Fudge! It's Pudge!


Intro
To be honest, English isn't my native language so if I made any mistakes ur welcome to point out.
I played dota for more than 2 years, I consider my self an okay player since I was "trained" by some of my friends who occasionally plays on CW.
I have always played carries in games because my farming skill is good. But recently I started to love Pudge, the Butcher, because he is such a fun and rewarding hero to play, and could make significant differences in games.
I played pudge every day these days and practiced my skills on a special map for pudge's hook, so now I am writing a guide about the basics of pudge, and how not to suck at him if u want to try him out.

Here's a pudge hook practice if ur into hooking:
Practice your Pudge Hook! - Warcraft 3 Maps - Epic War.com
Posted by KomachiOfDeath

Pros:
Good combination of hero-killing spells
Good initiator with hook
Good str gain and flesh heap str gain
Make those paper heroes piss their pants

Cons:
Low armor
Low movement speed
Low agi and int gain
melee


Skill Build

U should take mid whenever possible to ensure ur level superiority
Level 1: Rot
Level 2: Meat Hook
Level 3: Rot
Level 4: Meat Hook
Level 5: Meat Hook
Level 6: Dismember
Level 7: Meat Hook
Level 8: Rot
Level 9: Rot
Level 10: Flesh Heap or Stats
Level 11: Dismember
Level 12: Flesh Heap
Level 13: Flesh Heap
Level 14: Flesh Heap
Level 15: Stats or Flesh Heap
Level 16: Dismember
Level 17-25: Stats

Reason: Since Rot has the same slow effect in all 4 levels, it's worth getting lv1 rot at beginning and u might get fb or escape a gruesome fate. Leveling up Meat Hook at level 5 is because ur expected to gank at level6, and lv2 hook is a bit "short". Level 10 flesh heap, since now lv1 flesh heap gives u 0.9 str, it's worthing getting, both stats and flesh heap are ok.



Item Build

Starting Items:


Early Game:

This build gives u more hp and mana, and has a key item to get aghanim, if u changed ur mind and don't get aghanim, u can carry the booster for the whole game.
OR
These gives u better healing abilities, a little better magic resistance, and the things necessary to get hood.
Core:

This build gives u more tanking ability against spellcasters and grants a good hp regeneration.
OR

This build boosts all ur stats, gives ur hell more hp and mp, and improves ur ultimate and makes u look cool, but harde to farm.

VSVS
Obviously the Aghanim build is harder to get since the secpter costs twice as much as hood of defiance, but if ur game is smooth then go for aghanim.
Why go for hood instead of vanguard? Vanguard seems to be better in all ways with it's plus hp, hp regen and damage block, but hood can proctect u from ur own rot, and protect u from magical attacks, I don't think physical attackers would consider bashing pudge early game, but it's still an item to consider, getting both is okay but unnecessary.

Gettingis definately a good idea since u need to take runes and spot for targets, it can also save u and ur teammates from ganks, all these benefits and only 200, hell why not.


If u got enough money to make boots, then got for phase boots, treads' 8 stat+25%AS means nothing to pudge, but phase gives u a whooping 40% MS boost, just what a pudge needs. The new arcane boots might give u some mana, but pudge basically only needs about 200 for his combo, plus acrane's MS is poor, but pudge needs MS.

Luxury Items:

Pudge's amor is pathetic, more armor never hurts, plus shiva's aura, blast and mana. Assault, more attack speed, armor, -amor for opponents, why not. Heart, a luxury for anyone, especially when ur ult benefits from the 40 str and that regen out of combat is pretty good. Pipe, if u got the money, do something for ur team if the other teams' spells are causing trouble.


Ideal Items:
OR
Yeah, ideal items, don't think u'll ever get those but they just look so scary in a pudge's inventory.




Gameplay

U should get mid cause pudge needs to level up fast in order for him to be effective.
U starting items should be 2 Tangos for healing, 3 branches for stat and wand, courier for teammates and delivering bottle. The rest can be clarity or another branch, or save them for ur bottle.

Try last-hitting and denying creep as much as u can, u can use rot for last-hitting real low hp creeps, like this.

Since rot's damage is calculated once every 0.2 seconds if timed correctly u can last-hit creeps out of reach of last-hit 2 creeps simultaneously.

As soon as u farmed bottle, search for runes for ganking opportunies, if u don't have runes, wait until level 6. After reaching level 6, tell some carry to take ur mid lane, and ur jurney of killing has began.


Now this is the hard part, since it's pretty hard for pudge to just run to his target and dismember, u need to make sure that ur hook makes contact with the enemy hero.

Pudge's hook's casting range is 550/700/850/1000, try to use the fog of war as ur advantage, while hiding,some times if u target stationary heroes pudge will move forward because the casting range isn't long enough, but the actual length of the hook is 600/800/1000/1200, u can target the gruond next to the hero if u think the hook is long enough to reach the hero.
If u are hooking a moving hero, u have to think about his movement and the speed of ur hook, here's an example

U know what I mean, this could become a math problem , but to make it simple, when ur intercepting (hooking a fleeing hero from the side), hook a little in front of the fleeing hero, adjust the sopt by judging the MS of the hero and the travel time of the hero, this needs a little practice. (Judging by my games, the speed of the hook )

(This is a bad shot, Gondar was really close the Moon Rider 0.5 secs ago, I took the shot to show u that pudge's hook is really "accurate", it has a really small aoe and only the tip affects the target, this could be a good or bad thing, since if u are familiar with hook u'll be able to pull off some really cool stuffs, but if u don't, u might miss hooks or just hook ur allies back( if u hook gondar back on the shot above...they are gonna be pissed)
Remeber, practice and little and u'll be good, since pudge's main killing ability lies in the accuracy of ur hook.

If u score the hook, turn on rot while the hero is still traveling on the hook to ensure capture, then dismember with rot on, this combo is deadly to heroes with low hp, and if the hero has no disable u can just walk with them with rot on until they die.

What to hook
Remeber, although pudge's combo is deadly, it's often not enough to kill a single hero without the help of allies, so:
Look for fragile heroes if u are doing the stuff alone
In early gameplay, heroes like and can't even put up a fight.

Don't hook tough heroes or tough disablers likeand
anddeserves a special mention, if heu when u have rot on, u are kinda screwed, since ur health drops extra fast, and heand gets away and watches u die as he laughs.
I thinkalso deserves a special mention, I don't think u ever want to pull ur comboes on him without 1 or 2 allies around, clock will usually survive ur combo and rape u with his since he and u are very similar, and if ur not fast enough to dismember him he will turn onand u will never get a chance to bite, and u'll be dead since clock with barrage on is very deadly.