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Puck by FangzofFuzzy

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Puck

By: FangzofFuzzy
Last Updated: Apr 11, 2019
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Puck

Rework

"A welcome transformation."

Design

Puck's a personal favourite of mine, a fun hero to play and mess around with. I just have a couple of ideas that I think will make this Faerie Dragon more fun and easier to mess around with, alongside smoother and more synergistic gameplay. Personally, I also want to make the Dream Coil Rapid Fire talent more than just a dream. I think it's an interesting direction as an alternative build for the hero and simply wish it were better supported.

Overall, the hero should remain not too distinct with power and focus shifted around. Here is the current Puck for reference, and any unmentioned numbers are assumed to remain the same.

Credit to /u/5ereniT, Nightcore Mei for early suggestions

Stats

Strength: 17 + 2.0
Agility: 20 + 1.7
Intelligence: 26 + 3.6

Primary Abilities

Illusory Orb
Launch a flying orb in a line that damages enemies along the way.

They are also hypnotized for 0.5 seconds, causing them to follow the orb.

Aghanim's Scepter: Triple the hypnosis duration and grant the Misdirection ability.

Ability: Target Point
Mana Cost: 90, 110, 130, 150
Cooldown: 16, 14, 12, 10
Range: 2000
Radius: 200
Damage: Magical
Damage: 50, 100, 150, 200

The playful Faerie Dragon delights in confusing and mystifying others...

Notes
Ethereal Jaunt
Teleport to and end a flying orb.

Replaces Illusory Orb while it is in the air.

Ability: No Target

...vanishing and reappearing where and when unexpected.

Notes
Waning Rift
Scatter faerie dust for 3 seconds to damage nearby enemies over time.

When this ends, nearby enemies will be silenced.

Ability: No Target
Mana Cost: 90, 100, 110, 120
Cooldown: 10
Radius: 400
Damage: Magical
Damage per Second: 50, 75, 100, 125
Silence: 3, 4, 5, 6

With a mischievous grin, Puck spreads enchanted powder that originates from the Undertree.

Notes
Phase Shift
Shift into another dimension, becoming immune from harm.

Its next attack deals bonus damage upon returning.

Ability: Channelled
Mana Cost: 15
Cooldown: 6
Damage: Magical
Duration: 0.8, 1.6, 2.4, 3.2
Bonus Damage: 50, 75, 100, 125

For a being that has lived for aeons, moving physical bodies and ethereal energies across worlds is child's play.

Notes

Ultimate Abilities

Dream Coil
Latch all enemies in an area to a coil of volatile magic.

Puck attacks latched enemies who are within attack range every second.

If an enemy moves far enough away to break the latch, it is dispelled and stunned.

Mana Cost: 150, 200, 250
Cooldown: 60
Range: 600
Latch Radius: 375
Break Radius: 750
Latch Duration: 6, 8, 10
Stun: 1.5, 2.25, 3

"Don't run! Or do, I have time in abundance."

Notes

Other Abilities

Misdirection
Redirect a flying orb to a new location at a higher speed.

Ability: Target Point
Range: 2000
Bonus Travel Speed: 600

Puck simply always seems to enjoy endlessly toying around with mortals.

Notes

Hero Talents

Waning Rift Breaks
25
-0.5 Dream Coil Attack Interval

+200 Waning Rift Radius
20
100 Damage

100 Gold/Min
15
-1s Phase Shift Cooldown

25% XP Gain
10
100 Attack Range

Talent Notes

  • The level 15 Phase Shift talent reduces its cooldown to 5 seconds.

  • The level 20 Waning Rift talent increases its radius to 600.

  • The level 25 Waning Rift talent applies break alongside the silence for the same duration.

  • The level 25 Dream Coil talent reduces the attack interval to 0.5 seconds.

Discussion

  • Let's go ability by ability, starting with Illusory Orb. By itself, it trades damage for a new debuff that lets Puck control its foes. As an initiation tool, the smaller radius and slower speed makes this harder to hit but the forced movement towards the orb is definitely helpful to open a fight. As an escape tool, pulling targets towards where you're going to pop up can be detrimental so using Ethereal Jaunt won't always be the best choice. Speaking of which, they now share the same key like Tether and Break Tether for smoother gameplay. Also since the ability now has a hard disable, its strong vision granting potential has been toned down to compensate. The new Aghanim's Scepter upgrade allows the player to further capitalize on this disable by increasing its duration but more importantly, introduces the new ability: Misdirection. At first glance, it's a great ability to lengthen and speed up the orb on demand, similar to the level 20 talent but only when you choose to. Its true strength is redirecting the orb after it hypnotizes enemies, forcing them to move in a new direction instead of just straight out.

  • Waning Rift is similar to its current form but with a few key differences. First off, the damage is no longer instant and is instead dealt over time, dealing potentially more damage as long as Puck sticks near its targets. Secondly, the silence is also no longer instant and is only applied at the end. The delayed silence is arguably weaker but now lasts longer and has the unique property of only being dispelled by strong dispels, also making it more potent. This all makes the spell feel similar to Ink Swell, but can only affect the caster and the debuff is not reliant on the damage leading up to it. What this means is that if the player wants to have the silence hit instantly at full effect, it is possible to do so by casting it in fog and timing such that it hits as you jaunt to the orb or blinks in. Combined with Phase Shift, Puck can create a stationary but undisruptable threatening zone of control. On the spell itself, it is largely the same but now costs mana in exchange for dealing bonus attack damage whenever Puck returns. This encourages more aggressive use of the ability, not just to freely dodge attacks and spells and be on the way but to then spend mana to return good damage their way.

  • Now, let's talk about Dream Coil as the changes here are going to be a little controversial. Yes, I have incorporated the rapid fire talent into the ability itself. It now also lasts longer in exchange for losing the mini-stun upon cast and the damage upon snapping. The mini-stun is compensated by the new hypnosis in Puck's kit while the damage is compensated by the rapid fire effect. So now, the ability design presents a clear choice such that brave enemies who stay in the coil are bombarded by damage while those too scared will be debuffed with the retained stun and a new dispel effect. The stun now doesn't need Aghanim's Scepter to pierce spell immunity, so is now more threatening by itself. The lower cast range may seem like a nerf but it's also a buff as did you know: The rapid fire effect only works if the target is currently within Puck's attack range, so the lower range better helps initially keep enemies within that space. The higher snap radius is also a double-edged sword, potentially dealing more damage but letting them better dance around the snap range. In terms of indirect ability synergies now, the aforementioned Illusory Orb change can help Puck force stubborn enemies to walk out of the coil to snap it, similar to Mar's Spear of Mars and Arena of Blood combo. This then incentivizes holding onto the ability for near the end of the ultimate instead of starting fights with it. The reformed Phase Shift also further encourages combat usage, letting the bonus damage spread to all affected enemies. As well, this new ultimate design mimics the new Waning Rift change of initially creating a zone of continuous damage and then finishing by leaving them crippled.

  • In terms of talents for this revamped Puck, the left side remains nice for a spell caster while the right side is nicer for the new integrated focus of weaving in auto attacks into fight patterns. With lower instant nuke damage across the kit, the experience and gold talents can help make up for this as well as to just better scale into the late game as a whole. The Waning Rift Breaks talent is extremely powerful when facing the right team composition, just remember the delay now attached to the spell. If not against a great team to break, halving the attack interval for this new Dream Coil to make it hit even faster than its current form can be just as strong.

  • Overall, this Faerie Dragon remains highly mobile and slippery. Its nuking capabilities are arguably still there, just better spread across abilities and require more commitment. With lower Strength and Agility but higher Intelligence, more emphasis is definitely placed on player skill. Item builds are seen to generally be about the same with high priority on Blink Dagger and Eul's Scepter of Divinity but with its new ultimate, right click items like Daedalus, Monkey King Bar and Hurricane Pike can now be built early on instead of being a niche thing to do in few games that go late enough. Hopefully all the changes compound to creating a Puck experience that is more fun without being too overbearing and presents a viable enough choice to go for a traditional carry build without being made fun of. For those familiar with League of Legends, this rework was just a tad inspired by Zoe, the Aspect of Twilight.

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