Playing The Pugna

Pugna: Squishy supporting hero or capable badass of your team?

Introduction

Heya mates! My name is CreepyPastaPony, but you can just call me Creepy if you'd like! I am a massive gamer, ranging from Minecraft to Flash Games to Indie Games to some other well known brands of gamign such as TF2, Slender: Eight Pages and today...DoTA 2. I will be here to describe the in's and out's of one of my favorite heroes: Pugna. This guide will go over an overall opinion and overview of Pugna, what role he fits into, his spells and abiltiies, items to get, good and bad lane parters, people he coutners and people that coutner him. With the guide, you will know the right way to play this amazing (and sometiems infuriating) hero....with vigourous intent to spread oblivion amoungst the opposing team.

The Overview of Pugna

"Crossed you off my list..." This is one of the more common lines that Pugna says...and it rings with extreme truth. Squishy carries quiver at the nuke damage. Even squishier casters hide in fear from the nether wards. Pugna is a hero of extreme diversity and fear...however, he isnt played often, as his stregth gain is close to none. Pugna is listed as a Nuker, Pusher and Support, support coming last as there are many types of support play types, which I will list the most common below.

Hard Core Supports: Theres are the guys like Dazzle and Chen, who constantly revolves around helping the carries on the team. Almost nothing is for personal gain on his part, and thats a good thing for the carries. Wards, Courier, More Wards, Gems, Urns, Salves, Tangos, the whole she-bang.




Immobilizing Supports: These are the guys like Earthshaker and Jakiro that are in the buisness of stopping off and slowign down straglers long enough for the carries to come. These type of supports are a bit more versatile as they normally have a moderate output damage, so depending on the hero, you can carry a good bit.




Nuking Supports: These are the heroes like Pugna and Bane, who's beign a support is only made my him beign squishy and with low auto attack. These supports have high magical output normally, and if given kill afterk ill, can quickly spiral into a decent of madness and power (Until you remeber that you're still really squishy, which is a huge downer.)



Fitting into the last collum, Pugna is the most verstatile, as he can play a true support for his team (Not gettign kills, warding, healign his mates with Life Drain.) OR play as a Pugna should (Gettign the kills, winnign the teamfights, taking down the squishy, ignorant and unprepared.)

Down to technicalities, Pugna is the highest intelligence gain in the game, makign him very spell oriented. His stregth gain is very low and his agility gain even lower. The llow stregth stats make him not the most pupular hero as he can be taken out very quickly, but his abilites coutneract his low health, which i will show you now.

The Abilities of The Pugna

Pugna, as stated before, is very magic oriented, and his spells have synchonization with every one of his other spells, which makes him so effective a nuking.

Nether Blast: Nether Blast is a very simple, yet effective ability, a cornerstone of Pugna. It is an AoE (Area of Effect) Magical Damage blast that damages all units in its selected area. Very very simple spell.

Decrepify: Decrepify, also shortened down to "Decrep" by players, it's an ability that packs a punch to everyone of Pugna's abilities. Decrepify slows down the target by 25% or 50% (25 for your allies you cast it on, 50 for the enemies) and increased magical damage done to them (Also the 25 and 50% stats.) To give an example of what decrepify does, let me tell you how much the increase would be.
You have Nether Blast fully upgraded and it does 325 on its own. You decrep a unit and it does that 325 AND the extra 50%, which is and added 162.5 damage. Over all, that is 487.5 damage in all, a pretty hefty amount. However, Decrep works even mroe hand in hand with Life Drain, which i will talk about in a miniute.

Nether Ward: Nether Ward is the definign aspect of Pugna. This ward is what separates him from all other casters...it damages the other team based on their own ignorance. Teamfights normally have spells thrown in and out of them, and the Nether Ward is a great manager to make sure the spells are turned in their favor. What it down is that for the amount of mana an abiltiy cost, it down that times a certain amount (Different based on level upgrade) and deals that back as damage on the enemy who casted it. For example, at max upgrade, Nether Ward does 1.75 damage per mana. If Skywrath Mage (Who is coutner by Pugna. A LOT.) throws down an ult, that is 800 x 1.75 which is a whopping 1400 damage. If you maage to decrep him, that is 1400 x .50 whch is then 1400+700 damage, which totals out at 2100 damage...that takes out Skywrath, and if it doesn't, you probavly thrw down a nether blast and started draining him for good measure. Also, the Ward itself has an aura that casues enemies to lose mana, a total loss of 183 mana.



Life Drain: This ultimate is one f the most beautifully animated ulti's in game, but thats just me. The concept of Life Drain is very simple...takes life from your enemy, puts it back into you. However, if you are at full health, if wil restore mana instead, which is very useful for Pugna indeed. It has a 10 second channel time and a 20 second cooldown, unless you get Aghs, which I will discuss shortly. Yiu can also drain your life into your own teamamtes, healing them, which is useful for gettign your main carries outs a few tight spots.

Items of The Pugna

Pugna, while he isnt the most support-y support, is still in the sense of not need too many items. Depending on your priorities, you will need different items, and I will list the best items to get for needed situations.

Ahem.

First of all...

NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, GET ARCANE BOOTS

After your starting items of a Salve, Tangos, and Iron Branches, Aracnaes is Vital for beign succesful in lanes, ganks, pushing and everythign else. The highest intellligence gaion in the game wont keep you entirely supported, so you need the blue boots.

As far as I see Pugna Possibilies, there are two ways to play. Support-y and In-Yo'-Face. I enjoy the latter, but I will do the items for both.

SUPPORT
If you have chosen support Pugna, you are leading a boring life right now...but regarless...

After your aracane boots, getting either A.) Mechanism or B.) Pipe of Insight is required to be a good little support would. Also, whne you aren't gttign one of those, constantly buy wards and gems and dusts and smokes to keep your carries open for incoming ganks.

After your Mech or Pipe, you've tired of the game and want toi stop beign a support, so you want to get Necronomicon to increase your pushing ability. Jokes aside though, Necro is a really good item for Pugna as it is more push, more intelligence and more strength, all things that Pugna adores.

Finally, if you want another items, Scythe of Vise is usally a good pickup for support Pugna. Its a disable on enemy carries, givign you a chance to suck them off (pervert jokes!) and for your carries to come and help you, if you need it.


IN-YO'-FACE
You have made the right choice! This type of Pugna is a ganking, spell casting, "KILL IT NOW.'" type of mentality. Good for people wantign to rid themselves of anger.

After your blue boots (Aracane Boots for the ones who dont like nicknames) you need to rush Aghs. Aghs Pugna is simply put...abysmall to go against as an enemy. The range is extended on Life Drain, the Damage is increased on Life Drain and the best part....Life Drain is now on a zero second cooldown. You can suck them off time aftertime and they cant do anythign about it al all...its gorgeous to watch the ones who dont know how Pugna works flail at the damage...


After your Aghs, Dagon might not be a bad pickup. It may be a bit late in the game, sure, but the damage works along side decrepify, which makes it a good pickup, even late game.

Finally, Pugna is low on armor, and needs protection from mellee heroes. Shiva's Guard is usally pretty good for In-Yo'-Face Pugna (Or Battle Pugna as I call him) as it provides a big area of protection when you need it most. Its aso is extra intelligence and armour, which is lovely on Pugna.

Lane Parters for The Pugna

As with a lot of heroes, you will most likely have a lane partner (Unless you Pugna mid whihc works out sometiems, believe it or not.) And as with any hero there is good parters and bad parters. Instead of giving a long list of names, Ill just tell you to look for certain qualities to lane with and what to avoid.

GOOD PARTNERS IN LANE:

Normally, when you're playign Pugna, you want someone who has very high nuke damage to tear down your opponents. You best guess is to lane with other spell casters like yourself, such as Skywrath Mage, Lion, Crystal Maiden, Zeus, etc.


OKAY LANE PARTNERS

These are the partners that normally you lane with becasue it's a mate in your party and you realzie "Oh wait, this may not have been the best pair" but it works out okay in the end. Heroes liek that for Pugna is ones with a combonation of Magic and Physical damage. The main heroes I can think of for this category is Slark and Slardar. Slark can poucne and dark pact, but needs to keep on hitting his foe, which is why you might mess up, and accidently decrep your foe or your lane partner, whcih sometiems ends up in a pretty bad loss of a possible kill.


TERRIBLE LANES PARTNERS

These are the partners that are the direct opposite of what you need, for Pugna, it's heroes that do not need the usage of any magic at all, Bristleback being a big canidate for this collum. Everythign about him is physical damage, and it doesn't benfit you in the game at all to lane with him.

Countering: For The Pugna and Against The Pugna

As we all know, DoTA 2 is a game of 5 hero teams fiightign too destroy th other teams ancient. However, every hero has a weakness, and some heroes will explot the other weaknesses, so in this chapter, I will tell you who Pugna counters and who counters Pugna.

WHO DOES PUGNA COUNTER

Casters/ Wizards:
Pugna is separated from all other casters for one reason: He kills them all. Pugna is best associated to killing th squishy wizards that have high mana abilities. He directly counters Skywrath Mage and let me tell you, it is so fun to watch a pissed of flyign chicken try to go agaisnt Battle Pugna. Its something you should be abke to buy box seats for with a bowl of popcorn and a free balloon.

Squishy Carries:
If the hero is squishy enough Pugna can jump them and kill them in a few seconds flat with all of his abilities. Someone such as Sniper is a perfect example, because even though he has a high damage output late game, if caught off-guard, he will quickl;y become food for The Pugna.

WHO COUNTERS PUGNA

Extremely Physical Carries:
These are heroes like Sven or Bristleback that dont use too much mana and can take out Pugna before you realize what's happened to you. Try to take these out at a distance, an you should be okay, unless they target you specifically. Then just run.



Disablers/ Silencers
Heroes like ES, Jakiro, Windranger, Doom, Silncer, etc. that take away the most important part of Pugna: Magic. If Pugna is constantly in stun city due to a one-hit wodner ES, he cant cast spells and is gone before one can ping on the map.

Tanks and Magic Resistant:
There are the heroes such as Pudge, Centaur, Undying, Huskar, etc. who will always end up getting you off-guard in the end. Due to there high health, your nukes begin to lose value as they gain more health, leaving you even more vulnrable than you already are to them.

So long!

Well, you've seen my humble little guide to the not so humble hero. I now there a spelling mistakes here and there, just role with it mates :3 I truly hope you enjoyed the guide, leave your opinions on it if you'd like. This is my first guide to a hero, so I'd love some feedback on what to keep on doing, what to inclue, etc. But! This is here I take my leave! So long mates, and I hope yo see YOU playing a Battle Pugna on the front lines...Ciao!

[AttilaLaDank]

I killed centuar easily

[AttilaLaDank]

This shit is awesome perfect easy hero counters
can kill huskars and outworlds