Puck: A Blink Between Worlds

Introduction

Hello, I'm Arensen (Ren for short), and welcome to my guide to the faerie dragon Puck. A short note before we begin. I am new to DotaFire, and this is my first guide. Also, with only 300 games under my belt I am by no means an expert Dota player, so take anything with a pinch of salt, and feel free to experiment. Hopefully you are already doing that. Now with that out of the way, lets begin.

Puck is notorious for his mobility, his ganking ability, and how difficult it is to pin down and kill him. Puck is conventionally seen as a ganking mid hero, but he is also playable as an offlaner due to his excellent escape mechanism. Both options are explored in this guide.

I find Puck to be a good pubstompy hero. While not as effective a pubstomping mid as someone like Sniper or Bloodseeker, he is still quite good at easy ganks and easy kills. Most pub players (usually) will not put wards down, allowing you to gank and kill quite easily.

Overall, Puck requires some practice to learn, but he is a very fun hero to play, and also quite good in a practised team.

Pros / Cons

Pros -Highly mobile -Good burst damage -Strong harrass and laning presence -Absolutely murders other squishy heroes -Good initiator

Cons -Quite squishy -Vulnerable to AOE stun and silence -Does not transition well into late-game roles -Poor stat gains

Alt-Tab Guide

Ren, help! I randomed Puck and I have about forty seconds before game starts. How do I actually play this guy?


Call mid lane. Follow the item build above. Try to rush a bottle and establish rune control. When ganking, throw an Illusory Orb in, jump to it, silence them, Dream Coil them, and get you teammates to help beat them to death. Keep ganking through the mid game to ensure easy kills and farm for your carry while shutting down theirs. If you've done this well, you should be pretty close to winning.

Skills

Illusory Orb

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Illusory Orb is Puck's main spell for both initiation and escape. He shoots an orb which travels 1800 units, dealing damage to any units it passes through. It provides flying vision. Always remember this. At face value this is a fairly simple nuke. However its second component makes it shine.

Ethereal Jaunt

Ethereal Jaunt is a sub-ability of Illusory Orb, which lets Puck instantly teleport to the Orb's location. This turns Illusory Orb from being a simple nuke to an amazing mobility tool.

Waning Rift

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Waning Rift is another relatively simple nuke. Puck releases a burst of faerie dust in a 400 unit AOE around him, dealing damage to enemies within that AOE and silecing them for 3 seconds at maximum level. When combined with an Illusory Orb to get close, Waning Rift becomes much easier to land.

Phase Shift

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Phase Shift is an unconventional ability. Puck shifts into another dimension becoming immune to all forms of damage. This is surprisingly useful in multiple ways. For a start, it has no animation, meaning that it can be easily used to disjoint projectiles. It can even be used to dodge AOE spells with a tiny animation, such as Reverse Polarity, most famously done by S4 in TI3. The other useful thing about it is that it has a 3.25 second duration, and Blink Dagger has a 3 second time for re-use after taking damage. Coincidence? I think not.

Dream Coil

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Dream Coil is Puck's Ultimate ability. It has a 375 AOE, and deals damage and mini-stuns on forming. It also creates a coil of volatile energy connecting to each unit hit. If a unit affected by the coil moves too far, the coil will snap, dealing damage and stunning for a significant duration. Aghanims ScepterIncreases the coil break damage from 100/150/200 to 200/250/300, and the stun on break duration to a huge 4.5 seconds, and the actual duration of the coil from 6 to 8 seconds. This ultimate has multiple uses. First of all, it is an extremely strong initiation tool for ganks and teamfights. In a gank it serves as an AOE nuke and stun to ensure kills. It really shines in a teamfight though. You can effectively force as many units as possible to stay in a small AOE for your team to whack them. It can even be used to stop escape by teleport.

Items

Ren, I think some of your items are really dodgy. Why would you buy that!

Starting Items

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Starting items are fairly conventional. Tango helps for pre-Bottle regen. The Null Talisman is quite good on Puck. It gives him a bit more hp, but the +6 int and +3 damage work nicely to improve his last-hitting power which is rather lack-luster.

Early Game

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The most important early-game item here is the Bottle (assuming you are your teams mid). The bottle provides you with excellent health regeneration, and it also gives you the mana support to harass with Illusory Orb in earnest. This can enable easy first bloods against squishy mids like Sniper, or melee mids. The bottle provides rune control, which is essential for a mid. The bottle heal will also continue whilst you are phase shifted. So if you use the bottle then phase shift, you will have a guaranteed way to restore hp and mana without it being interrupted. Finally, the boots should be bought on every hero in the game.

Core

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Your brown boots should be upgraded into Power Treads, which will usually be set to strength. This is because Puck is very fragile, and needs the extra hp. He does not often run into mana problems assuming he has a Bottle.

Blink Dagger

Blink Dagger is the most important item Puck will buy. Between Blink and Illusory Orb, Puck has a spectacular amount of mobility. He can easily jump on someone with Blink Dagger, the use all of his spells to allow an easy kill without the warning that would usually be given by a flying Illusory Orb. Blink allows him to get out of tight situations when Illusory Orb is on cooldown. Simply Phase Shift, then blink away. Blink Dagger also provides Puck with an initiation mechanism and an escape. He can blink in, silence, dream coil, orb, phase shift while the orb is flying, then teleport to it for a better position. And all for a meagre 2250 gold.

Luxury Items

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Puck likes items with Ultimate Orbs in them. They give him extra tankiness, which he really needs. This makes Scythe of Vyse an excellent choice. The int bonus is huge, which increases his right-clicks and gives him even better mana support for Illusory Orb. The active Hex is invaluable against an enemy carry. Linkens is also a good choice as it makes Puck even harder to kill. Shiva's Guard and Veil of Discord can both be used to increase the AOE damage you and your team can deal. Following Dota 6.82, Aghanim's Scepter also becomes a viable choice. The 4.5 second stun and 300 damage makes breaking the coil a REALLY bad idea, which basically forces the entire enemy team to clump into a very small area for eight seconds.

Situational Items

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Dagon and Ethereal Blade are both amazing for increasing your single target damage output, and Dagon can be used in pubs as a viable go-to item if you are doing well. With a Dagon, Pucks burst damage becomes comparable to Queen of Pain's.
Dagon + Illusory Orb + Waning Rift + Dream Coil
400 + 280 + 280 + 200
= 1160 Magic Damage
Boom, Headshot.

That is at level one Dagon. With higher levels of Dagon, or a Veil of Discord or Ethereal Blade, Puck can easily destroy squishy heroes, escpecially common pubstomp picks like Sniper, Drow Ranger or Bounty Hunter, assuming he gets the jump on them.

Eye of Skadi is a highly situational item, and I have only bought it once when our team needed more carry power, and I needed to be borderline indestructible. Black King Bar is also a good choice when facing a team who is massively stun/silence heavy, or against a Silencer, as Linken's Sphere won't help you there.

Gameplay

Umm, Ren? I called mid, I'm in lane, I've got my skill and item build all mapped out, but what do I actually do?

Puck is a very versatile hero. His role starts out a a dedicated ganking mid, but he will often transition into an initiator role with Dream Coil Waning Rift combo.

Early Game

Puck will usually take middle lane. He will follow the usual principles for a mid-laner. Farm, get last-hits and denies, establish run control and try to win the lane. It is possible to get a first blood from level three, with the 140 damage from Illusory Orb, however it can almost only work against VERY squishy mids, or melee mids.

Early Midgame

Gank, gank, gank. Puck's main role is as a ganker, so he should gank whenever possible. Puck ganks best from level six onwards, when he has access to Dream Coil Most succesful ganks will flow like this:

1. Go to check the rune, and bottle it.
2. Move into the trees near the lane you intend to gank
3. Fire an Illusory Orb at the enemy team.
4. As soon as the orb has hit, jump to it, and immediately use Waning Rift to silence them.
5. Dream Coil the enemy.
6. You and your teammates attack them until they die.
7. Use your bottle to heal up and restore mana, then rotate back to mid to farm until the next opportunity arises.

Make sure you remember to buy items from the side lane shop as you need them after a gank.

Midgame

In an ideal game, you'll have your Bottle, Power Treads and Blink Dagger by 15 minutes. While this won't happen in every game, Puck should have these items going into the midgame, and start to think about some big items like a Scythe of Vyse or a Linken's Sphere. Exactly what you buy is your decision.

In the midgame, Puck will still be ganking, but it won't always be from mid lane to a side lane. People will be rotating into different lanes, to be opportunistic. Gank whenever it seems possible, and try to jump on and kill low health heroes. Puck is EXTREMELY good at pursuing low health heroes, on par with Storm Spirit and Anti-Mage.

Teamfights around towers will also start to happen, or even just pop up out of nowhere. Make sure you are there for the teamfights! Between Dream Coil and an AOE silence, Puck is invaluable in a teamfight. His AOE damage output is huge, so remember to use all of your spells. Since Puck is so elusive, you should also be using him to initiate teamfights. He can easily jump in, silence, coil, then jump to a safer position and your team can clean up. In fact, initiator is the role most Pucks will transition to in the:

Late Game

Assuming your ganks went well, you should be close to winning about this point. If you are having trouble siegeing barracks uphill, you should be the one initiating. Remember that Illusory Orb provides flying vision. Toss an Orb uphill for vision, then jump to it, and do your thing. If you are still having difficulties in teamfights (which you probably shouldn't) you can buy a Shiva's Guard to close out a teamfight and the game. Remember though, that in the endgame, carries become the dominant force, and the power that you had in the midgame will become eclipsed by the like of a Faceless Void or the infamous Phantom Lancer. However, if you have one of these, you should be able to win the game fairly easily.

Offlaning

Ren, some idiot picked a Sniper at 1 second, and stole my mid. What do I do now?

The other viable position for Puck is in the offlane, solo preferably. He has excellent escape potential, so it is unlikely that he will easily die. He will hit six a bit after your mid, so call the mid into your lane and you should be able to kill the enemy carry fairly easily. The major difference is the an offlane Puck will not buy a Bottle, as that is for your mid. As always in the offlane, try to pick up a ward or two, and be very aware of positioning. Puck is more forgiving for escape purposes, be he can still die VERY easily once stunned, against the likes of a Sven for example.

Matchups

Ren, there's a hero on the enemy team that scares me, is Puck still a viable pick?

As with all heroes, there are some good and some matchups for Puck, as well as some teammates who work especially well with Puck.

Heroes Puck is Good Against

Puck is best in lane against squishy mid, melee mids, or heroes who like to pretend they are melee.

Notable Examples:

The short range of Gyrocopter means that Puck can easily harrass him out of lane (offlane or mid)


Puck has the mobility to rival Storm Spirit, better range, a silence, and a way to keep him in one place. Storm Spirit likes none of these things.


Although Sniper does not fall into the above categories, he is so fantastically squishy that Puck can easily go for a first blood at level three. Also, Dream Coil can hit invisible units following 6.82, so no escape by Shadow Blade for Sniper.

Heroes Puck is Bad Against

Puck hates silences. They stop him from dodging, escaping, silencing, etc. etc. Stuns are also no fun, and nor is big single target burst damage.

Notable Examples

Oh hell of hells! A good Templar Assassin player is one of Puck's worst nightmares. Refraction grants her near immunity to her burst damage, while allowing her to hit like a truck from very early on in the game. She can easily burst Puck into oblivion, while being immune to Puck's own burst, and her Psi Blades are very scary harrass in lane. Never pick Puck against a Templar Assasin.


Silencer is almost as bad for Puck. The AOE silences are not blocked by Linken's Sphere, and they stop him from getting away. He can hit quite hard with Glaives of Wisdom, and his passive int steal only serves to cripple Puck's mana pool, as Puck's int gain is poor (only 2.4 per level0.


This one can be a pain. If Nyx Assassin gets the jump on you, you die. Basically, you can't dodge the auto-attack out of invis, then it is very difficult to dodge the Impale. If he hits you with Impale, you die. You are stunned, on a tiny amount of hp, and you die. This also goes for any surprising AOE stun, like Magnus's Reverse Polarity (unless you are S4).


Heroes who Puck works well with

Puck is a setup hero, so he works well with heroes that can take advantage of that set-up.

Notable Examples

Whoa, baby. A good five man Dream Coil into a farmed Ember Spirit popping a Slight of Fist is probably going to be a RAMPAGE right on the spot.


A fully setup Dream Coil -> Echo Slam is pretty painful as well.


Puck is excellent at setting up for a huge Ice Blast to initiate a teamfight.


Having a Chain Frost bouncing around with the Dream Coil is no fun either.

Summary

Well, that's all from me for now. Hopefully you've enjoyed this guide and hopefully you've learned something. Puck is one of my favourite heroes, and I hope you have fun playing Puck. Remember, the key to improving your skills is practise.

Any feedback, tips or suggestions for this guide would be welcomed.

Thankyou.

Hey! Wait a Second!

REN! You keep mentioning this S4 guy, and something about a Magnus! Exactly what did he do again??

Oh, alright. In TI3 s4 made some pretty spectacular plays. This video here best showcases them. Play Video