Rotten Sashimi. The guide to Pudge AND COUNTERS(6.83)

THE BUTCHER ARRIVES

Oh Pudge you greedy little fatty.
Hi guys, it's me! Stop crying.
As a fatty myself in real life I have grown rather attached to this hulking mass of meat and fats, compelling me to spread the love of Pudge and his all delicious (sometimes) rotten sushi! Yes my Pudge has a craving for Japanese food and no I am not Japanese.

Jokes aside, Pudge is probably the most iconic hero in Dota history and it is my honour to spread the love of his magnificent armpits.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

-Fat and lovable
-Powerful Ganker
-Able to completely render enemies useless (powerful disable)
-Snowballs out of control

CONS

-Overweight and slow with a 285 base movespeed... but he is still lovable!
-Easily avoided due to how slow he is (and how large he is too)
-Mana Problems- What were you expecting

Pudge is very powerful from the early to mid game thanks to his staggering damage by both rot and meat hook. He is commonly played as a solo mid as he desperately needs the levels to be effective!

Things to note:
YOU NEED ALOT OF PRACTISE TO PLAY PUDGE WELL
His spell damage diminishes over time as enemies get more and more health (nothing special here) but in exchange he gains ALOT, let me repeat ALOT of strength especially if you have a successful early game which can grant you extreme amounts of health and can still disable many key enemies that just might ruin you teamfight!
Can sort of initiate
Pudge is not Japanese

Skills and Mastery

Hello you still paying attention? Good! Here is an overview of Pudge's skills!


Pudge's signature dish- I mean skill.
-Needs extreme amounts of practise
-Deals PURE DAMAGE ("Volvo plz fix") of 360 but does not damage Magic Immune targets so don't hook a Juggernaut who is using his Blade Fury!
-It has a long range but very small AOE
-Doesn't pull structures meaning your hook passes through siege creeps!
-can pull allies as well to save them (or troll)


Who doesn't love Pudge's glorious armpits?
-Mageficent slow (25% slow as debuff)
-Does damage yourself but can be reduced by magic resistance
-Helps last hitting (explained later)


-RETROACTIVE
The moment you spawn in the game you have an "invisible version" of this passive. It doesn't give you the buff but counts the amount of stacks you have accumulated before you have flesh heap levelled unlike urn of shadows.


Pudge likes to keep his meat fresh.
-Great disable
-short cooldown (relatively as it refreshes in between ganks)
-its cast range is bigger than rots range meaning its possible that your enemies won't take rot damage as you dismember them as you are not close enough-disable goes through bkb but damage does not although really its only the disable that matters.

HOW TO MASTER THEM AND BECOME THE GREATEST SUSHI CHEF

Hook Cancelling:
I'm honestly terrible at this but if you can do it then DO IT. Not only does it save you the embarrassment of missing a hook and saves mana but also forces them to juke what they think would be a hook. Extremely good players can dodge hook the moment they here the audio of the hook extending. In order to avoid this try getting out of your enemies vision (fog) as they will not hear the audio and would only see the image of the hook making it practically impossible to dodge the hook!

HOW TO HOOK

Probably the most important part of this guide. I hope this helps!

-Hook has a 1300 range. Don't even bother to try hooking properly when your hook is only lv 1 and lv 2 unless you can shotgun it. Try using console commands to aid in your practise of landing hooks in cheats to help you practise hooking them ladies!
dota_range_display_1300 (tell me if I wrote it wrong!)

-The hook will swerve towards the left or right a little bit if there is an enemy unit or ally in its small hitbox.
-NEVER directly click on an enemy hero unless their immobilised. Target onto the ground near them.
-CACULATE. There isn't much I can help you with hooking a moving target. Aim slightly in front of the moving target. One problem I have is overshooting hooks.
-HOOK WHEN THEY ARE IMMOBILISED. Enemies "immobilise" themselves during the attack animation and this is especially true for those with stupid attack animations ( Zeus and Lina). And use this moment to hook. As the hook extends they will have little time to react as they are finishing their auto attack animation. Do this when they are attempting to last hit as he won't be able to move.
-Heres a thing I learned after playing pudge a few more times. Hooking an auto attacking hero standing still is hard. Why? Because every bloody time they move back just as you hook. To fix that, aim a little behind of the enemy hero's model. Not too much though or you'll miss entirely. The hooks hitbox is big enough for you to land that juicy hook.

Things to note:
-You cannot move when your hook is extending but you can move when the hook is retracting meaning you can body block you prey. Here is the sequence:
Hook them
Hook connects
Toggle rot immediately
Move forward or in to block you enemies escape path.

ROT TATICS

Immediately toggle rot when you hook connects. You can zone enemies out by using rot.
Move right next to the enemy hero being affected by rot. Rot will slow him by 25%. Only auto attack when your extremely close to them as auto attacking slows you down and your enemies might be able to walk out of Rot's range and escape as the only reason Pudge can keep up with his prey is because of his slow.
When getting chased and your enemy is close to you quickly toggle rot on and off to slow them and minimize damage you take from rot. I will be talking about the soul ring+ Rot combo later on in the item section.
If you're against another melee hero in the mid lane this is what you can do
1) Let him push in slightly
2) When you see him attempting to auto attack walk up to him and activate rot
3) Walk right next to him and he will try to escape by waking back to his side of the lane.
4) DO NOT auto attack and walk with him with rot toggled until the uphill then turn back to your side, last hit and recover any major health loss using a tango.

The Butcher's Equipment

And no, this is not an RPG. As you might have noticed my item build is pretty standard but has some "unusual" elements to it.

STARTING ITEMS

Grab your basic regeneration items such as your tangos and a salve. The tangos are pretty important as you will be constantly taking "self damage" by rot. Grab the two gauntlets of strength which will be later built into your urn of shadows. Its good as you get not only extra health(you will get harassed quite a bit) but also last hit damage as farm is crucial for a successful Pudge! As you are going to rush a bottle you can ask a support to share two tangos with you or skip one gauntlet of strength.

EARLY GAME

Grab your bottle first and if you have enough BLING go finish up your Urn as well. Buy your boots and buy your cloak last as you are going to be using your rot a lot and the Cloak will reduce the amount of damage you take from it. You can switch your cloak for a Soul Ring during the midgame (if you want it don't get it too late) and I will explain why in the ALTERNATIVES section.

CORE

The core items are pretty standard. A hood of defiance is great as it provides massive regeneration and magic resistance to reduce damage taken by rot (made from the cloak)
You should still have your bottle and urn. For mobility try purchasing a Blink Dagger as your mobility item. If you are having a hard time hooking, blinking right in front of your enemies, dismembering them and hooking them immediately will almost always assure you a kill. If you're getting chased by a single enemy and your blink is on the 3 sec cooldown try turning around, dismembering them (don't activate rot) then blinking immediately as your cooldown would have refreshed during the disable duration. Blink in the direction your facing as when using a blink dagger to blink you need to face in the direction where your blinking. If you blink away from the direction you're facing the enemy might be able to damage and put your blink dagger on cooldown during the turn duration. The 6.82 update increase how long it took for Pudge to turn around thus try blinking directly I front so you can blink instantly.
Pudge is slow and can be avoided easily so the tp scroll and smoke of deceit can help you avoid wards and such for a successful gank.
Phase boots give you extra mobility and more auto attack damage to farm.

ALTERNATIVES

That's right. I mentioned Soul Ring. Why?
Soul Ring gives you HP and Mana regeneration.
Soul Ring gives you 140 mana when activated which so happens t be the mana cost of Pudge's hook at max level.
Soul Ring deducts 150 health. When you are on the brink of death and have 150 health or lower immediately toggle rot and activate soul ring. The soul ring won't deny you... but Rot would. Catching my drift?
Of course later on this tatic won't be as useful any more thus you can turn your soul ring into a bloodstone which allows you to deny yourself even more or sell it if you want. Bloodstone gives great mana regen meaning you wont ever have to worry about Pudge's huge mana problems anymore.
Boots of travel is great on Pudge. It provides a whopping 100 bonus movespeed and the ability to move in between lanes to avoid wards meaning you don't have to keep buying your tp scrolls! The only reason this isn't so popular is due to its insane cost of 2450 gold. But buy it if you have enough money!
If you keep missing your hooks, the arcane boots isn't too bad of a choice. You disassemble it to build you bloodstone later on and turn it into the core phase boots or the boots of travel whichever you prefer!
Force staff is great as well as it can increase Pudge's mana pool and has more utility in exchange for less mobility compared to the blink dagger.

LUXURY ITEMS

BKB is a solid choice especially if you keep getting disabled during your dismember
Aghanim's Scepter is great as it not only provides great stats but even more survivability as you restore health from eating someone's face. Yum.
Heart of Terrasque is a solid choice for increasing your tankiness. I don't like rushing it immediately as you already have pretty immense survivability with your passive and urn. Still a great item for any Pudge!
Finally of course is Pipe of Insight. Its a great upgrade from your Hood so why not?

Know Thy Enemy

ENEMIES THAT YOU WOULD SEE IN THE MIDLANE

This guy isn't too hard to go against. Watch out for his fade bolt and immediately toggle rot after your hook as he can steal it.


Again she isn't too much of a problem. In the hands of an extremely good player however she can doge her hooks with her blink and because of her mobility can steal runes away from you. Quite a pain but her magic damage shouldn't hurt you too much thanks to your tankiness and magic resistance.


I hate this guy. He can use his e to dodge hooks and can silence you as well. Probably the only way you can hold out against him is too use the hook cancelling I order to trick Puck. Escapes almost all the time from you if you dismember combo didn't kill him

These are some of the many you would face in the mid lane.

Countering Pudge

If we are going to make a guide on Pudge, of course we have to make a guide on how to counter Pudge! As suggested, I will educate the world on how to counter Pudge
1. Outlane him
Pudge is simply the worst solo mid hero in the existence of dota.

• Ranged? No.
• Has some laning tool? (miss chance or enemt damage reduction) No.
• Lane sustain? HE IS LITERARY DRAINING HIS OWN HEALTH WITH ROT FOR GODS SAKE.
  
  Try settinf up level one ganks on an enemy Pudge. Even if they warded, Pudge has no escape tool, so a well executed gank can completely delay Pudge's potential and bottle. Denying him of almost everything.
  NEVER EVER lose vision of Pudge. Always report missing and play safely. Good wards always hinders a Pudge gank, even if he has smoke of deceit.
  Where to ward? Everywhere! The best ward spots are the two sides of the cliff infront of the river. Prevents the early game hooks and can save your life.
  
  2. CHAIN STUNNING AND SILENCE
  Pudge likes disabling others. So why not disable him? Try chain stunning a Pudge especially when his rot is toggled on. This makes him unable to deactivate Rot thus draining his own life away. Silences also prevent Pudge from carrying out his combos and ruining his game by making him a useless walking pile of fats.
  
  3.COUNTERS
  Several heroes can counter Pudge at mid such as Storm Spirit and othees. But the bane of all Pudges, the one who not only counters him in lane but everywhere is none other than Silencer. SAY WHAT!
  Not only can silencer's ranged spells make laning impossible, Silencer's spells completely ruin Pudge's 3 spell combo by limiting him to one spell. Never play Pudge against Silencer.

Bye Meat- I mean Mate

Thanks for reading through this guide. The most important part of this guide is the hooking up the ladies (get it?) and the most important thing is practise. This is my second guide I've made and I hope you like it and PLEASE upvote it if you truly enjoyed it. Tell me what I can improve in and point out any typos or mistakes I make! Japanese Pudge Man out!

TheNoobyChocobo


"Fresh Wasabi!"

Some Note worthy content!

Since 6.83 pudge's hook has been buffed significantly during the earlier levels. The range on it is now insane so hooking enemies to towers at lv 2-3 aint a problem anymore.
Watch more dendi and his pudge!