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Many hands make light work.
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Bad against...[]
- Phase Shift is not an advantage against Arc Warden at all because Arc Warden can turn Puck's Phase Shift ability against him by using Spark Wraith, ensuring it to hit. To make this worse, Arc Warden can do it twice with his Tempest Double.
- Flux 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.
- Doom is generally tanky and has naturally high health, allowing him to survive Puck's onslaught in any stage of the game.
- His namesake ultimate Doom is one of the best solutions to counter Puck, as it will silence Puck for a lengthy duration. A Puck silenced for more than 3 seconds usually ends up dead.
- In addition, if Doom chooses the Level 25 talent Doom applies Mute, Puck will not be able to use items altogether, most especially Blink Dagger and Eul's Scepter of Divinity, making Doom a nightmare to deal with as Puck.
- Earth Spirit eliminates the possibility of Puck to hide with Phase Shift and avoid an attack by Geomagnetic Grip with its AoE silence, which is why it can help the team kill it.
- Puck can't throw off the effects of Magnetize with any of its abilities, making it constantly receive damage if Earth Spirit extends this ability with his Stone Remnant.
- All of Puck's abilities are good for Rubick to Spell Steal:
- Illusory Orb and Waning Rift are all great wave-clear abilities.
- If Rubick manages to steal Waning Rift, he can silence Puck, disabling all its abilities including Phase Shift, Puck's main survivability tool.
- Dream Coil is a powerful teamfight ultimate that leashes enemies and disables their movement.
- As an elusive hero who requires constant repositioning, Puck is greatly countered by its own ultimate as it disables all its mobile abilities and items (especially Blink Dagger), forcing it to either stay in the danger zone or latches and stuns for a long time.
- Although Phase Shift does not provide extra damage or lockdown on its own, it does grant Rubick invulnerability, and enables him to use Blink Dagger with full duration similar to Puck's escaping combos.
- Rubick can initiate on Puck relatively fast as Telekinesis only has a 0.15 second cast animation.
- Hard lockdowns such as Chronosphere can be used to quickly take down Puck. Whenever Puck is disabled for longer than 3 seconds, he will usually end up dead.
- As the type of hero that spams spells, Time Dilation counters Puck very effectively. Phase Shift is Puck's main ability for survivability, and Time Dilation effectively triples its cooldown.
- If not silenced, Faceless Void can use Time Walk can easily undo the damage dealt by Illusory Orb, Dream Coil and Dagon.
- Jakiro has 3 damage over time spells, 3 of which are from debuffs on Puck: Dual Breath, Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost from Aghanim's Shard from and 1 affecting an entire area ( Macropyre), making it easy for him to disable the blink dagger.
- Ice Path 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 Shapeshift can always run down Puck for a very quick kill due to its low armor. It is important to abuse as many cliffs and trees as possible to escape from a Lycan.
- Lone Druid has a huge reserve of health on the Summon Spirit Bear and a quick regeneration of his health with the help of Spirit Link, which makes Puck's magical abilities almost useless, since they cannot break through such a large pool of health.
- The ability of the Summon Spirit Bear and in the True Form of the Lone Druid, Entangling Claws, allows him to catch Puck when it releases the Illusory Orb, since Puck will not be able to apply Ethereal Jaunt during the root.
- Void is a potent nuke that is devastating to Puck's low health pool.
- Crippling Fear silence can prevent Puck from casting spells, leaving it vulnerable.
- 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 Spiked Carapace, stunning Puck and setting up an easy Impale. 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 Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Scythe of Vyse, and Dagon. This makes Mind Flare that much more deadly against Puck.
- An ill-timed Phase Shift can turn into an easy setup for Impale.
- Generally strong against lots of spellcaster-themed heroes, Puck fully relies on its skill set and cannot do almost anything when silenced.
- Arcane Curse disables Blink Dagger for quite some time, and is also effective against Puck as it tends to use its spells a lot.
- Glaives of Wisdom can do a lot of damage against Puck due to Puck's low agility gain and armor.
- Last Word can prevent Puck from getting a full combo off, limiting its effectiveness in team fights or ganks.
- Global Silence can take Puck out of fights entirely because of its long-duration silence.
- None of Puck's abilities have any damage-over-time components, meaning that Refraction is a valuable form of defense against Puck's lane harassment.
- Psi Blades 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 Venomous Gale and Noxious Plague combo consistently ticks many times over several seconds, making it very difficult to use Blink Dagger towards the other direction. Puck's slow turning rate makes this even worse.
- Venomancer can use Plague Wards to reveal Puck's position before he even gets a chance to initiate.
- Viper wins on the central line of Puck, because he has a huge damage from the Poison Attack ability, which Puck is not able to constantly avoid using Phase Shift, which will give Viper an advantage in the possible damage inflicted on each other
- Puck takes more damage than it does due to the passive Corrosive Skin ability of the Viper, which makes it unprofitable for the Puck to fight against the Viper at an early stage of the game, when the Puck has a very small pool of health.
- 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, Wraithfire Blast, 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.
- Even if Puck succeeds to burst down Wraith King, Reincarnation will ensure that Wraith King can fight back against him while leaving Puck exhausted and nearly unable to defend itself against Wraith King. And to make things worse, Puck is not a common Diffusal Blade nor Disperser wielder to counter this problem at all.
Others[]
- Riki and Disruptor: Smoke Screen and Static Storm, respectively, 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 from escaping altogether.
- Heroes with spell immunity or pseudo-blinks which provide invulnerability: Lifestealer, Juggernaut, Omniknight, Huskar, and Tusk have spells which allow them to easily escape Dream Coil.
- Axe, Bristleback, Centaur Warrunner, Spirit Breaker, Pudge, Huskar, Wraith King, Doom: 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.
- Backline supports ( Lion, Crystal Maiden) can keep Puck pinned long enough for a kill.
- Heroes who are strong against mobile heroes: Disruptor, Bloodseeker, Kunkka, Keeper of the Light.
Items[]
- Black King Bar blocks all damage received from Puck. And outside of Dream Coil Pierces Debuff Immunity talent, Puck has nothing else to counter it.
- Radiance and Spirit Vessel can deal damage over time to Puck that can constantly put his Blink Dagger on cooldown and force him to use Illusory Orb and Phase Shift to escape.
- Rod of Atos will lock Puck in place and prevent him from using Illusory Orb, Waning Rift and Phase Shift and Blink Dagger to save himself. Later it can be upgraded into Gleipnir that can do the same while also providing its owner a chance to have their attacks release a chain lightning that can bounce on Puck, damaging him and putting his Blink Dagger on cooldown.
- Orchid Malevolence will shut down any escape attempts with Illusory Orb, Waning Rift and Phase Shift, while also rendering Puck helpless for its duration. It can later be upgraded into Bloodthorn that can do the same while also making every attack have true strike and allow its owner's attacks to weaken Puck's spell damage. This item can make Puck weak even against heroes he naturally counters.
- Scythe of Vyse locks down Puck before he can slip away and will also render him unable to do anything at all.
- Nullifier disables Puck's Eul's Scepter of Divinity and Blink Dagger, making it much easier for its owners to lock down Puck.
- Eternal Shroud, Pipe of Insight and Glimmer Cape will greatly reduce Puck's 100% magical damage output.
- Blade Mail can be used while silenced with Waning Rift and while in range of Dream Coil, discouraging Puck from attacking an enemy hero who wields it. As a hero with high burst damage, this can be very dangerous for Puck.
- Dagon's instant projectile and burst damage combined with Ethereal Blade, Veil of Discord and Revenant's Brooch's spell amplification capabilities can kill Puck before Phase Shift.
- Force Staff or Hurricane Pike combined with Manta Style is an easy way to break Dream Coil safely. The forced movement persists during Manta's invulnerability, allowing the hero to dash out of the coil unharmed.
Good against...[]
- Puck can forbid the opportunity to avoid trouble for Earth Spirit on his own Rolling Boulder, using Dream Coil and Waning Rift.
- Void Spirit can easily be bursted down by Puck's high magic damage spells in early game.
- Wanning Rift and Dream Coil prevent him from using two of his important mobility abilities: Dissimilate and Astral Step.
- Dream Coil and Wanning Rift prevent Pangolier from using Swashbuckle and Rolling Thunder. If Puck has Aghanim's Scepter, Dream coil will stop Rolling Thunder from moving entirely.
- Puck can dodge Nether Blast and Life Drain with his Phase Shift, easily avoiding Pugna's strong burst magic damage.
- Waning Rift's silence allows Puck and its teammates to easily deal with Pugna, which cannot do the same to it, because with Puck it will be easy to avoid such an attack from the Decrepify.
- The Puck's combo: Waning Rift + Illusory Orb + Dream Coil doesn't have a huge amount of damage to feel the damage of the Pugna from Nether Ward, however, it may be quite enough to kill the Pugna solo at an early stage of the game with Witch Blade
- Puck has both Waning Rift and Dream Coil to stop Freezing Field's channel regardless of whether or not Crystal Maiden has a Glimmer Cape, as both spells fully affect invisible units.
- Puck Outlanes Invoker with his abilities: Illusory Orb, Waning Rift finishing off all creeps on the line and getting a higher level than him
- Puck dodges Invoker's magic attacks with his abilities: Illusory Orb, Phase Shift in a fight, preventing Invoker from doing damage
- Mirana's spells are laid out to assassinate enemies. Puck can easily avoid the slow moving Sacred Arrow, and also can avoid Starstorm with Phase Shift, since the meteors have a delay.
- If Puck casts either Waning Rift or Dream Coil in the area, Mirana cannot Leap away.
- Puck can dodge Lina's Dragon Slave and Light Strike Array with Phase Shift. A good Puck player can even dodge Laguna Blade, as it has an invisible projectile, therefore avoiding all the burst damage from Lina.
- Puck forbids Lina to use her abilities with Waning Rift, which will help Puck's teammates survive and even give them the opportunity to kill her.
- Although Phoenix has many ways to disable a Blink Dagger, the high cooldown of all of its spells makes them not as reliable for this. Also, its spells cost a lot of health to use, making it easy to get nuked down.
- Waning Rift prevents Phoenix from using Supernova to refresh itself, giving Puck's team time to finish it off, or allow Puck to burst Phoenix down.
- Dream Coil prevents Phoenix from using Icarus Dive without consequences. Waning Rift and Dream Coil are also able to cancel Sun Ray, which is its 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 a safe distance. Illusory Orb, combined with Blink Dagger makes it easy for Puck to get close to Sniper. Due to his low health, he is also easily nuked down by Puck.
- The status debuff placed by Assassinate 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 Sunder at low health.
- Puck is a common Dagon carrier, making it possible to finish off Terrorblade before he has a chance to Sunder.
- Phase Shift allows Puck to effectively dodge Powershot, and even Shackleshot if timed correctly.
- Waning Rift prevents Windranger from casting all her abilities, most especially Windrun and Focus Fire .
- Windranger cannot escape with Windrun when she's affected by Dream Coil, as she will be instantly stunned when she tries to break away from the coil, allowing Puck's teammates to focus her down.
Others[]
- Low health spellcasters: Lina, Witch Doctor, Tinker, Keeper of the Light, 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: Broodmother, Nature's Prophet and Enigma all have summons Puck can 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 Sven, Lifestealer, Ursa and Alchemist 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: Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Lycan, Bloodseeker, Anti-Mage, Timbersaw.
Works well with...[]
- Terrorize will cause the enemies to run away, easily breaking the Dream Coil leash range, resulting in a snap, also Dark Willow's Ultimate can trigger a snap.
- Dream coil can be a great set up for Reverse Polarity, and Puck's AoE damage abilities can do a great deal to enemies caught by it.
- Skewer 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, E.M.P. 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.
- Dream Coil makes it easier to land Supernova's disable and damage on enemies. A coil can also be used to protect the Supernova, preventing enemies from walking up to the egg to destroy it.
- The spell 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[]
- Every hero that deals lots of AoE damage greatly benefits from a Dream Coil set up. Examples are Sand King, Elder Titan, Underlord, Leshrac, Keeper of the Light and Queen of Pain. 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 Undying, Shadow Demon and Bloodseeker.
- Puck is very susceptible to silence, so any hero that can remove silences is a good ally for Puck, like Abaddon and Legion Commander (who can also remove stuns), Oracle and Omniknight.
- Any hero or item can cause the enemies caught by Dream Coil to be snapped:
- Earth Spirit with Boulder Smash
- Queen of Pain with Sonic Wave
- Vengeful Spirit with Nether Swap
- Huskar with Inner Fire
- Clockwerk with Power Cogs
- Pudge with Meat Hook
- Invoker with Deafening Blast
- Tusk with Walrus Kick
- Tiny with Toss
- Lone Druid with Savage Roar
- Batrider with Flaming Lasso
- Or items like Force Staff and Hurricane Pike