THE ULTIMATE PUDGE GUIDE BY PEDRO✨

Introduction

Hello everyone! This is Pedro✨, a "casual" Dota 2 player. I've been playing Dota 2 since 2014 but i have taken some pretty long breaks during this time, since then i have spent over 7000 hours into this game, which led to over 5000 matches and 500 of those matches as Pudge. I'm an immortal player with the MMR of 7000 as core and 6900 as support.

Pudge

Pudge, the Butcher, is a melee strength hero and the most popular hero in dota 2, Pudge is easily one of the most fun heroes to play in the entire Dota 2, being famous by his his risky but potentially rewarding playstyle as well as his tankiness and disables which makes him a good ganker, teamfighter, frontliner and initiator.

Pros and cons

Skills

Meat Hook
Launches a bloody hook toward 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.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0.59
Cast Range: 1300
Max Travel Distance: 1300
Hook Search Radius: 100
Damage: 150/220/290/360
Cooldown: 27/22/17/12 Mana: 125/130/135/140

This skill has an incredibly high amount of pure damage, although it's an unreliable skill since it's a Target point skill. You shoudn't necessarely rely on this skill to play Pudge because you are not going to hit it everytime, you should treat this more as a possibility than a garanteed thing.

Pro tip: you can cancel an enemy Town Portal Scroll with Meat Hook, unless the target has a Black King Bar activated, then you will need to get a perfect timing Meat Hook and as soon as his Town Portal Scroll is ending, it will not cancel the Town Portal Scroll but the targeted enemy will be brought to you as soon as his Town Portal Scroll ends, you can also do this to allies to bring items or reffil a bottle from fountain.


as core, Pretty much never, if you are going for a kill you can consider leveling it but it's still bad, you will be sitting with a 140 mana unreliable nuke wich can't go trough creeps, doesn't help your laning, if you do this mistake you will soon regret it.

as a support, i personally don't like it but it's doable, you can try hooking heroes from the fog, combining with your team's stuns or nuking from short range, consider this only if you have a very clear kill potential or if your team has a very good hook setup early on into the game, otherwise it's gonna be bad since you will have low armor, low regen and you will not be able to harass your enemies if you miss the hook.


Since it's a high burst of pure damage early on into the game( 150 pure damage ) It pays up for being unreliable if you manage to hit it, if you have a good kill potential or a good setup for harassing with hook you can consider it, it's not bad as a level 1 Meat Hook since the lane will be in a slightly different position and at this point you will have a higher kill potential. I would think alot before skilling this level 2 tho, you need to make sure Rot isn't a better choice.


Pretty much always you'll want to have this skill by level 3 or 4, combined with your Rot harass and Flesh Heap regen outsustaining your enemies, you can certainly open a window to punish your enemies by this point, it really depends on the matchup you're against, which we will talk about further into this guide.
Soo... Level 3 or 4 ? Depends wether you can actually kill with Meat Hook at this levels or if would rather just harass more with Rot and keep farming (Keep in mind you can still kill people without Meat Hook and just with Rot).

There will be situations where not leveling Meat Hook at level 3 or 4 will be the best choice, those situations being: You have low kill potential on the enemy, then you would rather just slowly harass with Rot. also use Rot to help your last hitting, focusing on farming and sustaining with Flesh Heap and Tango.



Rot

A toxic cloud that deals intense damage and slows movement--harming not only enemy units but Pudge himself.
Cast Animation: 0+0
Radius: 250
Damage per Second: 30/60/90/120 (Talent 65/95/125/155)
Move Speed Slow: 11%/18%/25%/32% (Talent 31%/38%/45%/52%)
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

Rot is an extremely useful skill, early on it can be used to help your last hitting and harassing enemies, later on this skill will be one of your main sources of damage, allowing you to slow enemies or simply farm, which will help you scale better into the late game.
1 : Keep in mind that you need you need to be close to your enemies for Rot to take effect, if you are in a losing game or if you aren't tanky enough, Rot will lose alot of it's impact.
2 : This skill falls the later the game goes, if the game goes late, the damage from it will become less and less significant since your enemies will have higher hp due to their levels and items such as Black King Bar or Pipe of Insight. For the late game Rot will be less effective but you'll be doing more damage with Dismember, Right clicks, and items such as Ethereal Blade, aswell as being alive(This does not mean mean that Rot is bad in late game, just means it might fall off).


You will want to skill this level 1 when the enemy isn't really going to harass you, then you will use this to help you last hit and possibly harass, it's a more common thing if you are playing Pudge on the midlane, because you'll get level 2 faster and for level 1, depending on the matchup, both midlaners will try to focus on farming, it is also recommended if you did a good block and the wave is close to your tower, keep in mind that if your enemy is going to harass you alot level 1, then you should not skill Rot.


This is the ideal level to skill Rot, with Rot level 2 combined with the sustain from Flesh Heap you will have the ability to harass, last hit better and also a slightly higher kill potential.


This is the skill you will be maxing out first, the only time you get the first point on Rot at level 3 is if you had to skill Meat Hook on level 1 or 2 for whatever reason.

Flesh Heap
Gives Pudge increased health regeneration, as well as bonus strength that increases each time Pudge kills an enemy Hero or it dies in his vicinity. Flesh Heap is retroactive, meaning it can gain charges before it is skilled, which then become active.
Enemy Death Radius: 450
Kill Radius: 1600
Health Regeneration Bonus: 4/7/10/13
Strength Bonus per Death: 1/1.5/2/2.5 (Talent 3/3.5/4/4.5)

Flesh heap is definitively a very unique skill from Pudge, it gives Pudge an absurdly high amount of strenght based on enemies who die at a max of 450 range from him, it is the skill who makes core Pudge good at laning and the one who makes him scale soo well to late game.


You should skill Flesh Heap most of the time at level 1, the regen is super good and will make so you can stay in lane despite your low armor.

Dismember
Pudge chows down on an enemy unit, disabling it and dealing damage over time. Pudge gets healed for the same amount he damages. Lasts longer on creeps.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0
Cast Range: 160
Hero Max Channel Time: 3
Non-Hero Max Channel Time: 6
Base Damage and Heal per Second: 60/90/120 (Talent 120/180/240)
Strength as Damage and Heal per Second: 30%/60%/90% (Talent 60%/120%/180%)
Pull Speed: 75
Cooldown: 30/25/20 (With Aghanim's: 11)Mana: 100/130/170
Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter

Dismember is a combination of a good disable and damage, but it does alot more than only that, it will increase even more your kill potential towards enemies, can help you farm or kill roshan with your team, it also heals you and scales the damage with your strenght.
Once you skill Dismember you can now either Blink Dagger in, simply walk up to enemies or hook then into close range, followed up by an Dismember, keep in mind that is a chanelled ability and any stun or silence will cancel it.

* Don't go for a Meat Hook if you can simply walk in trough the fog and Dismember, Meat Hook is unreliable and failing a hook when you can kill in other ways will give your enemies a window to survive.


Aghanim's Scepter upgrade: Reduces cooldown and allows targeting an ally(including clones and illusions, excluding creep-heroes.) to swallow them and heal them for 4% of their max health per second. The ally can exit whenever they want by issuing a command.



Upgrading Dismember to the Aghanim's Scepter upgrade will give Pudge a a way to save allies, reduced cooldown on his ult which is insanely good and will give more ganking/pickoff pontential since you can eat an ally and Blink Dagger in, simmilar to Lifestealer's Infest. Although it gives many benefits i would not recommend getting it early, unless you are facing abilities like Reaper's Scythe, Duel or Doom, otherwise there are many other better items and it's not really worth getting if you are not using it to save you team.

Talent tree

Both are good talents, just depends on wether you want to do more damage or be tankier, i usually take the damage talent but i feel like the armor talent is better most of the time.


Just like the level 10 talents, the level 15 ones are both pretty good, the slow makes it pretty much impossible for the other team to run away from you, on the other hand the 13% spell lifesteal does make you alot tankier and makes a noticeable difference, really depends on how you wanna play, being annoying with rot slow or tanky with the spell lifesteal.


Both are good talents, its up to you to decide. if you feel like you can cast Dismember for 4seconds without being interrupted, then take the +1 Second Dismember, otherwise take the Meat Hook cooldown.


most of the time you will be taking the +2 Flesh Heap stacks, it's just too much strenght to miss out, it gives more damage to your ult, right clicks and make you tankier, the double damage talent is good if you want to get solo kills or burst an target faster on teamfights which then you can use the help of an Ethereal Blade or Black King Bar.

Skillbuild

Items

Pudge is an extremely versatile heroe, being able to be played at almost every position, that also means he can make a good use of basically any items in the game, check out below!

For starting items on Pudge u should be looking for armor which he lacks early on, and regen. You can also go for Gauntlets of Strength, Iron Branch or even a Buckler, also consider movespeed items if you are support.

























Phase Boots : this is the boots i go 99% of the time, it gives armor and more movespeed, which Pudge lacks alot.

Tranquil Boots : get it if you are playing Pudge as a support, regen and extra movespeed will help you stay active and get your basic items

Bracer: you can get it either as support or as a core, the strenght and magic resistance fits very well on Pudge, making him take less damage from rot and other magical sources. Usually the only time you'll be getting 2 bracers on Pudge is if you only need magic resistance + hp to become unkillable, it's a more common choice on mid Pudge, especially against enemies with high magical damage output.

Magic Wand: It's a good option for support Pudge but not as good as a core Pudge, you won't use the mana from it that much and you don't need the hp that much, despite being a good cost-effective item. Consider getting it if you are against heroes who constantly use their skills like: Skywrath Mage, Bloodseeker, Bristleback, Undying...

Medallion of Courage : it gives Pudge the armor that he desperately needs and a utility to help your team, i personally don't get this item very often but it's definitively good.

Hood of Defiance : Hood of Defiance will give Pudge magic resistance and hp regen that he needs, it will also help him farm without being at half hp because of Rot self damage and will help him tank trough magical damage.

Urn of Shadows : It gives Pudge 2 armor which is good, some sustaining and most importantly a high increase in his kill potential, usually i will only get this item if i plan to build an Spirit Vessel later on because of heroes like: Morphling, Faceless Void, Timbersaw, Bristleback, Necrophos, Enchantress, Healers or other high HP/Healing heroes.


Platemail, Vladmir's Offering, Vanguard into Crimson Guard, Glimmer Cape(as support), Force Staff, Blink Dagger(Usually you only want to get this super early on if you are support).


Lotus Orb : it will give you armor and a making so enemies won't throw single target skills at you or your team, this item is especially good because it doesn't only help you but it also helps your team, i usually get it against heroes like Lion, Necrophos or Doom... Especially against Lion or similar heroes, it makes it really easy to solo kill those heroes because they can't simply stun you and run away anymore. Definitively one of the best items on Pudge.

Radiance : Consider getting this if you are ahead and you need to do a high amount of damage, it's insanely risky getting Radiance if you feel like you need more resistance, only get this if you feel tanky. I usually get this item after Hood of Defiance + Platemail or Hood of Defiance + Medallion of Courage you can skip the armor item if the enemy team doesn't have much physical damage.

Pipe of Insight: if you want to go more of a utility route you can go Pipe of Insight and increase your magic resistance + your team's magic resistance.

Crimson Guard : I personally don't like this item but it's a decent choice, gives Pudge and his team a good amount of physical damage resistance. I only get this if i want to go fully into an utility and auras route, focusing less on my carry aspect.

Force Staff : Good for utility but also helps you stay alive, get this against heroes like: Ursa, Troll Warlord, Lifestealer, Slark... Even if you are not against this heroes it's a good utility item in general and it's a must on support Pudge.

Blink Dagger : It's a must if you want to get pickofs or start teamfights, especially good on support Pudge and very common on core Pudge, you can also Blink Dagger and Meat Hook to surprise your enemies, Keep in mind that you'll need a Black King Bar if you want to reliably Blink Dagger and Dismember heroes in teamfights.

Heaven's Halberd : get this item if you are against a really strong carry such as Troll Warlord or Ursa, it's especially good against a particullar counter to Pudge, Outworld Devourer, Evasion and disarm will certainly surprise the Outworld devourer player when he tries to kill you.

Blade Mail : A good choice against heroes like: Outworld devourer, Dark Willow, Enchantress, Windranger or any hero that deals an imense amount of damage and might kill himself trying to get you. It will make so they don't even try to kill you because they will be afraid to kill themselves.

Black King Bar: Definitively a must in most of the game,unless you end up being waay to tanky, get this if you are support or core, doesn't matter, It makes so you can survive in impossible situations and make you able to Dismember and kill heroes without being stunned, also a good choice im combination with Blink Dagger.

Solar Crest: it's one of the best items on offlane Pudge, but you can also get it on mid Pudge, if you went Medallion of Courage on early game consider this, gives you more armor and will definitively boost up your carry player by alot, especially when sieging.

Ghost Scepter: Good if you plan to build an Ethereal Blade on late game and also good against heavy physical damage carriers, only get this super early on if you are having problems against right clickers.



Ethereal Blade: Ethereal Blade will give pudge some armor, strenght but mostly importantly it is also a save against physical damage and a way of doing more damage, since Pudge already has alot of strenght and Ethereal Blade deals 2x your primary atribute as damage as well as increasing the magical damage taken by your target by 40%, an Ethereal Blade into Dismember will certainly dish out alot of damage.

Shiva's Guard: A good choice if you need even more armor(which happens very often), also offers a slow aura + slow active which should help in teamfights.

Heart of Tarrasque : Even more strenght? why not? it's not something you can get every game due to it's expensivve price. It's a way of regenerating your imense amount of health in a short time, it will also give your ult more damage and increase all of your regen by 50%, which works with your level 15 talent +13% spell lifesteal. Become a beast once you get this.

Assault Cuirass: once it gets to lategame Pudge starts doing alot of right click damage because of his high strenght, getting your Assault guirras will not only give you armor but also help your team and give yourself some attack speed in case you get to hit people or towers, which is something that happens very often.

Scythe of Vyse: Especially good against hard to catch heroes like: Storm Spirit, Puck , Riki... And also if you need to target a specific hero in a teamfight before he uses anything. While this is a more utility route it's insanely good even as a carry, just depends on how much your team needs it.

Abyssal Blade : while it's an quite expensive item to purchase it does give Pudge good stats and also a new way to get close to enemies, but mostly importantly it gives him another stun that pierces Black King Bar. This item is not very common on Pudge but after the recent changes it can be good and works very well with Assault Cuirass, Black King Bar and your level 15 talent +rot slow.



Iron Talon - Gives armor and helps farming
Arcane Ring - Gives armor
Broom Handle - armor and attack damage goes well with Pudge
Keen Optic - increases your Meat Hook and Dismember range, getting an Keen Optic early into the game can certainly help you land some unexpected hooks into your enemies.


Clumsy Net - Gives good stats and a good setup for Meat Hook - works well with cast range bonuses.
Vambrace - just in case you went for 2 bracers the stats will be insanely good for Pudge.
Vampire Fangs - Not the best item but if you have an free slot the spell lifesteal and night visual will help for sure
Dragon Scale - gives you +5 armor and the dps goes well with rot
Nether-Shawl - the magic resistance is amazing but be careful with the armor reduction, get this if you already have enough armor.

Paladin Sword - the increase in Pudge's regeneration makes a huge difference since he has alot of it
Titan Sliver - Magic resistance, status resistance, an ok item for Pudge overall
Craggy Coat - The best tier 3 item for Pudge, he doesn't need attack speed that much and the armor is exactly what he needs on most games.

Minotaur Horn - + 20 Strenght, 1second bkb.
Witless Shako - It's a good item for pudge but 90% of the time you'll want to give it to your supports.
Havoc Hammer - Gives strenght and does damage based on your strenght


Apex
Trident
Fallen Sky
Mirror Shield
Force Boots
Woodland Striders
Seer Stone

Trusty Shovel, Ocean Heart, Ironwood Tree, Poor Man's Shield, Philosopher's Stone, Essence Ring, Spider Legs, Ninja Gear, Greater Faerie Fire and Timeless Relic.


Aether Lens, Kaya and Sange, Sange and Yasha, Aghanim's Scepter, Helm of the Dominator, Holy Locket and Guardian Greaves.


Keep in mind that item's are not tied to a specific timer of the game and you can get then earlier or later on if you feel like it, also keep in mind that most items you get will be specific to hero matchups -- so always analyse what your team and the enemy team have before decidiing which item to choose.

Hero matchups

Lane wise - if you are against Slark on the offlane you should be fine if you're 1v1, just dont trade hits with him and eventually your magic damage is gonna be too much for a low hp Slark, as dual lane goes it depend's on your supports and you will never win 1v2 against slark, make sure your support is present at all times.
Item wise - Good items - Force Staff, Blade Mail, Ghost Scepter, Armor items, Glimmer Cape( if you are support), Heaven's Halberd.


Should be a hard lane for Pudge in mid against od, realize that you can die easily if he gets many stacks and play carefully, also realize that he is gankeable and he dies easily to magical damage( if you can kill him with your team or get close to him and Dismember).
Item wise - Good items - Black King Bar, Blade Mail, Pipe of Insight, Heaven's Halberd, Lotus Orb, Scythe of Vyse(for focusing him down) and Blink Dagger(works well in combination with other items).


Lane should be hard for Pudge but he's very susceptible to magical damage and the items Pudge can build will completely own him
Good items - Spirit Vessel, Blink Dagger, Black King Bar, Pipe of Insight, Lotus Orb.

Ursa, Slardar, Bristleback - Heroes like this that do alot of physical damage and don't care about your hp should be a problem for Pudge


Laning against Templar Assassin as Pudge should be an even lane until she gets level 6, then it will be a problem if you can't keep up with the Sentry Ward's, once you get your level 6 you have a decent kill potential on her but be careful - Templar Assassin does too much physical damage for Pudge, it might surprise you how much.

Bristleback, Slardar, Troll Warlord this heroes will just keep stacking their skills on you and you should play passively, get what you can and wait until they make a mistake, against this heroes if you play carefully(not too much, you need to realize when it's time to go, play with numbers, 2v1 etc..) you should be able get your items, otherwise they gonna snowball waay too much and you won't be able to get back in the game.

Items - Any armor item, Force Staff, Ghost Scepter, Black King Bar(So you can focus those targets down with Dismember without being cancelled), Heaven's Halberd.

Bristleback - Magic Wand, Spirit Vessel.


Hard lane for Pudge but Monkey King is susceptible to magical damage and ganks, try to abuse that with your team, getting an Ghost Scepter + Force Staff is a must if the Monkey King is strong, otherwise he will kill you with Wukong's Command, if he's weak you can simply target him in fights before he uses Wukong's Command with Blink Dagger, Black King Bar, anything you have and/or with your team.


Eye of the Storm armor reduction and Static Link should be annoying at the early game for Pudge but in the counterpart he is really weak against magical damage and is susceptible to ganks, also consider building Lotus Orb, armor items and Force Staff against him.


Does alot of damage to Pudge and is a problem, lane wise it isn't that bad for Pudge, just be careful with his harass and try to play together with your dual lane, focusing the right targets at the right time and helping each other, carefull with Open Wounds slow. Against Lifestealer you should get items like: Force Staff, Ghost Scepter, Scythe of Vyse. Lotus Orb and other armor items, Dismember is very usefull against him and you should try to kite his Ragewhen possible, he gets very fragile without Rage, after Rage is on cooldown you should be able to take him down easily with the help of your team


Ursa is an incredibly good counter to Pudge, very hard to play at lane and after the laning phase is over you can only kite her and try to get tankier/survivable with armor items, Ghost Scepter or Force Staff. Try to force his Enrage or Black king king with your items, this will open up a window where Ursa will become significantly weaker.


laning against Viper as Pudge is also a hard one, you cannot get much done and Viper should free farm, Viper has magic resistance against you because of Corrosive Skin, some good ways to kill him are focusing him with your team, landing a Meat Hookto bring him close your team, buying a Spirit Vessel or using Dismember while your teammates focus him.


Damage stacking heroes - Damage based on hp% - tanky heroes - High physical damage heroes - Weaver, Spirit Breaker, Clockwerk, Phoenix.



Pudge is a natural Blade Mail, Blink Dagger, Pipe of Insight, Lotus Orb and Black King Bar buyer. He does very well against Dark Willow since she's a squishy hero and Pudge can also slow + damage her with Rot trough her Shadow Realm.


While it's a risky pick against timber, Pudge does do alot of magical + pure damage against Timbersaw, he's a natural Spirit Vessel, Blade Mail, Pipe of Insight and Black King Bar buyer,
Timbersaw does damage based on Pudge's strenght with Whirling Death but Pudge has soo much hp that he doesn't even care (unless Pudge is weak and Timbersaw snowballs way too much) if you build Spirit Vessel + Blade Mail Timbersaw should have problems dealing with you, then later on a Heart of Tarrasque and he won't even do damage to you.


Faceless Void can never Chronosphere you because you're just too tanky for him, you can catch him easily with Dismember, you can build items like Ethereal Blade, Solar Crest and Pipe of Insight do reduce his damage output and you can Meat Hook enemies out of Chronosphere


He might burn your mana but he does not deal with you, you can build items such as Shiva's Guard or Radiance, your Rot can do nice damage to illusions and he shoudn't have enough damage to completely deal with you.


She is bad at laning against Pudge, with this you should snowball and you'll be building alot of armor items like Shiva's Guard, Lotus Orb, Crimson Guard, Solar Crest, etc..(if you are even or ahead) or Ghost Scepter, Heaven's Halberd( if you are behind). Phantom Assassin does alot of physical damage but shes squishy and needs alot of farm, Pudge should be able to kill her quite easily and abuse that, by the time she gets items if everything went well she shoudn't be able to kill you easily.


Pudge is extremely good against Enchantress, he is a natural Spirit Vessel, Blade Mail buyer and can get close to enchantress quite easily, lane wise you should skill Flesh Heap and you should just regen, even if she keeps hitting you, buy armor , be careful, buy more regen and realize when you can kill her, once you get close to her you can force her Nature's Attendants and when it's on cooldown she she gets very vulnerable. once you get level 6 and especially if you get it before her, then the lane is pretty much won for you.


Squishy heroes, heroes that deal magical damage, heroes susceptible to Blade Mail, Skywrath Mage, Lion, Gyrocopter, Shadow Shaman, Lina, Winter Wyvern, Juggernaut etc...

Conclusion

Find your own playstyle! Dont be afraid to try new things and new ways of playing Pudge, Dota is amazing and bring us many possibilities of building your heroes aswell as playing, go ahead and have fun trying things out!

Thank you for reading this guide and i hope you find it helpful, if you find anything i missed or you want added, or even if you have any questions, feel free to comment.

That's it guys, until next time :P