Puppet Master guide
In my opinion, the Puppet Master can be played as a support, ganker, disabler or carry. Item and skill builds vary for each role. I will not advocate a certain role and I am not suggesting that he is the best hero for any of these roles. It depends how you want to play him and the team you are against.
Skills
Puppeteers Hold
The Puppet Master ties up a target enemy with puppet strings. The strings slow down the enemy’s attack speed and restrains movement.
Applies Puppeteer’s Hold to target for 3, 3.75, 4.5 and 5.25 seconds respectively. Target is constantly pushed toward the position he was at when Puppeteer’s Hold was applied. If the target moves too far from this location, it will be forced back to the original position.
This is the Puppet Master’s signature skill. It is essentially just a slow at first glance but it works so much better. You might think the heroes has to facing the way you want them to go to make it work it. Wrong. They can turn around and run away (albeit slowly). If you cast it when they are running away, it will push them in that direction, then pull them back to the original position for moving too far. At level 4 this skill lasts a whopping 5.25 seconds. This skill will pretty much ensure that a gank goes down well.
No matter what items or role you are you want to level this up first. It’s too good to miss out on.
Puppet Show
The Puppet Master enslaves an enemy unit as his Puppet. The target is driven crazy and will attack the nearest unit, be it friend or foe.
Applies Craze Puppet to target for 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4 seconds respectively. If target comes within a 250, 300, 350 or 400 radius (respective of level) of any unit while Craze Puppet is active, it will be forced to attack that target until Crazy Puppet wears off.
When I first saw this skill I thought it would be absolutely amazing. But its not. Its a mediocre disable. It CAN be very effective if used properly. To use this skill properly you need another unit near your target at the very least, otherwise it will do nothing. You, yourself count as a unit but your not really tough enough to take a beating for 4 seconds. Enemy heroes (in a lane) or the creep wave is a good target. An allied Legionnaire is one of the best targets. Using this on a lategame carry near the end of the game isn’t exactly an amazing idea, unless a creep is closer to him than your ally. Combine this skill with Puppeteer’s for a 9.25 second disable. If you combine it with Legionnaire against a single target they are dead. It does well against spell casters as they can’t nuke/stun you or heal themselves while they are forced to attack so you may wish to save this until they are low if they have some sort of disable, heal or escape skill.
Whiplash
Imbuing his attack with his magical Puppet Strings, the Puppet Master is able to increase his base damage and unleash devastating attacks that damage multiple enemies.
On every 5th attack, attacks do 125, 150, 175, 200% normal damage and apply 25, 50, 70, 100% splash damage in radius of 200 respective of level.
This is the skill that will enable you to harrass, push, farm and carry. As you can see from the description, every 5th attack does bonus damage and splashes in 200 aoe. As a passive bonus, this skill granks +6/12/18/24% extra damage. You can use this skill to lasthit very effectively. It is also a very good tool for harassing. Wait until its about to proc, anhd hit the enemy hero(es) for bonus damage. This is pretty much a guaranteed 2x crit every 5 hits. (20% chance to crit 2x). As your damage goes up, so does this. With the added splash and enough damage you can 1-shot entire creep waves. Making you (eventually) a very good pusher and farmer. If you level up fast, and get a moderate farm early on you should be able to rice farm enough to carry.
Voodoo Puppet
The Puppet Master imbues the essence of a target enemy in his Puppet. The Puppet can then be attacked by the Puppet Master or any of his allies. The puppet takes increased damage, and transfers damage taken to the target as Magic damage.
Spawns a Puppet near self that is linked to target. Any damage taken by the Puppet is transferred to the target as Magic damage. The Puppet has a maximum health of 450, 700 and 950 respective of level, 5.5 Magic Armor, and takes 160, 180, 210% damage respective of level.
Lasts until target gets more than 1000 units away from spawned Puppet, or until Puppet is killed.
Basically, this skill creates a puppet next to the Puppet Master. It is tied to the enemy. Any damage done to the puppet will be transferred as magic damage (reduced by magic armour) to the enemy. At level 3, the puppet takes 210% damage. Theoretically this means that doing roughly 450 damage will kill the puppet and deal 950 damage to the enemy. Personally, I’m not incredibly impressed by this skill, especially as in ultimate. It can be used to kill invisible targets if you cast it before they go invisible, and if they splash from whiplash hits both the target and the puppet it will deal massive damage. If you know any good way to use this ultimate please leave a post explaining it.
Skill Builds
The Ganker/Carry build
1. Puppeteer’s Hold
2. Whiplash
3-8. Puppeteer’s Hold+Whiplash (Level up whichever you need primarily, typically Puppeteer’s hold if you need a disable, or whiplash if you need to farm or harass more)
9. Puppet Show
10. Voodoo Puppet
11. Voodoo Puppet
12. Puppet Show
13. Puppet Show
14. Puppet Show
15. Stats
16. Voodoo Puppet
17-25. Stats
Disable/Support Build
1-8. Puppeteer’s Hold/Puppet Show
9. Voodoo Puppet
10. Whiplash
11. Voodoo Puppet
12-14. Whiplash
15. Stats
16. Voodoo Puppet
17-25. Stats
Why no ultimate at level 6?????
Because its ineffective, more damage from whiplash or more disable from Puppeteer’s hold is much better for ganking or surviving.
Written by Neounk
Well I’ve been reading alot of builds and they sound like alot of fun, so I thought I’d post mine. Ill start off with skills:(1 whiplash)(2 puppet show)(3 puppet strings)(4/5 whiplash)(6 ulti)(7 whiplash)(8/9/10 puppet show)(11 ulti)(12/13/14 puppet strings)(15 stat)(16 ulti)(17-25 stat) I start off with 6 runes of blight and 2 mark of the novice. I then proceed to get marchers and 2 talisman of exile(depending on how im doing on gold I might or might not finish off the tali’s and go straight for finished boots) then I get steamboots for the +25 atk speed and +10 str for some hp. Then my next item is whispering helm, yes I know the elder parasite is GREAT For that +100 atk speed but whispering helm will come into play later on. Anyway I get a Shrunken head next so that I cant be touched during fights(because if a melee tries to go after me ill back up into my team and they usually take care of him)then I go straight for harkons blade, OHH YES, This item is SAAHHHWEEET. I’ve gotten multiple annihilation with this weapon. Now(if the game lasts this long) finish off your Symbol of Rage(this is why we got the whispering helm) and you are UNTOUCHABLE you cant be stopped, well assuming you dont get assraped by all 5 at once with no teammates around, haha well thats my build, if anyone tries it, be sure to give me feedback
level 1=puppet hold for disable incase crazy stuff
2=whiplash
3=puppet show (level 1 of disable is 2.5 seconds, leveling it only grants you another.5 seconds of disable)
4,5=whiplash
6=ultimate, gives you BURST dmg which you need early even if it is weak
max whiplash at 7, then max puppet, grab ult at 11 and then max puppet show
items= steamtreads str (boost your EHP and gives you better ms + as)
harkons blade/assassins shroud= depends on how your farm is doing or the other team. harkons boost your dps IMMENSELY, makes shieldbreaker look like childs play
assassins shroud lets you abuse your ultimate and escape/set up ganks
optional=elder parasite=castly increases early game dps
shrunken head= i like to get this after harkon’s so you can pound on people without being scared of disables
sheepstick=never gotten it but disables are always a good option
charged hammer= a decent option after harkon’s, ive found i just like to tank up but if you want to be a glass cannon feel free
You said post anything that makes his ult useful, and i will tell you. puppet can solo anything in the game. with ease. All you have to do is ult, use puppet show and they’ll attack the puppet hurting themselves, while you hurt them.essentially they nuke them selves for 1k (950) you’ve probably hit around 750 assuming you have mad mask, and just hold them after that. unless they have 100′s of hp regen and 3.5k hp they’re pretty much done.
heheheheheheheepuppet is good/…….but papaer life
best with dagon at 1st item
Puppets a great hero and I tend to start of with shroud as a first item since it gives puppet an escaping tool, which he lacks.
Does anyone have an idea of how to play puppet against a warbeast with shrunken head?
Yes.
Begin with ult, once casted, use voodoo puppet and retreat so he is closer to the puppet and kills it himself. Whiplash should be thrown at the puppet for huge combined damage.
Then puppeteers hold, retreat slightly and attack to death.
sorry man but this is a pretty bad guide…
if your mid first off get gloves of swift and runes of the blight (to rush alchemest’s bones) and if your laned get runes of the blight and ring of the teacher
this is if your mid
1.whiplash (harrass and get kills)
2.puppets hold
3.whiplash
4.puppets hold
5.whiplash
6.voodoo puppet (for when you gank AND SHOULD NOT GANK TIL LEVEL 6)
7.whiplash
whatever you want.
if your laned (mainly if your babysitting the carry)
1.puppets hold
2.whiplash
3.whiplash
4.puppet show
5.whiplash.
6.puppets hold
7.whiplash
8.puppet hold
9.voodoo puppet
10.puppet hold
11.voodoo puppet
12-15. stats
16.voodoo puppet
17-19. puppet show
end items should be harkons blade, alch bones, assassins shroud, elder parasite, steamboots.
alchemists bones come before the steamboots
The best way (in my opinion) to use the ult, is to drop the ult, get the puppet low, and if they aren’t dead, use puppet show on them. They will attack the puppet, but not be able to kill it since they do non-lethal damage while under the effect of puppet show, but it will still deal the damage to them (at a staggering 210% of the damage they do). One of my favorite items on puppetmaster is codex 5 because it’s a 1600 damage nuke when used on the puppet, that is of course unless you have a Witchslayer, pyromancer, or wretched hag on your team.
Does that mean an enemy hero can attack a ‘voodoo puppet’ for the full 4 seconds of ‘crazy puppet’ and not kill the ‘voodoo puppet’? Also will the enemy hero continue to deal damage to himself even after the voodoo puppet is at 1 hp?
I love this hero. Just share how I play this hero, well, You can only kill enemy hero once you reach 6th level (except your enemy is aggresively wants to kill you, till he careless about his defence).
Build till lvl 6: Puppet hold (3 lvl), Whiplash (2lvl), Voodoo puppet (1lvl).
Combo: try to decrease enemy hero’s HP by using Whiplash till he has at least 500 HP (why i choose whip? cz if you use puppet show, you will not be able to use your ultimate + puppet hold as your mana is used for puppet show). then tie him with puppet hold, then quickly spawn voodoo puppet. Hit the puppet, not the hero. You will done 600+ damage or more, and that means your enemy (which has 500 HP) died.
Why I use puppet hold first? Cz if you use voodoo puppet first, your enemy will be able to run as voodoo puppet has maximum range of 1500 before it’s connection to target cut.
for item: Dagon.
At 3rd lvl of ultimate, You can kill a low-HP-hero (usually int and agi heroes) by using voodoo puppet then dagon+whiplash to voodoo puppet. Hold and puppet show are not needed in this case to instant kill
If you manage to use puppet show to force enemy hero to hit his ally hero until his ally hero is dead, you will not considered as the killer and the enemy that is killed by his friend will be denied. Even it’s Your skill that caused him die. T_T