Guide To Pugna: The Oblivion

Because Nether Ward will zap yo' ass.







Hey guys, thanks for checking out my Pugna guide

Pugna (AKA Poogn0r, Poogles, Puggs, Puglicious) is a creepy skeleton in a cape. He can be used incredibly well or incredibly badly - making him a challenging but rewarding hero to master. That's also why I wrote this guide; I'm sick of watching people fail with this amazing hero!

Nether Ward remains one of the most underrated spells in DotA - did you know if a Decrepified level 11 Rhasta casts all his skills, he will be instantly killed by Netherward? I love watching an enemy Lina die before Laguna Blade even occurs, or watching a Zeus get slamboozled as he casts his 450 manacost ultimate!

Pugna has a versatile and unique skill set. He can be an amazing counter-pick when the enemy chooses spellcasters, or he can be they key hero in a push strategy.

Hope you enjoy the guide,
Tony



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

4 - Advanced Techniques
Blast Cancelling
'Decrepiteliporting'
Nether Ward Usage


5 - Allied and Opposition Hero Consideration
Recommended Allies
Pugna Food
Worst Enemies

6 - Drafting Pugna
Push Strategy
Counter-Picking


7 - Replays


8 - Wrapping Up





1 A Closer Look at Pugna's Skills

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.

Mana Cost: 100 Cooldown: 7 seconds Casting Range: 700
Duration: 3.5 seconds

Tips:
- Only magical and pure damage can harm Decrepified units
- Decrepify has just received 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

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 599x610.

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.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 780x675 and weights 116KB.

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

2 Skill and Item Build Options

Skill Build:

Depending on your opponents you may choose to change this, but I find this is most effective:

1 - Nether Blast
2 - Nether Ward/Decrepify
3 - Nether Blast
4 - Nether Ward
5 - Nether Blast
6 - Life Drain
7 - Nether Blast
8 - Nether Ward
9 - Nether Ward
10 - Decrepify/Nether Ward
11 - Life Drain
12 - Decrepify
13 - Decrepify
14 - Decrepify
15 - Stat Boost
16 - Life Drain


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.



3 Gameplay 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:



Click to view 4 screenshots...

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...



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.

Please click to see the screenshots of a 5v5 late game clash in a war:

In this -CM match I have drafted Pugna, Earthshaker, Lich, Pudge and Bloodseeker onto the Scourge team. The Sentinel have drafted Alchemist, Enigma, Crystal Maiden, Warlock and Tiny. (Here I'm actually playing Pudge, but the Netherward was so strong I wanted to show this fight)


The Sentinel have predicted that we are taking Roshan, so they engage us starting with Warlock's ultimate. We are very well prepared - Netherward is put down immediately in an unreachable spot to the right of screen, our Bloodseeker purges away the Golem, and I initiate by hooking their Enigma away from the fight...



The Sentinel feel they are committed to continue the fight, and Pugna's Netherward starts to do its dirty work...



The Netherward strikes continue, and our positioning has kept all our heroes quite safe from all their initiating spells.



Earthshaker joins the party, things are looking grim for the Sentinel. In the bottom right corner you can see Crystal Maiden is half-dead from Netherward zaps. Only a few seconds have passed, so I'm still rootin' around with Enigma way up in the top of the frame.



Enigma finally breaks free of Dismember and Rot and desperately tries to cast Black Hole, only to be pimpslapped to death by Netherward...



Chain Frost whips around between Warlock and Alchemist and we win the battle 5 kills to nil, then we kill Roshan anyway.

Take a wild guess as to how much damage Netherward did during that fight.

Chances are you're guessing too low - here's the maths:

Tiny casts blink (90), Avalanche (120) and Toss (120) - 330 mana
Alchemist casts Unstable Concoction (120), Acid Spray (160) and Chemical Rage (150) - 430 mana
Crystal Maiden casts Frostbite (150) and Freezing Field (400) - 550 mana
Enigma only gets to attempt his ult for 300 mana
Warlock was zapped for Upheaval - 130 mana

All up that's a glorious 1740 mana, triggering a grand total of 2610 Netherward zap damage!

That's more than twice as much damage as a level 3 Laguna Blade with Aghanim's upgrade. Ouch.

4 Advanced 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.


DecrepiNetherwarding
You can buy precious seconds by Decrepifying your Netherward, keeping it alive and kicking!


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


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.


Zeus casts Arc Lightning gets gutted by Nether Ward before he can even think about using his ultimate.


5 Allied 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.



6 Drafting 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.