Dominating with Pollywog Mid

[[813]Quillenator]

I have started to grow very found of our froggy friend and have been playing him quite often lately. I can hold my own in mid lane, push with jolt to keep rune control and I either gank hard and push side lanes or take mid if my opponent leaves with ult, but once the game gets into about 25 mins + my 350+ gpm starts to drop fast. I dont know how to keep up the pushing and farming effectively enough to hold a good strong presence all game like I see with so many other good pollywog players. I want to get better at this hero, but I need some advice on picking up my play mid to late game and some strategy tips on solo pushing lanes and whatnot.

I build tongue>morph>jolt 3>ult>max jolt>max morph>max tongue then stats.

I usually grab blood chalice, bottle, steamboots, pk, then ult stick, sheep, resto in that order.

What can I change or try to do that will make me a more dominating pollywog?

[[E]Clytemnestra]

bad build and item order.
you have nothing to harass and push the lane until level 3.tongue and morph are useless at lvl 1.get jolt,morph/tongue,jolt,morph,jolt,ult,max morph.this way you can get ck and harass very easy(spam lvl 3 jold 2-3 times and harass opponent out of lane).chalice 1st item mid is bad,get bottle first so you can get runes,you don't want your opponent to get it.tablet is a nice item for polly.post haste is excellent if you dominate early and can afford it(sneak at pushed tower,kill creeps,ult,+gold for you).if teamfight occurs at enemy tower try dropping ult near tower if you are focusing an enemy(wardtrap an enemy,kill him and then wards will attack tower)

[PrestonLee]

post hastes are probably the answer you're looking for to keep your presence strong throughout the entire game. get those babies, grab a decent mana pickup of your choice (i like stormspirit because it helps with mana regen, gives even more mobility, can be another tool to set up your ward trap, or burn nullstones), then go around pushing towers and/or setting up ganks non-stop.

posthaste helps A LOT with pushing because obviously you can just port to any pushed creepline and do your dirty work from there, especially just after a teamfight. (or if you wanna play really dirty then DURING teamfights )

also i would consider NOT going for sotm, it's not really that good of a pickup in my opinion. an earlier sheepstick, hellflower, or frostfield is much better in my opinion, and really if you can't kill/take a tower without ult stick you're just doing something wrong haha.. and yeah hellflower is BEAST on him, still makes your ward trap do more damage and it makes you able to just kill people with morph+auto attacks

so for me, i usually do something like:

- your usual early game cheap stats, bottle if mid, maybe if not mid.

- polly's jolt is really easy to farm with so picking this up should be easy, especially with an early last hit on a tower.

or - just to give you a bit better mana pool to work with, while also increasing your mobility & flexibility. you don't need this but I like it can be picked up for cheaper mana instead, or if you're playing REALLY defensively/selfishly, or if your team could really use the team mana replenishment.

- core, don't bother playing polly if you don't use this but i just like stormspirit first because it helps you farm/run around the map faster while giving you mana regen to upkeep jolt spamming.

then the rest is up in the air, are all great to consider because they basically give you an unlimited mana pool AND they synergize very well with portal key. after that so you get double ult AND double hellflower/sheep/frostfield/portalkey/tablet/stormspirit you can even consider resto stone before because it gives great regen, but I personally like hellflower/sheep/frostfield first, and bottle will take care of health regen. then final luxury can be another one of the hellflower/sheep/frostfield, or if you need it for initiation (resto stone gives you a double shrunken ), or that that people seem to like a lot, or for the negative armor on towers.

for the most part that should work in all games.

so in summary, i feel like your steamboots pickup is really limiting your mobility and should be replaced by posthaste or striders (striders if you need to be active FAST, sell it later for posthastes), that and the SoTM pickup can be traded for something else because if you're playing properly it really isn't that useful.

[[Mana]Farosarg]

As usual I'm with PrestonLee on this one, though I do personally prefer picking Shrunken Head reasonably early, after Portal Key and mana item.

[Antimodus]

Post Haste are awesome if you are uber-farmed early, but otherwise I tend to go steamboots > [stormspirit and/or sotm] > SH. PK only afterwards or if a specific hero HAS to be countered by blinkhex. It's fine to rely on other heroes for initiation, SH gives you the ability to channel your imba 5sec disable, which is practically unusable at that stage of the game without it.

His build decisions are all situational.

Tongue tied level 1 is a sidelane build, makes no sense to have it mid unless someone is going to come gank for you.

[[xBM]Ackwell1]

I almost always go the same build
+3 int, 2x totems -> bottle -> striders -> mana ring/pk -> mana ring/pk -> sell striders for post haste -> shrunken head -> ult staff -> and situational items (hex, hellflower, tablet, cyclone, daemonic, resto etc...)

[[813]Quillenator]

OK, so cc is pointless early if I am going mid, so focus on jolt and hex, drop the chalice and steamboots for posthaste and a good mobility item such as push/storm, ult stick is meh, I should be focusing on an earlier sheep/hellflower after my core PK. Aweome advice guys, appreciate it, if anyone else has any more insight feel free to drop a post, Thanks

[[xBM]Ackwell1]

OK, so cc is pointless early if I am going mid, so focus on jolt and hex, drop the chalice and steamboots for posthaste and a good mobility item such as push/storm, ult stick is meh, I should be focusing on an earlier sheep/hellflower after my core PK. Aweome advice guys, appreciate it, if anyone else has any more insight feel free to drop a post, Thanks

Skill build goes like this
jolt, morph, jolt, tongue, jolt, ult, jolt, max morph and then tongue with ulties. You need 1 lvl in both of your cc abilities at lvl 6 to grab a guaranteed kill if you miss your trap or your against a hero like hag.

1 good tip is when you jolt the creeps and push the lane you can try to grip your enemy when the last enemy creep dies, so he has to tank a full creep pack. That really hurts your opponent.

[Lariatoooo]

I tend to get boots then rush pk. I love Shrunken & puzzlebox on him.
Spam that jolt.

[PrestonLee]

I tend to get boots then rush pk. I love Shrunken & puzzlebox on him.
Spam that jolt.

wow I forgot to mention Puzzlebox, fail me. but yeah Puzzle is also amazing on him

[[iAPM]TattyJangles]

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/heroe...php?gid=197754

Here's one I made earlier. Consider also puzzlebox for luxury. I tried it a few days ago on him and it was boss with a good ward trap or even tongue tied for soloing someone down fast. Not only that but it makes him even more insane at pushing.

EDIT: Added pbox to my guide anyway.

[Jenova26]

Personally, I like the SotM pick up on Polly, though I see the arguments against it. I prefer to transition to more of a teamfight/push synergy later into the game. The SotM pick up is just that much more devastating in a teamfight. I wouldn't call it a bad pick up at all. He's actually the only hero I like SotM on other than Pharoah.

[[E]Clytemnestra]

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/heroe...php?gid=197754

Here's one I made earlier. Consider also puzzlebox for luxury. I tried it a few days ago on him and it was boss with a good ward trap or even tongue tied for soloing someone down fast. Not only that but it makes him even more insane at pushing.

EDIT: Added pbox to my guide anyway.

i'd skip ros and make it more situational.not really a core imo.

[bOOxO]

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/heroe...php?gid=200737

really great guide made by shamsz.

[PrestonLee]

Personally, I like the SotM pick up on Polly, though I see the arguments against it. I prefer to transition to more of a teamfight/push synergy later into the game. The SotM pick up is just that much more devastating in a teamfight. I wouldn't call it a bad pick up at all. He's actually the only hero I like SotM on other than Pharoah.

I agree, it's not BAD per se, but there are situations where other pickups will be better/more tailored to the situation. It's a pretty good all-around pickup if you want to stick with cookie cutter builds, but it isn't always the best pickup for every situation is all I'm saying.

I also feel that Steamboots aren't bad at all are also a great all-around pickup on him, it's just my previous post was gearing toward answering the opening post's purposes as he felt he needed a stronger presence throughout the entire game. Both Steamboots and SoTM are great all-purpose pickups that give great stats and with good team synergy are just fine, however pickups like Posthaste, Hellflower, Sheep Puzzle etc. allow you to snowball harder as Pollywog as they give you more options for flexibility/outplaying than Steams or SotM does.

[[WhiP]Uroefl]

Mark of novice + 2 minor totems + Runes of blight.

Then block the creeps from tower and let the archer infront.
After that nuke the creepwave at lvl 1 or 2 to get 2 creepkills and harrass to oponent.
At this point you should have had enough last hits to get an early bottle, at lvl 3 nuke wave again and you should have the lane pushed to pick up the rune, repeat this process for profit.

Bottle -> Boots -> Gravelocket/powersupply

[Nalenthios]

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/heroe...php?gid=197754

Here's one I made earlier. Consider also puzzlebox for luxury. I tried it a few days ago on him and it was boss with a good ward trap or even tongue tied for soloing someone down fast. Not only that but it makes him even more insane at pushing.

EDIT: Added pbox to my guide anyway.

Does activating Puzzle cancel channelling abilities?

[[iAPM]TattyJangles]

i'd skip ros and make it more situational.not really a core imo.

It's in there for if you're not mid and therefore don't have a bottle. Probably didnt make that clear in the guide.