* Chain Frost can bounce to the treants that Nature's Prophet summons.
* Nature's Prophet's
Sprout can be used to isolate and burst down the squishy Lich.
Additional:
* His treants can prevent
Chain Frost from jumping to Nature's Prophet or his allies.
* Heroes with many summons or illusions are much harder to catch with Meat Hook:
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Chen.
* Heroes with low health:
Lich,
Crystal Maiden,
Lion.
*
Void's mini-stun and silence from
Crippling Fear will stop Pudge from using Dismember or turning off his Rot.
* Night Stalker has naturally high health, strength gain and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance, making Night Stalker a poor target for Pudge.
* Heroes with low health will die easily during Duels, and can be farmed for damage in the early game:
Crystal Maiden,
Lich,
Techies,
Rubick
* Legion Commander can use
Press the Attack on an ally to dispel Dismember. The bonus health regeneration also partially counters the damage of Rot
*
Duel can be used on Pudge whilst Rot is active, disabling toggling which may result in a lethal health drain that leaves Legion Commander with a successful duel.
* Anti-Mage can withstand magical burst damage much better than other carries, making him effective against nukers:
Lich,
Necrophos,
Oracle, and
Leshrac.
Additional:
* Although he can be effective against Anti-Mage in an aggro offlane, Lich has a hard time nuking down Anti-Mage in the midgame due to his Counterspell.
* All of Lich's abilities are also targeted, which makes it much harder to disable Anti-Mage.
* In the lategame, Anti-Mage can easily pick off Lich with
Blink, and the high mana cost of Chain Frost along with Lich's large mana pool makes him vulnerable to
Mana Void.
*
Blink allows Anti-Mage to escape Chain Frost.
* If Meat Hook is used before
Blink, Anti-Mage may be able to escape Pudge's grasp by blinking to safety.
*
Counterspell grants Anti-Mage a large degree of magic resistance, a damage type Pudge is highly reliant on to secure kills. This makes Anti-Mage a bad target for Pudge. The active can also block Dismember if timed correctly.
*
Mana Break can quickly drain Pudge's low supply of mana, which may render Meat Hook and Dismember unusable.
* Pudge is particularly susceptible to Bristleback's
Viscous Nasal Goo and
Quill Spray due to his naturally low armor and poor agility gain.
* Bristleback, in combination with his strength gain, high health, common itemization for magic resistance and damage reduction from
Bristleback makes him a poor target for Pudge.
* Chain Frost can bounce to the Spiderlings that Broodmother spawns.
* Abaddon can activate
Borrowed Time to dispel Dismember; breaking the disable and potentially allowing Abaddon to escape.
*
Aphotic Shield can be cast on an ally to dispel the stun of Dismember, which can make kills difficult to secure, given that Dismember is Pudge's only reliable disable.
* Pudge lacks a mobility without a
Blink Dagger, causing him to be easily chased with
Curse of Avernus. The silence also prevents him from toggling off his Rot.
* Queen of Pain can easily escape Chain Frost thanks to
Blink.
* His low survivability makes an easy kill for
Shadow Strike,
Scream of Pain &
Sonic Wave.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook:
Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* Heroes who recklessly jump on Pudge with their gap-closing abilities will be easy targets for Pudge's Meat Hook and Dismember Combo:
Phantom Assassin,
Faceless Void,
Queen of Pain etc.
* Oracle can negate and shut down Primal Beast simply with Fate's Edict, especially in the early game, as a majority of his damage-dealing spells are magic.
* Oracle can interrupt Primal Beast's
Onslaught charge with a well-timed Fortune's End.
* Primal Beast's lethal burst damage combos can be further stalled with False Promise; combined with Fate's Edict and regen from Purifying Flames, Oracle can even completely negate Primal Beast's offense.
*
Sanity's Eclipse deals more damage the less max mana the heroes hit by it have, making Pudge an ideal target.
* Outworld Destroyer can save allies or himself caught by Dismember or Meat Hook with
Astral Imprisonment.
* Bloodseeker is not affected by slows when he is affected by
Thirst.
* If he sees Chain Frost is targeting him, he can easily isolate himself with the movement speed buff from
Thirst so that it stops bouncing around.
* Lich heavily relies on his abilities to contribute to team fights, making
Blood Rite effective against him.
*
Track can easily keep vision on Pudge, making it very hard for him to hook Bounty Hunter or his teammates from the fog of war.
*
Shuriken Toss cancels Dismember from great range.
*
Doom disables the toggling of Rot and, if cast at the right time, may leave Pudge with a potentially lethal health drain.
* Doom's naturally high health, strength gain and damage output makes him a poor target for Pudge.
* The damage of Doom's
Infernal Blade scales with the target's maximum health, which is particularly effective against Pudge due to his naturally high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
* The percentage-based primary-attribute reduction effect of
Whirling Death can be devastating for Pudge due to his high strength gain through Flesh Heap.
*
Reactive Armor's health regeneration and common itemization for magic resistance and durability makes Timbersaw a poor target for Pudge.
*
Timber Chain's high mobility makes it difficult for Pudge to hook or deal much Rot damage to Timbersaw.
*
Kraken Shell can dispel Dismember after reaching a certain threshold of damage.
* Tidehunter's naturally high health, strength gain, and common itemization for survivability through magic resistance makes Tidehunter a poor target.
*
Dark Pact dispels Dismember if timed correctly.
*
Pounce allows Slark to escape Pudge's Rot once Dismember is over, and allows him to dodge hooks.
*
Shadow Dance hides Slark and grants him a high degree of mobility, which can make him a difficult target to hook and also protects him from Pudge's Dismember (including allies with an
Aghanim's Shard).
*
Corrosive Haze reveals Pudge's location, making it hard for him to use Meat Hook from the fog of war on Slardar's teammates or Slardar himself.
*
Slithereen Crush interrupts Pudge while he is using Dismember.
*
Guardian Sprint allows Slardar to avoid Meat Hook.
* Lich is going to have a hard time nuking Huskar because of his high health regeneration from
Berserker's Blood.
* Lich is a squishy support without an escape mechanism, making Lich an easy kill thanks to
Life Break and
Burning Spear.
* Once Huskar has
Armlet of Mordiggian, even a maxed out Frost Blast will struggle to finish Huskar off.
* The lifesteal of
Feast scales accordingly to the max health of its target, which is effective against Pudge due to his high health and further health granted by stacks of Flesh Heap.
* Lifestealer can activate
Rage to be spell immune, making Rot deal no damage.
* Pudge's plentiful health makes him an ideal target for Lifestealer's
Aghanim's Shard ability,
Open Wounds.
* Meat Hook can prove annoying for Pudge if Rubick
Spell Steals it, allowing Rubick to easily hook and save his allies being Dismembered.
* Lycan doesn't care much about Lich's slows thanks to
Shapeshift.
* Chain Frost can bounce to the wolves that Lycan summons.
Additional:
*
Lich possesses a lot of slows, which Lycan doesn't care about when he Shapeshifts.
*
Lich has no in-built escape, which makes him a good target for Lycan.
* If Meat Hook is used before
Leap, Mirana may be able to escape Pudge's grasp by leaping to safety.
* The invisibility from
Moonlight Shadow gives a degree of mobility, which can make Mirana or her teammates difficult targets to hook.
*
Sacred Arrow can be used to cancel Dismember from long distances.
*
Heartstopper Aura is effective against high health heroes, and Pudge is no exception. Coupled with his self-damage from Rot, being around Heartstopper Aura could prove risky for Pudge.
* Regardless of how much health Pudge gains through Flesh Heap,
Reaper's Scythe will often kill Pudge should his health fall below 40%, making Necrophos an ideal counter versus Pudge.
*
Impale and
Spiked Carapace can be used to cancel Dismember easily, and can even do so when Pudge uses it on Nyx Assassin, if timed correctly.
* Lich is heavily reliant on his abilities to contribute to team fights, so be wary of enemies that can Silence:
Bloodseeker,
Death Prophet,
Silencer,
Drow Ranger,
Skywrath Mage.
* Lich is heavily reliant on his abilities to contribute to team fights, so be wary of enemies that can Silence:
Bloodseeker,
Death Prophet,
Silencer,
Drow Ranger,
Skywrath Mage.
* Anti-Tank heroes like:
Razor,
Necrophos,
Undying.
* Lich is heavily reliant on his abilities to contribute to team fights, so be wary of enemies that can Silence:
Bloodseeker,
Death Prophet,
Silencer,
Drow Ranger,
Skywrath Mage.
* Heroes with many summons or illusions are much harder to catch with Meat Hook:
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Chen.
* Phantom Assassin can easily escape Lich's slows with
Phantom Strike.
* Phantom Assassin's
Coup De Grace can be used to burst down the squishy Lich.
* Generally heroes who don't rely on magical damage, such as
Sven,
Phantom Assassin, and
Outworld Destroyer, as they can practically ignore Flesh Heap's damage block.
* If Phantom Assassin jumps on Pudge first with
Phantom Strike, she will be a very easy target for Pudge's
Meat Hook and
Dismember combo.
* Even though it can deal damage based on Pudge's max health,
Fan of Knives from
Aghanim's Shard cannot disable Pudge's
Flesh Heap as
Flesh Heap is one of the few passive abilities that cannot be disabled by break.
* Both
Meat Hook and
Dismember ignore spell immunity which allows Pudge to disable Phantom Assassin even while she has
Black King Bar active.
* Pudge occassionally buys armor items like
Blade Mail, which in combination with many stacks from
Flesh Heap can make Phantom Assassin have little effect against Pudge.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook:
Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* Anti-Tank heroes like:
Razor,
Necrophos,
Undying.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook:
Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* Heroes with powerful nuke can waste their precious abilites on her Refraction during a ganking attempt or chaos combat:
Lich,
Lina,
Sniper,
Outworld Destroyer
Zeus
* Generally heroes who don't rely on magical damage, such as
Sven,
Phantom Assassin, and
Outworld Destroyer, as they can practically ignore Flesh Heap's damage block.
* Any heroes that naturally buy
Diffusal Blade like
Phantom Lancer or have a mana break talent is a big issue for Pudge because of his low mana pool.
* Heroes who lack burst damage will have a hard time against Mars:
Phantom Lancer,
Nature's Prophet,
Lich.
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook:
Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
*
Frost Shield helps offset the armor reduction from Natural Order.
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember:
Enigma,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Elder Titan.
* Pudge's Dismember stops Spectre from escaping with
Haunt.
* He can easily tank the damage reflected by
Dispersion due to his high strength and the healing from Dismember.
* Should Spectre try to get away through the trees or over a cliff with
Spectral Dagger, Pudge can hook her back.
* Spectre takes a long time to become powerful, and Pudge can ruin her early game with ganks.
* Lich's constant slows with
Frost Blast and
Chain Frost will slow Dragon Knight to a crawl, especially in a crowded teamfight.
*
Poof combo puts all of the Meepos very close together, making them vulnerable to Frost Blast's AoE slow and multiple bounces from Chain Frost.
* Chain Frost can deliver high amounts of damage to Arc Warden and his double if they do not separate fast from each other.
* Lich's
Chain Frost forces Io to either give up providing buff to his ally with
Tether or suffer devastating damage with his
Tethered ally.
* Lich can easily use
Sinister Gaze to disable Io from getting away with
Tether or
Relocate.
* Meat Hook can cancel
Freezing Field, even if Crystal Maiden has
Glimmer Cape.
* She is also slow and fragile, making her a good target for ganking.
*
Frost Blast and
Chain Frost can kite Troll Warlord effectively.
*
Frost Shield can single-handedly waste most of the duration of Battle Trance, due to the extreme resistance to physical damage Frost Shield provides. In addition, Troll Warlord is incapable of switching targets during Battle Trance, so he cannot pick an easier target.
* Troll Warlord has little to no ability to regenerate HP, so
Frost Blast together with
Frost Shield can harass him effectively.
* Chain Frost can deliver high amounts of damage to Lone Druid itself and his bear if they do not separate fast from each other.
Additional:
*
Chain Frost will bounce between Lone Druid and his bear, forcing them to separate or suffer high amounts of damage.
* Meat Hook can be used to pull Tinker to Pudge while he is hiding in the trees, and a follow up with Dismember and Rot can lead to a valuable kill, as Tinker doesn't buy many survivability items.
* Flesh Heap makes it hard for Tinker to deal serious damage.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook:
Shadow Shaman,
Witch Doctor,
Enigma,
Bane.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook:
Shadow Shaman,
Witch Doctor,
Enigma,
Bane.
* Long lockdown is a great way to deal with Axe to prevent Berserker's Call from being used, heroes such as
Legion Commander,
Beastmaster and
Primal Beast are good examples of this.
* Heroes with abilities that can lock down Terrorblade and prevent him from using Sunder:
Bane,
Batrider,
Earthshaker,
Elder Titan,
Faceless Void,
Invoker,
Legion Commander,
Mars,
Primal Beast,
Riki,
Shadow Shaman,
Silencer,
Vengeful Spirit,
Void Spirit.
* Heroes with nukes:
Bane,
Lich,
Lion,
Skywrath Mage
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember:
Enigma,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Elder Titan.
* Durable heroes:
Axe,
Dawnbreaker,
Bristleback,
Mars,
Omniknight,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
* Heroes who have high health are a problem for Sniper because he likes to attack the closest target and sit at the back, much like a
Terrorblade so when that hero doesn't die; he's forced to show his position for a very long time:
Centaur Warrunner,
Legion Commander,
Primal Beast.
Additional:
* Sniper has a low health pool and strength gain, making him vulnerable to Pudge's magical and pure damage.
* Sniper usually likes to deal damage away from the fight, and Meat Hook is capable of bringing him to the front lines.
*
Assassinate won't do much damage against Pudge because of his high strength gain and the strength bonuses from Flesh Heap.
*
Shrapnel will be mostly blocked by Flesh Heap's active.
* Heroes who recklessly jump on Pudge with their gap-closing abilities will be easy targets for Pudge's Meat Hook and Dismember Combo:
Phantom Assassin,
Faceless Void,
Queen of Pain etc.
* Abilities that deal low damage with high amounts of instances are irrelevant against Pudge during Flesh Heap's active:
Gyrocopter's
Rocket Barrage and
Dark Seer's
Ion Shell are just a couple examples.
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember:
Enigma,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Elder Titan.
* Fragile,slow heroes whom Pudge can outlive (
Crystal Maiden,
Muerta,
Sniper)
* Heroes with large magical AoE damage will fare well against Omniknight:
Lich,
Ancient Apparition,
Jakiro,
Disruptor.
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember:
Enigma,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Elder Titan.
* Lich is heavily reliant on his abilities to contribute to team fights, so be wary of enemies that can Silence:
Bloodseeker,
Death Prophet,
Silencer,
Drow Ranger,
Skywrath Mage.
* Heroes who have low or high armor but very high health will be difficult for drow to burst down quickly:
Primal Beast,
Axe,
Centaur Warrunner.
Additional:
* Meat Hook can pull Drow Ranger to Pudge, disabling her
Marksmanship.
* Following up with Dismember will prevent Drow Ranger from using
Gust or
Shadow Blade.
* The haste provided by
Dark Seer's
Surge or a {Rune:Haste} renders Lich's slows ineffective.
* Abilities that deal low damage with high amounts of instances are irrelevant against Pudge during Flesh Heap's active:
Gyrocopter's
Rocket Barrage and
Dark Seer's
Ion Shell are just a couple examples.
* Unlike any other illusion heroes, Chaos Knight is the worst target for Pudge to hook as it will definitely backfire him.
*
Phantasm are significantly tankier than most illusion and deal full damage, which will quickly kill Pudge due to his low armor.
* it becomes worse if pudge is affected with
Reality Rift, which reduces his already abysmal base armor even lower.
* Low movement speed and low mobility means Pudge will struggle to escape or outrun Chaos Knight in most cases.
* Chain Frost can eliminate Chaos Knight's
Phantasm army, especially after he clumped up using
Reality Rift.
* Frost Shield will heavily reduce his army's effectiveness.
Additional:
* Lich's
Chain Frost, especially after obtaining its respective talent that provides unlimited bounces, can take out all of Chaos Knight's illusions quickly.
* An
Aghanim's Scepter-upgraded
Sinister Gaze can hypnotize Chaos Knight and his illusions while also draining his already low mana pool.
* Heroes that depend on disrupting fights with ability combos or big ultimate abilities are vulnerable to the long stun of Fiend's Grip:
Disruptor,
Death Prophet,
Enigma,
Faceless Void,
Invoker,
Lich,
Magnus,
Mars,
Medusa,
Outworld Destroyer,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Shadow Fiend,
Treant Protector,
Underlord,
Winter Wyvern,
Witch Doctor,
Zeus.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook:
Shadow Shaman,
Witch Doctor,
Enigma,
Bane.
* Lich does not pose a big threat to Zeus in teamfights, as his spells don't have great cast range and Zeus should be too far back for a
Chain Frost to bounce among him and his allies.
* Lich has a low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst him down quickly.
* Zeus likes to stay far back in fights, dealing his damage uninterrupted, but once he gets hooked into the fight, he usually dies very quickly.
* Pudge's high strength from Flesh Heap makes it very hard for Zeus to burst him down.
* Zeus' low health pool makes him very vulnerable to the damage from Meat Hook, Rot and Dismember.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
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You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
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Lich
* Weaver doesn't care much about Lich's slows thanks to
Shukuchi.
Time Lapse.
* If he sees Chain Frost is targeting him, he can easily isolate himself with Shukuchi so that it stops bouncing around.
* Unless Lich bursts Weaver immediately, Lich has no hard disables or silences to prevent him from using
Primal Beast
*
Shukuchi grants Weaver invisibility and a high degree of mobility for a short time, which can make him a difficult target to hook.
The Swarm beetles are difficult for Pudge to remove, due to his low base attack time and poor agility. Additionally, it can be used to can scout out Pudge's location.
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Time Lapse on them to send them back to where they were before hooked, even if Pudge has already started to Dismember them.
*
* Should an ally get snagged by Meat Hook, Weaver can use