Puck in 7.41f: how the hero changed and what the stats show

Hi! Today I’m looking at Puck in patch 7.41f: the hero has always sat somewhere near the meta without much noise, and after this string of changes it’s worth figuring out where the game is taking him now. His role is easy to read, and his kit is exactly the kind that loves to break the pace of a match, but the numbers from the last few weeks suggest things aren’t as smooth as old habits might make them seem.

Role and abilities

Puck is a hero with intelligence as his main attribute, a ranged attack type, and a difficulty rating of 2 out of 3. In terms of roles, he fits the classic mold of a mobile mid laner:

• Nuker — 2
• Disabler — 3
• Escape — 3
• Initiator — 3

To keep it very short, according to the official description he dives at enemies on a magical ball and disables them. And honestly, that’s a very accurate way to put it: Puck doesn’t so much smash faces head-on as it does glide annoyingly through the fight, catch people, interrupt spells, and disappear before the opponent can finish the sentence.

• Illusory Orb — a vector projectile that flies along a path, deals damage to enemies it hits, and lets Puck travel to the orb with Ethereal Jaunt; when cast in alternate mode, it flies in a straight line.
• Waning Rift — a dash to a target point followed by a cloud of dust that deals damage and prevents enemies from casting abilities.
• Phase Shift — a channeling dodge into another dimension that protects from all harm; with Aghanim’s Shard, the hero’s attacks deal additional magical damage, and when the ability is used, Puck attacks all enemies in attack range.
• Puckish — an innate ability; it does not trigger when dodging tower attacks.
• Dream Coil — a magical spiral that binds enemies, deals damage, and punishes them for leaving the radius; with Aghanim’s Scepter, attacks stop only after the stun ends when the coil breaks.

Recent patch changes

In 7.41f, Puck didn’t get any direct changes, but before that the hero received several targeted adjustments. And here, to me, it looks less like an attempt to overturn the hero and more like a careful trimming of the most comfortable edges. Not dramatic, but noticeable.

• 7.41e — Illusory Orb cooldown increased from 11/10/9/8 to 12/11/10/9 seconds.
• 7.41d — agility gain reduced from 2.3 to 2.1; the level 10 talent’s bonus damage for Illusory Orb was lowered from 40 to 35.
• 7.41c — the level 15 talent changed from “–15 sec. Dream Coil cooldown” to “+2% health and mana restoration from Puckish”; the level 25 talent changed from “Dream Coil pierces spell immunity” to “–30 sec. Dream Coil cooldown.”
• 7.41a — damage on hit from Illusory Orb was reduced from 75/150/225/300 to 70/140/210/280.
• 7.41 — Puckish was changed: restoration from max health and mana became 3% instead of 10 + 2%, and the spell-dodge multiplier was lowered from 3.5 to 3; Illusory Orb was made vector-based by default, arc casting was added, along with an alternate straight-line flight, speed was increased from 550 to 750, and enemies now take damage on contact every 0.5 seconds — 3% hit damage.

Statistics

According to OpenDota, over the last 7 days Puck had 123,864 public games, with a win rate of 46.9%. That puts him 111th out of 127 heroes by win rate and 104th by number of games. For such a naturally mobile hero, that doesn’t look especially cheerful: he hasn’t fallen into obscurity, but he’s also not reaching a comfortable pub range.

• Herald — 44.5%
• Guardian — 45.2%
• Crusader — 45.4%
• Archon — 46.8%
• Legend — 47.0%
• Ancient — 47.5%
• Divine — 49.2%

The ranked ladder shows a clear trend: the higher the skill level, the better Puck performs in pubs. He looks weaker at lower ranks, while in Divine he’s already climbing toward more respectable numbers. To me, that feels like a classic hero who loves tempo, timing, and clean execution, rather than just a “jump in and win” button.

In professional matches, the picture is completely different: over the latest period, Puck has 21 picks, 14 wins, which is 66.7%, and 51 bans. It’s easy to get tempted by a conclusion like “everything’s great, the hero is fine,” but I wouldn’t rush it — one successful sample doesn’t make a hero universally strong. Still, the interest from the pro scene is obvious.

Items and matchups

According to OpenDota, Puck’s item build in professional matches is pretty predictable: the hero wants early mobility, then boosts spell burst, and later picks up tools for tempo and survivability. Nothing exotic, but everything is very much to the point.

• Start: Iron Branch, Tango, Observer Ward, Faerie Fire, Circlet, Magic Stick
• Early game: Bottle, Boots of Speed, Power Treads, Null Talisman, Blitz Knuckles, Wraith Band
• Mid game: Witch Blade, Blink Dagger, Oblivion Staff, Aghanim’s Shard, Blitz Knuckles, Staff of Wizardry
• Late game: Mystic Staff, Parasma, Soul Booster, Octarine Core, Reaver, Overwhelming Blink

In pro matchups, Puck looks best against Troll Warlord, Silencer, and Phantom Lancer, and worst against Lone Druid, Oracle, and Bane. That all makes sense: this is a hero who loves opponents he can irritate with mobility and tempo disruption, while against heroes who refuse to play along with the script, he has a much harder time.

Conclusion

After the 7.41 changes, Puck looks like a hero that wasn’t broken, but was clearly grounded a bit. He still has a strong kit for initiation, saves, and control, but the latest changes definitely hit his comfort and damage, especially in how often and how reliably he can enter a fight. The numbers don’t make him look like an easy or obvious pick, but in the hands of players who can keep the pace and maintain positioning, he can still be very annoying. We’ll see how this plays out in pubs next — for now, it’s fine, just without any huge excitement.

Source: official Dota 2 and OpenDota data.

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