* All of Treant Protector's abilities are worth stealing, and Rubick is able to cast them with no animation time.
* Meat Hook can prove annoying for Pudge if Rubick
Spell Steals it, allowing Rubick to easily hook and save his allies being Dismembered.
*
Corrosive Haze will reveal Treant Protector even when he is under the effects of Nature's Guise.
*
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.
* Invisibility reliant heroes: Heroes with invisibility abilities or those that have invested into invisibility items are hindered by Bounty Hunter's Track. Few examples of such heroes are:
Clinkz,
Riki,
Treant Protector, etc.
*
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.
*
Doppelganger can dispel Leech Seed. It can also destroy large amounts of trees, counteracting Nature's Guise and Eyes in the Forest.
* 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.
* Nature's Prophet's Nature's Call can destroy trees that Treant Protecter is hiding in, revealing him.
* Heroes with many summons or illusions are much harder to catch with Meat Hook:
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Chen.
*
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.
* Spiderlings melt away
Living Armor almost instantly.
* The vision from
Eyes In The Forest may prove dangerous for Broodmother, however.
*
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).
* 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.
*
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.
* Should an ally get snagged by Meat Hook, Weaver can use
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.
*
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.
* Firefly will cut trees with ease, cleaning-up an area that's been enchanted with
Eyes In The Forest, and potentially revealing a Treant under the effects of
Nature's Guise.
* Batrider's DoT spells are also good versus
Living Armor.
* With Dual Breath, Liquid Fire and Macropyre Jakiro can quickly remove all
Living Armor from a target.
* Ice Path allows Jakiro to prevent Treant Protector from using
Overgrowth while staying at a safe distance.
*
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.
* 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.
* Light Strike Array and Dragon Slave allows Lina to destroy trees, countering
Nature's Guise and
Eyes in the Forest.
* Lina has many tools to bypass
Living Armor's protection.
* 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.
* 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.
*
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.
*
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.
*
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.
* 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.
* 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 the capability of removing or destroying trees greatly hinders the effectiveness of Treant Protector's abilities:
Batrider,
Nature's Prophet,
Lina,
Enigma,
Mars
* Heroes with invisibility will be detected by Thirst when they have low enough health:
Bounty Hunter,
Templar Assassin,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Weaver,
Treant Protector,
Nyx Assassin.
* Heroes with many summons or illusions are much harder to catch with Meat Hook:
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Chen.
* Anti-Tank heroes like:
Razor,
Necrophos,
Undying.
* Melee heroes with low mobility can be kited and killed by Viper:
Treant Protector,
Kunkka,
Alchemist,
Troll Warlord,
Wraith King,
Tiny,
Sven.
* 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.
* 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.
*
Living Armor can be destroyed quickly with Ion Shell.
* 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.
* 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.
*
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Lone Druid,
Troll Warlord,
Legion Commander and
Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
* 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.
* Overgrowth has a great duration, which prevents the units caught from attacking, moving and Blinking. Heroes like
Storm Spirit,
Mirana,
Anti-Mage and others won't be able to do much if they're caught.
* Monkey King is one of the few other heroes who can easily traverse through trees, counteracting Treant Protector's ability to hide in trees.
* Heroes that can maintain vision on Monkey King can see when he uses Tree Dance:
Bloodseeker,
Treant Protector with Eyes In The Forest,
Sniper,
Weaver
*
Nature's Grasp severely slows down Spirit Breaker, reducing effects of Charge of Darkness and Greater Bash.
*
Living Armor can mitigate a large portion of Spirit Breaker's damage since his attacks are slow.
* Treant Protector can also counter-initiate against Spirit Breaker with
Leech Seed,
Overgrowth and with his root from
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Nature's Guise before he manages to escape.
*
Aghanim's Scepter gives Treant Protector access to
Eyes In The Forest ability, which allows him to turn trees into wards that provide vision, allowing him to keep his allies warned about Spirit Breaker's attempts to gank them.
Eyes In The Forest will also trigger
Overgrowth if Spirit Breaker is in range of the tree affected by it.
Additional:
* Spirit Breaker's slow attacks cannot harm a hero shielded by Living Armor.
* Durable heroes:
Axe,
Dawnbreaker,
Bristleback,
Mars,
Omniknight,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Primal Beast,
Underlord.
* Another hero heavily based on attacks and no mobility, being an easy prey for Treant strong disarms and motion reduction skills.
* 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.
* 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.
* Overgrowth prevents Phantom Assassin from using
Blink Strike even through her spell immunity.
* Living Armor reduces Phantom Assassin's physical damage whenever she attempts to gank an allied hero.
* 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.
*
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Lone Druid,
Troll Warlord,
Legion Commander and
Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
* 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 with abilities that can save teammates are also effective such as
Shadow Demon,
Dazzle,
Oracle,
Bane,
Pugna,
Tusk,
Winter Wyvern,
Io,
Underlord,
Treant Protector and
Keeper of the Light.
* 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.
* 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.
*
Living Armor and
Leech Seed can be used to save a hero from a
Relocate gank.
*
Overgrowth can be used to cancel escape attempts with
Relocate.
* Once Treant Protector buys
Aghanim's Scepter, he will gain access to
Eyes in the Forest, that will allow him to enchant a tree which will grant him unobstructed vision in that location, allowing him to keep his allies alerted on Io and his
Tethered's attempts to gank them, and which can also allow
Overgrowth to damage them and root them if they are within a 800 radius of an tree affected by
Eyes in the Forest.
* Treant Protector can usually scout out Magnus in the trees with
Eyes in the Forest and disrupt his initiation attempts. He can also counter Magnus' initiation with
Overgrowth.
* 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.
* Treant can give chase should Hoodwink attempt to
Scurry away, and
Nature's Grasp can slow her down so Treant Protector's teammates can pin Hoodwink down.
* 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.
* 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.
* If
Storm Spirit is caught in an Overgrowth, he is shut down.
* With the exception of
Electric Vortex, he won't be able to cast any relevant skill.
*
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Lone Druid,
Troll Warlord,
Legion Commander and
Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
* Heroes that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook:
Shadow Shaman,
Witch Doctor,
Enigma,
Bane.
* Heroes that provide vision will see Fiend's Gate coming:
Techies,
Templar Assassin,
Treant Protector.
*
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Lone Druid,
Troll Warlord,
Legion Commander and
Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
* 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 that have a channeled ability that can be interrupted by Meat Hook:
Shadow Shaman,
Witch Doctor,
Enigma,
Bane.
* 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.
* Heroes with powerful rooting abilities will disable most of Pangolier's skills, a bonus point if it pierces spell immunity since it will also be able to stop Pangolier during his Rolling Thunder:
Treant Protector,
Meepo,
Crystal Maiden,
Dark Willow,
Underlord,
Naga Siren
*
Treant Protector grants protection against his attacks with
Living Armor and his ultimate,
Overgrowth is a massive AoE disarm and root that pierces spell immunity, causing trouble to Lycan. You will find yourself in need of an ally's dispel or forced to pop
Black King Bar for its dispel.
Additional:
* Lycan has no kind of teleport, being only able to walk, and heavily relies on his attacks. As Overgrowth roots and disarms the targets, Lycan can't do much in an overgrowth field.
*
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Lone Druid,
Troll Warlord,
Legion Commander and
Wraith King are some of the Heroes that base themselves on attacks with little or no spell power, so they suffer in the grassy hands of Overgrowth.
*
Treant Protector's
Living Armor will also negate Tidebringer's damage.
* 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 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* Fragile,slow heroes whom Pudge can outlive (
Crystal Maiden,
Muerta,
Sniper)
* Heroes with a high degree of mobility and invisibility are hard to catch with Meat Hook:
Ember Spirit,
Riki,
Clinkz,
Queen of Pain.
* Clinkz will often roam the map alone, and Treant Protector's
Nature's Guise allows him to set up kills with his allies on Clinkz from invisibility.
* Treant Protector's very high damage allowing him to trade hits or contest last hits with Clinkz, while
Living Armor can be used to sustain the harass.
*
Living Armor protects any of Treant's allies ganked by Clinkz.
* In teamfights, Treant Protector's
Overgrowth can disarm Clinkz, preventing him from turning invisible and holding him in place even if he has a
Black King Bar.
*
Leech Seed slows Clinkz, preventing him from repositioning or fleeing away from danger.
* 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.
* Anti-Mage relies on blinking and attacking. Overgrowth prevents both.
* Be wary that he will eventually farm up a
Manta Style that fully dispels Overgrowth. Good players will wait for your ultimate to use their manta. Perhaps an ally has a silence or similar that would force him to use his manta before your ultimate.
* 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.
* 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.
* Heroes with the capability of removing or destroying trees greatly hinders the effectiveness of Treant Protector's abilities:
Batrider,
Nature's Prophet,
Lina,
Enigma,
Mars
* 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.
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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Treant Protector
* Not only are all of Timbersaw's active abilities capable of cutting down trees, but
Whirling Death and
Timber Chain also require it to be effective, counteracting both Treant Protector's Nature's Guise and Eyes in the Forest abilities.
Eyes In The Forest once his team has detection. He may even do it unknowingly due to the sheer destructive and chaotic nature of his abilities.
Additional:
* Timbersaw can use his plethora of tree cutting abilities to level entire sections of the forest, making hiding in the trees more difficult for Treant Protector and his team.
* Timbersaw can easily cut down Treant Protector's
Primal Beast
* 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.
*
*