Guide To Puck

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Introduction
2. Stats, Pros and Cons
3. Skills Overview
4. Skill Build
5. Core Build
6. Viable Items Afterwards
7. Not Recommended Items
8. Combo Section
9. Strategy: How to Gank Safe
10. Phase Shift Section
11. Puck's Best Friends
12. Worst Enemies: They are fags
13. Credits

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1. INTRODUCTION

Hi, this is my guide about Puck, the Faerie Dragon, a very fun hero to play and challenging to master. I will be covering most that I know in how to play him properly, especially, his most imba Linken hax ability, Phase Shift. Hopefully, this guide would serve you well in your plays with Puck.

I recommend that in playing Puck that you at least know every hero in the game, and knowledge on each hero's playstyle and behavior, so you know what to expect from them, since knowledge helps you landing a perfect Phase Shift escape from any of them.

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Puck, the Faerie Dragon
"Size and cuteness are so deceiving..."

2. STATS, PROS AND CONS

Strength: 15 + 1.7
Agility: 22 + 1.7
Intelligence: 25 + 2.4

Health: 435
Mana: 325

Damage: 38 - 49
Armor: 2.1

Affiliation: Sentinel
Attack Animation: 0.5 / 0.8
Casting Animation: 0.1 / 0.51
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Movespeed: 295
Missile Speed: 900
Attack Range: 600
Sight Range: 1800 / 1200

PROS:

- Has the Linken Sphere hax Phase Shift
- Has a versatile skill that can help ganking and escaping
- AoE type spells = team destroyers
- Its cute appearance is often underestimated
- Quick burst damage combo spells that can synergize really well with any teammate
- Item-independent hero

CONS:

- Squishy health, easily killed by nuker-fags
- Disables such as silence quickly shuts him off, making him very vulnerable to anything

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3.SKILLS OVERVIEW

ILLUSORY ORB

Sends a magic orb flying down a straight path damaging everything in its way. At any time during the life of the orb the Faerie Dragon may teleport up to it, taking its place.

Level 1 - 70 Damage.

Level 2 - 140 Damage.

Level 3 - 210 Damage.

Level 4 - 280 Damage.

Manacost - 125
Cooldown - 15

Author's Notes: Your bread-and-butter skill that allows you to gank, chase, and escape in any situation effectively. Puck shoots out a yellow orb that travels up to 1800 range, damaging anything it touches, and gives aerial vision at the area, making it good for scouting forests.

The Orb only lasts for 3 seconds, so keep that in mind when using Ethereal Jaunt, any long than that, and you'll miss the teleport.



WANING RIFT

Releases Puck's mystical faerie dust around him dealing damage and silencing enemies.

Level 1 - 60 Damage. 0.1 sec silence.

Level 2 - 120 Damage. 1 sec silence.

Level 3 - 180 Damage. 2 sec silence.

Level 4 - 240 Damage. 3 sec silence.

Manacost - 100/110/120/130
Cooldown - 20

Author Notes: Another great initiating skill that works perfect with Orb. It has a 400 AoE, fairly large to hit a lot of enemies at once. The silence part is great against spellcasters, delaying them from any kind of disables long enough for your team to come in and do their thing.



PHASE SHIFT

Shifts the Faerie Dragon out of existence for a brief period, temporarily avoiding any further damage.

Level 1 - 0.75 seconds invulnerability.

Level 2 - 1.50 seconds invulnerability.

Level 3 - 2.25 seconds invulnerability.

Level 4 - 3.00 seconds invulnerability.

Manacost - 50/40/30/20
Cooldown - 6

Author's Notes: The imba l337 built-in Linkens' Sphere that lets you dodge any kind of spell in the game, well almost, but it serves most of his squishiness while making the enemy team QQ about it. This deserves its own section below, so scroll down if you want to read it now.


DREAM COIL

Puck's powerful imagination engulfs an area, creating coils of volatile magic that damages and stuns enemy unit as it latches on to them. Stretching the coils beyond 600 range causes it to snap and deal additional damage and stun time.

Level 1 - Initial Damage: 100 Damage and 0.5 sec stun. Coil Break: 100 Damage and 1.50 sec stun.

Level 2 - Initial Damage: 150 Damage and 0.5 sec stun. Coil Break: 150 Damage and 2.25 sec stun.

Level 3 - Initial Damage: 200 Damage and 0.5 sec stun. Coil Break: 200 Damage and 3.00 sec stun.

Manacost - 100/150/200
Cooldown - 85

Author's Notes: One of the best ultimate that a ganker must have, coiled enemies either has to choose to either stay there and get ripped apart, or escape to only get disabled, even Leap and Blink can't escape the long stun. It also has a long cooldown though, so use it wisely, better if you can hit multiple heroes, not just one.

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4. THE 1337 SKILL BUILD

Illusory Orb Build:

Level 1 - Illusory Orb <Lv1>
Level 2 - Phase Shift <Lv1>
Level 3 - Illusory Orb <Lv2>
Level 4 - Waning Rift <Lv1>
Level 5 - Illusory Orb <Lv3>
Level 6 - Dream Coil <Lv1>
Level 7 - Illusory Orb <Lv4>
Level 8 - Waning Rift <Lv2>
Level 9 - Waning Rift <Lv3>
Level 10 - Waning Rift <Lv4>
Level 11 - Dream Coil <Lv2>
Level 12 - Phase Shift <Lv2>
Level 13 - Phase Shift <Lv3>
Level 14 - Phase Shift <Lv4>
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Dream Coil <Lv3>
Level 17-25 - Stats

- Illusory Orb should be taken at level 1 first to allow you to chase and escape right away.
- Phase Shift is taken afterwards to allow you to evade any kind of harassment from early game up to late game.
- Illusory Orb should be maxed, and followed by Waning Rift to immediately build up your burst damage output.
- Get Dream Coil whenever you can, then stats last.



Waning Rift Build: < credits to Lycan >

Level 1 - Illusory Orb <Lv1>
Level 2 - Phase Shift <Lv1>
Level 3 - Waning Rift <Lv1>
Level 4 - Waning Rift <Lv2>
Level 5 - Waning Rift <Lv3>
Level 6 - Dream Coil <Lv1>
Level 7 - Waning Rift <Lv4>
Level 8 - Illusory Orb <Lv2>
Level 9 - Illusory Orb <Lv3>
Level 10 - Illusory Orb <Lv4>
Level 11 - Dream Coil <Lv2>

- A good alternative instead of maxing Orb first since Orb has a tendency to miss, while a 400 AoE silence nuke does not.
- Put one level of Phase Shift at level 2 in case there's a nuker/disabler on your lane that can be dodged; if none, go for Orb.
- Depends on who you are facing against on lane, probably at least one of them has a disable ready just in case you orb right next to them.
- Waning Rift deals decent damage and the 3 second silence is wonderful to have since it silences every enemy near you and silence counts as a disable to them.
- The rest would be entirely up to you if you want to put more levels to Phase Shift or go for stats, your choice.


Note: The two builds would pretty much depend on who you're facing against. If there are nukers, ranged heroes that you can't get near with, go for Orb first. But when there are TWO melee heroes, then go for Rift. IMO, Orb helps you harass better without the risk of getting too near with the enemy.

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5. CORE BUILD




or or

Bracers: These help you compensate for that squishiness of yours.
Bottle: A Ganker's best friend, don't gank without it.
Boots: Duh, this can be upgraded to either Phase, or BoT
TP: Don't ever leave base without it, or until you go for BoT

Sheepstick: I recently tested going for this first and it works great. The additional stats gives huge survivability and early 3.5 sec disable is pretty awesome.
or
Shiva's The item literally made for Puck. This adds additional firepower and slow for your usual combo.
or
Bloodstone: Gives Puck a huge boost of health and mana that he really needs, and a good source of regen to boot.

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6. VIABLE ITEMS AFTERWARDS

Phase Boots: A cheap recipe to go for with the good boost of +20 MS, +16 Damage and +5 Armor, which Puck mostly lacks, and helps in chasing enemies with it.


BoT: Your free-instant defend and push teleport item. Only recommended though when late game comes and you need to defend more often.


Necronomicon: Sweet item to go for with your combo. The aura buff to your allies is great and the Mana Burn adds additional firepower to your attacks, enemies can either stay and get mana burned or run away to be Coil stunned and still be manaburned to death.


Force Staff: A fun way to force enemies to break off the coil, although I don't recommend it since there a lot of items to go for which are a lot better, get this if you have core already.


Heart: This pretty much solves Puck's pathetic health, but it takes too long to make, and sometimes, you're better off without it. <You've got Phase Shift, remember?>


Dagon: If you want additional burst damage to finish or ks a hero quickly, then go for it. Also great in quickly dispatching enemy nukers before they get to do anything.


Linken's: A true lifesaver for anyone, especially to fragile heroes like Puck, it gives you another chance to live if you screw up.


Ghost Scepter: Very useful against heroes who rely on their auto-attack to deal damage like PA, Troll, etc.; plus Phase Shift cannot dodge them, so this item is really good but situational, and wrong timing means 44% amplified spell damage to you.


Eye of Skadi: A late-game item orb for Puck, the slow really helps a lot with chasing down enemies with your teammates.


BKB: A really, really situational item, especially when there's a Riki on their team. < I'm not really sure if this blocks/negates any silence effects on him though. >


Orchid: A useful item against any enemy spellcasters/initiators and quickly making them useless. Plus, it's a good dps for autoattacking heroes after initiating your combo.


Blink Dagger: More and more people say Blink Dagger is good and makes Puck more a bitch to kill, since 3 sec Phase Shift means a 100% safe, uninterrupted blink. Go for it after you have core preferably.

There's still lots more items that are viable for Puck, so test out and find it for yourselves and discuss it here.

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7. NOT RECOMMENDED ITEMS

Mekansm: Going for this is a no-no, even if your helping your team. Problem is at early game, you only have enough mana for your 3-spell combo, adding a Meka makes things harder for you to be mana-efficient, you're better off with offense than defense IMO.


Refresher: All of your spells have a reasonably low cooldown, I don't think this is really necessary.


Aghanims: Puck isn't included in the list, so why bother?


Vanguard: Puck shouldn't take any damage in the first place. If you want survivability, go for other hp increasing items, not damage block items.



Lothar's Edge: Same reasons with Blink.


Damage Items: Puck is a spell-oriented hero, nuff said. Besides, Survival > Damage

Obviously, in dressing Puck up with items, make sure to prioritize Survivability <Strength and HP> and Intelligence, agility is a shit stat for Puck anyway. So please keep that in mind.

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8. COMBO SECTION



INITIATING



-> -> ->
Orb - > Jaunt -> Rift -> Coil

- The usual spell combo when ganking/initiating. It deals approximately 280(210) + 240(180) + 100(75) = 620(465) to enemies(heroes) with a level 1 Coil with a total mana cost of 125 + 25 + 130 + 100 = 380.
- But always observe first before going in if there are enemies with a powerful nuke or disable or just fragile heroes with no escape mechanisms.
- Fragile Heroes with little to no escape mechanisms are pretty easy to kill by yourself, your usual combo would pretty much eat away half or 2/3 of their health.
- Going against Disablers however, its best if you have invested for a Lvl 1 Phase Shift at least, and better when there's an ally around. Anticipating a nuke/disable and dodging it would pretty much screw their chances of getting away from you.

ESCAPING



-> ->
Orb + Shift + Jaunt

- Manacost of doing this combo costs 125 + 50 + 25 = 200 at minimum, getting more levels of Shift means -10/-20/-30 mana cost at lvl 2/3/4.
- This is where Mindgames come in: When you're in a situation like being chased down by an enemy:
1. Cast Orb in front of them, and then run at the opposite direction. This would pretty much confuse them if they should still follow you or the Orb:
* If they still continue to chase you down, then Jaunt when Orb reaches a relatively long distance.
* If they stop and start chasing the Orb, thinking you will Jaunt there shortly, then don't Jaunt at all and continue to run.
- Use Orb at a nearby cliff/impassable terrain where enemies can't reach you and Jaunt there, it would almost ensure a safe getaway.

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9. STRATEGY: HOW TO GANK SAFE

Quote:

OPTIONAL Warding Puck is a good choice for the team to buy Wards for them, covering rune spots, stopping neutral spawning of enemy jungle if there are jungle heroes around, and prevents ganks. This is mostly done in serious, high level games,and ONLY buy wards when your team desperately needs one and there's no one else can afford it.

EARLY GAME:

or or

Start off with either a few circlets, tangoes and clarites, or a Magic Wand, or a Courier and Bottle, depends if it's 4vs4 or 5vs5. You are item-independent so buy a Courier for your team if needed. It's recommended for you to go for dual lanes, and hopefully laning against two enemies at once to fully utilize your AoE potential.

Do the usual in lane: Last hit, deny, and HARASS. You're a ranged hero, so take free hits on enemies whenever you get the chance.

By the time you hit level 3 < Has Lv2 Illusory Orb by now >, start harassing with this spell. But be sure to kill at least one or two creeps while harassing the two heroes to maximize the AoE. By now, you should be working on Bracers and Bottle < if you don't have it yet >

Don't get aggressive too much until you hit level 6 to start roaming and ganking. Get yourself a Crow to refill your bottle or scout for runes if you can.

P.S. If you manage to farm up to 2700 gold, quickly buy a Mystic Staff and work on Shiva immediately. The faster you can complete it, the better. Since 200 dmg at early game is rather high for your burst AoE combo.

[b]OR

If you're aiming for Sheepstick, buy FIRST an Ultimate Orb since the extra 190 HP and 130 MP is very, very beneficial for a fragile caster like him.

The objectives in early game: Stay safe, don't die without bringing someone with you at least, and gank efficiently with good team coordination. Oh, and at least 1-2 bracers, boots and a bottle before you start roaming and killing anyone you see. And, be a rune-whore if you can.

MID GAME:

By now, you should have or almost finish your core build by now if things go smoothly according to plan, but your role stays the same, gank and push with teammates around. Don't ever stray off to far since Puck's easily killed by disables.

You should be either working on a luxury item at least, Guinsoo or Shiva, Bloodstone, Linken if necessary, Dagon, etc. And you should be in every team fights and initiating. Puck is a team-oriented hero, not Rambo, and cannot get kills without teammates around efficiently.

If you guys can, you should be pushing whenever you can or the enemy team are all dead and destroying some rax, seriously, and ultimately, finish the game.

LATE GAME:

This is where Puck is losing its effectiveness, since you all rely on your carries/late-game heroes to do most of everything. Your job now is to support them whenever you can. Disable the enemy team threat whenever you can, or at least use all of your spells and items before you die, since you're relatively easy to take down now.

You keep yourself hidden from view so your enemies won't know where you will Orb. It's best to use Orb when they cluster together so your combo will be much easier to do, then Rift, Coil then shift so your teammates can take over while you run to safety and strike from afar.

Push, farm and defend, that's all you can do for now, in teamfights, well, it's all about who initiates first, and it's a lot easier to initiate when your team has a silence or another initiating skill like Echo Slam, Ravage, Rain of Chaos, etc. Hopefully, the game will end by now in your favor.

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10.PHASE SHIFT SECTION

The uber godly spell-evading skill that deserves its own section. Phase Shift is probably one of the best and underestimated skill.

This skill takes practice to master, but is most rewarding when you know how to dodge every type of spell in the game.

There are two ways you can dodge spells, auto-cast and manual-cast:

Manual Cast:

Activating Phase Shift manually by pressing the hotkey F. This allows you to dodge every projectile spells completely, like Storm Bolt, Elune and even close-ranged spells like Call, Echo Stomp, Ravage if you can anticipate it right. This method is the hardest thing to master, since spells are either slow or fast, and you really need a good reaction time and fast fingers before those spells land:

Here's a short list of spells that can be manually dodged:

You can dodge AoE spells like these if you can time when an enemy is about to use it e.g. Slardar gets close, Shifting when Splitter or Stomp is about to activate, Blast as well.


All of these can be dodged, as long as you have fast fingers, Phase Shift ready, and of course, you aren't disabled or silenced.

Auto-cast:

Right-clicking means Autocast, this is a easier and safer method to dodge spells, especially instant spells like Shadowraze, Lightning Bolt that aren't projectiles as long as they're only damage-based.

Here are a short list of spells that can be dodged <based from my experience:>

In short, almost any instant-animation spells that doesn't have to travel to get to you, Phase Shift can dodge it.

Some say that spells like Laguna Blade, Lightning Bolt and Finger are based off Storm Bolt, and you can dodge that with Manual Cast, problem is, since it almost travels instantly to you that you need uber fast reflexes to pull that off.

Some spells with additional effects are quite tricky and I'm not totally sure if autocast Phase Shift will evade that, some say you may dodge the stun/disable of some spells, but you are still damaged. Hey, it's better than nothing right?


P.S. I may need comments on other spells that I can add to the list, or anything I missed...

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11. PUCK'S BEST FRIENDS

Initiators/AoE Disablers: What's better than having only one disabler like Puck on your team? Answer is two or more, seriously...

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12. WORST ENEMIES: THEY ARE FAGS

Silencer: The bane of Puck's chain-nuking madness. What he basically does is add a 3 second silence to every spell you cast, meaning... you can't Jaunt anymore since Orb is probably gone by then, can't chain-combo anymore, and worse, cannot Phase Shift as long as he's around. So either don't pick Puck or gank him quickly with teammates.


Silence: A well-timed silence against you before you get to do anything at all can make you look like a defenseless creep, waiting to get pawned.


Nerubian Assassin: Pretty much the bane of everything fragile looking and easy to kill. His three spell combo would pretty much kill you before you can even do anything at all. Plus, mana burn screws your early game combo.


Pugna: His Decrepify + Blast combo is not a threat since you got Phase Shift. But the real problem is that when he places a Nether Ward just when you're about to initiate, and after that, most of your health are probably gone before you can even notice it.


Ogre Magi: If he gets lucky in hitting you with a multicast or two, you're probably dead.


Heavy-hitting Nukers: Due to Puck's very fragile status, few of these can quickly obliterate Puck if he's not too careful, or Phase is in cooldown and not in auto-cast < most of them have instant-cast spells >.


Doom Bringer Having him around is no fun, his Lvl Death already hurts you even without the bonus damage, worse is that he dooms you before you get to even do anything as it quickly rips your low health to nothingness easily.

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