General Discussion[Guide Competition] The Underrated and The Overrated - one more Pudge...

Hello everyone, this is GreedyGod, and welcome to Ja... Dotabuff educational part, I mean.
I had a dream to share my experience of playing The Butcher for a while, and now it is perfect moment to do this, thought. Hope you will enjoy it, or at least won't count reading this as a waste of time.
This is not the guide as it is in definition, it is fully based on my experience, so it is kinda subjective in most of statements.

[Color=#7f7f7f]Small remark: english is not my native language, but I'm going to try my best at it.[/color]

[Color=#ffa500]Introduction[/color]

As for me, Pudge may be counted as one of the heroes, which pleasure the player more, than other heroes. Long time ago, when WC3 Dota was still more popular, if you were good at playing Pudge, you stood higher than others (just as Nevermore, Cael and so on). That time has gone, trends have changed, opinions have gone opposite, but I still believe, that being good on Pudge is more, than being good on a lot of other heroes.

[Color=#ffa500]Advantages and Weaknesses[/color]

+ Expotentially increasing durability
+ On of the best initiative abilities
+ LOTS of damage in early- and mid-game
+ Nice attack animation and base damage
+ Ability to self-deny
+ That awesome feeling, when Pudge says "Look, who's coming for dinner"

- Low base armor 'till the end of the game
- Low move speed
- Melee attack
- That freaking feeling, when Pudge says "Bloody creeps!"

Actually, these are just ones that came to my mind, there are unobvious factors, which can be considered as pros or cons, but you may even not notice them.

[Color=#ffa500]Abilities[/color]

1. [Color=#00dd00]Meat Hook[/color]. Raah!

It drags, it damages, it saves, it kills, it initiates, it finishes. One of the strongest and at the same time weakest skills in the game.

+ It deals pure damage to a victim, moreover, at the level 7 you are able to cut a half of the enemie's HP (say "hello" to supports with 600HP).
+ It interrupts casting of chanelling spells
+ It makes you enemy feel anxious, because he has to chose his position wisely at every moment of the game
+ It saves your teammates, when they are doomed, e.g. from Chronosphere, Blach Hole (don't confuse "doomed" with Lucifer's ultimate)

- It requires skill, which comes only with experience
- Relatively high manacost
- [Color=#ff0000]It requires wise positioning [/color]

Here comes the main point of using that skill - either you want to initiate team fight or kill enemy by your own, you have to stand at the right place. Of cource, it depends on the current situation and there is no ultimate answer on "where to stand" question. Just remember, that you can make your enemy stuck between you and trees/buildings/cliffs and make your decision.

And remember, that meat hook makes pudge useful even if he failed early- and mid-game. Thousands of games were won because of 1 perfectly thrown hook before the final teamfight.

Btw, you can practice hooking there: http://weneedwards.com/meathook/

2. [Color=#00dd00]Rot[/color]. Mmm, fill yer lungs up!

It slows, it damages, it hurts, it kills, it denies. Skill, which gives you a great advantage over your enemy.

+ It really helps you in early-game farm
+ It slows your victim by 20%, which makes it almost impossible to run away, unless she has blink or she is Krobelus with BoT and Euls
+ It makes you able to deny yourself, leaving enemy w/o gold and experience
+ It does not need mana

- It damages you

There are few thing to be noticed: denying saves your kill streaks, Rot affects invisible units, it does not hurt you when your BKB is active (surprisingly some of us do not know this). Knowing that helped me a lot in playing Pudge.
Actually, there is nothing special to say about that spell. Just practice in lasthitting creep with rot and killikng yourself when there is no way to survive.

3. [Color=#00dd00]Flesh Heap[/color]. Heap it on!

+ It grants magic resistance
+ It grants potential lots of strenght

- It is nearly useless before you get some kills

There is one thing to be mentioned: Heap starts stacking charges from the very beginning of the fame, even if you don't learn it.
That is the skill, which can make you 5k-HP tank in the late game, and makes buying Aghanim's Scepter reasonable.

4. [Color=#00dd00]Dismember[/color]. Ahh, fresh meat!

The most recognizible spell, everyone knows, what happens, when he hears "fresh meat!". One of the best disables in the game.

+ It deals great amount of damage
+ Scepter makes Dismember a great way to heal up yourself
+ Disables your victim
+ Relatively short cooldown

- Chanelling

The thing that makes Dismember of of the best disables in the game is it's affect on magicc immune units. Bkb? Rage? Whatever, you will stay there being unable to do a thing. Remember that and dont waste your ulti.

[Color=#ffa500]Skill build and laning[/color]

Well, I count pudge as the only hero, who's best skill build is kinda fixed and does not vary from game to game. Starting with rot, then maxing hook, heap on 10th lvl.
I've seen a lot of those, who complained about me learning Rot on the first level. They were like "report him, he's a noob", I was like "whatever, my creepstat will be better that their after first two waves of creeps". 1lvl meat hook cannot help you unless your enemy goes under the tower, but even then Rot will be much more useful. With good base damage rot makes your lasthitting easier than ever, making you able to rapidly get items.

Next thing to be said - pleasr, forget about the stereotype, that pudge is made for middle lane and middle lane is made for pudge. To be honest, I've spent about 80% jf my 200 games on middle lane. Yes, it makes sense going there - you get fast 6lvl, you control them runes, you are able to gank any lane. But [Color=#ff0000]in modern dota there are much better heroes for middle lane[/color]. Recently I decided not to waste my team's time and started playing on the offlane, just as when I started playing on pudge. Note: I play with my friends and we always have one to go jungling, so I stay solo. You know, offlane feels much better for my pudge, than middle. Of course, you won't be able to farm and have to be extremely careful, but there is a great chance to kill enemy by your own by hooking him next to your tower. It works in public games, believe me. After getting 5-6lvl on offlane, I go roam until my carry is ready for teamfights.

One says, that pudge is extremely vulnerable, he cannot stay offlane. Yes, he is, he has no escape abilities and low movement speed, but it is hard to kill an enemy, which has nearly 800HP at 1lvl.

[Color=#ffa500]Items[/color]

1. Starting

It depends on what lane you decided to go and what enemy you will meet there. When I go offlane, I buy 2 Gaunlets of Strength, Salve and Tangos, just to grant myself survivability. There are few options for middle lane - if your enemy will not harass you with hand attacks, you may go for either fast bottle (3 branches and tango) or urn (2 gaunlets, tango, branch, salve). If he will, then, as for me, stout shield is an ultimate solution. Block of 20 damage sounds insignificantly, but in fact it helps a lot.

Bottle is required, unless you want to keep farming for half an hour (please, don't do this).

Talking about boots - I prefer Phase Boots. It grants Pudge a lot of movement speed, which is good for roaming, and Phase, which will definetly help you move across the battleground. +24 damage is also awesome, because pudge should also hit, not just run next to enemy with rot turned on.
Ones say, that Power Treads are better - honestly, I tried playing with them, but did not see any advantages, phase boots still seemed to be better.
Arcane boots - nah, I don't think, that buying them is reasonable. Of course, they will help you to farm creeps with your hook, but... What for?

Urn of shadow is pretty useful, since you lose lots of HP in ganks.

2. Mid-game

I prefer getting force staff to increase my manapool and mobility. Just try it, and you will get used really fast.

After getting these items, you have to analyze, what will be happening next. Blade mail may be considered, if your enemy has a huge amount of physical damage, Black king bar - if there are strong casters, Aghanim - if everything goes good and you may afford getting items to hurt your victim even harder.

It would be great to get something to increase your armor, such as Shiva's guard or Assault cuirass. First one will slow even more, second one will be useful for all your team and will give you strongly reduced attack time.

Actually, pudge is strongly dependant on early-game items, but gets free from this in middle game, do not concentrate on that.

[Color=#ffa500]Problems[/color]

In modern dota, in my opinion, the main problem of pudge is not his low ms, not even his low armor, but his teammates' attitude.

Be ready, that your teammates will hate you, will blame you, will yell on you. All you need - is to stay calm and stay true. Be confident, know, that your enemy is always anxious, when you are close. Feel like a boss, and you will play like a boss.
State of mind - that is what matters, when you play pudge.

[Color=#ffa500]Knowledge[/color]

Here are some tips I learned during my dota2 experience, which were not yet said:

1. When you try to lasthit creep, FIRSTLY turn on Rot, then attack him, not in the reverse order.
2. To make hook-dismember combo, throw a hook and use dismember BEFORE hook catches the enemy. In that case enemies, especially blinkers, are more likely to get caught in deathly emrace.
3. Always stay away from creeps, but keep enemy in the range of your hook. It makes him nervous.
4. Do your best not to get spotted. Buy smoke, chose pathes which are less likely to be warded.
5. Do not be afraid to throw your hook. If you prepare for too long, you definetly will miss.
6. In teamfights, chose wisely whom to hook. You don't want to hook Tidehunter, when your team is about to be ravaged, do you?
7. Do not be greedy, buy teleports and move across the map without a stop. Endless ganking - that's what pudge is made for.
8. Hook is not targeted, so you need to get used to its speed and show your best in solving geometrical problems.

[Color=#ffa500]Conclusion[/color]

I called this compillation of advices "The Underrated and The Overrated", because both of these definitions fit pudge greatly.
Most of us underrate him, forgetting about game-winning initiations and, sometimes, game-winning disable. Most of pudge pickers overrate him, thinking, that pudge can rule the game alone. No, he definely can't, but he has much more to help his team with, than we got used to think.

As for my attitude - you know, it is kinda sad to see, that once respected hero became perverted by Dendi's mad fans (not a stone thrown to him, but to blind fans) and is now being hated. But, luckily, all these factors cannot deprive of the pleasure of playing pudge. It is all about having fun, isn't it?

Hope you found something useful here, thanks for reading!
Feel free to critisize in comments, it would be great for me to see my mistakes.

Chin-choppa!