TABLE OF CONTENTS: !NOTE: If you want to jump to a section of the
guide, just click the numbers on the left in the table of contents -
they're all anchor links!
1- A Closer Look at Pugna's Skills Nether Blast
Decrepify
Nether Ward
Life Drain
2- Skill and Item Build Options Skill Build
Solo Pugna
Dual-Lane Pugna
Danger Lane Solo Pugna
3- Gameplay Guide Early Game Laning
Early Game Pushing
Mid Game Ganking
Late Game
The values below are for the maximum level of each spell. To see the additional information please go here.
Nether Blast (B)
Creates a blast of exploding pulses from the Nether Plane, dealing damage to units and buildings.
Mana Cost: 145 Cooldown: 5.5 seconds Casting Range: 400 AOE: 400 Damage: 325 magical damage (100 exact damage to buildings)
Tips:
- Cast delay of 0.5 seconds. Note that during this delay you can press 's' to stop the spell and re-target it if needed.
- The 100 building damage goes straight through the Glyph of Fortification buff without being reduced.
- During pushes this spell is ideally placed so that the far edge of
the AOE just touches a tower, and the rest knocks out the enemy creep
wave. This should keep you out of harm's way.
- Compared to other casters, this nuke has very poor range and can
often place you in danger. Luckily you have a spell to deal with that -
Decrepify!
Decrepify (C)
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 44% extra damage from Spells.
Tips:
- Only magical and pure damage can harm Decrepified units
- Decrepify has just receieved a handy buff! It now has 700 range at level 4 and can be used with Scream of Pain
- The following spells DO NOT deal any damage to a Decrepified unit: Echo Slam, Heat Seaking Missile and Blade Fury.
- Decrepify does not amplify the heal effect of Mekansm.
- You can save an ally from Omnislash by Decrepifying him.
- You can Decrepify your Nether Ward to keep it alive (new feature of map 6.65)
- This spell is obviously amazing to amplifiy magical damage on a
target, but late game it becomes very important to save your team from
physical damage. In certain situations it is also better to Decrepify a
teammate or yourself - for instance the Decrepify/TP Scroll combo. This
spell takes good judgement to use well.
Here's an example:
Here I am being chased by Bane Elemental, Clockwerk and a hungry
Slardar. I've already dropped my ward but I'm in dire straights and
will probably die.
After a very strong nuke combo by them, I am brought down to a sliver
of HP. Since they have no nukes left, I quickly decrepify myself. Our
Lord of Avernus also helps me out with shield, and my team is now
racing in for the kill...
See how the 3 enemy heroes are now very poorly positioned; bunched
around me, they take high damage from Aphotic Shield, Nether Blast and
Life Drain.
Now for the coup de grace - they are all torn apart by Antimage's
ultimate. The Decrepify caused them all to be horribly out of position
and they paid for it with their lives. I die as well unfortunately, but
Decrepify turned a 0 kill 1 death fight into a 3 kill 1 death
situation.
Nether Ward (W)
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.
Mana Cost: 80 Cooldown: 35 seconds AOE: 1600 Duration: 25 seconds Mana Regen Reduction: 6 mana points per second Damage: 1.5 magical damage per point of mana used HP:300
Tips:
- Mana Flare is triggered when an enemy casts a spell and the damage is based on that spells mana cost.
- The damage of Mana Flare is dealt prior to the spell being cast, so
if it deals fatal damage the enemy's spell will have no effect.
- The Mana Flare range is impressive, so the ward can be well hidden to keep it safe.
- Always have Nether Ward down before a battle begins - the highest
mana cost spells are often used to initiate a battle (For example Echo
Slam or Black Hole).
This my favourite spell by far - here's a closer look at effective Nether Ward use:
Lina vs Pugna
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During a push I place Nether Ward close to the scourge base entrance.
It's within attacking range to draw the enemies closer to our Centaur's
Blink/Stomp. To my surprise, Lina decides to engage me with spells. At
this point she's only used Light Strike Array and Dragon Slave, you can
see her HP has already been slammed down by Mana Flare. Note also the
strategic observer ward I've placed over the cliff so I can see into
their base.
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Lina tries to finish me off with Laguna, but Nether Ward deals a buttload of damage and fries her before it even fires. Booyah!
(All of my screenshots are taken from the replays attached to this guide.)
Ultimate: Life Drain (D)
Pugna summons a very powerful draining magic that absorbs the life essence of an enemy unit. Lasts 9 seconds.
Can be improved by Aghanim's Scepter (* show improved values).
Mana Cost: 225 Cooldown: 22 (*0) Casting Range: 850 Duration: 9 seconds Damage: 185 (*250) magical damage per second, health drains to Pugna
Tips:
- Channeling spell
- HP drained depends on the actual damage dealt, so Decrepify increases
it and magic resistance decreases it. (Please not that Decrepifying
yourself does not improve the amount of life drained - only
Decrepifying your opponent does that.)
- Will drain as long as the target is within 850 range. Note that if an
enemy hero uses Blink during this spell, but remains within 850 range,
Life Drain will still continue.
- Destroys images on the first damage tick
This spell can really turn the tide of battle, but it takes expert
timing to use correctly. The effectiveness of Life Drain is also very
dependent on the heroes chosen by your enemies and allies. If the other
team is loaded with stuns it can make your life pretty tough. Try to
get this spell off while your target is disabled (my personal favourite
is Naga Siren's net) and when your enemies have wasted their disables.
Gogo Life Drain
Dead spider is dead
2Skill and Item Build Options
Skill Build:
Depending on your opponents you may choose to change this, but I find this is most effective:
Nether Blast is always maxed first, I don't think anyone will have any
issues with that. However, choosing between Nether Ward and Decrepify
is less obvious.
I always prioritize Nether Ward because it shines in early and mid game
battles when spell damage is at its peak strength. Decrepify is a very
strong counter to physical damage, which of course makes more sense in
late game. Also, you only need to throw in 1 level of Decrepify and you
can still coordinate with your team to amplify their nukes.
Starting items:
Pugna is a very versatile hero and these item builds are by no means
gospel, they are simply a guide. Use your initiative to make item
choices in-game, depending on your opponents and the situation.
Option 1 - Solo Pugna
Pugna is a strong ranged solo and this item set is also easily incorporated into one of his later items - Mekansm.
Option 2 - Dual-Lane Pugna
This is a pretty self-explanatory item set, of course the most
important item is the chicken. When you are playing dual-lane Pugna you
need to be responsible for supporting your team. The only time you
wouldn't buy chicken is if you were buying the team's first set of
wards instead.
Option 3 - Solo Pugna in the 'Danger Lane'
Soloing Pugna in the long 'Danger Lane' is a more advanced tactic, I
will attempt to find (or create) a recent replay of this technique.
(Unfortunately all of MYM|Maelk's danger lane Pugna replays are for an
older patch.) With Boots and his natural fast movement speed, Pugna can
escape the ganks that are commonly inflicted on this lane. However it
requires very sharp map awareness and more submissive hero positioning.
Only more experienced players should attempt this strategy.
Mid Game Items:
After the initial laning phase there are many items that are intelligent choices for Poogles.
Pugna is a natural supporter - he is almost completely item independent
so you should focus on stocking up on support items whenever possible:
These are your key support items. Keep a stranglehold on the map with
strong observer warding and kill the enemy obs with sentries. Always
have a TP Scroll on you so you can help out in battles. Counter enemy
invis heroes with dust and be sure to gank them early as possible when
they are more vulnerable.
Warding is an integral part of Pugna's game, so if you are unfamiliar with appropriate warding spots, please go here to see Heldarion's Total Warding Guide.
In addition to support items, you can use your own judgement to choose between the following initial items:
Mekansm and Basilius are usually top priority unless another teammate
chooses to buy these. They are almost essential for pushing towers,
which is one of Puglicious' main goals.
Pugna's HP and armour is amongst the lowest in DotA, so it is very
important to buff him up a bit. This can be achieved in a number of
ways - 2 Bracers, a fast Mekansm and/or an early Point Booster are all
viable ways to bump up his early survivability. However, don't go too
ballistic on Bracers and leave yourself no inventory space for support
items.
Late Game Item Choices:
Wow, it's a regular smorgasbord of items... That's basically because Pugna doesnt need
items, he can simply choose items that are most suitable to beat his
enemies. If they have mass spell damage - Khadgar's Pipe. If they have
a huge amount of physical damage - Ghost Scepter. If you need mobility
to multi-lane push - Boots of Travel. You get the idea.
However, Pugna should push hard enough that his team wins long before
he starts considering this pricey list of top tier items. If you spend
ages trying to farm up these big items, the enemy carry heroes will
become much more of a threat. You should win early as possible when
playing Puggs.
3Gameplay Guide
Early Game Laning Phase:
If you are dual-laning, you should begin to support your team before
the creeps even spawn. Buy a chicken and share it immediately, or use
your wards before the first creepspawn. Use them to block the enemy
'pull spot' and/or to protect your solo hero from ganks.
Pugna can be a strong solo or a good lane partner. Typically if you
choose to dual-lane, pick a melee stunner as your lane partner - this
way you can support him with your range and use his stun to hit all
your blasts.
Practice the typical lane control techniques so you gain an advantage
over your opponents. Also, make sure you use the 's' hotkey to cancel
any Nether Blasts that are off-target. Level as fast as you can and
pick up your early boots and support items.
If you have your lane on lockdown, or if you have an extremely
aggressive pushing lane like KotL/Pugna, try to take out the enemy's
first tower before your opponents can resist you.
Early Game Pushing Phase:
As soon as you have level 7 and boots, you have the potential to take
down enemy towers quickly. Look to find weak lanes and coordinate with
your teammates to take towers in quick succession.
If the other team defends, use your early game advantage to own them in
team clashes. Always drop your Nether Ward in a hidden location that is
close enough to deal damage. When pushing top or bottom tower, place an
observer ward behind it here to gain vision of approaching heroes. Last
hit the tower with Nether Blast if it's at risk of being denied, but if
possible leave the money to your carry hero. Remember, taking towers
quickly provides far more money than farming creeps, and can give you
the item advantage that allows you to break the enemy base.
Mid Game Ganking Phase:
During battles you should be able to feed on enemy spellcasters by
zapping them with Nether Ward. It's a win/win situation - if they use
spells to fight, they die to Mana Flare. If they choose to spend time
stalling until they find the ward and kill it, your team will run over
the top of them with your own offensive skills.
Always look to save allied heroes with your Meka and/or Decrepify.
Never ever Decrepify a hero that your team is killing with physical
damage. Think quickly and choose your targets well.
Poogles is weak as hell so you'll need your wits about you to survive battles. Here's an example of a mid game battle with a strong Nether Ward presence:
Nether Ward is right above the battle, just out of harm's way. See how
Rhasta (top right in this screenshot) has instantly been zapped down to
a sliver of HP - all he has cast is Voodoo and Serpent Wards. Slayer
dies to Nether Ward; she tried to Laguna Blade CM to stop Freezing
Field. My team wins this battle 4 kills to nil and then pushes a tower
over in moments.
This is another amazing mid game clash where a well-placed Nether Ward bags me an ultra-kill:
OD ignores my warnings, puts on his Rambo bandana and runs headlong
into 5 enemies. I sigh, drop my Nether Ward and we all run in to help.
Tiny combos them to start with...
Nether Blast pwns 2 heads and OD has just survived the first onslaught thanks to using Astral Imprisonment on himself...
Pig runs forward, Quill Sprays OD to death and I kill him with Life Drain...
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I bag one final hilarious kill as Morphling teleports back to his
Replicate clone - killing himself on Nether Ward in the process. You
can see the Mana Flare animation has been fired right across the map to
his teleport location. ULTRAKILL. OD's Ramboing wasn't so bad after all!
Late Game:
Sure, you've lost a bit of power but you've still got some tricks up
your sleeve. Screw over the enemy damage dealers with Decrepify and
continue to take down towers with Nether Blast. Your ward is still a
frighteningly strong spell - particularly because enemy ultimates now
cost upward of 400 mana.
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Here I've Decrepified Lina as she comes in to try and kill our low HP CM.
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Holy crap - with the Decrepify buff, Mana Flare deals 907 magical damage to Lina. NINE-HUNDRED AND SEVEN. I easily kill her off with 1 Nether Blast, and we take the throne soon after.
Here's a 5v5 late game battle:
(Same teams as the earlier Ultra Kill sequence.)
Click to view 2 screen shots...
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NA has been hovering near me in Vendetta, tries to use his combo but fails miserably as Nether Ward shocks him to death...
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A simple Nether Blast and Life Drain later, I've bagged an easy triple kill.
4Advanced Techniques
Blast Cancelling
If you know your Nether Blast is about to miss, press 's' to cancel the spell and save your mana.
Decrepiteliporting
If you're taking high physical damage you can often escape by Decrepifying yourself and teleporting back to base.
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Nether Ward Usage
Always, always, ALWAYS use Nether Ward during team clashes. It costs a
mere 80 mana and can often deal more damage than a Zeus ultimate during
fights.
Find a close location to hide the ward before a fight and do your best
to Decrepify heroes who will take high Mana Flare damage. Here is
another example:
Zeus vs Pugna
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I have placed Nether Ward in a hidden location near the scourge top
tower. Zeus decides to attack when he sees his ally Abaddon is near.
His HP drops to red in the blink of an eye - I've used Decrepify/Nether
Blast and all he has cast so far is Lightning Bolt.
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Zeus casts Arc Lightning gets gutted by Nether Ward before he can even think about using his ultimate.
5Allied and Opposition Hero Consideration
Recommended Allies:
High Damage Nukers -
Decrepify an enemy and *poof* he'll vanish under a cloud of nukes.
Fast Pushers -
Pugna's specialty is pushing, so when you combine his power with another pusher he's very hard to stop.
Long Disablers -
Life Drain anyone?
Pugna Food:
Spellcasters -
If these guys think they can fight with Nether Ward around, they've got
another thing coming. All of them have monumental mana consumption and
low HP... Pugna smells blood!
Special Mentions -
These guys are in the 'Pugna Food' section for a few reasons. If Sand
King uses his ultimate in the fog and gets zapped by Nether Ward, it
will disable his blink dagger and make all the Epicenter damage
useless. Juggernaut is countered by Pugna because Decrepified units
take zero damage from Blade Fury and Omnislash. It's extremely easy to
bait an enemy Juggernaut into wasting Omnislash on you.
Worst Enemies:
Assassins -
Get caught in their combo and you'll be dead before you hit the ground.
To survive their ganks you'll need good map control and warding.
Anti-Mage Type Heroes -
With terrifying high-damage combos and almost no fear of your spells, these guys will pop a cap in yo' ass.
6Drafting Pugna
This is a slightly more advanced section. If you're interested in trying Pugna in Clan Wars like -CM or -CD, check it out.
Obviously you can't just pick Pugna and automatically win the game. The
success of your team's lineup depends on the synergy with your
teammate's heroes and the way you counter the opposing picks.
Here are some examples of effective drafts using Pugna.
1 - The Push Strategy
Pugna's AOE, ability to deal high damage to towers and his item independence make him ideal in a push strat.
A typical lineup should include Pugna, a support summoner, some AOE
heroes and a strong battle initiator so you can kill a key hero (this
is almost always Vengeful Spirit).
Just as important as your picks are your bans. You need to remove
strong counter-push heroes and AOE heroes like Sand King, Earthshaker
etc. When banning and picking you must also consider how the lanes will
be arranged - ie you can't pick Pugna and solo him mid against Viper or
Bane Elemental because he'll get obliterated.
Finally, you can't make your push strat intentions blatantly obvious as
you are drafting, because your opposing drafter will counter you
easily. Pick 'all-rounder' type heroes first that don't give away your
intentions. Here's an example draft:
Picks - (let's say I have first pick)
See how during the first 2 rounds of picking there is no real clear
indication of my strategy. VS, Panda and Lock can work in any lineup.
In fact, if the enemy chose Pit Lord or another amazing anti push hero,
I could simply change my mind and not go for a push strat after all.
In this case, they have drafted strong ganking heroes, which will make
the laning phase difficult. I assume they will use mid solo Bane, a
PotM/NA lane and finally KotL/PL lane.
Therefore I will put Warlock solo mid against Bane because he can
easily survive with heal and probably outfarm him with his range and
damage advantage. Pugna will solo a lane with Chen nearby in the jungle
to support him, and Panda/VS will lane together which is quite a strong
combination.
NA will prove to be a problem early, but luckily it's easy to counter
him during pushes with Sentry Wards. The main threat once the pushing
phase begins will be KotL's Illuminate. But don't worry - we have VS
for that, who will just Nether Swap KotL into the middle of our massive
army where he will drop like a fly. Their team is filled with heroes
who are very vulnerable to Nether Ward, so the early battles should be
a breeze if you use it well.
They have chosen a hard carry - PL - and that should make it much
easier to win all the early battle because he will be trying to farm
while his team defends 4v5.
Overall both teams have drafted strong lineups, but KotL is their only
anti-push hero. With coordination it should be easy to push early and
break base before PL becomes a threat.
2 - The Counter-Pick
Suppose your opposition decides to go for a massive high damage AOE combo. Something like Rhasta/Enigma/Sand King/Lina/Warlock.
On paper it looks like an incredible combo, but it's actually a lineup filled with Pugna food.
If any of those heroes use their ultimate in the presence of Nether
Ward, they'll find themselves in deep trouble. Sand King is also worth
a special mention here - if he uses Epicentre in the fog and Nether
Ward zaps him, it will prevent his blink dagger from working and his
combo will be useless! Their combo also focuses on pushing towers, so
Pugna's AOE will be a strong push counter.
If it were me I would choose 2 key heroes to counter their high
manacost spamming combo - Silencer and Pugna. Silencer simply breaks
down their combo so badly with his Last Word aura, while Pugna provides
an equally scary threat from Nether Ward whenever they use a high mana
cost spell.
Basically any time you see a lineup with 2 or 3 Pugna food heroes in it, Pugna is worth considering.
7Replays
Just click the replay name to follow the download link.
BA has now upgraded to 1.24c (yay!)
I have hidden the replays which are for 1.24b - if you want to watch them you will need the Warcraft Version Switcher.
This is a dream Pugna game in almost every way - the drafts work out so
that I am against a myriad of high mana-use spammer heroes. Netherward
Rickrolls them all game long and there are some sick Decrepifies as
well. Watch to see every aspect of Pugna play - a strong draft, good
teamwork, very dominant pushing and of course explosive team fights. At
one point I get an Ultra Kill despite being focused by 4 enemy heroes.
Short and sweet, this replay is a must-see.
Bans: (Sentinel First) | | | | | | |
(This game was remade in -ap due to a drop so you won't see the drafting phase)
Sentinel:
Scourge:
Countering their high mana-use draft, we pick Pugna and decide to push
immediately with Ring of Basilius. ES and I take our tower very early
and from then on our team steamrolls their towers down. Nether Ward
plays a big role in fights, plus watch out for some enormous ES
ultimates where their team is caught napping haha!
As soon as I had the chance to draft, I decided to use Pugna and a push
strat. The drafting phase of this war was really surprising, because
THEY planned a push strat too...
Bans: (me first) | | | | | | |
At first I was delighted that they banned both Tide and Sand King - it
was probably going to make my push strat a lot easier. Not only that
but I was going to first pick Vengeful Spirit and leave them with
relatively sub-par intel support heroes because both CM and Lion were
banned.
Picks: (me first) | | : | | |
As you can see, the first 3 picking rounds were predictable - both
teams picking versatile heroes and me countering PotM with LoA.
However, scourge's 4th round Brood/Chen clearly shows what they're
planning and was a pretty frightening surprise. I have to pick Pugna
for my guide, which forces me to finally take Rhasta - I felt that
Rhasta would make their pushes too strong. In the end they actually
have a huge number of summons and it looks like it will be a tough
matchup...
What follows is a damn close game because we win ganking battles but
their pushing power still topples tonnes of our towers. Watch to see
the result...
The following hidden replays are for the 1.24b Warcraft Patch.
Here's a friendly inhouse game where I solo mid against Rhasta. I spend
the whole game driving Slayer and Rhasta insane with Nether Ward
damage, bagging me a lot of funny kills in the process. (The Lina kill
screenshots and the mid game battle screenshot are from this replay.)
It's a pretty low-level inhouse (Look out for my allied Slythice making
some hilarious mistakes... he was far too busy listening to ACDC on our
Ventrilo server) but it clearly shows the effectiveness of Pugna in
competitive matches. Shoutout to Mrdavojenk for his stupidly fast
farming - Blink/Relic Centaur in 20 minutes. Shoutout also to myr[sky],
who ripped it up with Lich.
I tried in vain for ages to get another good Pugna replay... I finally
have a match where the other team doesn't ragequit in 10 minutes.
I get one ultra kill and another triple kill before the match is over
(screenshots can be seen earlier in this guide). Also look out for an
amusing first blood where I clutch save my allied Tiny with my Healing
Salve.
8Wrapping Up
Special Thanks to:
Icefrog for creating this amazing game.
Ophelia33 for some very helpful tips on guide writing.
My DotA mates - you all pwn noobs.
All the readers for their feedback and constructive criticism - I really appreciate it!
Poogn0r is an underused, underrated hero. Hopefully this guide gave you
some pointers that will allow you to get Ultra Kills with him too!
He's one of those characters that can be great fun and you can play
mindgames with your enemies all game long. Consider him as a challenge!
Now get out there and fry some poor guy's brains with Nether Ward.
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