Pebbles guide by Don_Korb
He seems small? Well he IS small… yet…
The elemental creatures of Newerth have long kept
away from mortal struggles, seeking instead to heal
the destruction left in their wake. In the current war,
however, some elementals have taken arm against
the daemons, and the huge and implacable Pebbles
is one of them.
Stats
Attack Type=Melee
Attack Damage=61-67
Attack Range=128
Movementspeed=285
Turnrate=320
Armor=0.86
MagicArmor=5.5
Strength=24
Agility=9
Intelligence=14
Strength per level=3.0
Agility per level=0.9
Intelligence per level=1.6
This is Pebbles, in my opinion one of the best nukers in early and mid game and, if you do it right, also very effective in late game.
He may seem pretty sweet because of his small size, but he’s dangerous though, so beware 
Let’s first have a look at his skills:
Stalagmites
Pebbles summons forth an eruption of stalagmites
at a target location, stunning and damaging all
enemies in the area.
Level 1 : Deals 100 magic damage and stuns each unit in 200 radius for 2 seconds
Level 2 : Deals 180 magic damage and stuns each unit in 200 radius for 2 seconds
Level 3 : Deals 260 magic damage and stuns each unit in 200 radius for 2 seconds
Level 4 : Deals 300 magic damage and stuns each unit in 200 radius for 2 seconds
Mana cost 120
Cooldown 20 seconds
Even if the tooltip doesn’t say it, everyone who already played Pebbles knows: the further away the target is, the harder it is to hit him with this spell because the area the stun is working in “flies” to the target location, so it’s best to throw this when standing right next to the target
Chuck
Pebbles throws a nearby unit to target location,
damaging it and all enemies in an area around where it lands.
Level 1 : Deals 75 magic damage to enemies in 300 radius. Buildings receive 33% damage. Deals 15 magic damage to thrown unit.
Level 2 : Deals 150 magic damage to enemies in 300 radius. Buildings receive 33% damage. Deals 30 magic damage to thrown unit.
Level 3 : Deals 225 magic damage to enemies in 300 radius. Buildings receive 33% damage. Deals 45 magic damage to thrown unit.
Level 4 : Deals 300 magic damage to enemies in 300 radius. Buildings receive 33% damage. Deals 60 magic damage to thrown unit.
Mana cost 120
Cooldown 15 seconds
Once again missing in the tooltip: you can also throw people at themselves, which means a maximum of 360 dmg in the end!
Slab Skin
Grants bonus armor and reduces the duration of debuffs.
Level 1 : +2 Armor. -10% Debuff durations.
Level 2 : +4 Armor. -20% Debuff durations.
Level 3 : +6 Armor. -30% Debuff durations.
Level 4 : +8 Armor. -40% Debuff durations.
Mana cost n/a
Cooldown n/a
A “nice-to-have” passive skill, but not important for the mean ganking tactic at the beginning.
Enlarge
Makes Pebbles grow larger, increasing attack damage,
move speed, and adding to the power of his other skills.
Level 1 : 40 Bonus attack damage, 20% reduced attack speed.
Level 2 : 80 Bonus attack damage, 35% reduced attack speed.
Level 3 : 120 Bonus attack damage, 60% reduced attack speed.
Mana Cost n/a
Cooldown n/a
Stalagmites
Increases cast range by 50/100/150
Chuck
Increases damage done to chucked unit by 35/50/65%
This gives you the huge Attack dmg Pebbles can greatly use in mid and espacially end game, but the -AS is a problem that has to be dealt with… but one after another
What skills should i have?
The worst thing about Pebbles is his spells… of course only for his enemies! But let’s first have a look at how and when to skill them:
01. Stalagmites
02. Chuck
03. Stalagmites
04. Chuck
05. Stalagmites
06.Chuck
07. Stalagmites
08. Chuck
09. Enlarge
10. Slab Skin
11. Enlarge
12. Slab Skin
13. Slab Skin
14. Slab Skin
15. Attribute Bonus
16. Enlarge
(the rest will be Attribute Bonus of course)
Why not ulti at lvl 6?
There is an easy explanation for this: Stalagmites and Chuck do amazing dmg together!
But there is one problem… Mana! This problem can easily be unmade by the right item build. This is our next point:
What items do i buy?
Luckily, Pebbles is a strengh hero, so his basic HP are actually high enough to survive in the beginning. Thats why i immediatly start with the
Ring of Sorcery
This useful item doesn’t just boost your basic MP but also gives you the ability to replenish your mana as well as the mana of all allies close to you! This is how you can easily deal with the problem “2 spells to cast”
I spend my first gold on the Guardian Ring and a Heal Pot (you can also have Runes of Blight, but i prefere the Pot cause it restores your HP much faster, even if it’s just once), then i go for the Pickled Brain and the recipe. After having the ring you should start thinking about the problem ulti -> attack speed slowed. The first and second lvl of the ulti can easily be negated by our next item:
Steamboots
Apart from the Movementspeed Bonus (which is important for every hero in every game actually) this item also boosts your Attackspeed by a value of 30 which is just needed to deal with your slow attack speed. It also gives you some HP and dmg through 10 strengh. Must have!
You may be a bit faster now, but it’s still pretty hard to get really next to your enemy, espacially if they have the same or better boots as you. We have to change this, and the easiest way to do that is the
Portal Key
“Huh? Were does that Stone Giant come fro…” this should be the last words of your enemies after you have this nice item! You can instantly teleport next to your enemy which makes it easy to place your stun. A chuck and some auto-hits and your foes are done. This key also allows you to get out of risky situations pretty easy
We’re slowly coming to lvl 16 and Steamboots aren’t enough to deal with the -AS anymore, so we have to find another solution:
Warpcleft
When you have this item it’s like you never heard of any attack speed slow. You’ll attack fast enough to make every demon cry!
Even if your basic dmg is already pretty good just with your ulti it’s still not that imba… we have to make it imba!! With
Runed Axe
This item does a pretty nice dmg+ with a nice splash passive AND some hp and mana regen which is also always nice.
Now, we have a pretty nice dmg and a pretty nice attack speed… what could help well? right, lifesteal! (If the game isn’t over yet) of course, Symbol of Rage is fine, but i prefere this:
Abyssal Skull
This doesn’t only give you a nice lifesteal but also boosts your dmg even more. The armor and the manareg are also nice. AND it also gives all of these effects to your allies, too! (Of course, you should only buy the Abyssal Skull if noone else in your team already did so)
If you still want to spend your money on something, you can use your warpcleft for creating
Demonic Breastplate
But this isn’t that important anymore, you should actually pwn everyones face already 
The skill- and item build are done now, so let’s have a look at
How to play Pebbles?
It’s actually not that hard to kill with Pebbles. At the very beginning you shouldn’t play to risky, keep calm and get some creep kill for earning money, you can place your stun in good situations (such as: enemy in the tower, allied swiftblade whirling next to an enemy) but beware not to be killed to often (I know, that sounds very general, but that’s just the best way in my opinion xD)
after completing your Ring of Sorcery and reaching lvl 8 you can start getting offensive: place your stun, chuck the enemy on himself and hit him once or twice, that actually means death for most enemies in these lvls, espacially if an ally helps you! in early/mid game, Pebbles’ dmg is based on his casts, but this changes as soon as you got the warpcleft and reach lvl 16. Of course, the casts are still pretty good because they nuke a great dmg in a short time, but the basic dmg slowly gets pretty fine, too. The tactic actually stays the same until the end: Port in -> Stalagmites -> Chuck -> hit the crap out of him!!
This was my guide for the nice growing hero Pebbles, say what you think about it, would be happy about some comments
This guide doesn’t work after the first update… Ring for sorcery need ~1800 now
I’ve seen multiple Pebbles (plural) melt face with Assassin’s Shroud by doing the same thing you would do with the port key, except literally not be seen before the attack. How do you feel about that instead of port key?
Portal key is cheaper and is not contered as easily.
Btw this guide is pretty nooby, get null talismans instead of arcane ring and a bottle and ur mana will be fine.
Naw, he’s not a noob. most dota players play pebs with mana ring becuz it gives him ALOT of mana and some needed armor to help him survive.
This is a noob guide sry but all who play tiny/pebbles like this have no idea of this hero.
1. Get nullis and bottle and u will have no mana problems
2. go straight for portal key…and nothing else!
3. build dagon/codex and every agi and int hero is a one hit
And its the job of pebbles to kill somebody instant before the 5v5 clash starts.
i play 1800-1900 rating and own each game with pebbles
try it and say thanks =)
@ TrooniX and collguy, yeah mana problems are somewhat solved, but what happens when u go to the rune to refill your bottle cause your out of mana and boom theirs your enemy right there taking the rune and kills you because u cant click your item to refill.. yes I see your point and hey maybe this never happened to you but u need to look at the what ifs and what cans and be prepared.. whatever i see what you do is plausible I am just putting in my 2 cents
Plz guys i desperately need to play that game..I want to preorder it but i dont have a @##@$ key..
halismi1@yahoo.gr
Rly appreciate the help
Thnx in advance
You failed to mention that people effected by chuck take 2x damage from stalagmites.
A good attack combination when ganking with Pebbles is to throw an enemy on itself and while he/she is in midaig cast your stalagmites to increase the damage they do.
This combo can work magic at early game when an enemy hero gets to greedy with lasthitting or denying without having his/hers partner by it’s side
dude im really a pebbles fan, but with all those items hell get really strong, right?
then the enemies are gonna start ganking him and focusin on him, so (in my opinion)some items are required like behemoths heart, shrunken head and maybe a barbed armor…
other good stuff to do is shiva’s guard plus dagon/codex so u can blink chuck stalagmite ( its better chuck first so u dd the stalags ^^)dagon/codex (plus 800) and then shivas that gives a 200 dmg but slows the guys so he cant run…
PS.: dont forget that when u get the enlarge the chuck dmg “enlarges” too, with ult lvl1=395
ult lvl2=455 and ult lvl3=495… so its like more than a 2000 combo if u think… ^^
THANKS GUYS I HOPE I HELPED SOMEONE!!!
just one more thing..
theres a mistake about the chuck, the cooldown now is 10s, 15 was in DotA!
Here’s Pebbs. First kill at lvl 5 every time (earlier if you increase max mana with starting items). As soon as you have enough mana you stalag/chuck/auto attack and you get a kill. Make sure you chuck while stalag is still going. In some cases you might need an auto attack from a friend. Rinse and repeat all game long.
I would give 3 out of 5 stars to this guide if its focusing on people who never played with pebbles (or tiny) before.
Most of the items u mentioned i dont go for, like steamboots as u said u get some ms but its quite poor, good thing is that u get +10 str (health and attack), well the only thing is that u with with that ms are likely to get killed and rarely that 10str can help u, so in offensive situations. Phaseboots or idk what r they called in hon are way better item for pebbles cuz of phase activation ofc, what i mean is that u can chase most of the heroes, and ofc u can run away from most of heroes.
The second thing is portal key which i rarely buy (only if extremly needed), first of all if ur about kill someone or sometwo =) u can rely on that distance stun, secondly if u go with ur mate who is stunner u can easily toss him with chuck on enemy so he can stun and then u come to stun, the only thing is escaping from battle problem, but atleast u saved 2k gold which is pretty usefull in this stage of game.
And other items depends on how game is proceeding, if u need to be a tank or u can boost attack speed to dominate or get some magic dealing items…
So thats a lil about items but majority of guide should be ”how to play” which is in this case pretty sad, its like u dont explain anything!
No offense just commenting, hope u learn smth from my comment
Rush sorc ring, then enchanted marchers, then warpcleft–>demonic breastplate, then branch out with heart, damage, or another warpcleft.
Raven & Moloqo:
Enhanced marchers are extremely poor on pebbles. The extra damage is negligible compared to steamboots due to his slow attack speed, even with Warpcleft, and the speed boost is wholly unnecesary because Pebbles (as already mentioned) has a solid earlygame chase mechanism in a ranged stun and combat control due to toss. If you play well you will have port key early enough that you can use it both to chase people with enhanced marchers, for initiation and as an escape mechanism to opponent initiation, all which can save your team in 5v5s. Essentially I can think of no other item you can get on pebbles that would be as useful in a 10-18 team fight: controlling the field is way more useful than the attack speed from an early warpcleft when you want your carries to get the kills anyway.
As for the arcane ring vs. bottle discussion.. Depends. In low tier games where the opponent team will have zero rune control bottle might pay off, in a case where just one or two opponent regularly check runes you will be wasting FAR more time than a pebbles with ring on fountain runs when you have an empty bottle, 42 mana and shitty regeneration. The early game dominance given by arcane seems superior to me, but I haven’t played around enough with bottle on Pebbs to be sure.
“You can instantly teleport next to your enemy which makes it easy to place your stun. A chuck and some auto-hits and your foes are done.”
Everyone know that you chuck before you stun for extra dmg…
@David:
Try this on practice mode on a dummy hero, or in a No-stats vs a friend.
First try Stun+Chuck on the hero, and then try Chuck+Stun and see what made the most damage.
The fact that Stun has some delay before it hits makes Stun+Chuck the superior combo, since you still get the extra damage.
Everyone knows this, except for you.
This guide is really bad. Experienced pebbles players will not follow your item build. Instead of your item build buy 2x the item that gives 3+ intellect some pots and your good to go. The extra mana gives you just enough for both spells so you can get first blood lvl 3 or something like that. Then you just keep a Homecomming stone on you, save money until you can afford Portal Key and done! After that buy items according to the game.
I usally go for ring and phase boots, then portal key if ive played well, then its easy to get kills with the blink>chuck>stag and if needed some hits. i would say that ring is a very good item couse it replenish lot mana for you and your freindsthen late i often go behe heart. pretty good actually
good basic guide for a begginer like myself,
would however tweek it and go ring of sorcery then steam boots then demonic breast plate portal key isn’t that important early on as enemies are so weak against the stun just make sure you have back up and pebbles is seriously weak to begin with.
well i always get null, bottle, blink, codex, wateva shoes u want, and there u go…..
carry the whole team with this shyt .
agree with the other fella that pebble is 1 combo kill . BUT!!! However, depends who u up against u need a slight adjustment on what u should get. and also pebble isnt that easy to start off playing considering ur a noob that is… theres quite a few ways u can approach with him. stun toss into tower is an example. stun toss to ur friends and so on.. it comes down to skills
ya i stil am noob wtih pebs i can’t figure out whether its stun chuck or vise versa i need some explanation here ^^
@ djdstroyer
its chuck stun for the double damage that you throw up.
but mainly if your laned with jere or someone with a aoe damage or slow would clasify firstblood