Pugna/Counters

Bad against...

 * Due to Pugna's incredible int growth and terrible strength growth, Nyx should always be able to take you out with his combo, with or without an added . will deal a lethal 670 damage to you if you're level 25 with no items and no points in attribute, of your 1120 hp under the same conditions.
 * is also a great tool versus Pugna. A good player will wait for you in until you farm a creep wave with Nether Blast and reflect it back at you as their initiation and setup for.


 * Clockwerk loves to low-hp, immobile targets like you. Your Life Drain will be immediately canceled by  if you're trapped inside . And it will be canceled over and over again if you farmed an, you will need huge amounts of mana to keep it going.
 * Clockwerk also loves to build, which will harm you more than it harms him if you try to Nether Blast him.
 * Finally, both and  can allow him to finish you off out of range of your Nether Ward.


 * Sniper's huge range makes it difficult to channel Life drain against him as he can just take a couple of steps back to cancel your drain.
 * Sniper's is a great tool to get vision on your Nether ward, and he can take it out with ease if it's not far behind enough.
 * Sniper has plenty of magical damage to hurt you and your allies while anyone is under Decrepify.


 * Though Life drain instantly takes out illusions, Phantom Lancer creates way too many for you to handle.
 * A good Phantom Lancer will also dodge as needed your Nether Blast with.
 * Phantom Lancer is the most natural carrier to counter Pugna's very large pool of mana to burn away.


 * It is fairly common for Anti-Mage to get rack multiple kills at once by targeting his against you.
 * The good news is you should die well before you're out of mana, so his ultimate won't deal as much damage as it could.


 * Luna won't be needing too much to worry about Nether Ward since she has cheap nukes.
 * Luna can dominate Pugna both in team fights (Low mana costs) and 1 vs 1.
 * Luna's can cancel Pugna's Life Drain even if he has  as long as he doesn't buy.
 * totally nullifies Pugna's damage output and trying to save himself from Luna with Decrepify is suicide because she will be able to finish you with, and Eclipse can be seriously devastating if amplified.


 * Most of Pugna's damage is magical which can get blocked by 's 100% magic resist.
 * Oracle has two sources of dispel which can remove Decrepify easily on his ally.
 * Oracle has very long Attack Range and very low Base Attack Time which enables him to take down Nether Ward swiftly from long distance.


 * Pugna is very fragile hero who can easily get caught and killed by Storm Spirit's long range initiation.
 * This is especially true if he has or.
 * Pugna has no disable that can prevent Storm Spirit from escaping.
 * Even though requires high amount of mana Nether Ward is ineffective to counter it since Storm Spirit is invulnerable while charging.
 * Storm Spirit's other abilities cost very insignificant amount of mana for Nether Ward to be effective.

Others

 * Any hero that can blink on top of him makes a good threat to Pugna.
 * Special mention goes to as she could kill herself with  if your Nether Ward is up.
 * Similarly, any hero that will sneak up on you could kill you before you have time to react.

Items

 * allows for someone to quickly escape a Life Drain for a very small mana cost. With quick fingers, you can also dodge Nether Blast.
 * and both reduces Pugna's damage output considerably.
 * Pugna's only tool against is a defensive Decrepify.
 * is great versus Pugna as he hates being jumped on because of his extremely fragile nature.
 * making Pugna can't use his Life Drain and Decrepify
 * making Life Drain meaningless also reflects Dagon or Decrepify.
 * can remove Decrepify defensively cast on pugna's team but not on the enemy.

Good against...

 * Amazingly, Enchantress has even lower hp than Pugna. Though she does pack quite a punch through, though she can't use it if she is under Decrepify.
 * Pugna's Magical DPS is way greater than the heal from, which will also harm her quite a bit if she's next to Nether Ward.


 * Decrepify is the perfect tool against until he gets a, and even then he will probably waste a couple of slashes before he uses it.
 * Without an extra disable, Pugna's high movement speed makes it impossible to chase him with.
 * Unlike some other carries like or, Juggernaut's spells cost a hefty amount of mana and he will seriously get hurt by Nether Ward. Don't forget the damage from the ward is inflicted before the spell immunity is provided by.


 * For the better part of the game, he will take more damage from your ward than he deals to you with.
 * It will take a huge difference in farm or itemization between you for him to deal any damage to you with, provided he doesn't die first from casting it next to your ward.


 * Nether Ward can punish Timbersaw, as Timbersaw is a spell-caster with low cooldowns. Furthermore, Timbersaw usually appears in the midst of battle, placing himself in range of Nether Ward's Mana Flares.
 * Timbersaw has no stuns or silences to stop Life Drain. Since all of Pugna's Spells is magical, the damage can be devastating to Timbersaw.
 * Decrepify can further increase all the magical damage done to Timbersaw, bypassing the enhanced physical resistance he can get from.


 * Leshrac needs to be close to target in order to do damage, Pugna can outrun Leshrac with ease due to his superior movement speed.
 * can also be hard to land on Pugna due to same reason.
 * Leshrac uses huge amount of mana to do damage, Nether Ward forces him to either not contribute in a fight or kill himself in a process.


 * His army will die in a heartbeat once you've farmed up an  since Life Drain instantly deals with illusions.
 * You can also protect whoever he chooses to with a timely Decrepify.


 * Decrepify prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
 * Nether Ward can do heavy damage to Shadow Fiend if he tries to cast his and his.


 * Decrepify prevents Void to attack trapped allies inside, especially during early-mid game Void doesn't have BKB or Manta yet.


 * Nether Ward can destroy him, because of the relatively high mana cost of spells which need to be comboed.


 * Nether Ward makes Skywrath ineffective due his low health and high mana cost on abilities, forcing him to either not cast abilities or kill himself in a process.
 * Skywraths fragility makes him very susceptible to Pugna's high burst.

Others

 * Up to a certain extent, Decrepify can make life miserable for a ton of right-clicking carries. With an you will have 78% uptime on it (minus cast times), and if you take the lvl 20 talent +2s Decrepify Duration, it increases to 100% uptime(minus cast times).
 * Special mention goes to who simply loves to  on top of you. If you're not already dead, just decrepify her and suck the life out of her.
 * Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like, , and , but don't use Decrepify defensively against them as you'll be helping them out more than anything.
 * Since Life drain takes out illusions instantly, Pugna with a scepter is decent versus plenty of illusion heroes, most notably and  and the aforementioned .  is an exception.

Works well with...

 * Io and Pugna can gank easily for Decrepify provides a boost to his other spells, as well as Io's.
 * If Io is healing an ally with, you can cast Life Drain on Io to give it health, so Tether will heal its target for an absurd amount of health, useful to save an important ally.


 * holds enemy hero long enough for Pugna to cast spells. If she is losing Duel, he can Decrepify or Life Drain heal her.


 * A good opponent will always try to focus a Necrophos. Here's another ally who will take the enemy's initiation for you in order to help you get your spells off. Don't forget to help him out in return through a friendly Life drain, and hugely amping up the damage from, or at least protecting him from right clicks.


 * Here's an ally who will soak up the damage for you. Don't forget you can also restore her mana with Life Drain once she's back to full hp.
 * If your mana allows it, don't forget to spam Nether Blast while she tanks the tower for your team.


 * Both Skywrath Mage and Pugna do very high magic damage and they both have ability to amplify each others damage by and Decrepify.


 * and hold enemy heroes in place just enough for Nether Blast and Life Drain to finish them off.
 * Decrepify lowers enemies' magic resistance, increasing the potency of.

Others

 * Heroes that can make good use of Decrepify for they possess huge amount of magical burst:, , , ,
 * Heroes with abilities that can keep targets in range of Nether Blast and Life Drain:, , , ,

Items

 * grants Pugna invisibility so the enemy cannot easily interrupt Life Drain.
 * 's magical damage increases thanks to Decrepify's magic resistance reduction.

List of heroes that counter Pugna, and list of heroes that work well with Pugna.

Pugna/Противостоящие