Pugna/Guide

General

 * Possessing the second-highest base movement speed in the game (tied with ) and a shorter-than-average cast animation, Pugna can be a very mobile hero who can get his spells off more easily than most other casters. However, his pitiful strength means that being caught by the enemy often means that he can be easily killed.
 * Because of a combination of his squishiness and reliance on spell-casting, Pugna benefits most from building items that boost the size of his HP pool and provide him with mana regeneration. Because he has the highest intelligence growth in the game, Pugna's mana pool can support his spell casting relatively easily, so obtaining percentage-based mana regen can keep him from needing to return to base as often.
 * Beware that despite his awesome nuking potential, Pugna does not have any hard disables, and thus enemies can easily escape him either by running away or channeling a Town Portal Scroll. In order to reliably nuke down and kill enemy heroes, Pugna must rely on allied disables, or purchase disable items himself.
 * In general, Pugna requires farm and levels in order to be effective, however, he can also contribute to teamfights with levels alone.
 * Pugna can be played as a solo mid-laner in order to bring out his potential. Regular use of Nether Blast allows Pugna to easily nuke down creep waves, as well as harass the enemy mid, and can also be used to quickly destroy the enemy tower if needed, giving Pugna's team an early advantage in gold and map control. Afterward, Pugna can transition into using Nether Blast to farm and push, and purchasing items to increase his effectiveness in teamfights.
 * When not given farm priority, Pugna can be played as a side-lane support, using Nether Blast to harass and Decrepify as a setup disable, as well as using Nether Blast to push down towers early in a match. By stacking and pulling camps, Pugna can earn himself experience and gold to buy more support items for his team as needed, and level up his abilities to increase his teamfight contribution.


 * Nether Blast is a ground-targeted area nuke that, after a delay, deals magic damage within its radius.
 * Due to its extremely low cooldown and the damage scaling, Nether Blast is a good ability to max out first as Pugna. It greatly increases Pugna's nuking potential, and can be used for pushing and farming.
 * The long delay on Nether Blast makes it a hard spell to land on enemies who are watching Pugna's animations in an attempt to dodge the explosion. Try to fake them out with animation canceling if needed, as dispositioning the enemy can give Pugna more space for last-hitting or harass them out of range of last-hitting creeps.
 * Remember that Nether Blast can damage buildings as well, which can allow Pugna to quickly destroy enemy towers if given the chance. Cast at the right time, it also greatly improves the chances of getting the last-hit on the tower if enemies are attempting to deny it or allied creeps are currently attacking it.
 * Nether Blast has an extremely short cast range, but a wide radius, allowing Pugna to nuke targets up to 800 range away. Be very careful about using the spell to harass, as its short cast range may put Pugna in danger. Try to use the radius to your advantage and catch enemies as close to the far edge as possible, in order to keep as great a distance between them and Pugna.
 * The key to efficient use of Nether Blast is to try to catch as many targets within its radius as possible. Try using it to last-hit creeps while at the same time nuking your lane opponent, or catching an enemy creep wave and tower at the same time during a push.


 * Decrepify inflicts its target, enemy or ally, with ethereal, slowing them while also reducing their magic resistance.
 * Because all of Pugna's damage output is magical, Decrepify is a good ability to max out early on, as the magic resistance reduction can greatly improve his damage output. Leveling up the ability increases its disable and debuff potential, while reducing its turnaround time due to the greatly reduced cooldown.
 * Casting Decrepify on enemies can act as a disable and debuff.
 * Inflicting ethereal on an enemy will disarm them while slowing and reducing their magic resistance. This can be useful for stopping right-click carries in their tracks, and open them up to be hit with Nether Blast as well as other magic nukes.
 * Be careful about when you cast Decrepify on enemies, as ethereal will also prevent allies from damaging them with physical attacks. Using the spell at the wrong time can inadvertently save the enemy, so judge the situation accordingly before committing the spell.
 * As an allied-targeted spell, Decrepify can be used as a powerful defensive ability.
 * Casting Decrepify on allies will slow them and reduce their magic resistance, but it will also render them immune to physical damage, which can save them from being killed by auto-attacks or physical damage spells.
 * As with casting Decrepify on enemies, be sure to analyze the situation before committing Decrepify on allies. The magic resistance reduction can also be taken advantage of by the enemy, who can finish off your teammate with a high-powered nuke.
 * Decrepify can be used as a powerful laning spell due to its extremely long cast range. Casting it on an enemy will prevent them from attacking, allowing Pugna to last-hit and deny low-health creeps without enemy interference. As well, using it as an initiating slow can allow allies to quickly move into position to land initiating nukes and disables with greater potency.
 * When using Decrepify in combination with Nether Blast, try to take advantage of Decrepify's long cast range in order to cover for Nether Blast's delay. Target Nether Blast on an enemy, and then quickly cast Decrepify on them immediately afterward; the target will be slowed and unable to retreat outside of the range of Nether Blast, taking additional damage from the reduced magic resistance.
 * In a pinch, Decrepify can be used as physical damage immunity while channeling spells or items. In particular, casting Decrepify prior to channeling a Town Portal Scroll can prevent enemies from finishing off a target (or Pugna himself) unless they have an interrupting disable.


 * Nether Ward places a ward that degenerates enemy mana within a wide radius, and counters enemy spell usage if they expend mana within its range.
 * Because Nether Ward is dependent on enemies expending mana, it is only useful in teamfights and as a counter-spell nuke during ganks. As teamfights do not happen until later in a match and ganks are situational, Nether Ward is a situational pickup in the early game and should be maxed out last.
 * Nether Ward is a powerful teamfight and counter-gank ability that can greatly debilitate the enemy team if placed properly ahead of an engagement. Enemies attempting to cast spells and use items will deal tremendous damage to themselves based on the mana cost, and potentially kill themselves if the mana cost of their abilities is high enough.
 * As Nether Ward fires its mana flares as magical damage, reducing the enemy's magic resistance through Decrepify can cause them to take increased damage from the flares.
 * If time permits, placing Nether Ward during a gank can allow Pugna to deal nuke damage to punish enemies that attempt to land counter-disables or escape spells. Combined with Pugna's other nukes, this can often be enough to finish an enemy off before they can successfully escape.
 * Because Nether Ward fires its flares before the enemy spell takes effect, it is possible to cancel the spell from happening if they die from the flare damage, making it a strong ability against spells like, , and.
 * Keep in mind that Nether Ward has an extremely short cast range, so Pugna must move himself to the location where he wishes to place it. Try taking advantage of the ward's wide influence radius and place it behind your team or inside of a treeline where it will be hard to get to.
 * Beware that even if the Nether Ward itself is hidden, the mana flares are visible to the enemy team, meaning that they can triangulate its position based on where the flares are coming from. Placing the ward behind Pugna's team can prevent them from easily destroying it even if they determine its location.
 * The Nether Ward itself is a valid target for Decrepify, allowing Pugna to temporarily shield it from damage. This can be useful for extending its survivability for a few more seconds, and can allow Pugna to use the ward itself as bait to draw in enemies.


 * Life Drain is a channeled spell that causes Pugna to drain HP from a target enemy, replenishing his HP or mana. It can also be cast on allies to heal them using Pugna's HP pool.
 * Life Drain can be a powerful nuking and survivability spell if Pugna can prevent the enemy from disabling him during the channeling. By healing himself while simultaneously damaging a target enemy, Pugna can quickly negate any damage that the enemy deals to him while also dealing heavy damage to an enemy and potentially scoring a kill.
 * In general, try to get as close as possible to an enemy before casting Life Drain on them; unless they have a disable or silence, their only option for breaking the link is to run away.
 * As with Pugna's other abilities, Life Drain is magical damage that can be augmented by reducing the enemy's magic resistance. Casting Decrepify on an enemy prior to Life Drain will greatly increase the amount of damage dealt (and in turn the amount healed).
 * Life Drain can pierce spell immunity; however, the damage/heal is also directly dependent on the amount of damage dealt, so targeting a spell immune enemy will not deal any damage nor will it heal Pugna.
 * Be careful about when and where you cast Life Drain. As the link breaks upon loss of vision on the target, enemies can escape by utilizing the Fog of War, either by juking around trees or simply walking far enough away at nighttime, and can use invisibility spells or items as well.
 * With its low cooldown, Life Drain can be used tactically provided that Pugna has the mana to back it up. As Life Drain is not restricted to be cast on heroes only, Pugna can use the spell to replenish his HP by draining enemy or neutral creeps.
 * If Pugna's HP is full, Life Drain will instead refill his mana when targeted on enemy heroes. However, mind that this cannot be used on enemy and neutral creeps, which can only restore Pugna's health.
 * Life Drain destroys enemy illusions upon the first damage tick. When combined with Aghanim's Scepter, this allows Pugna to instantly remove enemy illusions from play, which can be useful in cases such as and /.
 * When targeted on an ally, Life Drain allows Pugna to use his HP to restore their health. This can be useful in situations where Pugna needs to save a teammate, such as an allied carry who is being focused down. As an additional bonus, its ability to pierce spell immunity allows Pugna to heal them through an active Black King Bar.
 * Functionally, An ally-targeted Life Drain acts as a reverse-casted ability with the target as the caster and Pugna as the target, though the channel is still focused on Pugna himself. This means that reducing Pugna's magic resistance (such as through a self-casted Decrepify) will increase the flow rate, while increasing Pugna's magic resistance will reduce the flow rate (or outright halt it in the case of 100% magic resistance through spell immunity or other abilities).
 * Be mindful that the damage dealt to Pugna is lethal, and can cause him to commit suicide. In certain situations, this can be useful both to heal an ally and deny Pugna in the face of enemy attacks.

Items
Starting items:
 * and provide attributes to boost Pugna's early-game survivability. The increased strength gives him more HP to offset his squishiness.
 * allows Pugna to replenish his mana in-lane. This can be particularly useful for maintaining repeated casting of.
 * and are crucial laning self-sustain items. Given Pugna's extremely low base HP, any source of HP regen goes a long way to keeping him alive.
 * In the case of playing as a support, purchasing and  should hold priority, as Pugna does not greatly rely on items to be effective in-lane.

Early game:
 * can be a very strong pickup on Pugna, as the burst HP regen can often be enough to keep him alive long enough to cast one or two more spells.
 * can give Pugna a very strong mobility advantage over his lane opponents. Despite his already formidable base movement speed, becoming even more mobile can allow him to maneuver to offset his squishiness, and can be particularly useful when chasing down enemies to nuke them down.
 * , upgraded from already-purchased Gauntlets of Strength and Circlet, improves Pugna's strength to give him enough HP to be more survivable.

Core items:
 * gives Pugna additional attributes and increased charge storage. Both are extremely useful on a very low-HP hero whose low-cost spells can greatly affect the outcome of a teamfight.
 * increases the size of Pugna's mana pool while allowing him to replenish it. Given Pugna's heavy reliance on casting, securing an early source of mana regen is crucial.
 * greatly improves Pugna's survivability and nuking power. It provides stats across the board, giving Pugna more HP and mana, both of which he severely needs. The upgraded allows Pugna to sustain his own HP in fights while simultaneously using it as a damage-over-time nuke on the enemy, and the removed cooldown allows him to immediately cast it again after being interrupted.
 * should be carried at all times on all heroes. While Pugna is not the strongest ganker, his spells make him a very strong asset to have in any teamfight, particularly due to the potency of a pre-placed.

Situational items:
 * is a strong teamfight utility item to pick up on Pugna. It gives him increased attributes and armor, increasing his survivability and giving him an active to heal himself and his team; it can be combined with an allied-cast Life Drain, healing Pugna to recoup lost health while further boosting the amount of HP recovered to an ally. Pugna's tremendous intelligence growth ensures that he can easily afford the mana cost.
 * gives Pugna additional disable and many strong bonuses for a cheap price. The increased HP greatly improves Pugna's survivability, while the bonus intelligence augments his mana pool and base damage. The active can be combined with to slow a foe down to minimum movement speed, while the extremely long cast range allows Pugna to use it on enemies from complete safety.
 * gives Pugna a hard disable and many powerful bonuses. It gives him stats across the board, vastly increased intelligence, and scaling mana regen to keep his mana pool topped up at all times. The Hex is an extremely powerful ability to have on hand in teamfights and ganks.
 * gives Pugna increased survivability and additional teamfight contribution. It greatly improves Pugna's armor, which combined with the Freezing Aura goes a long way towards decreasing his vulnerability to physical damage, and greatly improves the size of his mana pool as well. The active can be used as an additional damage nuke and slow, augmenting Pugna's existing ability to do both with his abilities.
 * greatly improves Pugna's nuking power, particularly when combined with Decrepify. It provides increased intelligence to boost the size of his mana pool as well.
 * is a strong survivability item to purchase on Pugna. The spell immunity prevents Pugna from being easily interrupted while channeling Life Drain, and when combined with a self-casted Decrepify can make him virtually invulnerable to all damage for a time.
 * is a good early to mid game pick up that provides Pugna with a cheap increase to his attributes and movement speed.
 * is a good cheap support utility item to pick up as a support. It gives him additional strength for more HP, and some mana regen to sustain his casting. The active allows Pugna to heal teammates up on top of Life Drain, or recoup the HP cost of Life Drain when healing allies, and can also be cast on enemies as an additional damage nuke.
 * is a cheaper substitute in place of Arcane Boots, but can be situationally useful on a support Pugna if an alternate source of mana replenishment can be obtained. It improves Pugna's armor, increasing his survivability, and greatly boosts his movement speed to make him more mobile. The passive HP regen keeps Pugna's HP topped up, and allows him to cast an allied Life Drain at will to keep allies' HP up.
 * is a useful utility item that is useful on Pugna in any role. The increased magic resistance helps with survivability, while the active can be self-casted to shield Pugna during an enemy-targeted Life Drain. The invisibility can also be used to aid in initiation or escape, for Pugna or an ally.
 * is very useful to purchase on Pugna in any situation. It gives Pugna extra mobility, as well as an escape ability that he otherwise lacks, and can be used to save allies on top of Decrepify. The increased intelligence boosts the size of his mana pool, while the HP regen keeps him topped up.
 * greatly improves Pugna's mobility, allowing him to move more easily around the map or get within range to cast his spells much more easily. It also allows for much more creative placement of Nether Ward, as Pugna can utilize cliffs and ward spots should the opportunity present itself.
 * is a cheap but useful nuke-boosting item to purchase on a support Pugna. It gives him stats across the board, a great amount of intelligence, and provides armor and HP regen, increasing his survivability somewhat. The active greatly boosts the effectiveness of all of Pugna's spells, particularly as it can be stacked on top of Decrepify to further reduce enemies' magic resistance.
 * is a very strong utility item that can boost Pugna's all-around effectiveness, and can be easily completed through disassembling Arcane Boots. The increased mana pool helps facilitate his spell casting, and the HP regen keeps his HP up and aids in casting an ally-targeted Life Drain. The increased cast range on all of Pugna's spells allow him to nuke his enemies from much safer distances, and also allows him to place Nether Ward at range (such as inside deep treelines or on elevated terrain). The spell damage amplification increases the potency of both Life Drain and Nether Blast, increasing Pugna's nuking power.
 * is an expensive investment but greatly boosts Pugna's ability to push and counter-push. The bonus movement speed makes Pugna even faster, allowing him to move more easily around the battlefield, and the teleport allows Pugna to move between lanes to either split-push the enemy and threaten their barracks or halt an enemy creep wave in its tracks before it reaches his base.
 * is a useful utility item that gives Pugna increased casting and disabling capability. The scaling mana regeneration allows Pugna to take advantage of his plentiful intelligence growth, keeping his mana pool full so that he can remain out in the field for extended periods of time, and the improved movement speed makes him even more mobile. The active allows Pugna to either give himself temporary invulnerability while removing debuffs, or can be targeted on an enemy as a hard-disable, allowing him to easily land Nether Blast on an enemy.
 * is a powerful utility item that improves Pugna's teamfight contribution. The summoned warriors can be controlled while Pugna is channeling Life Drain, and can add additional damage output to a teamfight as needed. Upgraded to level 3, they can also provide True Sight, which can be useful for preventing enemies from casting invisibility abilities to break Life Drain.
 * is somewhat unorthodox on Pugna, but can greatly augment his disabling and solo-killing power. Silencing an enemy can prevent them from easily casting counter-disables against Pugna, particularly while he is casting Life Drain, and Pugna's sheer nuking power can often be enough to finish off a target with the HP burn at the end of the silence duration. As well, the silence can be cast on top of Decrepify to prevent a single target from attacking or casting spells, rendering them helpless unless they have dispelling items. The item also greatly improves Pugna's intelligence and mana regen, further boosting his casting ability.
 * is a powerful tank item that greatly improves Pugna's HP and mana pool, vastly increasing his survivability in fights. Getting charges also allows Pugna to take utmost advantage of his short cooldown spells by greatly increasing his mana regen.
 * , upgraded from a purchased Arcane Boots and Mekansm, gives Pugna increased survivability. Combining the benefits of both items, using the Mend allows Pugna to instantly purge debuffs from himself (such as silences), and the aura increases his team's survivability when their HP gets low through increased HP regen and armor.
 * is a situational utility item that gives Pugna tankiness and increases the staying power of his team. Greatly improving Pugna's HP makes him much less liable to die in teamfights, and thus able to contribute more in any given engagement. More importantly, it allows Pugna to use an allied Life Drain to greatly restore a teammate's HP and even replenish their mana, as he can quickly recoup the HP cost of the spell through the passive regen.
 * tremendously boosts Pugna's survivability and casting power, and can make him a force to be reckoned with when given farm priority. It greatly boosts Pugna's HP and mana, making him much tankier and allowing him to cast his spells profligately. The Spell Lifesteal and reduced cooldown vastly boost the potency of his nukes, allowing him to recover HP through short-cooldown Nether Blasts and recovering more HP than he takes from enemies during Life Drain. The cooldown reduction also allows him to have Nether Ward active at all times (assuming it isn't destroyed) and even have two active at once as the duration of the ward is 30 seconds and the cooldown is 26.25 after reduction.