The most iconic and probably the most fun hero to play in our beloved game of Dota 2 is Pudge the Butcher! Pudge is a very versatile hero and can be played in many ways, each of which brings high value to the team. This hero drops our jaws in the right hands or gives us the most headaches when a noob is behind the keyboard.

You are probably somewhere in the middle, but you want to start dropping jaws left, right, and center! Now you can relax because we've got you covered! In this article, we will provide you with information on the top 5 best Pudge builds for winning games in the current patch.

 

5. The hook-reliant Pudge build

The hook-reliant Pudge build

This build is all about hooking enemy heroes from a distance and killing them before the enemy team has a chance to save them. Also, it can be used as a support tool to hook your allies to safety when they are being ganked. It’s very important to mention though… be prepared to get flamed hard if you don’t hit your hooks!

It’s best for when you’re playing support and you’re good at landing your hooks from a distance. Use this build against enemy pickoff-oriented lineups or when you aim for late-game high-ground defense.

With the Octarine Core combined with the Blink Dagger, you provide a good save mechanic for your allies while also serving as a massive pickoff artist. You provide a reliable spell immunity piercing disable with your Black King Bar, and you protect your cores with the Lotus Orb.

Use this build if...

• You’re playing a soft support position, and you’re not supposed to take too much farm.
• Your team has members with limited mobility.
• The enemy team has good initiators.
• Enemy team composition relies on not breaking formation.

Skills:

You want an even maxing between the hook and rot abilities.

Level 1: Meat Hook Level 1

Level 2: Rot Level 1

Level 3: Rot Level 2

Level 4: Flesh Heap Level 1

Level 5: Meat Hook Level 2

Level 6: Dismember level 1.

Level 7: Meat Hook Level 3

Level 8: Meat Hook Level 4

Level 9: Rot level 3.

Level 10: Rot level 4

Level 11: Flesh Heap Level 2

Level 12: Dismember level 2.

Level 13: Flesh Heap Level 3

Level 14: Flesh Heap Level 4

Level 15: Take talent +4 Armor

Level 16: Take talent +120 Meat Hook Damage

Level 18: Dismember level 3

Level 20: Take talent -4s Meat Hook Cooldown

Level 25: Take talent 1.5x Flesh Heap Stack Str and Damage Block bonuses

Items:

Early game:

Tranquil Boots (925): Works with the Rot ability, allowing you to farm creeps without losing HP.gives you speed to move through the map quickly while regenerating HP as you move from one gank to another.

Pudge's soft support position necessitates the use of a Magic Wand (450), which is an excellent item.

Urn of Shadows (880): A valuable item that can be used both offensively and defensively on Pudge. You are going to get a lot of value from it since you’re moving around the map a lot. You can heal yourself or your allies, or increase your chances of killing someone, by using it offensively.

Mid game:

Bling Dagger (2250): A great way of initiating or escaping. A core item for this build allows you to blink in and save your teammate with Dismember and Aghanim’s shard. Also, it can help you get into a good position fast to hook a teammate out of a bad situation, hook in an enemy hero for a kill, or even blink dismember him.

Aether Lens (2275): Gives your Meat Hook and Dismember a higher range. This allows you to hook from a distance or surprise enemies with your super-long hook. It also aids in dismembering enemies who attempt to flee.

Aghanim’s Shard (1400): Makes the dismember ability able to be used on allies, which of course is great for saving your cores and getting them out of trouble.

Spirit Vessel (2980): A great update to Urn of Shadows, giving much-needed HP and armor to Pudge and also allocating percentage-based overtime damage to enemies.

Late Game:

Lotus Orb (3850): This item is very good against single-target spells, reflecting them back to the enemy. provides much-needed armor for pudgy characters.

Black King Bar (4050): This bar is extremely effective against high disable line-ups.gives you the ability to target specific heroes with very few ways to stop them (only a bkb piercing spell or bash).

Octarine Core (5275): A good item for this build because it reduces spell cooldown, allowing for more hooks and dismember saves for allies, and so on.It’s great since one of the items it requires to build is an aether lens, which means you basically have half the expenses covered.

 

4. The team magic-resistance Pudge build

The team magic-resistance build

This build is meant for high-magic burst damage enemy team lineups when they have a lot of spells to cast that deal damage and also disable the target. It's typically based on offlane pugin.

Pudge can sustain high amounts of damage and absorb enemy team spells with this build, depriving them of their arsenal for the other cores.Use this build when enemy supports are revealed early in the draft and they are mostly magic damage-based.

With the Pipe of Insight, the butcher gains a total of 55% magic resistance and a bonus of 11 HP/s regeneration, which, along with his high HP bar, constitutes a lot of durability. Also, this item gives his allies passive 15% magic resistance and 2.5 HP/s regeneration. With this item active, he grants himself and his allies an additional 450 magic damage absorbing shield.This build revolves around this item.

Use this build if...

• Your team is lacking durability and has small HP pool bars.
• You need a tanky hero with sustain designed to block magic damage.
• A beefy offlane hero needs to fill up the lineup with the ability to break enemy formations.

Skills:

You want to ignore the hook skill as much as possible and level up the Rot and Flesh Heap abilities.

Level 1: Meat Hook Level 1

Level 2: Rot Level 1

Level 3: Rot Level 2

Level 4: Flesh Heap Level 1

Level 5: Rot Level 3

Level 6: Dismember level 1.

Level 7: Flesh Heap Level 2

Level 8: Rot level 4

Level 9: Flesh Heap Level 3

Level 10: Flesh Heap Level 4

Level 11: Meat Hook Level 2

Level 12: Dismember level 2.

Level 13: Meat Hook Level 3

Level 14: Meat Hook Level 4

Level 15: Take talent +4 Armor

Level 16: Take talent 8% Spell Lifesteal

Level 18: Dismember level 3

Level 20: Take talent +0.8s Dismember Duration

Level 25: Take talent 1.5x Flesh Heap Stack Str and Damage Block bonuses

Items:

Early game:

Power Threads (1450): This build enables more HP and HP regen for Pudge, giving him a higher value of his magic resist.

Hood of Defiance (1500): This item is very cost-effective early on because it provides formidable magic resistance (18%) as well as a magic absorb shield of 250.It’s great for this build since early in the game, spells aren’t that strong, as it acts as an impenetrable barrier against enemy spells.

Magic Wand (450): This is a very necessary item because for every spell cast in your vicinity, it gives you a charge of +15 mana and HP that you can use as a burst heal later on. provides more value from the magic resistance.

Mid game:

Pipe of Insight (3475): The update to Hood of Defiance is a great team item.

Force Staff (2150): Allows you to save allies and yourself, allowing you to buy more time and regenerate HP to potentially turn the fight around.

Ghost Scepter (1500): This item provides you with the only weakness this build has, which is physical damage. Although it increases your magic damage received, you balance it out with the magic resistance you already have.

Late game:

Ethereal blade (4650): This item is the upgrade of the Ghost Scepter; you don’t have to spend a lot of gold to finish building it. gives more utility to this build.

Heart of Tarasque (5000): Provides a massive HP pool increase and right-click damage to Pudge due to the strength increase. Also, the passive heal when out of combat provides a great opportunity to reset and turn the tides of a bad teamfight.

Sange & Yasha (4100): It’s a great addition to this build. provides status resistance and movement speed to effectively pursue fleeing enemies, as well as reduces disable duration when tanking enemy spells.

 

3. The Physical-damage resistance build

The Physical-damage resistance build

This build is useful for negating the right-clicks of enemy carry heroes. It’s the counterpart of the magic resistance build.

Contrary to the magic-resist build, it’s highly effective against enemy physical-damage cores, since they do the most right-click damage. Use it when enemy teams draft towards heroes that have lower armor and orient their cores toward high physical damage.

The strength of this build lies in negating the incoming damage, mainly from the enemy carry and midlaner. It completely shuts down a strategy that relies on right-clicking while being buffed with physical damage-increasing abilities and items.

Use this build if...

• Enemy offlaners and supports are natural physical damage enhancers (ex.: Slardar, Ogre Magi, etc.).
• High-dps carries that rely on right-clicking on the enemy team
• Squishy heroes are already on your team.

Skills:

With this build, you want to maintain an even skilling between Rot and Flesh Heap, with a slight tilt toward Flesh Heap.

Level 1: Meat Hook Level 1

Level 2: Rot Level 1

Level 3: Flesh Heap Level 1

Level 4: Flesh Heap Level 2

Level 5: Rot Level 2

Level 6: Dismember level 1.

Level 7: Flesh Heap Level 3

Level 8: Rot level 3.

Level 9: Flesh Heap Level 4

Level 10: Rot level 4

Level 11: Meat Hook Level 2

Level 12: Dismember level 2.

Level 13: Meat Hook Level 3

Level 14: Meat Hook Level 4

Level 15: Take talent +4 Armor

Level 16: Take talent 8% Spell Lifesteal

Level 18: Dismember level 3

Level 20: Take talent +0.8s Dismember Duration

Level 25: Take talent 1.5x Flesh Heap Stack Str and Damage Block bonuses

Items:

Early game:

Power Threads (1450): This build enables more HP and HP regen for Pudge, giving him a higher value of his physical damage resist.

Vanguard (1825): Pudge has no real way to handle physical damage initially. Bying Vanguard provides further sustainability in the lane as well as a large pool of regenerating health to be able to pull off Rot for extended periods of time.

Magic Wand (450): A magic wand can be bought as early as before Boots of Speed or as late as after your core Boots upgrade, depending on who’s the enemy and their spell usage. It brings out the most value out of Pudge’s high HP and damage block on the Vangurad.

Mid game:

Crimson Guard (3600): The upgrade to Vanguard It gives you excellent tanking abilities and is particularly effective against physical damage heroes, illusions, and summons.Overall, this is an excellent item for teamfighting.

Blade Mail (2100): A very strong item on Pudge. If you place Rot on top of an enemy hero, they will be forced to attack you or slowly die.When they do this, Blade Mail is a quick way to finish off even the most powerful hitting heroes in the game.It also works well with the flesh heap, providing armor and some damage.

Vladmir’s Offering (2450): An item that enables you to group up and push. Overall, this is an item that you get for your team. It provides armor and insanely good auras for allies around you. absolutely essential against physical-damage-based enemy heroes, especially with the later upgrade we’re going to talk about.

Late game:

Wraith Pact (4050): The Upgrade of Vladmir’s Offering On top of the auras it provides, giving bonus armor, lifesteal, and damage, it’s got an active: Wraith’s Reprisal. This ability summons a totem that reduces all physical damage from enemies by 30% within a 900-foot radius. This item has a huge impact and is one of the most important for this build.

Assault Cuirass (5125): Provides an attack speed and armor aura buff as well as an armor aura debuff. a great item for teamfighting and pushing.

Shiva’s Guard (4850): Another great teamfighting tool that gives vision while you use it and works well against physical damage heroes or heroes with illusions or summons. adds up perfectly in this build.

 

2.The Mid Spell-Lifesteal Core Pudge

The Spell-Lifesteal build

This build is usually played on mid because it provides a mix of durability, utility, and initiative. It’s a well-rounded build for core Pudge.

This build is best to go with when the enemy team has a mix of squishy heroes and magic spellcasters. Use this build, especially when playing mid, and you can see at least one core enemy hero and a support with high magic damage. Also, if your team needs a tanky mid-laner who can sustain himself in teamfights and bait spells,

This build makes Pudge an unkillable, obnoxious hero in the game. It’s very hard to run away from. With the spell lifesteal in focus and the high DPS Pudge brings to the table, most enemy heroes relax when he is low HP, thinking they will kill him, when he simply doesn’t die, and this turns fights around, and sometimes even games!

Use this build if...

You need a tanky, self-sustaining mid-laner.

At least one core and one support are focused on magic damage.

Your team needs a core that can jump into the enemy formation and not instantly die, setting up easy kills for the rest of the team.

Skills:

This build is a go-to for cores like midlane and carry Pudges.The focus is on farming, which is done with the Rot ability.

Level 1: Meat Hook Level 1

Level 2: Rot Level 1

Level 3: Flesh Heap Level 1

Level 4: Rot Level 2

Level 5: Rot Level 3

Level 6: Dismember level 1.

Level 7: Rot Level 4

Level 8: Meat Hook Level 2

Level 9: Flesh Heap Level 2

Level 10: Take talent +16% Rot Slow

Level 11: Meat Hook Level 3

Level 12: Dismember level 2.

Level 13: Meat Hook Level 4

Level 14: Flesh Heap Level 3

Level 15: Take talent +8% Spell Lifesteal

Level 16: Flesh Heap level 4 

Level 18: Dismember level 3

Level 20: Take talent -4 Meat Hook cooldown

Level 25: Take talent 1.5x Flesh Heap Stack Str and Damage Block bonuses

Items:

Early game:

Pudge needs movement speed to run down enemies with Rot, so he wears speed boots.

Bracer (505): A single bracer is a must. gives him raw damage to the last hit on lane and a little durability so he can use Rot effectively.

Bottle (675). Mid-lane Pudge requires a bottle. It’s very good for him as a midlaner since he can hook runes and always get the power rune before the other midlaners can, making it of great value.

Mid game:

Eternal Shroud (3300): It’s a cheap item that provides good magic resistance and spell lifesteal. Pudge's early game tankability is greatly enhanced by the ability Flesh Heap.

Aghanim’s Scepter (4200): This item is essential for Pudge in this build. gives him a wider range of his rot abilities, which means he can spell lifesteal more effectively.

Boot's of Travel (2500): Increases Pudge's map presence and Gank involvement.very good for Pudge since he wants to be involved in kills throughout the game for his flesh heap stacks.

Late game:

Bloodstone (4400): A core item for this build gives him more spell lifesteal that stacks with Eternal Shroud for a total of +50% spell lifesteal. gives him +500 HP, which is excellent for endurance and extracting value from the magic resistance.

Overwhelming Blink (6800): A must-have for a Pudge mid, since it’s one of the key elements for a successful game. This allows him to become an instigator who catches his enemies off guard and throws them into panic mode.

Black King Bar (4050): Spell immunity is not pierced by many spells, so a midlane Pudge wants to be able to initiate and disable an enemy core for the duration of his Dismember ability without being interrupted. It synergizes very well with this build and the strength of the hero.

 

1. The position 1 Pudge build

The position 1 Pudge build

Alas, we got to the best build, which is the standard Pos 1 build for the current patch meta.

This build is best against a melee offlaner hero and is especially effective against enemy healing cores (ex.: Morphling, Alchemist, Bristleback, etc.). Use it as a standard build when you play against a balanced enemy team lineup with a hard carry to finish them early.

This build combines durability, disabling, damage, and initiation.It’s very important that you first build the core items and skills; afterwards, it leaves you with a lot of options to get creative in different situations.

Use this build if...

You’re playing against squishy heroes with low mobility.

Enemy cores are dependent on regenerating HP or lifesteal.

You want a fast-paced carry to end the game sooner than later.

Skills:

This skill build is meant for heavy flash farming since that’s its primary role. Also, a little bit of focus is put on tankiness.

Level 1: Meat Hook Level 1

Level 2: Rot Level 1

Level 3: Rot Level 2

Level 4: Flesh Heap Level 1

Level 5: Rot Level 3

Level 6: Dismember level 1.

Level 7: Rot Level 4

Level 8: Flesh Heap Level 2

Level 9: Flesh Heap Level 3

Level 10: Take talent +4 Armor

Level 11: Flesh Heap level 4

Level 12: Dismember level 2

Level 13: Meat Hook level 2 

Level 14: Meat Hook level 3

Level 15: Take talent +8% Spell Lifesteal

Level 16: Meat Hook level 4

Level 18: Dismember level 3

Level 20: Take talent +0.8s Dsimember Duration

Level 25: Take talent 1.8x Dismember Damage/Heal

Items:

Early game:

Phase Boots (1500): Pudge ultimately needs armor to help him survive while he’s being harassed by right-clickers. Furthermore, Phase boots assist you in closing gaps on enemies so you can use Dismember, position for a nice Hook, or simply stay on top of them while using Rot.

Soul Ring (855): Utilize Soul Ring to spam your hook and ultimate when farming the jungle, as hooks one-shot creeps and your ultimate can help you heal back up after you’ve used your soul ring a couple of times.

Ring of Health (825): An early ring of health can keep Pudge alive in the laning stage and build into key items he generally wants to have. This also helps to compensate for the self-damage caused by rot.

Magic Wand (450): Opt for Magic Wand early if the enemy spams a lot of spells, or you’ll be harassed in the lane significantly.

Mid game:

Vanguard (1825) or Hood of Defiance (1500): One of these items is a must for the crucial durability Pudge requires to be successful in the game. Both of them require a Ring of Health, so depending on the enemy team’s lineup and the dominant damage type, choose one of these items.

Aghanim’s Scepter (4200): For this build, it is absolutely essential to help run down enemies and have a chance to fight against an enemy carry hero. It’s the prime ability to output damage in a fight, chase down enemies, and make Rot a real menace throughout the game.

Blink Dagger (2250): With Blink Dagger, you can close the gap on enemies to dismember them immediately, followed by an easy hook for the nuke damage to then rot them to death as they try to flee.

Late game:

Black King Bar (4050): This item is necessary so you can maximize the duration of your dismember but also take a pause on any damage you’re taking from rot and get rid of preventable disables like slows or targeted stuns.

Shiva’s Guard (4850): As Pudge, late in the game, you should be extremely strong and have a lot of health. Shiva's Guard also works with his presence and slow rots.This ensures that physical assaults cannot kill you without serious consequences.

Kaya and Sange (4100): Kaya and Sange provide everything Pudge likes: Sange: additional strength to increase the value of dismember and the flesh heap. Health to withstand rot for a longer period of time, and status resistance to be disabled for a shorter period of time.Kaya deals more damage with your Rot and Dismember, has more intelligence to spam your hooks, and has increased spell lifesteal if you decide to get items that lead to that value.

Scythe of Vyse (5675): This item appears late in the game and solves all your mana issues, but more importantly, guarantees to lock enemies down before they can even pop BKB. It’s great for initiating when you know the enemy relies on BKB to safely output their damage.

 

You may also like:

• [Top 10] Dota 2 Best Carry Heroes That Wreck Hard!
• Top 10 Best Mid Heroes of Dota 2
• Top 10 Best Support Heroes of Dota 2
• In-game Best Settings for an Advantage in Dota 2
• Top 10 Best Offlane Heroes in Dota 2
• [Top 10] Dota 2 Best Agility Heroes That Wreck Hard!
• [Top 10] Dota 2 Best Junglers That Wreck Hard!
• [Top 10] Dota 2 Best Aghanim Upgrades That Are OP