Puck the Faerie Dragon is one of the most elusive heroes in all of Dota 2. Most commonly played from the solo mid position, she is able to zip and jaunt all over the place, dishing out good amounts of area of effect magic damage while dipping and dodging her opponents’ attempts at fighting back.
She does demand a certain level of mechanical skill and game sense to be fully effective, but Puck is excellent pick for those that can really make full use of her powerful and irritating kit. If your team needs a mobile magic-based ganker, and you know what you’re doing with the hero, Puck is as reliable as they come.
If you like deftly dodging your opponents’ attacks while making sure they themselves cannot escape your wrath, read on. Prepare yourselves to harness the ancient power of the Faerie Dragon.
Mischievous Thing – Puck’s Abilities
Puck is all about being as annoying as possible, primarily by way of her extreme elusiveness that can be used in fights and to take down the Dota 2 map objectives. All three of her non-ultimate abilities allow her to either reposition herself in a teamfight, or avoid damage and various negative effects altogether.
- Illusory Orb (Q) – Puck fires an orb in the targeted direction that deals magic damage to enemy units it collides with. At any time while the orb is active, Puck can use Ethereal Jaunt (D) to teleport herself to the orb’s position.
- Waning Rift (W) – Puck can use this ability to jump a short distance in the targeted direction, while dealing magic damage in a 400 unit radius around her once she jumps. Any enemy units caught in this area of effect will also be silenced for a few seconds, making it difficult for them to retaliate.
- Phase Shift (E) — undebatably her signature ability. On use, Puck sends herself into a different dimension, rendering herself immobile but completely invulnerable for a few seconds. Combined with certain items which we’ll discuss later on, this ability alone makes her more difficult to kill than almost any other hero in the game.
- Dream Coil (R) – The last of her offensive tools comes in the form of her ultimate ability called Dream Coil. On use, Puck puts down a coil in the targeted area, and any enemy heroes that happen to be in this area once the spell is cast will received magic damage and be tethered to the center of the coil. Should they move away from the center point and snap their respective tethers, they will be stunned for a significant amount of time and receive additional magic damage.
A Dragon’s Hoard – Puck’s Item Build
Minute Zero Items
Puck is one of the best heroes in Dota 2 at the moment but making an effective build is easier said than done. So, onto her items of choice, then. To start with, it’s always a good idea to buy stats and regen, as with any other hero.
A set of Tangoes, two or three Iron Branches or a Circlet, and a Faerie Fire are common minute zero purchases. Then you’ll want to grab yourself a Bottle as soon as possible, because Puck is pretty good at controlling runes with Illusory Orb.
From there, you typically want to get Power Treads to increase your stats and attack speed. Get yourself a Magic Wand if your lane opponent happens to be a spell spammer, so you don’t always have to dip into your Bottle charges just to top your health and mana up in the laning phase.
Mid Game Items for Puck
Witch Blade – This grants you even more attack speed to work with, as well as some additional mana regen and armor. But what you really want out of this item is the attack modifier, which ups your damage output significantly as you enter the mid game. Ganking the sidelanes becomes much easier with Witch Blade in tow, and generally you will be buying this as Puck in almost every single game.
Blink Dagger – Remember when I mentioned that this would tie into Phase Shift? It’s because the duration of Phase Shift at max level overlaps with Blink Dagger’s on-hit cooldown, at 3.25 seconds and 3.0 seconds, respectively. This means that if you can get Phase Shift off successfully while under duress, you are practically guaranteed to at least be able to blink away from enemy heroes.
Aside from that though, Blink Dagger makes initiating much more reliable. You can certainly jump into a teamfight using Illusory Orb, but Illusory Orb is slow and gives your opponents time to react. Blink Dagger, meanwhile, is instant, and allows you to initiate instantly and then jump out with Illusory Orb after putting down Dream Coil and Waning Rift.
Flexible Faerie – Late Game
And that’s pretty much it for her core items, honestly. The rest of Puck’s item build is entirely up to you, your team’s draft, and the opposing team’s draft. This can make her a little more difficult to call in the late game and not necessarily one of the best Dota heroes for beginners.
If the game is going well or things seem even between both teams, you can go for Parasma as an upgrade to your Witch Blade. If you need something to help you shake off silence effects, get a Eul’s Scepter of Divinity, which you can then build into a Wind Waker in the deep late game to take your elusiveness to the next level.
If you’re facing a lot of single target disables, there’s Linken’s Sphere. Blocking even one major spell this way can give you enough time to react to a gank attempt, and Phase Shift out with your Blink Dagger ready to go. If it’s AoE disables you’re having trouble with, Black King Bar is a really good choice.
Shiva’s Guard works well versus right click carries that rely on their attack speed while also shoring up Puck’s low armor woes. Scythe of Vyse is a classic choice, particularly against mobile cores that would otherwise kneel if they had no access to their escape mechanisms. The disable is also one of the best counters to BKB, if you can jump the would-be BKB user before they manage to pop the debuff immunity.
Then, if the game goes really late and your team needs some extra physical damage, look no further than Aghanim’s Scepter. The upgrade causes Dream Coil to attack tethered heroes at 90 percent of Puck’s attack speed, which is basically just free damage in teamfights. This may not seem like much considering Puck isn’t really a full-on right clicking carry hero, but it gets ridiculous when you realize that Dream Coil shots actually apply on-hit effects like Mjollnir’s Chain Lightning or Daedalus’ Critical Strike.
This is especially deadly in late game situations when you have the level 25 talent that makes Dream Coil ignore debuff immunity, because not even BKB will save your opponents from getting hit. Try it next time your position 1 player has a hard time dishing out enough damage to carry your team to victory.
Eons of Knowledge – How to scale Puck
Puck’s ability build is pretty much the same as it’s always been throughout her many years of existence and figuring out how to play carry in Dota can be pretty straight forward with this build. Illusory Orb goes first, since it’s great for harassing your opponent and securing ranged creeps in the laning phase. It also serves as an early escape tool if you happen to get ganked before the creeps spawn.
Waning Rift is the second priority because you need as much damage as you can get in the early game. Before maxing it out, though, a value point in Phase Shift at level 2 is in order, since it disjoints projectiles and helps you stay healthy against your lane opponent’s own harassment attempts. It’ll be last on the priority list in terms of maxing out, as the later levels on Phase Shift only become useful once you have your Blink Dagger. Dream Coil should be taken at every ultimate level.
The talent build used to be a lot more complex in previous patches, but Puck’s most recent talent tree streamlines the process quite a bit. In most cases you’ll want the damage talents at levels 10 and 15, with level 10 being a notable exception if you’re facing a draft that’s particularly weak to silence effects. The Waning Rift talent at level 20 is a no-brainer, while the Dream Coil talent at level 25 is just too good to pass up in most cases.
As for her Facet choices, there really isn’t much to say. Jostling Rift is much, much better than Curveball, because Curveball simply doesn’t provide enough utility versus how hard it is to use and maximize. Pick Jostling Rift every time you play Puck.
I recommend the following progression in most games:
- Facet: Jostling Rift
- Illusory Orb
- Phase Shift
- Illusory Orb
- Waning Rift
- Illusory Orb
- Dream Coil
- Illusory Orb
- Waning Rift
- Waning Rift
- Level 10 Talent: +40 Illusory Orb Damage
- Waning Rift
- Dream Coil
- Phase Shift
- Phase Shift
- Level 15 Talent: +60 Waning Rift Damage
- Phase Shift
- Dream Coil
- Level 20 Talent: -3s Waning Rift Cooldown
- Level 25 Talent: Dream Coil Pierces Debuff Immunity
