots' damage, and as for the movement speed, Tranquil Boots already provided it. You will be hiding, so your enemies wouldn't attack you and your boots won't get broken. So I think Tranquil Boots is the boots of choice. But it doesn't mean "OKAY SO STARTING FROM NOW ON I WILL BE BUILDING TRANQUIL AND NO OTHER". Sh**, not like that dude. You can build either one, but I only write my opinion here. Sometimes player without Bottle always rush Arcane Boots too.

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This is your core item. Basically, to make you tanky. Aghanim's Scepter provides stats and ultimate lets you heal HP. Hood of Defiance increase your spell resistance, making Pudge even more resistant to spells. Also decrease Rot's damage. Pudge with Hood of Defiance and Flesh Heap at max has 53.8% magic resistance (correct me if I'm wrong) so it's damn high. Later on upgrade the hood to Pipe of Insight.

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By now you have 4 items up your sleeve. Boots, Blink Dagger, Aghanim's Scepter, and Hood of Defiance. You can sell your bottle if you are already on this phase.
(*) Shiva's Guard. This item is a kickass on Pudge. Not only provides you with mana and armor, it also has minus attack speed aura. This item lets Pudge become a tanky hero.

(*) Pipe of Insight is basically an extension from Hood of Defiance. Upgrade it or not, entirely up to you. But that 400 magical resistance barrier is a good thing to have, especially if you are fighting nukers and skill spammers [A.K.A Zeus, Bristleback, Lina, etc.]

(*) Heart of Tarrasque. Every STR heroes' dream item. TANKABILITY. This one word means Heart of Tarrasque.

(*) Scythe of Vyse. Not a so-popular item on Pudge, but I find it interesting on him. When you have this item, it's almost like every 1-1 fight winner is you. That stats and mana is something, but the Hex is something else. Especially useful if you want to disable enemy hard carry [A.K.A Anti-Mage, phantom assasin, Faceless Void, you name it]. This item is like Pudge's 5th or 6th slot item.

(*) Boots of Travel. Yeah, Pudge is fat and slow. That lump of meat needs mobility, and BoT provides it. Well, you can purchase it when you are about to win XD.

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SITUATIONAL

(*) Blade Mail is useful when you are Dismembering your prey. When you are Dismembering them, you stay in a place. This means enemy range carry can free hit you. Stop them with this. Most long range carry are squishy, so they will have to wait till your BM dies. By that time, your prey is already dead XD.

(*) Black King Bar. Almost the same as Blade Mail, except better. Invulnerability when eating. Nobody can disturb you.

(*) Linken's Sphere is another alternative to BKB. Extremely useful against enemy's Doom or Culling Blade and Primal Roar.

(*) Eul's Scepter of Divinity. Well, this is one weird item on him. Pudge's rate with Euls is extremely low, like 1 out of 10 pudge players will pick this item. Why not?? You can lock your enemy and getting ready to start your lunch, or flying yourself, looking at the beautiful view of Dota 2 map, then blink away. Not only that, it provides movement speed and mana regeneration for you. Extremely good item on him, wonder why so few pick this.

(*) Rod of Atos. Provides health and INT. But what's best is that cripple. A slowed enemy is always the best hook-prey. Use this item as a set up for your combo. Not recommended and don't pick this when facing blinking heroes [A.K.A Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain, you name it].

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Skill Build

First, up that Rot. You will need it for CS. Don't worry, you have enough regen items to heal yourself so Rot till your heart contents. At level 2, take that Meat Hook. It's extremely important to you. Without it you are like Io without Tether or Tidehunter without Ravage.

When you hit level 6, you will have Meat Hook on 3 points, 2 points on Rot, and Dismember. Now you can roam. Always max Meat Hook first, Rot second, and Flesh Heap last. No argue with this.

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Special mention about Hood of Defiance, try buying this item first before getting Flesh Heap, so that the magic resistance will stack. Buying Cloak first is also okay. (correct me if I'm wrong).

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Hooking locations

HOOKING LOCATIONS

Well, I put everything on a picture. Sorry, but you have to go to the website to look at the picture. Just right click on the pic, then click View Image.

Look at them carefully, most of them are behind trees or on the high ground.

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Here are some tips to hooking:
1. Aim behind / in front of your prey. NEVER CLICK DIRECTLY ON THE ENEMY UNLESS HE'S BINDED. If you click on the enemy, and he moves a little bit, your hook will miss. On the other hand, clicking on the ground is better, since if he's moving a little he'll still get hooked.

2. Practice. Practice and practice. Hooking is about placement, timing, and heart. First, check if you are already on the good spot to hook without interruption. Then, be sure to predict your enemy's movement. And lastly, NEVER HESITATE. Most people miss hook chances because they hesitate. "Do I hook now?" "Is this the range?" "What if suddenly creeps pops out?". Being cautios is good, but if you do that too much, you will miss your chance.

3. Fast hands. Meat Hook + Dismember + Rot requires fast hands. If you are facing Anti-Mage, for example, after your hook lands, he can just blink away if you are not fast enough to Dismember him. Some shift-clicking will be useful here.

Play Video

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Foes

MID LANE FOES

As her name implies, she is the Queen of Pain. 2 harrasing skills, 1 escape skill, 1 nuking ultimate. Pudge, who is basically draining his own health for creepings due to Rot, is getting even more low thanks to her Shadow Strike and Scream of Pain. She is the one who will always harrass you, so you will be in a little problem.
The Almighty Silencer, who renders your skills useless. Last Word and curse of the silent enables you from hooking, and in some ocassion, silenced when still Rotting means you can't deactivate that Rot. Hiding in a good position is enough to lane with him.
outworld devourer Yeah this bastard is your weakness in early game. Mana pool. Not only Astral Imprisonment steals your INT, it also disable you, means that you can't last hit those creeps, when essence aura heals his mana. Also, with your low INT, sanity eclipse will deal pretty high damage on you.
It's pretty hard to lane with this creature. She can harass you with Illusory Orb, and dodge your hooks with Phase Shift. The only way to hook her is to bait her with fake hooks.
I don't know if you can call him your foe. It's all depending on the player. Cold Snap alone is already deadly for you. He's deadly for you in the hands on pro player. Try staying a little bit further from him, but still in exp range. And block creeps so they will be on your high ground. Use the advantage of Fog of War to hide yourself.

FOES

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What do they have in common? ILLUSION!! Illusion hinders your judgement.
"Which one is the real one?" "Oh, a Terrorblade jungling solo with half HP! This is my chance!! Meat Hook + Dismember!! POOF... Oh ****."
These are most people's thought when they are about to hook illusions. My best guess is, try blinking in the middle of the illusions with Rot and try looking for the one with more HP since Rot makes illusion dies quicker.

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These are just a few from many silencer heroes. What's most annoying from Pudge's combo is if you are silenced, then you can't execute your combo, and what's more annoying that that is being silenced when Rot is still active.

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"Nice, a Clinkz with low HP. I'm gonna tail this bastard." 3 seconds later "Where the fu** is he?? OMG he went invisible! Damn!"
You get what I mean. In order to hook invisible heroes, you need either Sentry Ward, Dust of Appearance, Necronomicon, Gem of True Sight, and luck. Yeah, sheer dumb luck. Most people go to the last resort. But it's easier on Sand King and Templar Assassin since they need to stand still. Well, it's another story if they got Blink Dagger.

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Friends

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Everybody loves mana. Especially Pudge, and especially Pudge without bottle.

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These heroes lock 1 enemy in a place, makes hooking fairly easy. Sacred Arrow, Magic Missile, Impale, Hex, and Duel are just a few from many locking skills in Dota 2.

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Yeah, this is Pudge's best friend. He is nothing without vision. You need to know where your enemy is, and this ward provides it. I will not discuss about warding locations here. Go here if you don't understand about wardings: The Good, The Bad, and The Warding.

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Conclusions

Thank you for taking your time to read this guide. This is a Pudge's guide consisting of items and heroes, sorry for the lack of gameplay, since I can't play Dota inhouse and have to go outside to record my own gameplay :( .

Critics and elders are welcome. Thanks!

Updates

Sun, 28 Dec 2014
(*)Changed hooking location picture, combine Dire and Radiant locations into 1 picture.
(*)Added 2nd Build, in case of early ganks.

Sat, 27 Dec 2014
(*)Guide Published.