Pudge/Counters
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Counters
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Contents
Bad against...[edit]
- Abaddon can activate Borrowed Time to dispel Dismember; breaking the disable and potentially allowing Abaddon to escape.
- Aphotic Shield can be cast on an ally to dispel the stun of Dismember, which can make kills difficult to secure, given that Dismember is Pudge's only reliable disable.
- Pudge lacks a mobility without a Blink Dagger, causing him to be easily chased with Curse of Avernus. The silence also prevents him from toggling off his Rot.
- If Meat Hook is used before Blink, Anti-Mage may be able to escape Pudge's grasp by blinking safety.
- Counterspell grants Anti-Mage a large degree of magic resistance, a damage type Pudge is highly reliant on to secure kills. This make Anti-Mage a bad target for Pudge. The active can also block Dismember if timed correctly.
- Mana Break can quickly drains Pudge's low supply of mana, which may render Meat Hook & Dismember unusable and making him a prime target for Mana Void.
- Pudge is particularly susceptible to Bristleback's Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray due to his naturally low armor & poor agility gain.
- Bristleback, in combination with his strength gain, high health, common itemization for magic resistance and damage reduction from Bristleback makes him a poor target for Pudge.
- Track can easily keep vision on Pudge, making it impossible to catch up with his Meat Hook for Bounty Hunter's teammates or him.
- It's very difficult for Pudge to use Rot on and hook Bounty Hunter due to Shadow Walk.
- Shuriken Toss cancels out Dismember from a good range.
- Shallow Grave can be used to save an ally during Dismember and Rot.
- A combination of Bad Juju, Poison Touch, and items like Desolator or Solar Crest can tear off Pudge's low armor, making him even more vulnerable to physical damage.
- Doom disables the toggling of Rot and, if cast at the right time, may leave Pudge with a potentially lethal health drain.
- Doom's naturally high health, strength gain and damage output makes him a poor target for Pudge.
- The damage of Doom's Infernal Blade scales with the target's maximum health, which is particularly effective against Pudge due to his naturally high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
- Legion Commander can use Press the Attack on an ally to dispel the disable of Dismember. The bonus health regeneration also partially counters the damage of Rot
- Duel can be used on Pudge whilst Rot is active, disabling toggling which may result in a lethal health drain that leaves Legion Commander with a successful duel.
- The lifesteal of Feast scales accordingly to the health of its target, which is effective against Pudge due to his high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
- Lifestealer can activate Rage to completely negate magic damage, therefore rendering the damage of Rot and Dismember null.
- Pudge's plentiful health makes him an ideal target for Open Wounds.
- If Meat Hook is used before Leap, Mirana may be able to escape Pudge's grasp by leaping to safety.
- The invisibility from Moonlight Shadow gives a degree of mobility, which can make Mirana or her teammates a difficult target to hook.
- Sacred Arrow can be used to cancel Dismember within a distance.
- Tree Dance has a low cooldown and allows Monkey King to jumps on trees quickly, making him a difficult target to hook.
- Because of his low attack speed and poor agility, Monkey King can inflict a large amount of damage quickly by Jingu Mastery.
- Boundless Strike interrupts Pudge's Dismember from a long range.
- Heartstopper Aura is effective against high health heroes, and Pudge is no exception. Coupled with his constant self-damage from Rot, being around Necrophos could prove risky for an overconfident Pudge.
- Regardless of how much health Pudge gains through Flesh Heap, Reaper's Scythe will often kill Pudge should his health fall below 40%, making Necrophos an ideal counter versus Pudge.
- Night Stalker can easily find Pudge's location during Dark Ascension.
- Void's mini-stun and silence from Crippling Fear at night will stop Dismember, Meat Hook and Rot and preventing Pudge from fighting back.
- Night Stalker has naturally high health, strength gain and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance, making Night Stalker a poor target for Pudge.
- Mana Burn completely drains Pudge's little mana which may render Meat Hook & Dismember unusable.
- Impale and Spiked Carapace used to cancel Dismember if timed perfectly.
- Vendetta grants Nyx Assassin invisibility and a high degree of mobility for a long time, which can make Nyx a difficult target to hook. In addition, it also scouts out Pudge's location and surprising him with his attack, Impale and Mana Burn.
- Arcane Orb and Sanity's Eclipse quickly drains Pudge's limited mana pool, making him unable to use Meat Hook or Dismember and also bypasses Flesh Heap.
- Outworld Devourer can save allies or himself caught by Dismember or Meat Hook with Astral Imprisonment.
- Corrosive Haze lowers armor and reveals Pudge's location, making it hard to use Meat Hook on Slardar's teammates or Slardar himself.
- Because Corrosive Haze also reduces armor, it amplifies Bash of the Deep's damage.
- Slithereen Crush interrupts Pudge during Dismember at close range.
- Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to avoid Meat Hook.
- Dark Pact dispels Dismember if timed perfectly.
- Pudge's low attack speed and poor agility can be lowered even further by Essence Shift.
- Shadow Dance grants Slark invisibility and a high degree of mobility, which can make Slark a difficult target to hook and also protects him from Pudge's Dismember (including allies with an Aghanim's Scepter).
- Gush reduces Pudge's armor which he already lacks.
- Kraken Shell can dispel Dismember after reaching a certain threshold of damage.
- Tidehunter's naturally high health, strength gain, and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance make Tidehunter a poor target.
- The percentage-based primary-attribute reduction effect of Whirling Death can be devastating for Pudge due to his high strength gain through Flesh Heap.
- Reactive Armor's health regeneration and common itemization for magic resistance and durability make Timbersaw a poor target for Pudge.
- Timber Chain's high mobility makes Timbersaw difficult to lockdown for Pudge, given he only has one reliable disable.
- Shukuchi grants Weaver invisibility and a high degree of mobility for a short time, which can make Weaver a difficult target to hook.
- The Swarm with Desolator can remove Pudge little natural armor and makes it difficult to remove Weaver's beetles, due to his low base attack time and poor agility. Additionally, The Swarm can scout out Pudge's location.
- Given that Pudge only has one reliable disable in Dismember, should Weaver survive, Weaver can simply use Time Lapse (or target allies with Aghanim's Scepter) to remove the damage entirely.
Others[edit]
- Pudge is strong versus heroes with low health, being able to kill them with a combo. On the other hand, tanky heroes are strong versus Pudge because they can survive and even turn the fight around.
- Pudge often doesn't rush Black King Bar, and that makes him vulnerable during Dismember against most disables such as Nightmare, Hex, Shackles, Malefice, Light Strike Array, Lucent Beam, Ice Path, Ensnare, Adaptive Strike, Avalanche, Disruption, Echo Stomp, Burrowstrike, and many more.
- Heroes with many summons or illusions are much harder to catch with Meat Hook: Nature's Prophet, Phantom Lancer, Chen.
- Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook: Ember Spirit, Riki, Clinkz, Queen of Pain.
- Anti-Tank heroes like: Razor, Necrophos, Undying.
- Meat Hook can prove annoying for Pudge if Rubick Spell Steals it by saving allies from ganks.
- Any heroes with Diffusal Blade or a mana break talent is a big issue for Pudge because of his low mana pool.
- A well-timed silence against Pudge makes him unable to turn off Rot, easily draining his health in the process: Silence, Gust, Doom, Ancient Seal, Blast Off!.
Items[edit]
- Blink Dagger is not the best choice, but can be good to escape the area faster than Meat Hook can reach.
- Lotus Orb and Linken's Sphere will prevent Dismember.
- Force Staff will be used by players to escape Pudge's Meat Hook, or, in worse conditions, escape Pudge himself after Dismember. It is also a great alternative for Blink Dagger due to increasing your mana, intelligence, and having a relatively cheaper price.
- Manta Style makes Meat Hook much harder to land because of the illusions and invulnerability duration.
- Diffusal Blade will wear down Pudge's low mana pool.
- Glimmer Cape and Shadow Blade/ Silver Edge makes Meat Hook difficult to land because of their invisibility duration.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity can be used to cancel Pudge's Dismember and make him unavailable to fight for a while. You can also dodge hooks by using it on yourself.
- Manta Style and Necronomicon makes it hard to land a Meat Hook.
Good against...[edit]
- Pudge's high health pool will make him have possibilities of escaping Rupture.
- Meat Hook can cancel Freezing Field, even if Crystal Maiden has Glimmer Cape.
- She is also slow and is fragile, making her a good target for ganking.
- Meat Hook can pull Drow Ranger to Pudge, disabling her Marksmanship.
- Following up with Dismember will prevent Drow Ranger from using Gust or Shadow Blade.
- Pudge can easily survive Luna's Lucent Beam and Eclipse, and his Meat Hook and Dismember can pierce Black King Bar, making Luna one of the perfect victims for ganking.
- However, Lucent Beam can cancel Dismember, as Pudge often doesn't build Black King Bar, and if she is farmed enough, Luna might be able to fight back against Pudge.
- Sniper has a low health pool and strength gain, making him vulnerable to Pudge's magical and pure damage.
- Sniper usually likes to deal damage away from the fight, and Meat Hook is capable of bringing him to the front lines.
- Assassinate won't do much damage against Pudge because of his high strength gain and the strength bonuses from Flesh Heap.
- Pudge's Dismember does not allow Spectre to escape with Haunt.
- He can easily tank the damage reflected by Dispersion due to his high strength and the healing from Dismember.
- Should Spectre try to get away through the trees or over a cliff with Spectral Dagger, Pudge can hook her back.
- Spectre takes a long time to come online, and Pudge can ruin her early game with ganks.
- Pudge is the perfect hero for tanking mines, as Flesh Heap grants him lots of strength.
- Techies' high ground defense can be bypassed by Pudge hooking his enemies to him.
- Techies usually sits in the trees during the laning stage, setting up Proximity Mines. Meat Hook can easily pull them out and set them up for a kill.
- Meat Hook can used to pull Tinker while he is hiding in the trees, and a follow up with Dismember and Rot leads to an easy solo kill, as Tinker doesn't buy many survivability items.
- Flesh Heap makes it hard for Tinker to deal serious damage.
- Zeus likes to stay far back in fights, dealing his damage uninterrupted, but once he gets hooked into the fight, he usually dies very quickly.
- Pudge's high strength from Flesh Heap make it very hard for Zeus to burst him down.
- Zeus' low health pool makes him very vulnerable to the damage from Meat Hook, Rot and Dismember.
Others[edit]
- Heroes that have a channeled ability can be interrupted by Meat Hook: Shadow Shaman, Witch Doctor, Enigma, Bane.
- Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or having any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items are still interrupted by Dismember: Enigma, Juggernaut, Pugna, Elder Titan.
- Heroes with magical nukes are mostly irrelevant against Pudge because of his innate magic resistance and huge health pool from Flesh Heap, making their spells less effective against him from mid to late game.
Works well with...[edit]
- Pudge can hook enemies into mines, which can guarantee a kill.
- Pugna can use Decrepify on an enemy, causing them to take extra damage from Rot and Dismember.
- The control provided by Rot + Dismember combo gives Pugna an easier time into casting Nether Blast and Life Drain on the hooked victim
- Astral Imprisonment can set up a hook, if timed correctly.
- Lifestealer can remain hidden inside Pudge using Infest, and can burst out when Pudge successfully hooks an enemy. He can then continue to do damage while Pudge disables his enemy using his ultimate.
- Tiny and Pudge can make quite a deadly duo with Tiny able to use Toss to engage by tossing Pudge onto an enemy or toss a enemy onto Pudge so Pudge can get a Dismember off to keep them stunned long enough for the rest of the team or just Tiny to help secure the kill.
- Another good reason is if you really want is to get a bit tactical with Toss and Meat Hook by tossing pudge into a spot where he can get a good hook and maybe pull someone who is low to either their death or save them from certain doom.
- Crystal Maiden can combine her Crystal Nova's slow with Rot's slow to deliver high amounts of damage.
- Frostbite: Frostbitten enemies are easily hooked.
- Arcane Aura fulfills Pudge's mana needs.
- Dismember can be combined with Freezing Field to kill most heroes early in the game or to prevent a hero from disabling Crystal Maiden while she channels.
- Bloodseeker can use Rupture to discourage enemies from moving, allowing Pudge to land Meat Hook easily. Additionally, if the enemy is still affected by Rupture, Pudge's Meat Hook will force Rupture to trigger dealing high amounts of damage as they are getting pulled towards him.
- Meat Hook makes setup for Purification nuke. The heal also ensures that Pudge can restore his health after Rot.
- Heavenly Grace provides strength for Dismember.
- The bonus regeneration allows Pudge to heal up while Rot is active.
- The strong dispel and status resistance protects Pudge against disables.
Others[edit]
- Bane can use Nightmare on an enemy, setting up an easy Meat Hook for Pudge.
- Rubick can use Telekinesis on an enemy, giving Pudge enough time to hook during the lift duration.
