Puck/Guide

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Animations

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Gameplay

Playstyle
Puck is an elusive hero who misleads and disrupts enemies with disabling items and abilities. Though vulnerable, Puck is able to initiate on enemy teams, silencing and locking down opponents before teleporting away in a glowing orb. However, Puck's arsenal of tricks and items require sharp situational awareness during teamfights, and may overwhelm newer players. Nonetheless, a well-played Puck can escape nearly any situation, and return to repeatedly disable opponents for its teammates.
Pros	Cons
Hard to pin down. Fairly mobile. Good lane ganker.	Vulnerable to disables. Slow turn rate. Requires multitasking.

Ability Builds

Generic Puck
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Talents

Hero Talents
+250 Waning Rift Radius/Max Distance	25	Dream Coil Pierces Debuff Immunity
+175 Initial/Break Dream Coil Damage	20	-4s Waning Rift Cooldown
+75 Waning Rift Damage	15	-10s Dream Coil Cooldown
+1s Waning Rift Silence Duration	10	+50 Illusory Orb Damage

Tips & Tactics

General

• Puck often plays in the middle lane, but can also play a solo lane against multiple opponents due to its slippery nature.
• As a mid hero, Puck has easy access to runes with Illusory Orb, and can gank the side lanes with Dream Coil.
• With Blink Dagger, Puck becomes a capable, albeit fragile, initiator.
• Puck deals significant magical damage in the early game with Illusory Orb and Waning Rift.
• Puck's abilities, as well as its tendency to buy items with active abilities, makes it a busy multitasker in teamfights. Knowing when to use which ability/item is key to playing well.
• A good initiation combo starts with Blink Dagger, then Waning Rift, then Dream Coil, then Illusory Orb through as many enemies as possible but in a safe direction, Phase Shift to hide, then Ethereal Jaunt to teleport to the Orb.
  • Waning Rift's silence is long enough to execute this combination.
• To escape, use Illusory Orb then Phase Shift right after, then use Ethereal Jaunt to teleport to the orb.
• Puck is a very versatile hero, and builds can vary depending on the game. For example you sometimes want to build nuke items if the enemy team consists of squishy heroes.
• Since you need level 4 in Phase Shift to be able to use it to safely blink away using Blink Dagger, you sometimes want to take the last point into phase shift at level 15 rather than taking one of the talents.

• More tips needed.

Abilities

Illusory Orb

• Use Illusory Orb in lane to harass opponents, or to get a few extra last hits.
• After using Illusory Orb, move in the opposite direction to present enemies with a dilemma, forcing them to choose one direction, while Puck escapes by choosing whether or not to Ethereal Jaunt.
• If Puck uses Illusory Orb just before dying, it can buy back instantly and return to the fight with Ethereal Jaunt.
• Puck can travel quickly with Illusory Orb because the orb moves faster than Puck, and can fly over cliffs and trees.
• Illusory Orb can function as Puck's initiation tool before he has a Blink Dagger.
• Puck often relies on Illusory Orb for survival, only use it to farm when it is safe, or use it to finish off the wave and jaunt away.
• More tips needed.

Waning Rift

• When initiating, use Waning Rift right after jumping in with Blink Dagger so enemies cannot disable Puck before it uses Dream Coil.
• If Phase Shift is on cooldown, use Waning Rift to silence enemies, giving Puck's escape mechanisms more time to come off cooldown without being disabled.
• More tips needed.

Phase Shift

• During the early game, use Phase Shift to avoid attacks from towers and enemy units.
• Puck can harass the enemy heroes with attacks, then use Phase Shift to avoid taking damage from creeps by removing creep aggro.
• Use Phase Shift right after Illusory Orb to hide until the orb has travelled far enough to jaunt to.
• Level 4 Phase Shift's duration is long enough to wait out Blink Dagger's damage cooldown, allowing Puck to escape from many dangerous situations.
  • Puck must still turn in the direction it is blinking towards. Though, Puck's turn rate is among the lowest of all heroes.
  • However, doing so makes Puck vulnerable to instant disables like hex, so Puck should face its desired direction before using Phase Shift to increase its chance of escaping.
• With fast enough reaction time, Phase Shift may help Puck dodge an incoming initiation, allowing it to counter-initiate with Waning Rift and Dream Coil.
• Max level Phase Shift toghether with an arcane rune allows Puck to be essentially invincible, giving 100% uptime to Phase Shift. This can be used to make very aggressive plays and get out safely.
• More tips needed.

Dream Coil

• Use Dream Coil's leash to interrupt and prevent enemies from escaping with teleport abilities or items, like Town Portal Scroll.
• Dream Coil will catch enemies who are not in vision.
• Try to catch enemies at the edge of Dream Coil's cast radius, making it more likely that they will break the coil and be stunned.
• Dream Coil's relatively low cooldown means Puck can use it on high value single targets, such as an enemy carry.
• Level 25 Rapid Fire works just slightly within Puck's attack range, around 540 aoe (Puck's attack range is 550). Having a Dragon Lance or Hurricane Pike will increase this range.
  • Puck will still rapid fire even it is stunned, hexed, shackled, in ethereal form, or disarmed.
  • Rapid fire also works when Puck is activating Phase Shift. While going into a team fight with Illusory Orb and capturing enemies inside this coil, save Puck for the next 3.25 seconds with Phase Shift and Blink away. It will rapid fire all enemy in range and leave Puck unharmed.
  • Also works with attack modifiers such as Daedalus, Eye of Skadi, Diffusal Blade, Desolator, Mjollnir, and lifesteal items.
  • Having at least a Morbid Mask will keep Puck alive in the team fight since it heals Puck by the number of enemies coiled.
  • While rapid firing all enemies, activating Silver Edge will break all enemies in the coil upon the next rapid fire attack.
  • Having a Skull Basher or Abyssal Blade may not work well since chance of stunning enemies is only 10% for ranged heroes such as Puck.
• More tips needed.

Items

Starting items:

• Enchanted Mango allows Puck to use Illusory Orb more often in lane.
• Null Talisman and its components gives Puck a decent early game attributes boost.
• Faerie Fire supplies an instant heal and attack damage, which may give Puck an edge in trading hits and killing creeps.

Early game:

• Healing Salve helps keep Puck in lane. You can also use healing salve into phase shift to allow Puck to heal HP even while in combat.
• Magic Wand helps Puck sustain mana and health to keep active in the mid lane.
• Null Talisman because two null talismans have a ton of potential because of the magic amplification. Puck relies on fast bursts to get kills.
• Bottle helps Puck manages rune from the mid lane, as well as replenishing mana for its early game nukes.
• Boots of Speed increase movement speed to help Puck get to runes.
• Town Portal Scroll helps Puck rotate to different lanes and help out allies.

Mid game:

• Power Treads help Puck in the early to mid game, as they supplement both Puck's small health pool, as well as its mana pool.
• Arcane Boots, an alternative to Power Treads, help Puck use its magical nukes more often in the early to mid game.
• Blink Dagger provides great synergy with Puck's abilities and further augments its evasive nature.
• Eul's Scepter of Divinity offers another disable, as well as keeping Puck safe for a few extra seconds until its other escape abilities come off cooldown.

Late game:

• Dagon increases Puck's damage output with magical burst and intelligence.
• Linken's Sphere makes Puck even harder to pin down, and provides great attributes and regeneration.
• Scythe of Vyse provides mana and mana regeneration, helping Puck use its expensive abilities. It also provides hex for Puck to disable the enemies.
• Aghanim's Scepter grants attributes and increases duration of Dream Coil to better control the enemies. It also prolongs the stun duration and pierces spell immunity, great if allies can force the stun. Combined with the Level 25 Rapid Fire modifier, Puck will have more time to fire extra attacks.

Situational items:

• Veil of Discord helps increase your team's magical damage output in the mid game.
• Force Staff gives Puck extra mobility. Puck can also use it to break Dream Coil and trigger a stun.
• Shiva's Guard increases mana pool and armor to resist physical damage. It also provides an area nuke and slow.