Pudge

Background

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.

Introduction

Thanks for reading my first guide which still needs a lot of work. Pudge is one my favorite heroes to play, he requires a high skill level and it's fun roaming around the map ganking.

Pudge can be the bane of your existence if in the hands of a competent player. Pudge has strong mid presence and an extremely dangerous ganker due to his hook. In this guide I have listed a build and skill sequence for both mid and side lanes. I usually only use the master hook skill sequence, but I wanted to list a rot chasing skill sequence since newer players can use this in case they don't want to depend on hook.

WARNING: Do not pick this hero if you are new to the DOTA world. You will do horrible and your team will hate you and leave negative feedback.

Pros / Cons

Pros:

- Hook is deadly in the right hands
- Amazing Ganker
- Good Tank
- Strong Mid Hero
- Passive Strength Gain
- Ult is a disable

Cons:

-Slow movement speed
-Mana issues at low levels
-Ult is countered by CC
-Hook is a skill shot

Skills

Meat Hook

Key Bind: Q

Launches a bloody hook at a unit or location. The hook will snag the first unit it encounters, dragging the unit back to Pudge and dealing damage if it is an enemy.

Distance: 700 / 900 / 1100 / 1300
Damage: 90 / 180 / 270 / 360
Mana Cost: 110 / 120 / 130 / 140
Cooldown Time: 14 / 13 / 12 / 11

Hook is the bread and butter skill for Pudge, it takes practice to become good at it. You need to practice throwing blind hooks, but also predicting hero movements and last hitting.

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Rot

Key Bind: W

A toxic cloud that deals intense damage and slows movement--harming not only enemy units but Pudge himself.

Area: 250
Slow: 20%
Damage: 35 / 60 / 85 / 110

Hook+Rot is one of the deadliest combos in the game. It is nearly impossible to get away from without CC. Also once you have hood it is good for farming.

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Flesh Heap

Key Bind: E

Gives Pudge resistance to magic damage, as well as bonus strength that increases each time an enemy Hero dies in the vicinity.

Range: 450
Magic Resistance: 4% / 8% / 12% / 16%
Strength Bonus: 0.9 / 1.2 / 1.5 / 1.8

Pudges passive helps him gain much needed magic resistance for Rot and helps him get tanky for ganking. He gains strength for each hero kill he gets.

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Dismember

Key Bind: R

Pudge chows down on an enemy unit, disabling it and dealing damage over time. Lasts 3 seconds on heroes, 6 seconds on creeps. SCEPTER UPGRADABLE: Adds a 75% strength-based damage bonus, and heals Pudge equal to the damage dealt by Dismember.

Range: 160
Damage: 75 / 125 / 175 (+.75x strength with scepter)
Mana Cost: 100 / 130 / 170 Cooldown Time: 30

Pudges ultimate is great since it deals massive and disables the unit.

Starting Items

Mid Lane

Stout Shield - Helps with incoming damage from mid lane harass. Allows you to get last hits without taking much damage.
Tangos - Some basic regen, should be enough until courier brings a bottle.
Quelling Blade - This is a very useful item because it helps greatly with last hitting in the mid, but also when ganking it allows you to setup Pudge in the trees so the enemy cannot move after getting hooked.

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Side Lane

Gauntlets of Strengthx2 - Gives HP, base damage and you can convert them into Urn of Shadows.
Tangos - Basic regen to stay in lane.
Clarity Potionx2 - Pudge has a mana issue early game. You have enough mana to throw only 1 hook so having these potions early game help dramatically in case you miss.
Healing Salve - Quick regen to use hopefully after killing a hero in your lane.

Early Game Items

Mid Lane

Boots of Speed - Much needed movement speed boost.
Bottle - More regen and should make it much easier to gank with rune control.
Cloak - Magic resistance helps with using rot and also protects from incoming spell damage from enemies.

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Side Lane

Boots of Speed - Much needed movement speed boost.
Urn of Shadows - Ganking makes this item worthwhile. It gives strength and mana regen and can even regen health with charges. I will pick this up in side lane because having a bottle in side lane means you might be stealing runes from your mid who is ganking and you can't get really run and grab the rune in the far lane.
Cloak - Magic resistance helps with using rot and also protects from incoming spell damage from enemies.

Core Items

Arcane Boots or Phase Boots - If you are having mana issues picking up Arcane boots should solve all your problems. If you have a bottle and that has been enough to sustain your mana pool you can pick up phase boots for chasing and damage.
Hood of Defiance - The absolute greatest item for Pudge. It provides regen and a great amount of magic resistance.
Blink Dagger - Makes you less dependent on your hook so it should be much easier to gank. This also provides much needed mobility for roaming and ganking.

Luxury/Situational Items

Boots of Travel - Always a good pick up if you have decent farm, be anywhere and everywhere!



Aghanim's Scepter - I am sometimes hesitant about picking this up because you are hoping that you aren't getting CC'd whenever you ult. If the other team doesn't have that much CC then this is a great item to pick up. It provides great stats and the boost to ult is incredible. If you are low health you can even ult a creep in the jungle to regen since your ult is such a low cooldown. Great item, just know when to get it.



Heart of Tarrasque - If i have the farm I love to pick up a heart because it makes you incredibly tanky. The regen from heart allows you to spam rot without an issue.



Vanguard - I would pick this up in a few games when the other team has lots of physical damage.



Pipe of Insight - You usually have enough magic armor, but incase you go against Lich you can pick this up for your team.

Gameplay

Mid Lane

Against a range hero in mid you just want to try and farm a bottle as quickly as possible. There are very few opportunities for you to get a kill so you must have perfect timing. When the lane is pushed towards your tower, look for a time to hook them into your tower. Usually your opponent isn't that stupid so something else you can do is run up like you are going to try and last hit, but actually walk past the creep and try to catch them in your rot. This is unexpected most of the time and when they are low or running in a straight line try to get a hook to bring them down and get a kill.

Against a melee hero you can get in some auto attacks and when they are low just get next to them and start to rot them and eventually hooking them for the kill.

Side Lane

For the side lane I would try and farm and really wouldn't try too much until at least lvl 3 or 4. Try and hide in the trees and pull someone away from the other hero and pick them off immediately. Once you get level 4 you can roam if you like, but I would wait until you get your early game items.

Mid Game

GANK GANK GANK

Late Game & Team Fights

You need to try and initiate with a hook if possible. If you can somehow land a hook and initiate the fight there is a high chance you will win the team fight. If you can't get a hook your job is to tank the damage and try to lock down someone with your ult if possible.

Videos

Have a beta key, but still working away from home at the moment. When I get back I will make some videos showing good hooks, first blooding mid and where to cut trees for ganking.

Guide Updates

Published: 04-Jan-2012