Asian Girls | Dota Guide and Strategy

Meat Hook

I will break down this section into subsections for easy reference.

Hooking Stationary Enemies

This is relatively easy to do. The enemy isn’t moving! They need to be unsuspecting for this to happen, so usually you need to sneak up on them through the forest when they’re in a lane to get one of these, although it can also work if they are distracted by, say, an ally of yours that they are fighting.

The Long Range Meat Hook - This is the Hook that you’ll be using for this. It often takes full advantage of the 1000 range. This is best set up by hiding behind trees in a side lane or atop the cliffs near the first middle tower and hooking an unsuspecting hero. Just target the ground near the hero while the hero is busy attacking creeps. You need fast fingers to pull off your combination. Now, while the Hook is coming back to you, turn on Rot. This is important. Turn on Rot before Hook is done. After the enemy Hero is reeled in, chase him for a second with Rot on to make sure he’ll be in Rot’s range for the whole Dismember (assuming he won’t blink away or anything). Then, Dismember the (probably disoriented) hero. If it doesn’t kill him, you can chase with Rot for the finish. If the enemy has a disable and a decent amount of hit points and is likely to survive Dismember, stun you and escape, bring an ally along or be prepared to Hook a second time.

Hooking Moving Enemies

This is why Pudge is especially fun to play. Hooking moving enemies requires you to THINK, and I love thinking.

The Point Blank Meat Hook - Okay, so this is the way to Hook a moving hero for someone who doesn’t want to think. Not that that’s necessarily bad, because if you miscalculate a long Hook you’ll miss. This is often done while you are chasing with Rot and need an extra punch. Meat Hook is almost guaranteed to hit and makes for a nice finisher. This can be worth trying if you are having trouble landing longer-range Meat Hooks for whatever reason, but I find it to be a worse tactic overall. You don’t get the surprise element and the enemy is likely to be near a creep wave, so he could certainly turn the tables on you. Worse, if he runs before you get close to him you have relinquished all advantage and must either give up on the kill or risk missing with Hook. He will be on the lookout and try to dodge, and if you miss then he may be able to really pound you.

Long Range, Moving Hero - Fun, but not always easy. Try to anticipate the enemy Hero’s path and put the Hook where the enemy hero is going to be. You will get better at this the more you play and use Pudge, but the next point provides additional information to help you out with Hooking moving heroes.

Manipulating the Terrain - If you are worried about an enemy juking you, or simply that you will miss because there are several possible paths a Hero could take, wait to Hook until the enemy is at a point where he really only has one option for where to go. The narrow ramps all along the river are perfect. It becomes a lot easier to predict the enemy’s exact path. However, it is not always possible to get a Hook at one of these locations. When it isn’t possible, I recommend waiting until the last possible second to launch your Hook, unless you think you will have time to launch another after it cools down. Enemies often feel safe once they approach an allied tower and they do not think to juke. Furthermore, once they are in a sort of set path back to base along a lane, it is reasonable to assume that they will be running straight towards the base and have no reason to stop. This is even more true if there is an ally chasing them. Letting the enemy hero fall into a sort of “easy escape path” will allow you to land a Hook on them much more easily.

Also, position yourself to try to get the best angle possible when Hooking a moving Hero, especially if the enemy knows you are there and trying to Hook them. If an enemy Hero is running away and you are directly behind them, don’t Hook straight in front of you. Small terrain deformations and kinks in the enemy Hero’s path actually give your Hook a decent chance of missing. Step slightly to the side so you aren’t running directly behind them but rather off to the side a little. Then you can Hook at a small angle. Even 15 degrees is enough to make a difference, and it really does increase the chance that you will connect.

Miscellaneous and USEFUL Advice about Hooking

The Ally-Saving Meat Hook - The good Pudge player is always prepared to rescue his ally from a dangerous situation. If there’s only one enemy, pull the hero attacking your ally to you with a Meat Hook and turn your combo for a kill and a save. However, there may be multiple heroes attacking your ally, in which case your best bet is to hook your ally himself. He won’t take any damage. While he’s running, if you aren’t scared of the ganking heroes, you can try to slow them down with Rot/Dismember and you may even score a kill. If you think they might kill you, though, you’d better do the same as your ally and run.

The Blind Hook - Meat Hook can hit a hero that you can’t see due to invisibility or line of sight. It will still deal damage and bring the Hero to you. Trace the Hero’s projected path in your head. It’s the same sort of anticipation you would use to Hook any moving Hero, but taken to the next level because you can’t actually see them. Aim Hook ahead of the Hero in his imagined path, so it will collide with him as he keeps moving and go for it. There are some screenshots demonstrating this in the Screenshots section. Being able to judge a Hero’s path is something that you will simply get better at as you play more DotA and more Pudge.

Click on the ground, not the hero - Don’t click on the hero, especially when trying to hit a moving target. This will result in a miss VERY often. ALMOST ALL THE TIME. Click on the ground near the hero, or if they are moving click on the ground in front of them. If they are very devious, they may try to run in zig-zags or other tricky patterns. There are several ways to deal with this. One, try to figure out where it looks like they’re going to move, and then decide where they will deke to. Basically you are just staying one step ahead of them mentally. However, you can also run directly at them and turn on Rot as soon as you get close. Zig zags and fancy jukes take longer than a straight line, so often you can catch up to them and use Rot to chase for your kill. Plus you can then Hook at point blank range anyway if you need an extra punch.

Click a little short of where you want the Hook to hit - Another thing you should be careful of is clicking ~1000 range away. The Hook stretches that far, yes, but don’t gamble. If you misjudge by a tiny bit and click 1100 units away, Pudge will have to move before throwing the Hook and it will ruin your angle, timing, etc. I usually click about 700 units away from Pudge on a maximum range Hook, or 300 units short of the place at which I want the Hook to connect. Don’t worry if you don’t know how much 300 units is (it’s half of Pugna’s attack range, if that helps). The specific amount isn’t that important, though. Just do it a little short of where you want the Hook to hit and you should be fine. Not only does it prevent Pudge from having to move to make the Hook, it’s also much easier to visualize the angles involved by giving your eye a point in space to use in mental calculations.

What doesn’t Hook hit? - Hook will go across cliffs and through trees. You can’t hook buildings, siege units, Roshan, Syllabear’s Spirit Bear or Chickens. Use this to your advantage! The enemy may feel safe behind his tower, or “protected” by a siege unit.

7. Screenshots

Contents of Screenshots Section

1. Hook Mechanics - Moving Heroes
2. Lane Positions - Mid lane
3. Lane Positions - Bottom lane
4. Lane Positions - Top lane
5. Hook Information - What is the Maximum Range? How much is 1000 units?
6. Hook Information - Small AoE on Hook
7. Hook Mechanics - Blind Hooks
8. Hook Utility - Saving Allies

1. Moving Heroes

I’m going to start the Screenshot section with a perfect segue from my discussion of Meat Hook. I have assembled a few screenshots related to a particular Hook I made on a particular Spectre who was chasing a particularly Lich-like ally of mine. I did a little work in Paint and I think the results will be pleasant.

Spectre is chasing my allied Lich into the tower. Lich is moving slowly and Spectre is moving quickly because she has used Spectral Dagger, and another hit or two will finish off the Lich.

I am in position to Hook, and I have some options. Here is what some people would do:

Notice that I have drawn Spectre’s movement arrow. She is moving. This potential Hook is aimed at her current location, but by the time it gets there she will be farther along and it will miss.

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This is a better guess.

It looks good, but it’s still not far enough ahead of the Hero. Don’t forget that Spectre is moving especially quickly because of her Dagger, so this Hook will definitely miss.

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This is the correct place to aim Hook:

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And here is the actual Hook, for comparison.

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Here’s another example of this.

Notice how I aimed my hook at the red circle ahead of the Dragon Knight.

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2. Mid Lane Positions

Here are a few spots I like to hook from in the mid lane.

This one is probably the most common Sentinel hooking spot ever. Notice the easy hook on Spirit Breaker in the middle lane. It’s a great spot, but people will probably expect it – so you should move around to different angles in the middle lane. However, if you’re on Scourge, people will expect it less. I recommend using it more often when playing as Scourge.

If you need other spots, though, you could go from the cliffs on the left side instead of the right side. Or you could go from the little alcove area around the Gnolls. (This one is tricky because you don’t have sight on the heroes in the lane. You’ll want to put an Observer Ward in the lane to remedy that.) You don’t need screenshots to show you which spots I’m talking about.

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Here’s another good spot in mid lane. This one is while I was playing as Scourge, but it works just as easily as Sentinel. The enemy heroes will simply be facing the other way. It’s a little harder as Sentinel just because the enemy hero’s allies could pin you in because you’re on the wrong side of the river and you’ll have trouble escaping back to base. Not a huge worry for the most part, though.

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3. Bottom Lane Positions

Here are a few spots I like to hook from in the bottom lane.

This is a great side lane spot. Notice how my ally chases NA, distracting him from the thought of a possible hook and making him run in a straight line. A little timing, and an easy kill.

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Here’s another from the same general area. Notice the view from my point of view, and notice the view from Sniper’s point of view. He actually can’t see me, so that Hook is a total surprise. Look carefully at my location. I’m sort of behind a tree. Take full advantage of that tree when you’re in bottom lane.

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4. Top Lane Positions

Here are a few spots I like to hook from in the top lane.

The above is a good way to kill someone tower-hugging on Scourge. Or someone near the tower at all. They do not necessarily have to be hugging the tower. This hook is a good one to use because the enemy feels more secure by their tower and is less likely to expect a hook.

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And here’s how to kill someone tower-hugging or near the tower on the Sentinel side. Go to the Sentinel shop. There isn’t actually a hero shown in this one, but you can see how the Hook is aimed at the exact spot someone would be if they were tower-hugging. The Hook shown is at MAXIMUM RANGE. Look closely. That’s 1000 range. It’s important to know the maximum range of Hook.

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5. Maximum Range of Hook - 1000 range

Here’s another shot showing a Hook at maximum range. I missed Sniper, but you can still get an idea of how far Hook stretches.

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6. Small AoE on Hook

Hook has a little AoE to it. About 100 units. The next Screenshot shows this.

I aimed my hook at the red dot, but it still hit Spirit Breaker. However, do not get in the habit of relying on this AoE to make your Hooks connect. Always assume that your Hook will miss if it is not spot on. This will improve your accuracy.

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7. Blind Hooks

Hook can hit even if you can’t see your enemy. Just figure out where they’re going to be and time it. In this shot, Sniper is running up the hill. My hook connects, even though I can’t see him, and I get a kill.

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In the next series, I get a kill on Axe. Watch as he starts to run:

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Now a Hook shoots out. Here’s my view:

That’s right. I can’t see him. I’m guessing where he’s going to be by timing it in my head.

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And here’s his view of the same shot:

Delicious.

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8. Saving Allies

Ursa is in trouble. He’s been Purged by Siren and has 4 images hot on his tail. Here comes my Hook to save him. It looks like it’s going to miss, but it just barely gets him. In the lower half, he is shown on the other side of the trees, out of danger.

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One more ally saving Hook for good measure; same heroes in the same game, but so what?

Ursa is netted by the Siren, but a rescue Hook is on the way and he is pulled out of trouble.

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8. Observer Ward Placement

You’re going to want to place one Ward on the hill by the enemy’s first middle tower. Often ranged heroes will sit on the hill and attack creeps in the middle lane’s river. You’ll want to see them so you can Hook them from places like the Gnolls area. Put another one behind the first middle tower if it hasn’t fallen yet. Between the first two middle towers, that is. That lets you sneak through the woods and time a Hook to catch a fleeing hero who thinks he’s safe. Do the same thing to side towers if you are spending a lot of time in side lanes. I kind of prefer middle myself, but it all works. Also put Wards by the Runes, and in key areas in the woods where fighting is likely to happen. The neutrals are also a good place to put Wards, because you can catch VERY unsuspecting heroes farming neutrals. They’re afraid to be in a lane because of YOU, most likely, so by paying some attention to the neutrals you can cut down almost any attempt they might make at farming.

Also put wards in their base towards the end of the game - outside of the sight radius of the towers. That will let you Hook up into their base and kill a camping defender.

Let me reiterate, with the release of 6.38, the importance of placing Wards on the Runes. Bottle is now refilled completely after a Rune is used, so find and use those Runes.

I had some screenies demonstrating where to place the Observer wards, but some people said they weren’t that useful. They took up a lot of visual space, so they’re no longer in the Guide. However, I have provided a few thumbnails as links to some of the pictures. I did not put links to screenies showing how to ward the Runes, because that is fairly straightforward and frequently done.

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9. Best Allies and so forth

Best Allies

Goblin Techies – Hook an enemy through a minefield. Plus, Dismember gives the Techies plenty of time to get an accurate Suicide.

Blood Seeker – Rupture and Hook work together really well. Have the Blood Seeker Rupture an enemy. The enemy is now basically prevented from moving or else they will take large amounts of damage. This makes it easier to get an accurate Hook, and once you connect you will drag them 1000 units to your location, causing them to take damage from Rupture as if they had run across that area. Ouch!

Omniknight – Repel stops you from taking damage from Rot, so you can keep Rot on for up to 20 seconds without receiving any damage yourself. 100 x 20 = 2000 potential AoE damage you could deal in that time.

Treant Protector – Invisibility allows you to sneak up behind heroes easily and get hooks from any angle you choose. This is really nice. Eyes can help you see enemy heroes so you don’t have to guess with a blind Hook, and Eyes can also see enemy Observer Wards, which are a common counter to Pudge as I will mention in a second.

Nerubian Weaver and Beastmaster - Watchers give sight on heroes to set up a Hook, and scout for Runes that you can load into your Bottle. Beastmaster’s Hawk is good for the same reason.

Disablers, nukers and slowers. Especially Disablers. In a serious game, you are going to want to start the game laning with an ally and if your ally has a disable it will pay big dividends. A disable can set up an easy Hook, and any kind of early-game power can provide an effortless kill with Pudge’s insane Hook + Rot damage. I put pictures of VS and CM because they are notoriously good at what I’m talking about. Also note that you want your ally to be ranged. Two melee in a lane is always a bad idea.

Late-Game Carry Heroes - Pudge can own it up early to mid, but you need a carry hero to win you the game later on. If you’re playing a game with one friend, encourage him to get a carry hero over almost anything else (preferably a carry hero that is also a disabler/nuker/slower early if you are planning to lane with him). Pudge has a lot of trouble finishing the game even if he becomes a good tank, so you need someone to dish out the damage late-game and carry your team. I put in pictures of Viper and Syllabear because they are fairly traditional carry heroes; others include Clinkz (not in -lm league play but in -rd leagues and anything below) and QoP.

Weakest Enemies – any Agility or Intelligence hero, preferably ranged, should fall easily to Pudge’s powerful combo, but Strength heroes will also fall if you chase with Rot. My personal favorites? Lich and Sniper. Lots of fun to kill, and relatively helpless once Hooked.

Worst Enemies

Tanks. Centaur/Rooftrellen/Leviathan. There are more, but I don’t want to bore you with tons of pictures and explanations because the principle is the same. These guys have so many hit points that your combo will be fairly ineffective, and they all have powerful spells of their own (Stomp, Overgrowth, Gush/Ravage) so they can often defeat you in a fight. Against Rooftrellen, you can Dismember him when he uses Overgrowth to basically negate it (provided he’s alone) but he can cast Invisibility on himself when you attempt to chase with Rot, so it’s unlikely you’ll do much to him, either.

Blinkers. There are very few things more annoying than Hooking a hero only to have them Blink away quickly.

Agility heroes that you don’t properly deal with early on. If an agility hero farms, you’re probably toast. Pudge can be strong late game, but he just doesn’t compare to heroes that were meant to win late game fights. Make sure you keep the enemy’s threat heroes from farming. I didn’t put pictures, but you can figure out who is likely to be a problem late-game.

Silence. If you are Silenced with Rot on, you can’t turn Rot off. That will hurt a LOT. Heroes that are likely to silence you include Doombringer, Drow Ranger, Death Prophet, Silencer and Bloodseeker, although in the last case you’ll be dishing out some serious damage with Bloodrage. Doombringer is the most dangerous - his Silence is targeted right on the Hero, so you can’t dodge it, and it lasts the longest. Plus Doom does additional damage to you. Be very careful against Doombringer; I would avoid Rotting if you know his Ulti is up and he won’t be permadisabled.

Observer Wards. Not a hero, but a common counter to Pudge. The wards let the enemy see you coming in advance and they will run before you can pick them off.

Combating the problem heroes

Silence - Don’t get caught with Rot on. Figure out when they’re going to Silence you, and turn Rot off. Against Doombringer, don’t use it at all unless he’s disabled or his ulti isn’t up.

Also, with Silencer, his Last Word can interrupt your combination, so I recommend turning on Rot beforehand, then Hooking and chasing until Last Word wears off, at which point you can Dismember.

Blinkers - Two options. One, Hook them when they aren’t expecting it and Dismember them before they figure out what’s going on. Or, start the fight by chasing with Rot and Hook them back after they Blink.

Agility heroes you didn’t deal with early on - Self-explanatory. You didn’t shut them down early. Figure out which heroes are going to be late-game threats and hunt them down to make sure they can’t farm up good gear.

Tanks - Out-tank them. Do some extra farming with Flesh Heap to build up your Strength. Or, get an ally to help you gank them to make sure they go down. Or, take out their damage-dealing allies. A defensive tank isn’t so fearsome if his Clinkz and Drow allies were shut down and can’t dish out any damage.

Observer Wards - Buy Sentry Wards and kill the Observer Wards. My build has a pretty inexpensive early game (once you have Boots and Bottle you can kind of rock and roll) so you should be able to afford some. One kill that you otherwise wouldn’t have gotten almost pays for it right there, once you factor in the enemy losing gold and so forth. Plus, you needed Observer Wards anyway, right? Yes, you did. I said to get them. So you aren’t spending THAT much more by upgrading to Sentry Wards anyway.

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Want some replays?

Pub game. Totally one-sided. I played very well. Good use of Observer Wards.
Pudge_21.w3g ( 735.52k )
Number of downloads: 6794

TDA from a while ago:
Pudge_TDA.w3g ( 946.4k )
Number of downloads: 2388

Some game or other:
Pudge___replayy.w3g ( 716.81k )
Number of downloads: 974

Very long game. Most good stuff happens in first half. It’s good stuff, though.
Pudge_LLIH.w3g ( 601.7k )
Number of downloads: 2833

Older replay, from 1.20 in case you still play that version.
Pudge_12.w3g ( 494.13k )
Number of downloads: 604

If any of these are bad replays in your opinion, let me know and I will take another look at them. I will also keep uploading new good ones so I can remove some older, worse ones.

I have a few Pudge videos, too, as you may have noticed. The links are at the very beginning of the Guide.

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Wow, I’d sure love a Practice Your Pudge map for me to use to work on my Pudge skills. Too bad there’s no such thing, right?

Wrong! I made one! Here it is:

Practice_Your_Pudge_P_v1.02.w3x ( 28.96k )
Number of downloads: 15341

Notice that I have uploaded a newer version with many small optimizations. The drills work a little better, and, aesthetically, it’s much nicer. Enjoy!!!

P.S. Yes, I know it’s single-player only. I hope to eventually release a multiplayer one. For now, just run it in single player.

I can’t get your map to work! It says I need an opponent to start the game. What do I do?

Don’t play it online. When you start Warcraft 3, hit “Single Player” and load the map that way.

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Credits:

Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on this Guide. You guys helped make it a lot better.

Thanks to everyone I play with on Battle.net for being fun to game with and letting me have solo lane a lot with Pudge.

Thanks to the HGC Judges - New-Zealand, Kai, Furious Furion and littlespawn - for helping improve this guide a lot. And giving me such high marks that I left the competition in the dust…wait, I didn’t win…damn.

Thanks to TreeBeard for his general advice and support.

Thanks to shinlogen for formatting those split-screen screenshots, and for making some great artwork for me.

Thanks to Beast_Pete for the tremendous support he has always shown for this guide, and for his remarkable contributions to DotA strategy in general.

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Changelog:

Feb 23, 2007: Guide posted on DA. Made Meat Hook strategy more concise. Made a few small modifications in other places.

Mar 10: Added this here changelog. Added a section in Early Game Walkthrough Strategy. Emphasized Bottle before Boots in item build; added note on farming for Boots of Travel in a mid-game lull. Made cosmetic improvements to the last parts of the guide, from Combating the Problem Heroes onwards.

Mar 12: Notes on Aegis and Hood in the item build section.

Mar 19: Officially revamped item build.

April 27: A few tweaks.

Jan 21, 2008: Updated the guide at long last!