Pudge is the most popular hero in Dota 2 and for a good reason too. This hero is fun to play and punishes heroes who are out of position super hard.
He is also a very misunderstood hero in the game as he’s made a reputation of a griefing hero in every rank.
In any case, Pudge is a very strong hero no matter what role he’s played in, and an experienced Pudge player can single-handedly carry the game.
He is a snowballing hero that can get out of control very quickly if you don’t know how to stop him.
Normally, warding your jungle and sticking with your teammates is the best way to be safe from him but you won’t have that luxury in every game.
In most games, he will have very high impact in early and mid-game, so if you find that the enemy is a Pudge spammer or high-ranked Pudge player, you can counter him right from the drafting phase.
Here are the best heroes to counter Pudge in your games,
Abaddon
Abaddon is a really good support to play against Pudge. His Aphotic Shield can be used to dispel Pudge’s Dismember and it can even block some incoming damage from the enemies.
He can instantly turn the fight around for his team if he manages to use Aphotic Shield to clutch and save his cores.
You can also press your ultimate to manually dispel the Dismember. His passive is also very useful against a slow-movement hero like Pudge as it silences and slows him even more.
Chaos Knight
Chaos Knight has a high base damage which can really hurt heroes that have low armor like Pudge.
He has a long-duration stun and his illusions deal way more damage than normal illusions.
On top of that, the Reality Rift reduces his armor even more and he can easily punish Pudge if he tries to overcommit or overstep.
Honestly speaking, Pudge doesn’t have enough sustain to stay in the lane against this hero even if he has Vanguard.
Disrupter
All of the Disrupter’s kit is good against Pudge. The Thunder Strike deals damage while slowing him and also provides his vision.
Glimpse can be used to dispel Dismember and it can also prevent him from teleporting away.
Kinetic Field will keep him in place and Static Storm can silence him which is the biggest counter to Pugde.
Doom
Doom is also a really good counter to Pudge as his ultimate prevents him from using any of his abilities or items.
Even if Pudge is playing as a support and you don’t want to waste your Doom on him, you can still deal massive damage to him with Infernal Blade.
The Infernal Blade deals damage based on the max health of the target so a high HP hero like Pudge suffers very much from this ability.
You can also stun him with the centaur creep’s stun when he is trying to Dismember your ally.
Earthshaker
Earthshaker can provide a lot of control against Pudge. He can prevent him from escaping, or disrupt his combo with his long-distance stun.
He can basically stun-lock Pudge till his teammates kill him and there’s nothing that Pudge can do about this.
Pudge is really slow and big which makes it easier for Earthshaker to stun him. Additionally, Earthshaker’s shard is godsent against heroes like pudge.
Earth Spirit
Earth Spirit has everything that can counter Pudge – slow, stun, and silence. He can initiate from a long distance and disrupt Pudge’s positioning.
He can also disable him for a long duration, giving his team enough time to finish him off.
Earth Spirit can be a menace for this hero if played properly and can make his game a living hell.
Legion Commander
Legion Commander has a strong dispel that can dispel Pudge’s Dismember from her allies. She can also hold Pudge in place during the duration of Duel.
She also scales incredibly well with levels and becomes stronger as the game goes on.
As she gets more duel damage with time, it becomes really easy to kill him during Duel since he is very prone to physical damage.
Lifestealer
Lifestealer counters Pudge very hard during both the laning stage and after the laning stage. His abilities allow him to slow Pudge as well as deal percentage-based damage to him.
He can also man-fight him using his Rage as it makes him completely immune to Rot.
At any stage of the game, if Lifestealer is ahead of Pudge in terms of levels and items, he can easily run him down.
His ultimate is also very useful if one of his allies got caught or he needs to escape from the enemy ganks.
Muerta
This new hero counters Pudge in every way. Two of her abilities counter Pudge very hard.
She can fear him as well as silence him for a long duration. On top of that, she is a ranged hero which gives her a massive advantage over him.
People are still learning about this hero for now, but I think she is one of the best counters to Pudge as of now.
Night Stalker
Night Stalker’s Void is a perfect spell to interrupt a channeling spell like Dismember. He can also silence Pudge by getting on top of him and Pudge can’t really fight back against him.
He also gives a vision of a huge area when he uses his ultimate which directly affects Pudge as he usually likes to hide in treelines and hook enemies.
Pudge suffers even more when Night Stalker gets his Aghanim’s Scepter because his Void becomes an AoE ability when he makes that item and he can easily interrupt the Dismember even without targeting him.
Nyx Assassin
Nyx Assassin is one of the hard counters to Pudge. He can stun Pudge from a fairly long distance and interrupt the Dismember.
He can also easily escape using his Vendetta if Pudge tries to kill him with his combo. His mana-burning ability also hurts him very much as Pudge has a very limited mana pool.
Additionally, Spiked Carapace can stun him while he is using Rot even when Nyx is under the effect of Vendetta.
It is just so hard to play against this hero as a Pudge without buying tons of Sentry wards.
Outworld Destroyer
Outworld Destroyer is another hard counter for Pudge. He can use Astral Imprisonment to either save his ally or banish Pudge.
Either way, Pudge isn’t able to use his combo when there is an Outworld Destroyer in the enemy team.
This ability also temporarily steals mana from the affected enemy heroes. If Pudge gets hit with this ability a few times, he won’t have enough mana to use his combo.
The Arcane Orb and Sanity’s Eclipse also deal massive damage to Pudge.
Phantom Lancer
Pudge really struggles against illusion-based heroes and Phantom Lancer is no exception. With Diffusal Blade, he can burn all of his mana and Pudge won’t be able to do anything.
Even if Pudge manages to hook the real PL, he can quickly use Doppelganger or Manta Style to make illusions and instantly turn against him.
It becomes even harder to deal with Phantom Lancer once he makes Heart without a proper counter.
Other illusion heroes like Naga Siren and Terrorblade also counter Pudge super hard.
Slark
In my opinion, Slark counters every hero in the game if he is played in the correct way. He has one of the best dispels in the game and when timed right, he can easily dispel Dismember.
He can also jump in and out of the fight using Pounce, and his ultimate makes him literally immune to physical damage.
He gets even scarier when he gets his Aghanim’s Scepter and if you don’t have heroes to lock him down, he can snowball very quickly.
Weaver
Weaver is another slippery hero which is very difficult to catch and control. His Sukuchi has a very low cooldown and mana cost so he can spam this ability to annoy Pudge.
It is also very hard to hook him during this duration. Weaver can quickly kill pudge with his high physical damage and armor reduction ability.
He can also escape easily by using Time Lapse if he ever finds himself in danger.
