Dota 2 Biography : The Butcher Pudge

Pudge is currently the most popular hero in Dota today. Pudge has been around for more than 20 years since Diablo 1 – Blizzard’s famous role-playing game. Many of Dota’s current heroes are borrowed from the design and plot of Warcraft – Blizzard’s famous game series. We’re not surprised that Alleria (Windrunner) and Illidan (Anti-Mage) are famous thanks to the Dota franchise. However, Pudge’s popularity still exists today. While fans still love Invoker and Sniper, Pudge is the most played hero in Dota 2. Just this month, Pudge has a 46% pick rate, nearly 50% higher than Sniper – the hero is picked. 2nd on the list.

Pudge has been famous for a long time, and now with new updates constantly buffing this hero, Pudge has a 53% win rate. Many games won and lost are thanks to Pudge. Let’s also find out the background of this ‘burly’ character.

The Butcher is the first mission and the first boss you encounter in the game Diablo. Blizzard at that time did a pretty bold thing in its game system, the first time you meet you will definitely lose. The Butcher treats you with just a few ‘slics of meat’.

The only way is to run, run deep into the dungeon, and come back to defeat him after you are stronger. This design concept gives the player more freedom, allowing for failure from the very beginning. That idea is probably encountered a lot at the moment, but it is it that creates the Diablo role-playing brand.

In Dota 1, this hero has the name “Pudge, The Butcher”. But the Butcher title was soon dropped due to copyright issues with Blizzard, similar to Windranger and Brewmaster. Heroes in Dota 1 have borrowed ideas and storylines from Blizzard titles. With the Abomination character design in Warcraft 3, it is obvious that The Butcher character is taken from Diablo 1. Unlike The Butcher, the design of Abomination is more like a zombie golem than a human, now dead and has many limbs. However, he still held the machete and the meat hook.

The Dota 2 version mixes a lot of things together. Pudge loses his extra limbs but remains undead, decaying, and dismembered. However, he is no longer The Butcher, although he still wields a machete, a meat hook, and wears an apron. One can guess where this hero got the idea from from those details.

Dendi is the most popular player, and it’s not because of the team’s success. He is one of the few Dota 1 veterans still competing in the professional arena. And the legends all have their typical heroes: Burning with Anti-Mage, Ferrari_430 with Templar Assassin and Dendi with Pudge.

It seems rather strange that Pudge in the past wasn’t as strong as it is now. Pudge has obvious weaknesses, but with the strengths that Pudge has, Dendi and Na`Vi know how to utilize them perfectly to take on the opposing team.

_{The famous fountain hook strategy created by Ma` Na`Vi to flip Tongfu at TI3}

Because of Pudge’s weaknesses in the previous meta, Dendi playing Pudge is more like to please Dota fans. He is willing to risk the team’s chances of winning to entertain the audience. This can be seen as disrespectful to the opponent, but Dendi plays very successfully with this hero. If Pudge isn’t popular enough in pubs, Dendi keeps trolling his opponent on the big stage and still wins.

Pudge’s Meat Hook getting nerfed (from 110/120/130/140 mana cost to 140 at all levels) in patch 7.07d is a rarity. In addition to the changes in 7.02 (movement speed from 285 to 280) and 7.03 (meat Hook speed reduced), Pudge has always been buffed since patch 6.83 – almost 3 years ago.

Dismember is always re-edited. 6.86 adjusted damage and added healing, 6.88 reduced cooldown, 6.88b increased damage, and 7.07 increased the duration with the ability to pull back. Rots slow increased from 20% to 30%.

Patch 7.07 adds a new ability for Pudge that makes him even more versatile in the current meta: the ability of Meat Hook to pull runes. Pudge players now have an advantage in the river area, where Runes are always the bait for the opponent. But now, they had the less risky option of being able to pull the runes back to them, and then restore their mana usage.

Over time, Pudge’s disadvantages have been reduced. Strength and base health have been buffed to compensate for the hero’s weaknesses. Flesh Heap now has its own talent at level 25, becoming more buff thanks to increased Strength gain. In Hero history, Pudge has always been popular even though the champion is clearly at a disadvantage. This hero has a unique gameplay and is a lot of fun. Now, Pudge continues to achieve a higher win rate, making the ‘fat man’ a formidable threat to the opposing team.

Source: dotabuff