Offlane Puck

Introduction

Often Puck is seen as a mid hero but Puck can also be played in the offlane. The core item Puck essentially needs is a blink dagger, which can be farmed in the offlane if not punished or through ganks once level 6/7 is achieved. In the offlane Puck is a difficult hero to kill if played correctly.

Starting Items

Tango x1 (125)
Salve x1 (115)
Iron Branch x2 (100)
Observer Ward x1 (pooled if possible) (150*)
Total gold spent: 340
Total gold spent (wards bought): 540

This starting build should have enough regeneration to enable you to get enough last hits towards your bottle. However, if you bought the wards yourself do not play aggressively as you might run out of regeneration before you get your bottle. Forcing you to leave the lane. The reason why there is only two branches and not three is because I prefer to leave an empty item slot for future items instead of selling a branch.

Ward Placement

Before the game begins be sure to place the ward. The placement of the ward is mostly up to your preference

The ward can be placed in one of three places

Blocking the pull camp: this prevents the enemy from pulling the lane back and deny you experience
Jungle beside the lane: this gives vision in the jungle to help you see incoming ganks and help you stay alive
Vision of pull camp: this ward allows you to see when the enemy is pulling the camps and lets you sap experience safely

The ward that I prefer to place is the one that blocks the pull camp because it denys the enemy support from gaining level and farm. Forcing them to stay in lane and sap experience from their carry.

Laning Phase

In the laning phase your goal is to gain as much experience and farm as possible without dying. This is not fairly hard with the hero if you are able to react fast enough to incoming ganks. Puck is a very survivable hero in lane with phase shift to dodge spells/auto attacks, and illusory orb for escape. Illusory orb should be your main method to get creep kills if you are being zoned out of lane. However, illusory orb should be used with caution as it will allow enemies to try for a kill once it is on cooldown. Once the bottle is bought there should be enough regeneration to sustain staying in lane by getting runes or bottle crowing. Phase shift should not be used for dodging auto attacks if enemies have stuns that can be dodge too.

Once you have reached level 6/7 and you are not getting good farm in the lane you should proceed to help and gank other lanes. However, if you have free reign over the lane you might want to continue farming until a blink dagger can be purchased.

If you are being completely zoned out of the lane or have died multiple times, the lane should probably be left. The only option you have is to try and gank other lanes, stack camps, or farm the jungle.

Mid Game

Ganking in the mid game should be your top priority. Puck is a great ganking hero with burst damage and ability to keep heroes in place. However, it is not possible to get kills in the mid game depending on the situation of the game and enemy heroes. If you are unable to get kills by ganking then you should continue to farm for items towards the late game. Puck in my opinion becomes a relatively useless hero towards the late game if you continue your item progression. Don't forget to keep a tp with you when you farm, it is important that you are there for team fights as Puck is a great at team fighting. The key thing to avoid in the mid game is to roam around and do completely nothing.

Situational Items

BKB: Always a great item if the enemy team has lots of magical damage and stuns/silence
Dagon: Depends on the enemy hero lineup, if the enemy heroes are squishy this is a great item to add to Pucks burst damage. However, this item must be gotten in a timely manner.
Euls: Increases Puck's survivability as you can euls and blink out
Scythe of Vyse: Always a great item, extra lock down for enemy hero
Shiva: Increases Pucks resistance to right click damage and adds to Puck's team fight ability
Linkens: Good if you are being locked down by one or two hero target-able abilities
Force Staff: Increases mobility and can always be used to assist teammates

Pros / Cons

Pros

high mobility
phase shift can disjoint spells
team fight control
burst damage

Cons

squishy
low armour
BKBs counters all of this heroes abilities

Bad Hero Matchups

These hero matchups are for the laning phase

Bane: nightmare into follow up stun
Bloodseeker: silence
Clinkz: can harass Puck out of lane easily with searing arrows
Disruptor: can glimpse you back even if you illusory orb out of danger
Earthshaker: long range stun
Jakiro: ice path
Lich: sacrifice pulls the lane back and constant harass with ice blast
Lion: instant hex into stun and mana drain
Ogre Magi: instant stun
Outworld Devourer: astral will steal all your intelligence away (reduce damage and no mana for illusory orb for last hitting and escape)
Riki: smoke screen silence, Puck cant phase shift or orb away
Rubick: instant lift
Silencer: cant jump to illusory orb after casting if you are last worded
Shadow Demon: disruption into follow up stun
Shadow Shaman: instant hex into shackle
Skywrath: silence
Viper: can harass you out of lane

On this list what I mean by instant stun is that these stuns are not projectiles and cannot be disjointed with phase shift or illusory orb. Silences are difficult to deal with too because all your mobility relies on spells.