Dota 2: How to Build Core Pudge

In Dota 2, a Core is a hero whose role is to carry the game on their back. The Offlaner, Mid and Hard Carry are cores, and they’re all primarily responsible for leading and starting/ending fights.

Pudge is one of the most classic heroes in the game, not only because of his unique design, but also due to his skillset that makes him extremely versatile, being able to act as a starter, support or even a core. With patch 7.38, the hero received a new facet, Rotten Core, which grants him Carry status.

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Facet and Skills

Rotten Core

Rotten Core grants bonus attack damage to Pudge while he’s using the Rot ability, which we’ll discuss later.

This completely changes the way this hero acts in the game, being able to now deal excessive damage to enemies, improving his arsenal a lot.

Meat Hook

With this ability, Pudge throws a hook in a chosen direction, catching any unit in its path, and those will then be pulled towards Pudge. Common creeps are killed instantly, heroes and ancient creeps take damage when caught.

This skill is one of the best ways to ambush enemies and start combat. You can position yourself at a certain distance and simply catch the opponent fleeing or off guard while hiding in the fog.

Pudge can target allies with the hook and they won’t take damage, allowing you to use this ability to save them.

Rot

This skill can be toggled on and off to generate an aura around Pudge which will damage and slow enemies, consuming Pudge's own health per second in the process. With the Rotten Core facet, Pudge gains bonus attack damage while Rot is active, making this ability the center of the build.

An important thing to note here is that this skill deals magic damage and can be used to destroy enemies in ethereal form.

Meat Shield

Pudge is covered in armor that blocks damage from any source, including damage caused by Rot, which makes this ability an excellent pair with Rot. Ideally, you should use the two together.

Also use this ability to escape when attacked by enemies or to farm in the jungle for longer.

Dismember

Pudge's ultimate completely disables a target unit, and for the duration, Pudge will deal damage per second to this target. This damage is increased by Pudge's Strength attribute and heals the hero an amount equal to the damage dealt to the target.

This is one of the best ults in the game, since it can’t be dispelled by anything (one of the few skills with this feature) and requires another hero to disable Pudge in order to free his target.

Flesh Heap

His innate ability allows Pudge to gain permanent Strength bonuses when killing a hero, becoming more resilient as he gets more kills. This skill together with the right items can make Pudge virtually immortal, which can make a huge difference in combat.

Talents

The talent tree can be followed just like in the example. Rot is the main skill of the build, since with it you can bombard enemies with magic damage while making them slower and more susceptible to Pudge's physical attacks, so the extra slow is very important.

The spell lifesteal bonus and the buffs on the ultimate are also very useful in this build.

Early Game

For this build, we’ll consider Pudge Mid. In the initial minutes, you’ll need the basic items following this strategy. Focus on completing Bracer, Power Treads and Bottle before level 6. Pudge can farm well even against the worst matchups, but be careful and try to punish the opponent as much as possible to gain space in the lane and delay the creeps if you want to stay back.

Essential Items

After closing the primary build, focus on acquiring the Blink Dagger so you can get enemies with your ult when the Hook fails or is unavailable. Blood Stone is the next item, as it’ll ensure that you can use Rot with no fear to aggressive the opponents and also provide more sustain.

With the ultimate available, start moving to the other lanes to perform ganks and obtain more Flesh Heap bonuses. Radiance is the next item, which will add a lot to Pudge's Rot and also provide some evasion for the hero. Kaya and Sange is also incredibly strong in this build, as it turns Pudge into a war tank with Bloodstone and will provide mana sustain, in addition to status resistance.

End Game

Aghanim, BKB and Overwhelming Blink are the final items in the build. Aghanim will make Rot even stronger by cutting off enemy regeneration, while BKB will allow you to start combat whenever you want and the new Blink will give Pudge’s fight initiations even more impact.

Situational Items

Depending on the matchup you’ll feel the need for more magical protection, Eternal Shroud is the perfect item if you’re being bombarded with magical damage. Linken’s Sphere to deal with single-target abilities and Shiva’s Guard can be a great combo to start combat alongside Radiance and Rot.

Orchid Malevolence to deal with troublesome heroes and silence your prey, Heaven’s Halberd to disrupt the enemy Carry, and Heart of Tarrasque if you want to be even more resilient in combat.

Neutrals

As a core, you need to focus more on combat impact, so neutral items that improve it will be preferred.

Orb of Destruction is very strong in the early game, reducing enemy armor. Searing Signet is simply absurd with this build and is my favorite neutral, dealing a lot of damage alongside Rot. Nemesis Curse works similarly to the ring, also improving Pudge's aura effects. Magnifying Monocle will increase the Hook’s range and Stygian Desolator is the ultimate item for any Carry.

Pudge is probably my favorite hero at the moment. Versatile and reliable, he may have a somewhat complex gameplay, but with a little practice you can get good results. This build has proven to be very effective in both ranked and casual matches, and once you manage to get enough Flesh Heap bonuses you can end up becoming a real horror in the match.

I leave off another article here. Leave your questions, suggestions, criticisms and/or compliments in the comments. Thanks for reading and see you next time.