How Pudge and Venomancer perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41f, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41f, Pudge and Venomancer win 51.10% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 63,105 matches.
Pairing a long single-target disable with heavy damage-over-time seems like a natural fit. The issue is that a successful Pudge hook relies on burst damage to eliminate the target during Dismember. Venomancer’s kit, while powerful, provides the opposite: slow, sustained damage from abilities like Venomous Gale and Poison Nova. This gives the hooked enemy a crucial window to use items, get saved by an ally with a Force Staff, or even survive the initial lockdown and turn the fight. A combo that looks deadly on paper often fails to secure the kill it promises.
This lack of burst synergy becomes more obvious as the game progresses. Pudge wants to find isolated pickoffs from the fog, while Venomancer excels in messy, prolonged teamfights where he can apply his poison to multiple heroes and kite. Their game plans don't really align. While Venomancer’s slows can help set up a hook, the follow-up is awkward. Pudge commits his entire kit to one hero who might not even die, leaving him vulnerable while the rest of the fight plays out around him. The two heroes end up feeling disconnected from one another.
How this pairing performs across skill brackets — the duo's team win rate in recent ranked matches, split by average match rank. Ranks with too few recent matches are omitted. These rows use the last 30 days of quality-filtered ranked matches, all patches in that span combined — a wider window than the patch-scoped count above, so the per-rank match totals can exceed it.
| Rank | Team win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 55.46% | 678 |
| Crusader & Archon | 52.66% | 2,353 |
| Legend & Ancient | 50.49% | 2,028 |
| Divine & Immortal | 47.85% | 395 |
This duo's team win rate in each recent balance patch — whether the pairing is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Team win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41f | 51.10% | ▲ +0.9pp | 63,105 |
| 7.41e | 50.20% | ▲ +0.8pp | 218,510 |
| 7.41d | 49.41% | ▲ +0.9pp | 257,986 |
| 7.41c | 48.47% | — | 125,996 |
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Data updated Oct 5, 2026.