Pugna

Pugna is a ranged Intelligence Hero who possesses powerful abilities which give him great versatility and offensive capabilities. He has a high base Movement Speed and also has the highest Intelligence gain per level in the game. Nether Blast is a powerful AOE nuke which also deals damage to buildings, giving Pugna good pushing capabilities and teamfighting presence. Decrepify can disable enemy carries or save allies from physical attacks, while amplifying magical damage done to the target. Nether Ward is an excellent teamfight ability which deals damage to enemies based on the manacost of abilities, making Pugna a counter to casters. Pugna's ultimate ability, Life Drain, is a channeling ability which saps enemy health and grants it to himself, somewhat making up for his low durability.

Tips

 * Make sure Nether Blast is always maxed first.
 * Last hit the tower with Nether Blast if it's at risk of being denied.
 * When Blasting the tower, try to hit both lane creeps and any heroes around the radius to maximize the damage to mana ratio.
 * Always use Nether Ward during team clashes. It costs a mere 80 mana and can often deal more damage than Zeus's ultimate during fights. However, it is easily destroyed, so cast the ward in hard-to-spot places to avoid an early detection from the enemy focus fire.
 * While it is a bit risky to use, given the 80 gold bounty at level 4, Nether Ward can be used to bait greedy heroes to get a little closer to your team, and start a teamfight.
 * Pugna's HP and armor is among the lowest in DotA 2, so it is wise to buff him up a bit by buying items like a Mekansm, a Bracer or an Urn of Shadows.
 * In a tight spot, Pugna can cast Decrepify on himself and teleport back to base with a scroll. This trick works best when being chased by heroes that can't nuke you and are trying to auto-attack.
 * Decrepify can be used to amplify magical damage from spells and items. Items like Dagon, Shiva's Guard, and even Ethereal Blade can be purchased to blast enemies to oblivion.
 * Decrepify protects against the following physical-damage abilities (provided the enemy has no magical orb effect item like Desolator, Mjollnir, or Maelstrom ). You can bait out these ultimates & stuns if you're in a 1v1 situation:
 * Juggernaut's Omnislash (ultimate)
 * Slardar's Slithereen Crush (AoE stun)
 * Razor's Eye of the Storm (ultimate)
 * Hitting a Nether Blast together with only Level 1 Decrepify may seem hard, so utilizing the delay of Nether Blast by first casting it and then Decrepify during the 0.9 second delay is a good way to combo the skills.
 * Building Refresher Orb on Pugna will let you place 2 Nether Wards at once. While the mana degeneration doesn't stack, a spell cast by the enemy will cause 2 bursts of damage provided both Wards are in range.
 * Nether Ward has a pretty large area of effect, which can potentially trouble spellcasters, as it can deplete their mana supply as well as be zapped by Mana Flare which deals damage based on the mana cost of the spell. Heroes with skills that have very high mana cost shouldn't use it as they can be killed by just a simple cast.
 * Make sure you are well within range when using Life Drain on an enemy. Using it at maximum range will allow your target to easily leave the area and cancel the spell.
 * Life Drain deals magical damage, which means it can be amplified by Decrepify, thus increasing the health healed too.
 * Life Drain is much more effective during the day, because the channeling is canceled if the target moves into fog of war. As such, having any units go chase the target can maximize the range.
 * Tranquil Boots also give Pugna armor and great regeneration through all parts of the game, including the late game, where it is possible to keep the regeneration and bonus movement speed since you will almost constantly be casting spells instead of auto-attacking.

Trivia

 * According to 's rival hero taunt, Pugna is composed largely of phosphorus. Being a skeleton, he would be made of the phosphorus-containing mineral hydroxyapatite, a major component of bone.
 * Several lines of dialogue reference being Pugna's pet at some point, and it is still unclear whether he was the wizard that Viper slew.
 * "Pugna" is a Latin word that translates to a few meanings, namely "fight", "dispute", or "conflict".
 * One of Pugna's voice lines upon casting Decrepify (" pugna_ability_decrep_02.mp3 First, do no harm.") is a reference to the first line of the Hippocratic Oath.