Pudge Dota 2 guide

Pudge is one of Dota 2’s most popular hero called “Pudge” by his fans and has a number of names. All gamers from every tier adore him. Pudge is a versatile hero who can play any role from support to hard carry. Pudge has the capacity to win tournaments as well as crush pubs which makes him a powerful force in the game. To be proficient at playing Pudge, you should master mental strategies and dish out stylish punishments on your enemies. In this article, we will discuss what Pudge does and how he can help you become better at Dota.

Pudge is a wonderful character who can perform any role, from support to hard carry, and can be extremely effective under certain circumstances.

Which heroes should you pick Pudge against?

• Leshrac is a nightmare for all pubs from the mid-lane. The damage dealt by this hero is mostly magical, and it's applied in small portions. Flesh Heap blocks a lion's share of his damage, and a large HP pool allows surviving Leshrac's full mana cast. Moreover, Aghanim's Scepter with Heal Reduction and Shiva's Guard, which is an excellent item for Pudge, providing missing armor, increasing heal reduction, and granting additional damage and slow, make an incredibly powerful combination that hits Leshrac hard, especially when he prefers to collect Bloodstone as the first item in every game.

• Naga Siren, such an illusionist, also suffers from Pudge. Illusions deal damage in small portions, which makes Flesh Heap incredibly efficient, and illusions disappear from Rot with Aghanim's Scepter. All of this makes playing Naga Siren against Pudge an unreasonable undertaking.

• Phantom Lancer is in the same situation as the previous hero. Illusions are even weaker than Naga Siren's, and they also die like flies from Rot, while Flesh Heap makes Phantom Lancer's overall DPS laughable against Pudge.

• Slark cannot stand the area damage dealt by Rot. His damage output is quite weak without stacked passive, and even his ultimate won't save him because heal reduction significantly reduces its effectiveness.

• Broodmother. Spiders and spiderlings die under the mighty boot of Pudge. FLESH HEAP negates all damage from spiders, and ROT literally wipes them out. And life steal from INSATIABLE HUNGER is significantly reduced by the healing reduction.

• Death Prophet. Ever since SPIRIT SIPHON no longer deals damage based on health percentage, it's sad to watch her face off against the Butcher. SPIRIT SIPHON doesn't heal or damage, just like the ghosts. The same combination of FLESH HEAP + ROT shows its effectiveness.

• Heroes with periodic damage. Pudge shows slightly less effectiveness against any heroes that rely on periodic damage, such as Jackiro, Venomancer, Viper, Sand King. They all suffer from FLESH HEAP, but Pudge cannot be called their direct counter pick.

It is important to note that although Terrorblade uses illusions similar to Naga Siren and Phantom Lancer, Pudge is not as effective against him. Primarily due to his METAMORPHOSIS ability, which grants Terrorblade ranged combat, making it difficult to get close to him. METAMORPHOSIS also greatly increases the damage of Terrorblade illusions, so not every illusionist is fodder for Pudge.

Pudge is a good pick against some of the strongest heroes featured on our Dota 2 heroes tier list 2023.

Pudge Counter picks

It's hard to imagine this tough guy being afraid of anyone, but there are still heroes that he should avoid.

• Ursa. Increased resistance to ultimate effects and high physical damage from passives leave Pudge with no chances. Ursa is a direct counter pick.

• Morphling. Thanks to Waveform, Morphling easily keeps his distance from Pudge. High physical damage in combination with the ability to transform into Pudge and steal his characteristics make Morphling a rather unpleasant opponent.

• Slardar. You already have little armor, and the ultimate easily puts it into negative territory. A moderately unpleasant hero.

• Timbersaw. The first ability that deals damage in % of Pudge's strength and a large amount of pure damage are not in your favor. A strong counter pick, especially on the laning stage in a direct matchup.

• Anti-mage. High magic resistance, built-in lotus orb, and a 45% winrate on dotabuff indicate that this is not the nicest hero against Pudge. Especially if you couldn't disrupt his early game tempo.

• Lifestealer. Born to counter Pudge. Damage + lifesteal from passive in % of hp, built-in BKB. These factors are enough for Pudge to give up on his dream of breaking the enemy's throne.

Pudge Carry

Once laughing stock now feared- as a carry player, pudge has come into power since then, so you have to be cautious around him during gameplay. This allows pudge take over opponents unlike the traditional agility carries who rely on their trickeries such as strong lane control and impressive burst damage. During mid-game farming potential coupled with ROT makes it possible without purchasing expensive farming artifacts like Battle fury for instance. Since he rapidly loses effectiveness as the game goes on, pudge is a tempo hero; thus it’s best to avoid delaying attack on the opponent’s base. Let's go through it step by step.

In early laning stage, any support hero with crowd control may be used. Slowdown or immobilization will guarantee accurate hooks and/or decrease in Pudge-target distance. Heroes like Lion, Dazzle, Jakiro, Ogre Magi and others will enable you to emerge victorious from the lane.

What to buy for Pudge Carry?

Early game

There are several options for starting items: two Iron Branches, a Ring of Protection, Tango, Quelling Blade and Mango. Mango can be replaced together with 1 Iron Branch into second Ring of Protection if physical damage is done by enemy hard lane. If you want to play this way against spamming lane – then from beginning you must buy Magic Stick and your starting items become: Ring of Protection x1; Iron Branch x2; Quelling Blade; Magic Stick. You can bring yourself tango using bounty runes. The alternative is buying Wraith Band hence starting items will look like Slippers of Agility; Circlet; 2 Iron Branches; Tango & Quelling Blade. I prefer the latter option myself. Later on in the game we get quick Vanguard that enables us farm jungle without significant health loss and dominate our lane because we upgrade it to Magic Wand and purchase Phase Boots that help compensate for low armor of Pudge as well as solve low movement speed problem. In case mana is not enough take a Soul Ring but due to its nerfing Falcon Blade might also be considered instead since they are still available in shops

Mid game

Aghanim’s Scepter is our main item around which the effectiveness of Pudge as a carry hero is built after all preparations. The convenient timing for Aghanim’s Scepter is about 17 minutes. After that, we usually buy Black King Bar to not suffer from control effects and break the enemy team faces. When there’s no initiation or hooks are missed then Blink Dagger is what we buy.

Late game

A must-have artifact like Shiva Guard, in the end is Overwhelming Blink, at this point the game should have ended because Pudge does not benefit much from net worth growth.

Situational items

There are several artifacts such as Lotus Orb, Heart of Tarrasque, Eternal Shroud, Blade Mail and Crimson Guard. Lotus Orb is good in that it helps to counteract diminishing effectiveness of Vanguard over time and also provide dispel and extra armor against heroes like Batrider. Heart of Tarrasque appears useful sometimes when you have disassembled Vanguard as your next item. Eternal shroud comes in handy when you are running out of mana but keep in mind that Voodoo Mask gives almost same amount of lifesteal it provides comparable lifesteal to Voodoo Mask. Therefore if you have already spent money on Falcon Blade don’t slow down by buying Eternal Shroud. In some cases where there are hard hitting physical damage dealers who will die faster than they can kill you through blade mail, Blade mail becomes very effective . Crimson guard works well when facing thousands of summons or illusions from an opponent.

Skill Build on Pudge

The leveling process from game to game remains almost unchanged irrespective of his role on the team. On level one take Hook which deals 150 pure dmg with radius 1300 meaning it’s a very strong spell. Then max ROT get the passive at level four and take the ultimate as far as it goes. Once ROT is maxed, focus on levelling FLESH HEAP and Hook last.

Talents

Pudge has a great talent tree, and we'll go through it to see which talents to choose in different situations.

• Level 10: +4 armor should be taken when there are two or more heroes with physical damage against us. +16% slow from ROT doesn't have clear criteria, so if you're not sure, take the armor.

• Level 15: +120 damage to MEAT HOOK looks strong, but Hook is more of a support ability, and +8% magic resistance significantly increases our survivability and works well with all our abilities. Definitely take +8% magic resistance.

• Level 20: -4 seconds to MEAT HOOK cooldown or +0.8 seconds to DISMEMBER duration. The choice is obvious: Hook is still a support ability, and the ultimate is our primary ability for solo target damage. Take +0.8 seconds to DISMEMBER duration.

• Level 25: When FLESH HEAP used to give 3 strength per charge, you could consider +1.5 strength and damage block from FLESH HEAP. Now, it doesn't make sense, and the talent that multiplies damage and healing from DISMEMBER by 1.8 looks mandatory.

To put it in nutshell, you should stick to your role, control the lane and play aggressively. After which take key artifacts from the jungle and work as a team to capture objectives. Don’t trust your team, don’t play like an anteimage for 30 minutes farming in the jungle. How can you end this game after buying Aghanim’s Scepter and Black King Bar? Pudge is an active carry; he doesn’t want to make a game longer than 60 minutes.

Pudge on Mid Lane

I should, however, repeat what I said earlier on - how to play Pudge on the offlane position (1-3). Concerning mid lane, skills and items are retained as they were before. Blink dagger normally occupies one of these slots before Aghanim’s Scepter in the case of mid Pudge. Moreover, instead of quickly creating vanguard, people go for bottle for rune control. Alternatively, one could start with fast bottle - 3 iron branches,tangoes and Faerie Fire – hence having an active game right from the start because there will be less time for clearing forest compared to playing at position 1. The pudge early laning stage remains strong particularly when he faces a single opponent thanks his huge hook range for pulling purposes .It’s important to note that pudge is not good at escaping thus making him vulnerable for ganks towards him by most heroes .For instance ,countering Leshrac may be possible right from level one which becomes advantageous over an easy lane where most trios can easily stand against Pudge .Yet through being highly skilled you can take total control over any match and set up pace of your whole team but it needs greater mastery though risks are justified too.

Pudge Offlaner

He strongly resembles Pudge Mid but has higher skill coefficient. Fewer funds – same functions. What distinguishes easy lanes from the other two? In easy lanes, you can begin harassing supports with periodic damage or illusionist carries such as Slark right from the start. Unfortunately, on easy lanes stand such heroes as Ursa so that from the very beginning one can lose. Unlike Mid Lane where you have to set tempo of all (farm and fight for objectives), your main task at Offlane is to dominate an enemy carry starting from minute zero and not allowing him/her to farm.

Pudge as position 4

The hero of Pudge is quite popular in Dota 2, most often he is played in position four. We will talk about his item builds and strategies when playing Pudge as a support hero in this guide.

What to buy for Pudge support?

Early Game

Prioritize Boots of Speed for mobility and Tango for regeneration at the beginning of the game. If you are concerned about the game, buy two Sentry Wards which will block offlanes of enemies and open yours. You can bring Tango from runes. A much more interesting alternative way is replacing Boots of Speed by Bracer or Wraith Band if you plan to fight opponents on the lane but it’s unreliable in terms of higher ranks games thus not recommended. Then go for Tranquil Boots, Magic Stick and Wind Lace.

Midgame

Aether Lens should be considered during the mid-game to scare away enemies from entering the fog of war. Blink Dagger can also be taken if you are lucky enough. It is possible to use Rod of Atos if you are not good at hooking. Aghanim's Shard should then be upgraded for teammate saves. The most important things are in this build for Pudge: Tranquil Boots, Magic Stick, Wind Lace, Aether Lens and Aghanim's Shard.

Late game

This does not exist in Pudge support. Instead, there will be extra money to buy anything one desires. Scythe of Vyse is such an item that a majority of support heroes would rush at the late game; I think it’s even better when casted on any enemy hero.

Tips for Playing Pudge Support

The two strengths of Pudge include the hook which allows him to safely pick up one enemy before a fight and his ultimate tool called Aghanim's Shard that ensures safety particularly when combined with Blink Dagger and Aether Lens-ing out. Once in a while your win rate will go above 50% simply because you landed hooks as well as protected your team members from danger. Furthermore, by hitting the hook, all creeps get killed instantly helping secure some jungle farm early on.

Playing Pudge as a support hero is not an easy task but using item builds that suit him and following tips mentioned above will allow you play as him effectively. Keep practicing and examining yourself in order to see growth in your skills soonest possible.Good luck and have fun!

Pudge as position 5

It is unlikely that playing Pudge like a pos 5 support will win you the game .I am totally against picking position 5 Pudge among supports even hundreds of carry players would agree with me .However suppose fate has led you into this role play exactly like position four only hope that hooks land and carries items don’t break.

Who to Watch to Learn to Play Pudge?

Professional players haven't been big fans of Pudge. However, in recent patches, this hero has received enough buffs to not only tear up pubs but also shine on the pro scene.

• B8.Dendi has been brilliant on Pudge even before this hero gained his current fame. If you want to see how our ancestors ripped on Pudge, watch any replay of Dendi from 2013-2014 when Danilo was at the peak of his powers. Or watch recordings of his team Na'Vi at the first and second Internationals where Danilo shone with his Pudge at the highest level.

• TSpirit.Yatoro. The champion of TI10. What else needs to be said? A top-class professional tears up with a 55.88% win rate on Pudge in his last 68 matches.

• TLN.23savage. A man, or possibly a machine, who was the first in the world to reach 13k MMR, also doesn't shy away from taking his big guy for a walk down the lane and beyond. His performance on carry Pudge is at the highest rating in the world.

Conclusion

Pudge, Djajh, Rudge, El Pajero, Pudgerino, Pudjik, Djajjik, Pidzhak, Pajeros, Pundepalo. We know him by many names, and none of them, either collectively or individually, can convey how great of a character he is. Everyone wants to play him and everyone wants to win with him. But there's one secret to easily and simply increase your winrate on Pudge - land your hooks and you'll have nothing to worry about.