Basement Dweller's Pebbles Guide

Introduction

Pebbles is a Melee Strength hero that focuses on strong burst damage in order to help him with ganking. Though he is quite slow and fat, Pebbles' "Wombo Combo" is an absolutely devastating maneuver that can decimate squishy heroes in the early stages of the game. This, ontop of his strong ganking potential, makes him a solid hero.

My guide will hopefully shed some light on how to play Pebbles to his fullest potential, and please feel feel to leave any feedback in the comments section!

Pros / Cons

Pros:

- High HP Pool and Strength Gains makes him durable.
- Wombo Combo allows for insane early-mid game burst damage.
- A strong laner against the right compositions.
- Squishy hero lineups tremble before you.
- A strong ganker in the right hands.

- Very low armor means hes a little more susceptible to harassment.
- Low movement speed makes him not so mobile early on.
- Bad management of cooldowns can really hurt a Pebbles.
- Is a bit item dependent.

Items and Reasoning

Start:

Starting items are always flexible, so don't think that this is the end all be all build for starting items. However it is a build I almost always go since it allows me to go straight for a Blood Chalice, which helps with Pebbles' mana issues. A bit of regen to help sustain yourself in lane and your starting build is finished!

Laning:

Marchers: Everyone needs a new pair of nikes, and Pebbles is no different. Especially since he has no shoes to begin with.

Bottle: The only time you would not purchase a Bottle is in the rare case you might be side laning as Pebbles. A Bottle helps immensely with your mana pool, and if you're able to control the runes ganking will become very easy for you to pull off.

Blood Chalice: More or less gives you a free spellcast for a small portion of your health. And it combines the Mark of the Novice and Crushing Claw into one item, giving you some bag space.

Power Supply: A solid item when against a team that loves to spam spells, Power Supply should be a definite pick up in that situation. It's cheap and helps with the stupid amount of spells flying your way.

Homecoming Stone: Carry one, always. They help out more than you think!

Core:

Steamboots: I personally always go for Steamboots. Not only does it slightly counteract the amount of attack speed you lose from your ultimate early in the game, but it always lets you tread-swap so you can have more mana for more wombo combo goodness.

Striders: Other people love Striders, though I don't tend to pick it up at all. However it does let Pebbles become extremely mobile while he ganks, and a Pebbles with Striders should always try his best to be as active as possible: hunting down squishies and carries, counter-ganking, and being a bro.

Portal Key: Always buy this item on Pebbles. Always. It gives Pebbles fantastic mobility and lets you land your wombo combo with ease. An early Portal Key pickup can allow you to snowball at a stupid rate if you keep your gank face on.

Sol's Bulwark: Another extremely solid pickup for Pebbles, Bulwark makes your auto attacks do even more damage (which, with his high base damage, will hurt quite a bit) and lets you assist your team in teamfights and pushes with your negative armor (or positive!) aura. It also allows you to build into Daemonic Breastplate, arguably the best item for Pebbles after you buy a Portal Key.

Luxury

Daemonic Breastplate: Truly an amazing item for Pebbles as it provides so much for both him and his team. It fixes his slow attack speed issue, has a great negative armor aura, has an armor/attackspeed buff aura, and even fixes your own low armor issues.

SpellShards: I'm not really a fan of this item but I do see some Pebbles players pick this up on him. Reduced cooldowns, slight mana regen, and the magic penetration is quite nice, but the fact that you have to invest 4575g in a fully upgraded Spellshards is quite the money sink with a not so great build up. Still though, if you can get it really fast after your Potal Key it can help with wombo comboing squishy heroes even more!

Codex: Don't buy this item. Unless you're 20-0 in the first 10 minutes of the game and you're (snow)balling out of control, a Codex is probably not the best investment for you at all since it doesn't do much for your team. Though your K:D will probably skyrocket at the expense of many raged teams.

Shrunken Head: I like getting a Shrunken if I find myself being the only initiator on the team. It lets me safely jump into the enemy and starting wrecking havoc with little worry for spells doing anything to me!

Frostfield Plate: I almost always go for this item after my Breatplate, since it gives me even more teamfight presence. Not only does it have a nice activatable ability that is an AoE slow with damage, but it always has an aura that reduces the enemies attack speed slightly. That little aura does actually help out a bit when against carries, and hindering enemy carries won't hurt.

Behemoth's Heart: Generally seen as the icing on the cake, this would probably be the last item you ever buy during those hour long games. Gives great health, great damage, and great HP regen.

Abilities

Stalagmites: Pebble's lobs an avalanche at his enemy, stunning anything it hits in an AoE as well as damaging.

It's a simple but powerful ability that gives Pebbles some teamfight presence and is amazing for ganking.

Chuck: Pebbles throws an enemy like a football into the air at a target unit, damaging both the unit thrown and the unit hit by your football.

A seemingly simply move, Chuck does infact have a number of neat uses:

- Throw a hero that needs to get close to the action (Behemoth, Legionairre, Tempest) to act as a pseudo-portal key. Allows you to initiate teamfights in style.
- Throw teammates away from danger. See an enemy getting chased by someone, or about to be caught by them? Throw them into a unit that is far from harms way! Or if you can, throw the enemy chasing your pals (or you) to a unit way out of reach to make a speedy get away.
- Neat trick I like to do when I'm laning middle: when a creep wave is near your tower, stun the enemy hero in lane and chuck them into the tower so they start to take tower hits. This combined with an auto attack or two should net you an easy kill on a squishy target. A more effective way to do this (but a bit harder) is to first chuck the enemy into the tower and then stun them as they land, so they'll stunned next to the tower and be guaranteed a few hits before they can try to escape.

Slab Skin: Pebbles gains a passive bonus to armor in addition to having debuffs cast on him last for a shorter duration.

More armor, debuffs don't last as long on you than on other heroes. easy

Enlarge: Pebbles becomes larger, gaining a boost to movement speed and attack damage while also making your attacks slower.

Fixes your movement speed issues and makes you quite the heavy hitter, but also manages to still make you slower. It's a very strong skill though, and with a Breastplate pickup the attack speed you lose out on won't be noticeable anymore.

Conclusion

Well that wraps up my quick 30 minute guide.

If you have any feedback or thoughts please post a comment, as I can make changes wherever is needed. Thanks again for reading my guide!