- Tittle: More souls for the master
- Author: Lady.Liuwa
Positives
- Strong against nukers
- Team hero
- Good pusher
- A lot of fun
- Great early and mid game
- Effective AOE
- Versatile laner
- Nice attack animation
- Easy farmer
Negatives
- Low hp
- Not a carry
- Im brain dead
Skills
Nether Blast
Creates a blast of exploding pulses from the Nether Plane, dealing damage to units and buildings.
- 1. Mana 85 / Cooldown / Deals 100 Damage (50 to structures)
- 2. Mana 105 / Cooldown / Deals 175 Damage (87.5 to structures)
- 3. Mana 125 / Cooldown / Deals 250 Damage (125 to structures)
- 4. Mana 145 / Cooldown / Deals 325 Damage (162.5 to structures)
- Damage type: magical
- Damage is delayed by 0.9 seconds.
- Deals 50% damage to structures.
This spell could be one of the reasons why you picked pugna, to push towers. It is used to harass, farm and push lanes. Pugna has the ability to push a tower on his own, after he brought his own lane down he moves to another lane and helps to push the tower there. Best used in combination with other push heroes and spells. Ofcourse its also a great spell to defend towers with.
Decrepify
Pugna casts a powerful banishing magic on a unit. The unit is sent to the ethereal plane for a small period of time, reducing its movement speed by 50% and rendering it unable to attack. Units under the effect of Decrepify take 40% extra damage from Spells
- 1. Mana 100 / Cooldown 12 / Duration 2 seconds / Affected unit takes 40% extra damage from Spells
- 2. Mana 100 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 2.5 seconds / Affected unit takes 40% extra damage from Spells
- 3. Mana 100 / Cooldown 8 / Duration 3 seconds / Affected unit takes 40% extra damage from Spells
- 4. Mana 100 / Cooldown 6 / Duration 3.5 seconds / Affected unit takes 40% extra damage from Spells
- Only magical and pure damage can harm units under the effect of Decrepify.
- Echo Slam and Heat Seeking Missile will not damage a Decrepified target, even though they deal magical damage.
- With Maelstrom, Mjollnir or Stygian Desolator, Pugna is able to attack and damage ethereal units.
- Can be cast on Dirge's Tombstone.
Not a reason this hero is picked, but none the less a usefull spell. As mentioned earlier, you can use it on your ward. It amplifies magical damage so it works well with a hero like lina. More importantly I think the best way this spell is used, is to counter a carry. If naga uses here net on a teammate, simply cast decrepify on your teammate, problem solved. You can also use is on your enemy and disable him from attacking anyone, but beware if they have a manta, or images, you might be better off casting it on teammates.
Nether Ward
Summons a Nether Ward that prevents enemy heroes from regenerating mana and can cast Mana Flare, which deals damage to enemy heroes as they cast spells. Lasts 25 seconds. Each level increases the area of effect of the Ward's Mana Flare, the Mana Flare damage, the negative mana regen and the hp of the ward.
- 1. Mana 80 / Cooldown 35 / Duration 25 seconds / Ward has 75 HP. -1.5 Mana regeneration to enemies. Mana Flare deals 1 damage per each point of Mana
- 2. Mana 80 / Cooldown 35 / Duration 25 seconds / Ward has 150 HP. -3.0 Mana regeneration to enemies. Mana Flare deals 1.25 damage per each point of Mana
- 3. Mana 80 / Cooldown 35 / Duration 25 seconds / Ward has 225 HP. -4.50 Mana regeneration to enemies. Mana Flare deals 1.5 damage per each point of Mana
- 4. Mana 80 / Cooldown 35 / Duration 25 seconds / Ward has 300 HP. -6.0 Mana regeneration to enemies. Mana Flare deals 1.75 damage per each point of Mana
- Damage type: magical
- Mana Flare is triggered when an enemy casts a spell and the damage is based on the spell's mana-cost.
- Mana Flare deals the damage before the actual spell is cast, so if the target dies the spell will have no effect.
- Nether Ward can be targeted by Decrepify.
This spell is the main reason why people pick pugna, the ward! Pugna is the ultimate counter pick to a caster line up. The ward will zap everyone to death that dares to cast his spell. It is one of the best spells available in team battles. Here are couple of things you should / could do to maximize the wards effect. First of all try placing it before a fight starts, this might sound stupid but what i mean is, if es has a dagger, try to predict wether or not he is going to jump soon. Because he might kill you or stun lock you before you get a chance to place your ward. The second point is positioning, try not to place right in the middle of the battle field but somewhere between the trees where they don't see it can't get to it. It has 1600 range on level 4, which is a huge aoe. And last but not least, they will try to kill your ward, decrepify works on your ward this way they can't attack it, if you play it this way you can actually use your ward as bait, and kill the heroes that go for it.
One last trick with the ward, which can be a bit tricky! Use it to block the path of heroes. Run into a tight spot of the jungle or somewhere in between the trees and drop the ward behind you so you block the path. This way you either protect yourself to keep them out, or you can use it to trap the enemy. This trick can also be combined with decrepifying the ward.
Life Drain
Pugna summons a very powerful draining magic that absorbs the life essence of an enemy unit. Lasts 10 seconds.
- 1. Mana 125 / Cooldown 22 (0*) / Duration 10 seconds / Drains 120 (180*) HP per second
- 2. Mana 175 / Cooldown 22 (0*) / Duration 10 seconds / Drains 160 (240*) HP per second
- 3. Mana 225 / Cooldown 22 (0*) / Duration 10 seconds / Drains 200 (300*) HP per second
- Damage type: magical
- Life Drain is a channeling spell.
- HP drained depends on the actual damage dealt, so Decrepify increases it and spell reduction reduces it.
- Will continue to drain as long as the target stays within 1100 range from Pugna.
- If the target is an illusion it's destroyed on the first damage tick.
- Can be improved by Aghanim's Scepter (* shows the improved values).
This is your safety line, your last resort, the spell you cast when all others are on cd. Early on its not very usefull, the lifesteal isnt that strong, its single target damage and pugna is an aoe monster. However in mid and late game it can literally save your life. Its very important that during your ulti you don't get disabled, it's also used ofcourse to heal yourself when you are damaged. Therefore you need to use it when most spells are cast. You can combine this spell with decrepify, but make sure you see who you are fighting against, if you are fighting against bloodseeker alone, you can use decrepify on him. If you are surrounded by naga and bs, you might be better off using decrepify on yourself and then ulti on bloodseeker.
Skill Order
- 1 Nether Blast
- 2 Nether Ward / Decrepify
- 3 Nether Ward / Decrepify
- 4 Nether Blast
- 5 Nether Blast
- 6 Nether Ward
- 7 Nether Blast
- 8 Nether Ward
- 9 Nether Ward
- 10 Life Drain
- 11 Life Drain
- 12 Decrepify
- 13 Decrepify
- 14 Decrepify
- 15 Stats
- 16 Life Drain
Its pretty logical, your ultimate isnt that strong early on and you are a team hero and aoe monster. You need to max your ward as fast as possible so you are ready for team fights, which you force by pushing towers with your nether blast. One level of decrepify to slow enemies and / or save your allies.
Items
Starting Items
- As I always say, starting items are personal, everyone prefers something different, I like to play with some bonus stats and since pugna is a very low hp hero, i'd like to get some more.
Possible Follow-up Items
- Magic wand, simply because you are facing casters and can be a life saver in any serious game. The bracer to upgrade your low hp which could also lead to jango if nobody else on the team is getting one. It's also a nice item to get if you struggeling getting farm for guinsoo or linkens. Simply get this first and finish your core after. A bottle is gonna be very usefull, you are the mid hero, rune control is vital. Its needed to gank, needed to prevent ganks and provides you with unlimited mana which you need to bring down that tower. A basi ring is simply needed in any team, great item. Urn provides some hp and mana regen, both you can use.
Boots
This is your best bet. You need hp so you can survive team battles, you are a fragile hero and to upgrade your hp. It's that simple.
I have to say I have little experience using arcane boots, i guess it could be an option if your team needs one. It could be usefull in a pushing strategy. However this does not give you any hp which i still value over a huge mana pool. Mana can be provided in other ways.
Pugna does have a nice ms and with this it will be pretty high, it will improve your positioning and your last hits early on. However you are going to miss the hp again, and later on most of your farm will come from nether blast anyway.
Very expensive, very usefull. If you can get, get it. It's gonna be usefull in a pushing strategy this way you have more map control. Either way the tp is vital for pugna since you shouldn't miss a single team fight, pushing strategy or not.
Core Items
Yes, i have listed 2 expensive items as the core items for pugna. This does not mean you have to get both of them. I usually get linkens as the first item, simlpy because it gives your more survivability. You get hp and mana regen, some stats and prevents single target disables, combined with a mid and late game ulti this drastically improves your chances of surving team battles. Guinsoo simply because you are a solo int hero, you need to be responsible for disabling the enemies carry. It should not be a problem to get these items, since you are playing on a solo lane and pushing towers, forcing team fights, these are you strenghts and all of them generate gold.
Vital Alternative Items
The reason I didn't put agha as a core item is simply because its very situational wether or not your ulti is gonna be usefull, it all depends on the enemies line-up. Never the less its drastically improves your ulti, but i would never get this as a first item, only after linkens or guinsoo. The strenght of your upgraded ultimate is not only the heal / damage but also the 0 second cooldown, and to benefit from that you are gonna need a lot of mana. Bkb for the obvious reasons, pugna is picked to counter a caster team, therefore bkb is probably a good option. Dagger because pugna's positioning is very important especially when fighting a caster team. Its also very usefull in combination with agha and linkens. This way you can seriously clean up after a team fight took place.
Other Alternative Items
- Pipe, Force Staff and Shivas are the most used items from the options i gave. However all of these items with perhaps the exception of necro book have 1 thing in common. Which is surivivability, you need this in late game. It is up to you to decide what item you need for what game.
Support Items
In general as a supporter, it is your job to provide your team with everything it needs. Make sure your carries can farm safely. Give them a chicken and vision on the map. Have some hp and mana regen to harass and be able to restore everything after 3vs3 fight.
Upgrade the chicken, buy more wards because your teams needs to have permanent vision on the map. Perhaps counter some wards of theirs. Headress provides hp regen for your teammates on the tri-lane and is a set-up item for your core. Magic wand is still needed against a caster line-up. Basi ring should also be on any tri-lane, especially in a pushing strategy. Smoke for ganking.
Doesnt seem like much does it?
All of these items are team orientated.
Special Mention
I can't stress it enough! This is the best item there is! Being with your buddies when the shit hits the fan is the most awesome and important thing in dota! I usually buy them in stacks of 2-3 when i have +- 400g.
Laning
I need to say a thing or two about laning, because the lane you play on will also determine the role you are going to play. And since the next topic is items, i need to explain it a bit. Pugna can play both solo and on a tri-lane. I have little experience playing him on a dual lane and I also don't recommend it. Why does he work on a tri-lane? He is ranged, so he can harass and deny, he has an aoe nuke and a nether ward which works best in team fights. Another reason why you may want him on your tri-lane is a push strategy. Why would you want him on a solo lane? Because he can also push a tower on his own and you want have him level up quickly so he can help push other lanes even faster. You also have an early advantage in teamfights with a high level pugna. However you do not want him facing a tri-lane on his own, therefore its best if you have him on the mid lane.
Eidted by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com