Hi,
I play offlane Pudge exclusively (usually) in solo queue ranked on one of my accounts on USEast in the 5k bracket. For the most part, I win a lot lot more than I lose, as well as being the highest impact player in almost all of my games, therefore I'm climbing MMR with Pudge, but that's irrelevant to me considering I'm doing this just for fun. This has been going for around 5 months (offlane pudge) on and off but my item build carries over from DotA 1 since 2008 with the discovery and personal preference of one item that I purchase on Pudge which has yet to fail me even in 2015, which I will get into later.
Everything in Jenkins offlane guide/video is accurate and exactly the same as done. If you plan to ever do offlane Pudge this video is 100% accurate in my opinion, the rest is just execution and experience.
Tranquil / Bottle is the only thing you ever need and later Blink becomes the best item you can get. The only difference between his build and mine was that he prefers Crimson Guard while I prefer Hood of Defiance. Hood of Defiance is the item I was talking about earlier.
After 7 years on experimenting on and off for Pudge item builds, I found that Hood of Defiance was the best item I could ever pick up before and/or after Blink. Crimson Guard is a broken item and I'm 100% sure of this therefore I will pick it up over hood depending on the situation. For example, enemy team has Meepo, Troll, Void or other variants of Heroes prioritizing attack speed over raw damage. Sometimes, I even buy Blink before the Hood (Usually it's Hood into Blink because the components are cheaper; 350, 350, 550, 875) depending on the enemy lineup. Everything is situational, but I find myself purchasing Hood 90% more often than Crimson Guard.
The reason for prioritizing Hood of Defiance is because you get a lot more damage output and EHP that is potentially lost from using Rot. You increase your damage output by being able to Rot for longer periods of time losing less HP because Hood of Defiance also reduces self-Rot damage which stacks with your passive. However the downside to Hood of Defiance is that you sacrifice your physical bulkiness for non-diminishing magic resistance (good thing) to enemies and yourself (Rot). I think that’s a better trade-off in most of the situations I encounter, compared to having more physical bulk. To put it simply, I either go Hood (pipe) or Crimson Guard and if the situation seriously calls for it, I go both (rare). Pudge has extremely high HP, so the effects of Rot damaging himself are usually non-existent especially when you buy Urn of Shadows, but I found that Hood was still more effective than Urn of Shadows because it gave me innate regen + Tranquil regen + Bottle regen/refill. I stopped buying Urn entirely on Pudge which meant I lost potential 200 damage. I used to buy Urn every game and now I don’t consider it anymore. I’m still not 100% on it and still have to experiment if I should just buy Urn, use it then sell it when I don’t need it (seems like the best choice but I still haven’t tested yet). That is just how my build-up concluded; by no means should you skip Urn if you feel it’s worth it. My reasoning is simply because I play Pudge more like a solo-Carry that can put my entire team on my back as opposed to being the guy that makes space for his carry and later becoming an asset.
As for item builds: Tranquil Bottle Magic Wand from Stick bought in side shop Cloak (550) into Hood or Crimson Guard Blink (or blink after Bottle) After these, it becomes super situational. There are too many situations so I’ll just name potential items I usually pick up: BKB Shadow Blade Assault Cuirass / Shivas Guard Aghs Sceptor If I have hood; Finish Pipe and Travels to replace Tranquils much much later. The side items: Gem (Synergy with Shadow Blade / Blink), Ghost Sceptor, Force Staff, Blademail
Now this is how I play Pudge in pubs and does not address competitive viability. It’s strictly thought up on the premise for pubs because it was done in pubs. If I played Pudge competitively I would be able to experiment different methods but I don’t anymore. Lastly, I usually ask my support to make an Urn of Shadows over me so we still have an Urn on the team. If I was to purchase Urn, I would see myself selling it much later for a bigger item when Urn can still be useful on a support that doesn’t need many slot items and can keep it throughout the game.