Puck
The Faerie Dragon

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Updated for 6.73b

by LightRedemption and BtrflyKssBlade

Contents

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1.Introduction
2.Statistic
3.Statistic Comments
4.Hero Skills
5.Skill Build
6.Item Build
7.How to play
8.Strategy
9.Hero Section
10.Replays
11.Changelogs

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1.Introduction

This is my second guide here on Playdota.com , this time it is about an old time favourite: Puck the Faerie Dragon. I've been interested in her for a long time, but I just realized that this site only has a guide that hasn't been updated since 2009 (correct me if I'm wrong) and there have now been tons of changes since then, especially the introduction of the popular tri-lane. As such, I feel like someone need to make a new guide to integrate these new strategies, and if I can't wait, then why don't I do it myself?

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2.Statistic

Strength: 15 + 1.7

Agility: 22 + 1.7

Intelligence: 25 + 2.4

Health: 435
Mana: 325

Damage: 42 - 53
Armor: 2.1

Affiliation: Sentinel
Attack Animation: 0.5 / 0.8
Casting Animation: 0.1 / 0.51
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Movespeed: 295
Missile Speed: 900
Attack Range: 550
Sight Range: 1800 / 1200

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3.Statistic Comments

Pros:
-Has a great escape mechanism
-One of the most versatile hero in the game
-Deadly AoE combo
-Ranged

Cons:
-Piss poor stats & stat gain
-Slow innate ms
-Squishy
-Extremely vulnerable to disables (if hit)
-Missile can sometime annoys you

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4.Hero Skills

ILLUSORY ORB

This skill, by far, is one of the most versatile skill in modern DotA. It can be used to damage, nuke, chase,, escape, mindgame, juke. The only thing that could be asked for more is a disable, but wait, there're still 3 more skills to go. Note that even though 900 ms of the Orb might seem fast, you'll learn that it is actually not and would be rather easy to dodge (if the enemy is competent) by just about 1.5 sec notice. So be sure to not waste this spell since Puck can be a bit mana intensive early game.

The above icon shows when the orb disappear (relevant to the cooldown of the skill itself). Might make things a little bit easier to calculate.
The Orb also gives sight, so you can use it to scout as well

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5.Skill Build

Now you are either confused of the skill build (since literally all of Puck's skills are so awesome) or you already decided. If the latter then just skip this. If it's the former, then continue reading for a bit of in depth explanation

There are only 2 globally accepted skill build for Puck, heavily reliant on either maxing orb first or rift first. You might ask, why not max Phase Shift first? my answer is: Phase Shift is already so good at lvl 1 that it does not need to be level until the further point of the game, meaning teamfights. Also you'd likely be going solo anyways, so level wouldn't actually be a problem so long as you know what you're doing

1.Orb
2.Phase
3.Orb
4.Rift
5.Orb
6.Coil
7.Orb
8.Rift
9.Rift
10.Rift
11.Coil
12.Phase
13.Phase
14.Phase
15.Stats
16.Coil
17.Whatever the hell you want

Now what this skill build suggest, is proper lane harassment and decent spamming of nuking spell (Orb is your primary nuke in this build). Abuse the range of the orb. Even though the damage increase is rather minor, this is mostly for the fact that Orb doesn't increase MP cost over time.

Notice how I always start with level 1 Orb and level 2 Phase. They are just that good, since Orb allows so much mobility early on, and Phase is universally good at all times.

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7.Item Build

At the start, it is optimum of you to get stat boosting items as well as regeneration. Since Puck has an ok lane control as well as being ranged, she can farm her early game items quite easily with proper spamming of Illusory Orb. Ring of Protection is only if you're going sidelane and planning to get a Ring Of Bassilus soon

Items that are not mentioned, are either very situational, or I just forgot about them

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8.How to play

Starting the game, there should be 3 obvious lanes to pick from: Long, Short or Mid.
Puck should always get the solo, no matter what, since she benefits greatly from the early experience and can handle most meta lanes. The strategy matters on against what kind of lanes you are facing:
-Solo: Puck has a great early game escape mechanism(s), spammable nuke, good attack range. As such, she can go head-on with most common soloss
-Dual Lane: Rather troublesome, since Puck can't actively be aggressive, but is still able to get some exp and a mediocore amount of farm. That initial disable in a dual lane can be avoided with Phase Shift, then just Orb out escape if things are getting too messy to deal with
-Tri lane: Alot more complicated since you're outnumbered 3-1. Just focus on getting some levels early and be sure to get out of there BEFORE getting initiated on, since you're squishy as fuck and will die in 3 nukes (which they'll have) if you ever get disabled
-Solo with jungle/roaming support: Deadly but counterable. Just ward the respective jungle/lane/river and you're fine, since you can escape before they even get there. The only thing you should be afraid of is instant disable, and Smoke of 'Deshit

Your easiest combo would be to:

The usual spell combo, dealing above average spell damage while give you good positioning. However, there are things that can go wrong. If they does, simply:

See? Easy to understand, simple to use, not that hard to fail while also micro-intensive. What does this mean? In order to use Puck effectively, you must be good with her spells first. They have numerous usage, but all must be based on the player's skills. Remember, practice makes perfect.

Puck comes in trying to save Windrunner

Ultis, Orb, Rift with Tide coming in to help

Ravage, dead Storm, killing Venom should be a breeze

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8.Strategy

Know your godamn role:

What you are:
-Nuker
-Disabler
-AoE Rapist
-Semi Carrier
-Chaser
-Initiator

What you should not try to be
-Tanker
-Pure Supporter
-Hard Carrier
-Feeder
-Noob
-And the occasional flamer (sometimes justified though)

Now since you've been taught how to play already, you might wonder what this section is about? Well, there are a few important notes
-Early on, her skill hurts as fuck, however, you might notice that Orb's travel time sucks massive ass
-The AoE of your skill aren't that big. You can't tank for shit, so don't rambo unless you have Dagger ready and sufficient mana
-Don't save your goddamn skills, they have low cd for a reason. If you run out of mana, you're as good as food anyways

How to rambo (guide)
This section is actually made out of pure amusment, if you're confident you can execute this to perfection by any means do it
-Hex/Orchid from afar if you have, try to get the enemy's core hero/spellcaster
-Illusory Orb into their enemy's formation
-Jaunt in
-Silence
-Necrobook/Dagon if you have it
-Jango up/Shiva if you have it
-Phase Shift
Now, 2 situations shall occur within your 3 seconds of prescious invulnerbility
-If your teammates roll right in, disable, nuke, fucks up the entire enemy team and locking them in place, proceed to end Phase Shift and auto attack(micro your Book Minions) with your 1337 damage
-If your teammates roll right in, get disabled, nuke and fucked up by the entire enemy team, proceed to Blink out and run like a bauss
-If your teammates aren't there

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9.Hero Section

This is a part of any guide, though I personally think it's more of a bother

1.Best of friends

Ultra AoE Disablers:In short, they are Puck's great allies more than others due to the fact that they can easily follow up with their 1337 AoE skills after you've set up the battlefield nicely for them
It's kinda sad actually that only the above type of heroes are specially mentioned, because you work well with just almost any team, so there.

2.Worst of Enemies

Instant Silencer, or just plain old

are some of they shittiest adversaries you may encounter. Why? Without your skills during early/mid game, you are nothing but a big flying chicken that sprays out golden pee. Though Silencer is less of a counter now noting how you can counter him directly

Hexers, now you really are just a goddamn big chicken, problems vegetarians?

Oh this piece of slimey shit, counter your piss-poor stats directly

Hero with extreme mobility can escape from you while also chase you. This is when you'd need to rely on your intuition, and Warning Rift

Mana burn is an sort of extreme counter, since it's rather unreliable. However, you should watch out for it nonetheless, since you're extremely vulnerable

This guy can come up on you invis and hitting your ass, stunning you, mana burning you to almost death and retaliate that Warning Rift/Orb with a stun. You are most likely dead. However, if you manage to catch him with a Warning Rift before he Armored up/Stunned you then you're golden.

No.Fucking.Comment

TL;DR: Those heroes who exploit your weaknesses are your sworn enemies

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10.Replays

I've attached replays here 3 replays of recent top teams, watching them you should be able to learn quite a few things. If you want to watch, I assume you'll have to visit the Forum Version of the guide. One is a Chinese Replay, one is an European, pick whatever you like, but both are played with WCIII version 1.26.
Edit: I also put in a pub game, just for those who like to play with the least of coordination

Here's also a video by Yaphets with him playing Puck for the first half I believe. Skip to 1:00. It's on youku though, thus Chinese server, low quality and stuffs like that

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11.Credits

1.Myself, writing this guide
2.IceFrog, current developer of DotA
3.SoletLuna <3
4.Rmn also for his pics from the old draft Puck guide
5.Nip.Ownage for replay suggestion
6.galuf- for the NA section

Puck the Faerie Dragon
Author: Lapis Lazuli
Map Vers.: 6.74c

Puck you!

You can't kill me

Date Posted: 06/17/11
Last Comment:02/10/2012
Total Votes: 112
Current Rating: 8.69
Views: 230020