i think mid puck sux unless u have a farming offlaner (bristle, wr, etc)
check out chaq's mid puck guide

offlane phase or treads will sometimes win u the lane. sometimes u need stats items to live. other times u just go blink after boots bottle. warding is the same as for other offlaners, u can always just jaunt into the trees if its an impossible lane and u have no ward tho
start boots or a lot of stats depending on lane mu. or just pretend ur mid puck if its 1v1

Fencar

United States2694 Posts

July 20 2015 23:07 GMT

#22

Thanks!

Sceptre

Canada130 Posts

July 21 2015 00:50 GMT

#23

I think you can still play him mid to great effect in certain matchups (Puck v QoP for instance) but the hero does feel pretty underwhelming right now.

DucK-

Singapore11447 Posts

July 21 2015 01:46 GMT

#24

I only upgrade boots if it allows me to win the lane. If I'm doing fine with plain boots, I'll rush that blink. After blink if there are no silences coming, I will usually go for Midas.

babysimba

10466 Posts

September 01 2015 21:54 GMT

#25

Consider veil on puck. Allows you to clear creepwave without having the need of right clicking once.

DucK-

Singapore11447 Posts

September 02 2015 09:05 GMT

#26

On September 02 2015 06:54 babysimba wrote:
Consider veil on puck. Allows you to clear creepwave without having the need of right clicking once.

Veil just for this purpose? I'm not sold :\

ahswtini

Northern Ireland22208 Posts

September 02 2015 10:28 GMT

#27

should buy veil on sf and lina too then

sCuMBaG

United Kingdom1144 Posts

September 02 2015 12:57 GMT

#28

well, sf gets the wave with two razes.
lina/puck have them at 2% hp or something after a combo.

not like that would validate veil

wxyLkz

210 Posts

September 02 2015 13:08 GMT

#29

On September 02 2015 21:57 sCuMBaG wrote:
well, sf gets the wave with two razes.
lina/puck have them at 2% hp or something after a combo.

not like that would validate veil

how bout with storm spirit and leshrac?

BobMcJohnson

France2916 Posts

September 28 2015 08:16 GMT

#30

So whats up with the Puck buffs in 6.85?

I feel like Icefrog is trying to push him towards the offlane (buffing mobility/reducing mana costs) rather than trying to make him viable mid again (by buffing his damage).

Anyone tried it yet in pubs?

Archeon

3253 Posts

September 28 2015 10:47 GMT

#31

On September 28 2015 17:16 BobMcJohnson wrote:
So whats up with the Puck buffs in 6.85?

I feel like Icefrog is trying to push him towards the offlane (buffing mobility/reducing mana costs) rather than trying to make him viable mid again (by buffing his damage).

Anyone tried it yet in pubs?

Didnt try Puck yet in pubs since 6.85. So everything below is theorycrafting.

Tbh I have no idea what IF is trying to do with this patch. If he wanted offlane-Puck he would have buffed his base armor or hp regen, right? Puck's problem is not that he's a low impact offlaner, the problem is that he has a terrible laning phase against 2 or more until he hits at least lvl 2 and doesnt farm the blink he depends so much on well outside of a lane. For the typical roam/space creating aoe-control-offlaner like centaur, clockwerk, tusk, tide,... his laning phase is just absymal.

Tbh I think that Puck's better this patch in mid compared to last one, higher orb speed means easier orb-harass and lots of common mids got nerfed. Also since dual lanes are coming back, having a semi-farming offlaner like bb is easier to pull off.

That being said the hero's still shit imo. The scenarios in which I would pick him over something like clockwerk or es for offl or qop for mid are pretty much non-existent. For a mid he just scales way to badly and the high manacosts mean that you cant even build a semi-early refresher. I'd only pick Puck atm when I know he/she/it's gonna get a 1v1 in his offlane.

Wished he became a more viable offlaner, because I really like to play Puck and Puck fits offlane nowadays a lot more than mid.

The hero needs some more substantial changes like one out of mana cost, orb damage, health regen or a major buff to cds.

@wr: dotabuff tells me Puck places at the tenth lowest spot atm, 43.7%

Plansix

United States60190 Posts

September 28 2015 12:45 GMT

#32

Dream Coil's cool down is still way to long for what it does. I find it amusing that it exist in a world with gryo and call down.

tehh4ck3r

Magrathea7040 Posts

November 17 2015 07:26 GMT

#33

Has anyone tested out Puck in the offlane this patch? A lot of the more tempo-controlling heroes that used to go mid (Magnus comes to mind) seem to have been forced into the offlane and the 6.85 changes certainly seem geared towards making Puck more viable in the offlane.

My gut tells me that Puck is probably not viable in either mid or in the offlane, but I haven't played Puck in a long time so I can't say for sure.

Froadac

United States6733 Posts

November 17 2015 10:38 GMT

#34

On November 17 2015 16:26 tehh4ck3r wrote:
Has anyone tested out Puck in the offlane this patch? A lot of the more tempo-controlling heroes that used to go mid (Magnus comes to mind) seem to have been forced into the offlane and the 6.85 changes certainly seem geared towards making Puck more viable in the offlane.

My gut tells me that Puck is probably not viable in either mid or in the offlane, but I haven't played Puck in a long time so I can't say for sure.

I've seen it played a few times. Still not particularly effective although the few times I saw it it was picked early and we had a strong support who totally zoned puck.

Belisarius

Australia6226 Posts

November 17 2015 11:18 GMT

#35

Puck is a hero that desperately wants to be an offlaner but just doesn't have the laning presence.

Icefrog needs to decide whether he wants the hero to be an offlane or a mid. If he wants a mid, the hero needs to scale hard enough to justify it. If he wants an offlaner, which I think makes more sense, it needs to not be zoned by basically everything.

meegrean

Thailand7699 Posts

November 17 2015 16:09 GMT

#36

I miss Puck.

hariooo

Canada2830 Posts

November 17 2015 20:31 GMT

#37

On the one hand like duck said, a simple dream coil cd reduction would do a lot for this hero since its entire concept is around tempo.

On the other hand we can imagine an ice frog style buff in the form of giving waning rift knock back like Kotl blind does for both versatility and dream cool breakage on demand

Archeon

3253 Posts

November 17 2015 22:51 GMT

#38

On November 18 2015 05:31 hariooo wrote:
On the one hand like duck said, a simple dream coil cd reduction would do a lot for this hero since its entire concept is around tempo.

On the other hand we can imagine an ice frog style buff in the form of giving waning rift knock back like Kotl blind does for both versatility and dream cool breakage on demand

While I agree that dream coil's cd is way to high for what it does, I dont think the high cd is the problem. Tbh when Puck is successful it's mostly on the back of a good draft that makes good use of Puck's initiation in skirmishes and you dont skirmish a lot more often than once every 75 secs.

I think the problem is more that his stats don't allow a fighting build and his skills don't deal enough damage to have a big impact after 30-35 minutes, especially since not a single one pierces bkb. That makes him really undesirable as a mid hero.

Combine that with low basestats (435 hp and 2 armor) and terrible stat-growth and the hero can't trade against most supports at lvl 1.

Knockback on waning rift is a nice suggestion. Forcing aghs dreamcoil would be pretty potent even in the mid- lategame.

If I was IF I would either buff base armor/hp or heavily rescale dreamcoil damage. And make aghs dreamcoil go through bkb.

Hai1Fyre

South Africa270 Posts

November 18 2015 04:19 GMT

#39

I love this hero, but I feel like Puck adds very little value at the moment, even in pubs... I really hope for Puck to be buffed soon. The knockback idea is nice

Yurie

11809 Posts

November 18 2015 08:14 GMT

#40

My proposed buff would be to make orb travel faster so it is harder to dodge and puck can escape ganks easier. The problem remaining is the late game then. Maybe make the silence continue through bkb/manta with aghs instead of the current effect.