Puck/Counters

Bad against...

 * Arc Warden can turn Puck's Phase Shift ability against him by using, ensuring it to hit. To make this worse, Arc Warden can do it twice with his.
 * is also an instant spell (and therefore unavoidable) with a heavy slow and damage over time, which disables Blink Dagger for a certain period of time.


 * Hard lockdowns such as can end a Puck's life quickly. A Puck stunned for longer than 3 seconds usually ends up dead.
 * As the type of hero that spams spells, counters Puck very effectively. Phase Shift is Puck's main ability for survivability, and Time Dilation effectively triples its cooldown.
 * If not silenced, can easily undo the damage dealt by Illusory Orb, Dream Coil and Dagon.


 * Jakiro has 3 damage over time spells, 2 of which are from debuffs on Puck ( and ) and 1 affecting an entire area, making it easy for him to disable the blink dagger.
 * is also strong against Puck, as he can cast it towards Puck during Phase Shift, who then gets instantly stunned once Phase Shift ends.


 * A Lycan with can always run down Puck and kill him very quickly due to his low armor. It is important to abuse as many cliffs and trees as possible to escape from a Lycan.


 * is a potent nuke that is devastating to his low health pool.
 * silence can prevent Puck from casting spells, leaving him vulnerable.
 * Because all of Night Stalker's spells are single target and instant, Puck cannot disjoint them with Phase Shift. He needs a if he wishes to survive.


 * Nyx Assassin can take advantage of every one of Puck's weaknesses. His entire skill set is very effective in countering Puck.
 * Because Illusory Orb is such a slow moving projectile, Nyx Assassin can simply walk into the orb and activate, stunning Puck and setting up an easy . This can be circumvented by using Phase Shift while the orb is traveling, however, that means that Puck cannot use Phase Shift to dodge any other skill nor use it to safely blink away from a fight.
 * Puck is an intelligence hero that likes to build intelligence items such as, , and . This makes that much more deadly against Puck.
 * An ill-timed Phase Shift can easily set himself up to be stunned by.
 * Puck's low base armor and below average agility gain means he is always susceptible to.


 * Generally strong against every spellcaster, Puck fully relies on their skill set and is barely a threat when silenced.
 * disables Blink Dagger for quite some time, and is also effective against Puck as he tend to use his spells a lot.
 * can do a lot of damage against Puck due to Puck's low agility gain and armor.
 * can prevent Puck from getting his full combo off, limiting his effectiveness in team fights or ganks.
 * can take Puck out of fights entirely.


 * None of Puck's abilities have any damage-over-time components, meaning that is a valuable form of defense against Puck's lane harassment.
 * deals pure damage and spills over instantly. Puck cannot reliably dodge the damage with Phase Shift.


 * Unless Puck is facing the direction he wants to blink while in Phase Shift, the and  combo consistently ticks many times over several seconds, making it very difficult to use  towards the other direction. Puck's slow turning rate makes this even worse.


 * Waning Rift's silence is almost completely worthless against Wraith King, due to him having only 1 active ability.
 * Wraith King's only active ability,, is strong against Puck if it hits, because it applies a damage over time on top of stunning and doing impact damage, disabling Puck for a while, and Blink Dagger for even longer. It is very important to avoid getting hit by this spell when playing against Wraith King.

Others

 * and : and  can be thrown wherever Puck used Phase Shift, making Puck an easy target if it doesn't have Blink Dagger or is on cooldown. Puck is also very susceptible to Riki's high attack damage when attacking from the back. Glimpse also prevents Puck form escaping.
 * Heroes with spell immunity or pseudo-blinks which provide invulnerability:, , , , and  have spells which allow them to easily escape Dream Coil.
 * ,, , , : These heroes are too tanky for Puck to burst down. Also, all of them have spells which can deal with and shut Puck down reliably.

Items

 * blocks all damage received from Puck.
 * locks down Puck before he can slip away.
 * shuts down any escapes with Illusory Orb.
 * disables Puck's and, making him much easier to lock down.
 * 's instant projectile and burst damage can kill Puck before he Phase Shifts.

Good against...

 * Void Spirit can easily be bursted with Puck high magic damages
 * Wanning Rift and Dream Coil prevent him from using two of his important mobility abilities and


 * Dream Coil and Wanning Rift prevent Pangolier from using and, If Puck has , Dream coil will stop Rolling Thunder from moving entirely.


 * Puck has both Waning Rift and Dream Coil to stop 's channel regardless of whether or not Crystal Maiden has a Glimmer Cape, as both spells fully affect invisible units.


 * Mirana's spells are laid out to assassinate enemies. Puck can easily avoid the slow moving, and also can avoid with Phase Shift, since the meteors have a delay.
 * If Puck casts either Waning Rift or Dream Coil in the area, Mirana cannot away.


 * Although Phoenix has many ways to disable a Blink Dagger, the high cooldown of all of his spells makes them not as reliable for this. Also, his spells cost him a lot of health to use, making it easy for him to get nuked down.
 * Waning Rift prevents Phoenix from using to refresh himself, giving Puck's team time to finish Phoenix off, or allow Puck to burst him down.
 * Dream Coil prevents Phoenix from using without consequences. Waning Rift and Dream Coil are also able to cancel his, which is his main source of damage in the late game.


 * Sniper has no spells to disable Puck. He lacks a silence to prevent spell casting and a stun to disable, allowing Puck to act instantly against Sniper.
 * Sniper's main strategy is to attack his enemies from safe distance. Illusory Orb, combined with Blink Dagger makes it easy for Puck to get to Sniper. Due to his low health, he is also easily nuked down by Puck.
 * The status debuff placed by on its target makes it very easy to avoid it. Puck has 2 (3 when having Blink Dagger, 4 when having Eul's Scepter of Divinity, 5 when having Linken's Sphere) methods to disjoint or dodge the projectile, making it a bad spell for finishing off Puck.


 * All of Puck's damaging spells deal AoE magic damage, which focuses on Terrorblade's low health pool and ignores his armor.
 * Puck's spells are also great at quickly clearing all of Terrorblade's illusions. Even a single Illusory Orb is enough to drop their health very low, allowing creeps, towers or allies to finish them off very quickly. Waning Rift and Illusory Orb together are usually enough to clear his illusions.
 * Waning Rift prevents Terrorblade from casting at low health.
 * Puck is a common carrier, so he is able to finish of Terrorblade before he has a chance to.

Others

 * Low health spellcasters:, , , , all rely heavily on their spells and are fragile heroes. They all also have avoidable spells, allowing Puck to get to them and quickly burst them down.
 * Mass summoning heroes:, and  are all able to mass-summon units, which Puck is able to clear with Illusory Orb and Waning Rift instantly, due to their summons having low health.
 * Melee heroes that get kited easily have hard times dealing with Puck without any lockdowns, as Puck is one of the most mobile heroes. Heroes like, , and  may have problems to get to Puck without proper initiation items. They also lack reliable lockdowns, as their disables are easily avoidable for Puck, or are just a soft disable.
 * Any Hero with high mobility will be neutralized by dream coil:, , , , , ,

Works well with...

 * will cause the enemies to run away, easily breaking the Dream Coil leash range, resulting in a snap.


 * Dream coil can be a great set up for, and Puck's aoe damage abilities can do a great deal to enemies caught by it.
 * can drag multiple enemies out of Dream Coil leash range to snap and stun them


 * A Dream Coil initiation can keep multiple targets in AoE to lead into a Black Hole and Midnight Pulse combo, further leading to lockdowns and a damaging initiation.
 * Vice versa, a good Black Hole allows Puck to hit multiple enemies more reliably with all its spells.


 * Invoker has many AoE spells which deal a lot of damage if the enemies stand within them. Dream Coil allows Invoker to hit multiple enemies reliably with his Chaos Meteor, EMP and many other AoE spells.
 * If an enemy decides to wait for Dream Coil to expire, Invoker can use Deafening Blast to force them out of the leash range and break the leash, triggering its stun and break damage. When Puck has Aghanim's Scepter, this combo can disable an enemy for a very long duration.


 * Kunkka is a hero who benefits a lot from allied set ups. His Torrent and Ghostship have big delays and are easy to miss. Dream Coil allows Kunkka to reliably land his spells. It also makes it possible to hit more targets with Tidebringer.
 * If Puck does not have a blink yet, Kunkka can help out with X Marks the Spot, marking Puck, who then jaunts into enemies, uses Waning Rift and eventually Dream Coil, and then pull him back out with the Return sub-spell.


 * Supernova usually has it difficult landing its disable and most of its damage on enemies. Dream Coil makes this possible. The coil also protects the Supernova, since enemies cannot walk up to it to destroy it, because then the leash would break.
 * It also combos well with Sun Ray, allowing Phoenix to deal much more damage. It also allows Phoenix to apply all his other debuffs on multiple enemies.
 * Phoenix usually builds a Veil of Discord, an item Puck usually does not want to build, from which Puck benefits quite well.


 * Again, Dream Coil serves as a great setup. It prevents enemies from spreading to avoid Paralyzing Cask, allowing it to jump between them. It also prevents enemies from escaping Witch Doctor's deadly Death Ward. When Death Ward is upgraded through an Aghanim's Scepter, this is a very strong and potent combo.
 * Maledict is a great way to amplify burst damage dealt to enemies. Together with all of Puck's nukes, Maledict can burst down even the tankier heroes.

Others
List of heroes that counter Puck, and list of heroes that work well with Puck.
 * Every hero that deals lots of AoE damage greatly benefits from a Dream Coil set up. Examples are, , , , and . Due to its long duration, large area coverage, and relatively low cooldown, Dream Coil is one of the best set-up spells.
 * Since Puck only deals burst damage, any hero that can amplify damage works well with Puck, like, and.
 * Puck is very susceptible to silence, so any hero that can remove silences is a good ally for Puck, like and  (who can also remove stuns),  and.
 * Any hero or item can cause the enemies caught by Dream Coil to be snapped: with,  with ,  with ,  with ,  with ,  with ,  with ,  with ,  with  and  with  or Item like ,

Puck/Противостоящие