Usually when i play Dota 2 no matter if its captains mode or all pick(although i prefer captains mode) i would always bump into people picking pudge, which is usually used as a mid-laner, but honestly, i believe that he isn't really an optimal selection for mid laning.
Instead some good hero picks would include ranged heroes, like Outworld Devourer(OD)
-Zeus(Whereby his second skill would come in handy very usefully harassing the enemy team)
-Viper( If you are just starting out mid laning in public servers PVP this newbie-friendly hero would be a good choice)
- Storm Spirit(My personal favourite, because of his spam-mable first skill, storm remnant, which is able to produce a clone that explodes when enemies gey close, and is also able to activate his painful passive overload which is able to throw a painful lightining attacks at the enemy which comes in handy alot when harassing enemies in the mid lane)
You may be wondering, why do i think pudge isn't really a good mid laner?
Well, its the fact that he's attacks are melee only, usually people who are cautious can quite easily escape his hooks in the mid lane. Plus, since i play storm, i can ball lightning out easily when hooked, usually in the early game, he's hooks aren't really that painful
Ok now down to item choices,
What you do with an intelligence hero like zeus is that you buy 1 null talisman early game, and use the rest of the money to buy clarity(No need for tangoes or salves because harassing is more important)
Then, you rush for another null talisman, by now your attack should be 70-80+ so by level 10 it will be 100+
Ok right here after your second null you need to choose between to rush for a bottle or arcane boots, usually ill get bottle because the extra movement speed doesn't really bother me.
After that you go and follow your specific item choices.
For Strength,
Get Bracer instead of null early game.
Gauntlet of strength is also a viable option.
For Agility,
Get slippers of agility instead of Null early game.
So,
Always harass the enemy, do not aim at collecting money, harass the enemy, after they back off, and start farming creeps, this way you are able to out farm the enemy and your chances of winning the lane is significantly increased.
Lastly, rune control
Rune control is very important, runes would always spawn when the laning phase ends(when the game starts and the timer reaches zero), so what you do is you can try to plant wards on the top and bottom part of the river(a picture description is put below to illustrate this), or you could just try your luck(Usually from my experience, runes feel like they more likely spawn on top even though they are random), runes would usually spawn 2 minutes after they are picked up, only 1 will spawn each time, if they are not picked up after their spawned, then the rune would remain there.
There are 3 types of runes.
Haste rune - Increases your movement speed significantly for a period of time.
Double Damage Rune - As you can see from the name it doubles total damage output, for a period of time.
Regeneration Rune - It significantly increases your health and mana regeneration rate until they are full, but beware if you get attacked in this period of time, it will interrupt your regeneration and abruptly stops it.
Thanks for reading!
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Thanks!