Pudge
The Butcher

Hero Details

Skills

Mea[T] Hook

Launches a bloody hook at a unit or location. The hook will snag the first target it encounters, dealing damage then dragging the victim back to the Butcher.

Mana Cost: 110 120 130 140
Cooldown: 14 13 12 11
Casting Range: 600 800 1000 1200
Damage: 90 180 270 360

• Damage type is PURE.
• Ministun apply (except allies).
• Can hook invisible units but ministun not apply.

This is the most deadly skill of Pudge as it deals PURE 360 damage when it is maxed. This skill is very useful, be it to kill or to save so this skill must be maxed out first. At the later part of this guide, I will share with you guys a very nice guide on hooking.

[R]ot

Pudge releases the disease and filth inside of him, dealing intense damage and slowing surrounding enemies while hurting Pudge as well.

Mana Cost: 0
Cooldown: 0
Damage: 35 60 85 110
Effect: Reduces MS by 20%

• Damage type is MAGICAL.
• Rot can be activated while using Dismember without interrupting it.
• Invisible units are affected by this skill as well.
• If Pudge is silenced while Rot is activated, he will not be able to de-activate it until the silence wears off.
• If Pudge dies under the effect of Rot, it is counted as suicide.

Rot is normally the second skill that should be maxed as its slow effect is very good for chasing. Besides, the improved Rot deals 110 damage per second which makes Pudge even more fearsome than before.

[F]lesh Heap

Pudge is made of innumerable rotting corpses, giving him extra protection against spells as well as the chance to add more to his bulk.

Effects: Gives Pudge 4% 8% 12% 16% extra magic resistance and gains 0.9 1.2 1.5 1.8 strength for every hero kills.

• Magic resistance stacks with items' magic resistance effect.
• Pudge gains strength whenever he kills a hero. Pudge gains strength too if he's 450 AOE near the dead hero even he's not the one who kills.

This is the skill that makes Pudge an irresistible predator. Get a Hood Of Defiance for him and you know what I mean.

[D]ismember

Chows down on a target, causing excruciating pain.

Mana Cost: 100 130 170
Cooldown: 30
Damage: 75 125 175 (75 125 175 + 0.75x Pudge's strength*) per second
Effect: Disable target enemy hero unit for 3 seconds (6 seconds on non-hero units) (Pudge heals HP equals to the amount of damage dealt*)

• Damage type is MAGICAL.
• Disable works on magic immune units.
• Dismember fully works even if the target turns invisible while dismembering.
• Dismember is a channeling spell.
• Can be improved by Aghanim's Scepter (* shows the improved value).

The ultimate of Pudge is a very amazing skill. It disables, damages and has a fast cooldown. With Aghanim's Scepter, Pudge can heals his HP exactly the same amount as damage dealt which can cause a sudden twist in battles.

Item Build

Empty Bottle

Empty Bottle: Pudge does not have that much of mana early game so starting out with bottle is a very brilliant choice. Another reason for Pudge to get a bottle is the runes. Some runes are very useful to Pudge such as Regeneration, Haste and Invisibility. These runes may help you to get some easy kills since Pudge's skills are extremely deadly early game. Combine it with Haste-Rot, Invi-Dismember and so on are very effective in either ganking or killing yourself.

Boots Of Speed: Why boots? If you ask this question I think you should improve your knowledge on DotA before reading my guide. ==

Hood Of Defiance: Since the magic resistance of Flesh Heap is stackable with items' magic resistance, hood is a must for Pudge. So, why not complete the boots first before getting hood? The reason is very simple: you got hook, slow (rot) and "stun" (dismember). Why bother to complete your boots in a rush? Besides, getting hood allows you to farm with rot with lesser pain, completing boots? Piece of cake then.

Phase Boots: Some people may disagree with me: why not Arcane Boots? Pudge is low in mana so getting an Arcane Boots allows him to ??? Yeap, that's the point! Indeed, Pudge has low mana but he always kills in one hook and ulti + rot isn't it? And even his mana is low but by level 6, his mana is enough for him to do this deadly combo since rot doesn't need mana. Also, think about it: once you got your scepter (which is the next item to get after phase boots) you will realize that you actually do not need arcane boots as your mana is more than enough for you to do more than one combo. If you played Pudge a lot with arcane boots build, you will notice that you seldom click on arcane boots for mana. In fact, you arcane for your team mates. And don't forget that phase allows you to chase enemies with faster MS easily such as luna.

Aghanim's Scepter: This item not only provides stats for Pudge, it improves Pudge's ulti too. Scepter increase the damage of dismember and allows Pudge to heal his HP based on the damage dealt which grants him the ability to turn the tide in a battle. Besides, Pudge looks cool with this. :P

Heart Of Tarrasque x2: Normally, the game will end when you got scepter. However, if the game's not ended yet, get 2 hearts. Heart gives strength which is an advantage to your ulti with scepter and improves your survivability.

Khadgar's Pipe Of Insight: The last item of my item build. Actually this item is not as useful but since the item slots are already full, you can improve the hood to a better version which gives extra protection to you allies.


All the items above are my personal build, of course there are a lot of different item builds such as radiance, lothar and so on. As you guys can see I did not include additional items even though I can suggest to sell away bottle and get blah blah blah...I leave it to you guys to decide what you want to buy. In the end, it's still the SKILL that owned.