Pudge

There is no hero more picked on the Brazilian server than Pudge, and there is no hero whose performance is worse measured by the statistic that the player looks at. The question that the Pudge asks after the match is "how many hooks did I hit". The right question is another: how many hooks cost more than they yielded.

The hidden cost of each hook

A hook has three costs that the scoreboard doesn't show:

1. Position. To have a hook line you need to be ahead of your safe line. Every second there is a second where the enemy can initiate you.
2. Time. While you wait for the perfect passage behind the tree, your team is four on the map.
3. Information. A wrong hook warns the enemy exactly where you are and forces them to play from there. Sometimes that's good, and you have to know when.

A Pudge who hits six hooks and spent twenty minutes standing behind a tree delivered more map than he stole. A Pudge who hit two and stayed the entire game with the team won.

Where the Pudge really decides

The Pudge is an offensive territory support, not a jungler. Its function is to make it expensive to walk around certain parts of the map. This happens in three specific places:

• Narrow corridors: jungle entrance, mid lane ramp, Roshan pass. This is where the hook has a high hit rate without requiring suicidal position.
• Near the objective: While the team pushes a tower, the Pudge doesn't hunt, it defends the formation. A grappling hook that pulls the enemy initiator into your team is the hero's most valuable play, and it's reactive, not proactive.
• Roshan: Pudge with pit vision is the reason why good teams don't Roshan blindly.

Rot is the ability that separates brackets

Below Archon, the Rot is turned on after the hook. Above, it is already on before.

The reason is simple: Rot is the only source of the hero's constant slow, and his damage is a percentage of the time, not the moment. Turning on before pulling means that the target comes to you already slowed down and already losing health. Turning on later wastes the first second, which is usually the only second you have.

The Counterpoint: Connected Rot causes you to lose health, and the Pudge with Flesh Heap is a hero whose health is the accumulated advantage resource. Never go on lane with Rot connected out of habit.

The mistake at each bracket, one line apiece

Two calculations before the hook

*If this hook misses, what happens to my team in the next ten seconds?*

If the answer is "nothing, I'll go back to my position", play. If the answer is "the team is four in a fight that has already started", don't play. This single question changes the result more than any item in the build above.