Introduction
“I bring oblivion.”
Pugna is a ranged intelligence pusher and nuker. He is a hero that splits the community along ability levels – amongst higher-level players he is considered a pushing carry and will be given farm priority, whilst at a lower level of play he is usually played as a support hero.
Pugna's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Very strong pushing hero
- The bane of intelligence heroes in teamfights
- Highest intelligence gain in the game
- Can save allies from right-clickers
- Surprisingly good sustain with farm
- High burst damage
- High base move speed
- Can flash farm creep waves with ease
Cons
- Only suitable in specific line-ups
- Very squishy without farm and levels
- Will struggle late-game against more traditional carries
- No true escape mechanism
- No stun or hard lockdown
- Can accidentally save enemies if Decrepify isn’t used properly
Item Build
Although he’s considered a support hero in lower levels of play, this is generally considered a bad way to play Pugna – he is too squishy, lacks lockdown, and needs some early farm and levels to capitalise in his early-game oriented pushing style. Accordingly it is recommended that you play Pugna either mid or as the primary farmer in a dual or trilane situation.
Good starting items are:
- Tangos, Healing Salve, 4x Iron Branches.
As an alternative you can swap out one of those Iron Branches for a Bracer component, if you intend to build an early Bracer (and from there, Drums of Endurance). Otherwise, the starting items listed above give you plenty of regeneration and sustain through the early laning phase and the Branches give you some good starting stats whilst also all being upgradable into your core items.
Early Game
Early game get to work upgrading the Iron Branches into a Magic Wand and the first piece of your Mekanism. Also grab some basic Boots of Speed – although Pugna has high base move speed it’s not recommended to skip boots for too long as he has no built-in escape mechanism and is very squishy at this point.
Core Items
Your core items are: Arcane Boots and Mekanism.
Arcane Boots will solve the bulk of your mana problems, allowing you to effectively spam Nether Blast and seriously starting pressuring the first enemy tower (remember that Blast works on buildings, so when I range use it to hit the tower when nuking down creep waves). As a very spammable nuke, you’ll need Arcane Boots to sustain your Nether Blast spam. All of his other abilities also have fairly short cooldowns (the longest being Nether Ward’s 35 seconds) and cost mana, so Arcane Boots are the only realistic option for upgraded boots.
Next up you need to finish your Mekanism. Yes, this is core on Pugna. You are squishy – Mekanism will help solve that. You are also a pushing-based core hero – Mekanism will allow you to push with your team very early on. Don’t think of Mekanism as being only for supports – there a lot of core heroes in the game that have Mekanism as part of their core (most notably Viper, and to a lesser extent Outworld Devourer). Pugna is one such hero.
Luxury Items
Aghanim’s Scepter – Aghanim's makes you a good bit more durable whilst also giving some amazing buffs to your ultimate. +10 all stats, +200 health, +150 will make you a bit tankier, and it reduces the cooldown on your ultimate from 22 seconds to nothing, whilst also increasing the cast range (from 850 to 900) and the amount of health drained per second (from 120/160/200 to 180/240/300).
The earlier you get it the better, and the more impactful you’ll be able to make that 0 second cooldown nuke.
Necronomicon – You’re a squishy pushing hero, so naturally Necronomicon is a part of your luxury core. +16 strength and +24 intelligence at level 3, and with incredibly strong minions, Necronomicon is a no-brainer if you want/need to break the base. The true sight provided by the warrior also makes it a permanent counter to invisible heroes and the minions are also strong in teamfights.
A highly recommended luxury option.
Scythe of Vyse – Scythe is your ultimate late game luxury item (though ideally you’ll have wanted to have already ended to game by this point). 3.5 seconds of solid disable, excellent stats, including a huge +35 intelligence, and huge mana regeneration. The only problem is it’s also really damn expensive.
Force Staff – Force Staff gives you the positioning/chasing capability you need to make the most effective use of your skillset.
Force Staff is generally a very versatile item that has defensive and offensive uses. It can be used to escape if you're caught in a bad position, or to pursue a fleeing enemy. And it can be used not only on yourself, but also on teammates and enemy heroes. A solid, cost-effective luxury pick-up on Pugna.
Shiva’s Guard – Shiva’s makes for a good late-late game item on Pugna. By this stage you’re likely 5 slotted, and so it becomes a contender for your last item slot. The armour will go a good way to making you tankier, while the aura is great to have for your team. You also gain a nice chunk of intelligence (always helpful for Pugna; both as a way to increase damage and maintain your mana pool). You can also use the Arctic Blast AoE nuke to damage and slow creeps and heroes in a large AoE, further augmenting your pushing power.
Black King Bar – BKB gives you some much-needed health but more importantly it grants you Spell Immunity, which will allow you to play super aggressively, using the active to avoid being stun locked or burst down in teamfights.
Heaven’s Halberd – A good anti-carry item thanks to giving you 3.0-4.5 seconds of disarm, and it will also give you a nice health boost and general survivability.
Situational Items
Drums of Endurance – They're cost efficient, easy to build into, and provide utility for your entire team with the move speed and attack speed auras. In short, they’re great if you have poor farm or are fighting constantly. If you bought a Bracer earlier in the game then they’re a natural extension to your existing item pick-ups.
Ethereal Blade – E-Blade is a great offensive and defensive item. Defensively it grants you 4 seconds of physical immunity, and allows you to give that effect either to an ally (ideally someone who’s the target of enemy right clicks), or an enemy hero (the enemy physical DPS’er). This gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Offensively, when combined with burst magic damage E-Blade becomes a tool by which magic damage nukers can scale into the late game. After casting E-Blade on an enemy nuke them with as much burst damage output as possible; E-Blade will buff that damage by a huge 40%.
Dagon – One of the greedier luxury options. Usually Dagon is reserved for ganking heroes who can get the most out of its effectiveness as an early insta-gib item. The longer the game goes, however, the less useful Dagon becomes. Not really recommended unless you’re way ahead and want to have a bit of fun at the enemy team’s expense.
Skill Build
Nether Blast is an AoE magic damage nuke. It is always skilled and maxed first. After a brief 0.9 second cast delay, Nether Blast deals 100/175/250/325 magic damage to all units in a 400 unit AoE. It deals half these amounts to any structures in the AoE.
With just a 5.5 second cooldown, Nether Blast is a spammable nuke. The fact that it deals damage to structures makes it a powerful pushing spell. Combine this with the fact that it deals 325 magic damage in a 400 unit AoE which can affect creeps and you have one of the most powerful pushing abilities in the game at your disposal.
Decrepify makes a target (allied or enemy) immune to physical damage but takes increase magic damage (much like a Ghost Scepter). It is skilled second but maxed last. Decrepify lasts for 2/2.5/3/3.5 seconds and slows the target by 50% (25% in the case of allies). Whilst under its affects the unit cannot be physically attacked, but they will take 50% bonus spell damage (25% in the case of allies).
Offensively, it is used to increase the damage output from Pugna’s other abilities, as well as any additional sources of magic damage at Pugna or his allies’ disposal. Defensively it can be used either on yourself or an ally to prevent an enemy core from attack them. Be warned, however, that if said core has a magic damage nuke in their skillset then you may do more harm than good by using Decrepify.
Nether Ward allows Pugna to, as the name implies, drop a ward on the ground. It is skilled last but maxed second. The ward deals damage to any enemy heroes that cast spells within its radius of affect, and will reduce their mana regeneration as well.
Nether Ward has a 1600 unit radius, lasts for 30 seconds, and takes 4 hits to be killed off. It deals 1/1.25/1.5/1.75 times the amount of mana used to cast any spells by enemies in its range as magic damage, and reduces their mana regeneration by 1.5/3.0/4.5/6.0. It is mostly used at the start of teamfights, ahead of the time when most spellcasters will be readying to use their abilities. Squishy heroes with high mana cost abilities will absolutely not want to use them unless absolutely necessary if your Nether Ward is up.
Life Drain is Pugna’s ultimate, and it is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). Life Drain will literally drain an enemy unit's life to the tune of 120/160/200 magic damage per second and, in the process, will heal Pugna by the amount drained.
Life Drain has a lengthy 850 unit cast range, which is 250 units more than Pugna’s attack range. The damage dealt is not massive, but over time it will quickly add up, and as it heals Pugna simultaneously it effectively amounts to a health swing which is double the figures stated in the skill description.
Gameplay Tips
Once you have a good source of mana regeneration/high mana pool, you can use Nether Blast to quickly clear creep waves and jungle stacks.
As a push-focussed core, you want to start looking to push down towers as soon as you have your core up, or perhaps even earlier than that if you see the opportunity to do so. Use Nether Blast to clear the creep wave and don’t forget that it deals damage to enemy structures as well – use it to blast down the tower whenever you get the chance.
Decrepify will amplify the damage enemy heroes take from your other abilities. Nether Blast’s damage increases from 100/175/250/325 to 150/263/375/488, while Nether Ward’s damage multiplier increases from 1/1.25/1.5/1.75 to 1.5/1.87/2.25/2.62, and finally Life Drain is increased from 120/160/200 per second to 180/240/300 per second.
You can use Decrepify to save an ally (or yourself) who is fleeing enemy physical damage dealers – it will grant them 2/2.5/3/3.5 seconds of physical immunity. However, be careful using it if enemy casters are nearby – you will increase the damage they deal to your allied hero!
Generally you should avoid Decrepifying an enemy in teamfights unless your team’s main source of damage is magic-based – you may risk preventing your own cores from targeting a key enemy hero, unintentionally saving the enemy hero’s life.
| Tip: You can Decrepify your Nether Ward to grant it physical immunity. This is a good way of keeping the Ward alive if it gets focussed by an enemy core, and will also waste their time. |
Always drop Nether Ward prior to major teamfights or skirmishes if possible. It will prove most effective during such teamfights as the enemy casters will be eager to use their abilities but Nether Ward will leave them in a catch-22 position – if they use them, they will take significant damage. If they don’t, they risk being useless in the fight.
Nether Ward is quite easily killed, so ideally you want to place it along your team’s back line or hidden in the trees/uphill. It has a huge 1600 unit radius, so don’t feel it needs to be right next to the site of the engagement.
| Note: The range on Life Drain is superior to Pugna’s base attack range, and will extend to 1100 units so long as Pugna maintains vision of the enemy he is draining. It will also deal more effective damage than your auto-attacks in most scenarios. As it has a low cooldown don’t worry about ‘wasting’ it to try and finish off a fleeing enemy. |
Try to use Decrepify before using Life Drain. Not only will it amplify the damage they take from Life Drain, it will also slow them, making it harder for them to escape.
Pugna’s typical ganking comb is: Decrepify enemy > Nether Blast > Life Drain. Pugna’s defensive combo is: Decrepify self > Nether Blast > Life Drain.
As of Patch 6.82, Life Drain can now be targeted on allies, allowing Pugna to drain his own life into them.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
