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