Pudge

Pudge is a melee hero who typically uses his skills to gank heroes or initiate battles, which can lead up to him becoming a late-game tank. When played right, mainly the player's skill and experience with Meat Hook, Pudge will become an excellent if not deadly ganker. While having a simple concept, Meat Hook is not that easy to master, and thus makes Pudge recommended for at least intermediate players. In the hand of good "Meat Hookers", Pudge is not just powerful but is also beautiful to play / watch.

Gameplay
Pudge is a high health destructive tank that can finish off lone heroes easily and quickly. His first and trademark ability, Meat Hook, allows him to grab a solitary target, dragging it off to meet its doom in the ravenous form of the Butcher. One of the most iconic skills of DotA, Meat Hook takes a vast amount of practice to perfect. It is also a hard ability to master due to its high versatility, like hooking for units hidden in the fog, hooking enemies with different movement speeds or pulling allied heroes out of potentially fatal situations. Pudge's second ability Rot is his primary source of damage over time, dishing out large amounts every second. Due to the first and second skills, Pudge is a constant threat and distraction in the early levels, possessing one of the highest short term damage outputs in the game. Pudge's ultimate, Dismember, allows him to grasp a unit tightly and devour it, holding it within range of the noxious fumes of Rot. In mid to late game, Pudge's trademark combination includes Hooking a foe away from its allies, Rotting and Dismembering. Pudge also has a passive Flesh Heap, which grants him both magic resistance to complement Rot and strength gain which is achieved passively upon enemy hero deaths in his vicinity. This hulking monstrosity is a force of gargantuan destruction in the hands of a competent player, and enemies may soon find themselves unable to take on the behemoth with his enormous potential for vitality.

Basic Strategy

 * Blink Dagger cannot be bought on Pudge.
 * Meat Hook to Rot to Dismember is the standard combo.
 * Meat Hook is hard to master but extremely versatile; it can be used to:
 * Pull a fleeing enemy into a gank, or back into one if they blinked away.
 * Pull a lone hero into your team to make any resulting teamfight 4v5.
 * Pull an allied hero out of an dangerous situation.
 * Hiding spots and hooking positions:
 * Don't be afraid to use Rot to escape from a chasing melee hero. Toggle it quickly on and off to apply the speed debuff to them, with minimal damage to yourself.
 * If you are Dismembering and have not used Meat Hook, you can shift-que Meat Hook in front of you to get the full Dismember damage and get a guaranteed Hook.
 * If you have Aghanim's Scepter and are low on health you can Dismember a creep to quickly restore a lot of HP.

Trivia

 * In DotA 1, if Pudge was invisible Rot would not do any damage nor slow, and also would not affect paused units (such as those that were under the affects of Chronosphere).
 * Pudge references Team Fortress 2's Heavy's "Om Nom Nom" Sound when Dismembering an enemy.
 * Pudge references Mortal Kombat's Scorpion's "Get over here" when successfully grappling an enemy with Meat Hook.