Pudge: The Butcher.

Inroduction

Salutations! You have stumbled upon my Guide to Pudge. I have been playing The Butcher for about three years now, so i just wanted to create a guide for him to share with others my experiences of playing with him! I hope i do a good job in helping others improve their game play with Pudge. :)

If i make a mistake ANYWHERE, positive criticism will be greatly accepted. and changes will be made accordingly.

Also any advise on making this guide better will be much appreciated :D and a Vote Up would be just fantastic :3

Notice: This is entirely my work, no guide, or cite, was plagiarized in the act of making this.

-PotM_Plz

Pudge's Pros/Cons

Pros:

1. Great Ganker
2. Not very Item Dependent
3. Has a slow, and a Disable
4. 3 moves that can deal huge damage.
5. Good melee solo
6. Huge Strength gain-per-level
7. Natural Counter to many heroes.
8. Needs Skill


Cons:

1. Slow
2. Mana-Problem
3. Needs skill
4. Level Dependent

Skills

Hook:

Pudge's First move(Q). Hook is Pudge's signature ability, and one of my favorite casts in all of DotA. (Second to Mirana's Arrow)

Basically Pudge chucks a Hook at a location, or where ever you click. If the Hook hits an enemy, or Ally, it pulls them back into Pudge, and deals 360 Damage(Physical) at level four on impact, the range on Hook at level four is 1000 units.

The trick to landing a Hook is lead the desired target, and click on the screen where you think they will be when the Hook gets to them. THIS WILL TAKE PRACTICE! you are not going to get this down right away. I haven't either >_>

Hook will pull in allies, so use this to your teams advantage, by saving your friends from death.

Rot:

Pudge's second move(W). When activated, any non-friendly that is inside an area of 250 units around Pudge is damaged for 100 Damage(Magic) per second and slowed for 20%. The Hook+ Rot combo is Pudge's bread and butter, together they make a deadly team. Because of this spell, and Pudge's/b] ultimate, he becomes a pretty decent DPS hero. Therefore, in team fights, you should all ways be in the thick of things with Rot going crazy.

Using Rot, you can also deny your self if you are close to dying. If you succeed in committing suicide (haha) you block any gold or experience going to the enemy team.


Flesh Heap:

Pudge's Passive ability. Flesh Heap gives Pudge bonus magic resistance of 16% at level four

Also, when ever a hero dies in a 450 unit radius around Pudge, he gains a permanent strength boost of 1.8 at level four.


Dismember:

Pudge's Ultimate ability. It Disables the targeted enemy and does 175 damage per second at level four. This combined with Rot can do massive amounts of DPS 1v1.

Dismember should also be used to pin down the enemy carry, or the hero that your team targets after Hooking him in, so the entire team can attack him at once.

Skill-Builds

The way you build your skills really depends on how the game is going.

If you have been stomping on everyone (which you should be) and raking up the kills, level Flesh Heap over Rot, so that your kills, don't start to become the killers.

And if you're having a tough time, or maybe your teams doing okay, but you're just struggling, then level Rot, so that you can do as much damage to the enemy's so that your carry can keep getting stronger.

But the one controlled variable, is that you need to level your Hook, and finish leveling it by level 7. Even if you don't think that you're that great with it, trust me you need it. whether its to get kills for yourself, or start a team fight by pulling in their major DPS.

Laning

Pudge is a melee hero that can play very well solo mid. Though i don't recommend it to newer players, it is the desired play-style.

Solo, the build will be exactly the same, so no difference there.
The play-style mid, is to try and keep your minions as close to your tower as possible, but not let it take too much damage. So that you can escape ganks easier.

When you are playing either bottom or top, dont forget about the convenience of the side shop.

Pudge is also an awesome Suicide Laner (Top for Radiant, and Bottom for Dire) When my friend Snuff plays Pudge, i usually pick Mirana and we go on the hard lane, and i buy wards for the jungle, but not really do stop them from pulling, but just to make sure we don't get ganked, or to pick off an impending ganker. the reason i don tblock the neutral camps is because the other team will be far more comfortable, and can be hooked easily from the jungle. especially if you buy a Quelling Blade to cut down a few trees.

Play-Style

Starting off

: Levels 1-5

Foucus Mainly on keeping your creep count and deny rate high. But with Pudge you can harrass easly by turning on Rot if enemy heroes come in for last hitting or denies. But be careful about using Rot to much early game, because you need to stay in-lane for a while to farm. If you have a good lane partner, anyone with a slow, a good one with Pudge is [Traxex: The Drow Ranger] ( See Loveless's guide to Traxex for builds and Play-Tips ) with a good combo lane, you may be able to get a quick first blood with even a short Hook.

Early-Game

: Levels 5-11

Stay in you lane and keep your farm up, until you have your Hook maxed out (Level 7). Then hit the enemy at their weak spots, and gank freely attacking from the jungle and puling in squishy heroes, and help your allies push harder.

Now you should have somewhat higher magic resistance with the purchase or Cloak or even the full Hood of Defiance so use Rot alot more, and begin to take out whole creep waves.

Mid-Game/Late-Game

: Levels 11-25

Roam through the map wreaking havoc. :D

Items: Starting off (Both Builds)

Starting Off:

Your starting build should be: 2 Iron Branches, 2 Clarity, 1 Tango and 2 Gauntlets of Strength.

Some people like to start with just Bottle, for rune control and ganking, and that is a good reason, but if you can land last hits, (but even if you miss some) you should be able to farm a bottle by roughly 2-3 minutes.(referring to mid lane) you can even skip the two Gauntlets of Strength if you want it as fast as possible.

(I recommend experimenting with both of these builds, as i did, to find the right one for you.)

Items: Early Game

Early Game:

Because Pudge is not that item dependent, he does not have much mid or late game.

Basically you need your esiencials, Boots of Speed, to begin to fix Pudge's speed problem. Teir Two Boots are a big choice and i will try to explain them more later.

Next Start building your Hood of Defiance, get a Ring of Health as fast as you can after Boots of Speed, for more survivability, then buy a Cloak, so that you can use your Rot, and farm with it more often.

Also if the Game is going good for you and you have good K/D and Farm, you might want to consider turning your 2 Gauntlets of Strengths you bought at the beginning an Urn of Shadows. This way is what i usually prefer.

Another option is making the Gauntlets of Strength into 1 or 2 Bracers. and eventually, (if you really think you or your team needs it) into a Drum of Endurance.

Items: Mid-Game

Mid-Game:

The one and only Item that i think is absolutely REQUIRED on Pudge (Other than completed boots) is Hood of Defiance. This was basically made by Icefrog specifically for Pudge. you can spam Rot to your hearts desire, and you have regen after a fight.

After Hood, Vanguard is the way to go. you can start building this before you finish the Hood of Defiance by grabbing a Stout Shield with any money lefover. And after you complete this, you can really soak up any damage the enemy throws at you. With the help of Flesh Heap, you become a mega tank;:`D

Boots

Hardest choice for a Pudge player.

There are 3 likely choices:

1. Phase Boots: Not my go-to boot, you don't need the damage, but the boost is ok. if you want the speed faster, at a cheaper price or not getting a good farm, go for these. Also if you're on the side lanes, you could go for this first if you want.

2. Arcane Boots: Great choice, not too pricey, and takes good care of your low mana. I usually get these.

3. Boots of Travel: Best Choice on Pudge. Gives great map control, and you can catch up to others and stay with them while you [Rot]. But ever expensive, and probably not purchased until late game.

4. Power Treads is the best option stats wise, and it does scale with your ultimate. and you can get these fast.

Experiment, and find that right ones that suit your play-style best.

Items: Late-Game/Luxury Items

Late-Game:

Only one real item that tops a great Pudge-Game off. Aghanim's Scepter Really boosts your Dismember, and give you big stats buff.


Luxury Items:

If the game is still going on, and you just feel like becoming invincible, get Heart of Tarrasque you will become a God.

Now honestly if the game is still going on by this time...you're probably just camping fountain, just get a Shiva's Guard which is awesome on Pudge.

Optional Items/Situational

A few items that you might get, depending on the yours, or the enemy team.

1. Black King Bar: If you need to really stand out in a fight, and you don't have a better strength hero to be a sponge on the battle-field. Also if the enemy has alot of Magic Damage heroes.

2. Pipe of Insite, is quite an easy upgrade, because you already got Hood of Defiance, but its kind of tricky with Pudge because your Rot does count as the 400Magic Damage that is blocked, so if you have Rot on, its really not going to do much for you. So be smart with it.

3. Drum of Endurance: If you are having a good game, farm up, and gold to spare, you can get this (don't purchase if you are planning buying Boots of Travel) it is relatively cheap, gives a Movement Speed boost, and a nice 9 all round stat buff.

4. Force Staff is always a fun item with Pudge, its really cheap, and if your good with it, you can use it to quickly position your self better for Hook.

5. Quelling Blade is something i talked about earlier in the Laning section. This item is really not necessarily needed unless you are going to play on the hard lane, it allows you to cut down one tree every 5 seconds, so you can use it to get closer to the enemies tier 1 tower, for better hook positioning.

Change-Log

11/22/11: Guide Created

12/12/11: Added picture codes

Credits

Thank you to other DOTAFire for the use of their website.

Thanks to the members, for the feed back and advise

Thanks to 'Snuffaluf***uan' for introducing me to the world of DotA!

Also check out my [Mirana: Princess of the Moon] guide!


-PotM_Plz