'Suck 'em dry!' Jho's guide to Pugna (Now updating for 6.84)

Welcome to my guide on the bony 'vampire' of the Netherealm: Pugna!

Pugna is a ranged, intelligence hero with huge nuking and/or pushing capability, and has the potential to drain his enemies of both mana AND HP! He has the highest INT gain, giving him one of the highest mana pools in the game at lvl25. He's quite speedy too, and has a high base movement speed! In this guide, I will be covering:
-When you should pick pugna (EZ COUNTERPICK GG)
-His spells
-His items and which you should build for each situation
- What you should be doing at each stage in the game

You've picked pugna, what do you get/build?

Starting items:
If you're unfortunate to be stuck playing pugna as a hard support (Highly reccomended you don't do), you won't get very far; early or late game. Regardless, if you're in that position, buy the courier/wards. Then get yourself a circlet and tangos (if you weren't forced to buy both GOD FORBID ) which you will build into a bracer afterwards.

Let's look at our possible choices for starting items (for when you're not hard supporting):

Think to yourself, does my team need a Mekansm or Drums? If you see a potential mek carrier on your team i.e. Crystal Maiden, lich etc. Then plan on getting drums. You can start by buying a gauntlet of strength, circlet/Ring of protection and then tangos. If you feel you need to get the Mekansm yourself, get 2 iron branches, tangos and a Ring of protection. Clarities are there if you plan on using Nether ward alot during early game (more on that later).

Early game items:

• If you've bought a gauntlet and/or circlet, firstly build your bracer, you're squishy as hell, you NEED that STR for more HP. If you feel you need the ealy mana regen, and you've bought a Ring of protection; get yourself a Ring of Basilius (Don't forget to deactivate your Ring!).
  
• Get a magic stick if you find yourself to be targeted/ be in a lane where enemy spells are tossed around often.
  
• Boots are essential.
  
• If you're mid-laning, get yourself a bottle.

Core items:

• We've discussed Drums and Mekansm.
  
• Get mana boots ASAP if you haven't bought a bottle. Skip them otherwise for later.
  
• Agahnims Scepter. This baby right here makes you the shortest, scariest git for quite a while. This increases your drain rate. This is a god send for Pugna as his main abilities are close range. In 6.84 Aghanims no longer increases Life Drain's cast range. It now has a cast range of 1200 at lvl16, with or without aghanims.

Situational items:
These are MY personal situationals, but I will discuss all potential picks:

• Blink Dagger. If you haven't quite got your agahnims and you want to solo kill lone enemies early-mid game; then pick this baby up. (great for ganks from mid lane) With 6.84 coming, I think this might be a neccessity early game.
  
• Force staff. I really only get this if there is a Riki humping backstabbing my teammates and I.
  
• Dagon. Stomping 15 minutes in? Any later and this will fall off VERY fast, even with your Decrepify combo.
  
• Scythe of Vyse. Good pickup on any hero. Pugna is no exception.
  
• Black King Bar. If you're stunned, you're f*cked. That's it.
  
• Necronomicon. You have amazing pushing capability. Just don't summon these willy-nilly, they give out tons of XP and gold!
  
• Shiva's guard. More INT? Check. Increased tankiness? Check. Active slow which helps keep your enemies in place? Check. A near perfect pickup for Pugna.
  
• Orchid Malevolence. You don't need the mana regen or attack speed at this stage but it's nice to stop enemies like Queen of Pain and Puck flying away.
  
• Heart of Tarrasque. You fall off late game. At this stage, everyone should have BKB's and very high HP. You won't scratch them very well. If you can't hurt them, then use your ultimate to heal your main carry! The regen given from the Heart will sustain both you and your carry! (Get a 2nd one if you're cheeky)
  
• Rod of Atos Are people still walking away from your Life Drain? Get this and they no longer will. Also makes landing your combo MUCH easier.
  
• Diffusal blade I never get this item. But it's debatable. You really only gain a small amount of INT from it. It's active can be very useful against Warlock's Golems, Omniknight's Guardian Angel and anyone who you find to be affected by a lot of buffs. If you're looking for an active slow, Rod of Atos is superior in pretty much every aspect: No charges, inceased HP, increased INT and a larger cast range.
  
• Lotus Orb Increased regen and tankiness. Also gives you a very nice active ability which will mirror back any disables/stuns from anyone who dares try to interrupt your 0 second cooldown ultimate.
  
• Guardian Greaves Get this if you bought a mekansm instead of drums earlier.
  
• Octarine Core Along with your life drain, this will make you regain HP like a f*cking monster (Life Drain is STILL magic damage!). I'd wager that this will be almost a core item on Pugna.

'How do I spells?' Your abilities, how they work, and how you should upgrade them.

Your abilities:

Nether blast:
This is your Q. Not only does this hurt enemies, it also hurts TOWERS. It's used for nothing but pushing lanes and damaging enemies. Extremely powerful early game. Be careful though! This has a very short cast range!

Decrepify:
This is your W.This is essentially a pocket Ghost scepter/Ethereal blade. Use this on an enemy to increase the damage of your spells or to simply slow them. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT use this on fleeing/fighting enemies during teamfights; especially lategame. Your physical carry needs to hit things, decrepify will hinder them horribly. This is more useful for early lane kills and solo fighting. It can be used as a poor man's Heaven's Halberd, but think carefully!

Nether Ward:
This is your E. I call this the 'Noob Killer'. Unwary enemies will quite literally get quite a shock whenever they cast a spell around your Ward. Be sure to place this out of sight (mainly trees) during fights and the laning phase. This will also drain mana/sec from your enemies. You can Decrepify your Nether Ward and Undying's tombstone to prevent the enemy from destroying them, preventing them from getting that delicious gold.

Life Drain
Suck 'em dry boys and girls! Do you even need an explanation? Yes? Go into a bot match. Use this ability. That's all you need to know. Ah yes, as I mentioned earlier, this can be used to heal allies, be careful though, you do essentially give your Ally YOUR HP!!!

How you should skill them:

99% of the time, max out your Q. It's insanely good early game.
By lvl 7, this is what my build looks like most of the time: Q > W > E > Q > Q > R > Q
After lvl7, think to yourself does the enemy team have mainly high mana costing spells? Or do I require a larger duration slow? Max out W for the latter, max out E for the former.
Do we ever max out any other skill first? No. Unless you're laning against a Tiny and you want to make him cry and quit dota forever by maxing out your E.

How to use them:

DO NOT spam Nether blast during the laning phase unless you're in the middle lane. It has a HUGE mana cost and it will most likely push your lane for the worse. Do spam this during teamfights if you haven't got your Agahnims scepter yet, just be careful your don't be squished.

This is your combo (After lvl6).
W - Q - R. This simple combo grants HUGE burst damage. Using a blink dagger helps close the gap and makes pulling off this combo even easier! (Rod of atos is nice too)

Place nether wards during the laning phase when you have the mana for it. Place nether wards if you think a teamfight is about to start. If one starts, place one anyway.

Before you get lvl16, you need to be quite close to use Life Drain. Make sure your enemy is Decrepified so they cannot attack you during it!

Once you get agahnims, you become a Magical Damage Sniper. Your ultimate gets a huge significant drain rate increase along with a cooldown of 0 Seconds. Spam this, but be wary you don't run out of mana doing so!(NO extra cast range is added in 6.84, so you're still going to have to get close to do some damage at early levels).

Your combo:

'Friend or Foe?' Your best buddies, who you counter and your worst nightmares

Good teamates

• Ogre Magi. Have you ever been hit by a 4x multicast and a nether blast while decrepified? Chances are, if you did, you did not survive.
  
• Axe. Do not decrepify anyone who are affected by his Berserker's Call. Get in there and use your Q and R. EZ kills man.
  
• Oracle. His Purifying Flames already burn like crazy. Imagine what it would be like if his Q and E did MORE damage? Imagine no longer; it's possible.
  
• Leshrac. Okay, you two are BEST BUDDIES IN THE UNIVERSE. You both have ridiculous pushing power, HUGE magic damage output which can be increased furthermore by your W. Seriously, these 2 are perfect for each other.
  
• Zeus. One word: ZAP.
  
• Enigma/Dark seer. They force the enemy team into a clump together, making it easier to pull of your Q.
  
• Skywrath mage/Lina/Lion. Increase their ultimate output. (Doesn't work when Lina gets agahnims due to conversion to PURE damage).

Who you counter:

• Skywrath mage/Leshrac/Lion/Lina No my lovelies, don't you press R... woops, they ded.
  
• Omniknight. If we can't hurt them physically, lets hurt them even more magically!
  
• Outworld Devourer. Take the mid lane and make him cry with your E. His poor mobility early game makes him easy pickings too.

Your worst nightmares

• Huskar. Decrepfying him will only delay the inevitable. You can't hurt this beast, don't bother trying; focus on his teammates instead.
  
• Lifestealer. This thing has a pocket BKB, run from that sucker.
  
• Lone Druid. You can only decrepify one thing at a time. You're going to get hurt either way.
  
• Nyx assassin/Riki. These guys will destroy you. Better get that detection real soon.
  
• Pudge/Anti-mage. Large spell resistance is a big no-no.
  
• Sniper. Being the magical sniper that you are, this guy STILL outsnipes you. On another note, please, PLEASE don't decrepify a teammate that's about to get Assassinated!

When should I pick Pugna?

Does the enemy team have large magic damage? Pick Pugna
Does your team have to rely on 1 or more physical damage carries? Reconsider.
Those are the main two questions you have to ask yourself before every game begins.

Your roles during each stage of the game

I can go very in-depth into it all, but it can all be boiled down just enough that it's easy to comprehend and remember.

Laning phase

DO NOT SPAM YOUR Q. If you have a support with you, focus on farming and be careful, you're very squishy. Do not try to harass, the creeps will tear you apart. If you have someone with you who isn't a support, keep them alive, set up kills for them and place your nether ward around often.

If you're middle. Get your bottle and boots. Gank those lanes son. It's even easier with a haste rune! If you find both outer lanes to be far too pushed, push your own darn lane and get that early mid tower secure.

Early game

You can secure one or two early towers or if things aren't looking too good, you can start roaming and ganking other lanes.

During early teamfights: focus on one, squishy hero. Annhialate them with your combo we talked about earlier.

Mid-game

You should have Aghanims by now. Push those lanes. Carry a TP scroll at all times and wait for teamfights to start. Focus on the squishies first. Make sure you help your allies out with your R and/or Mekansm/Drums!

Late game

Here's where the dreaded BKBS come out. Tank yourself up, and prepare for the worst. Make sure you have both enough survivability and mobility (BKB/Forcestaff/Blink/Octarian core). If you're mega farmed, get a heart and keep your carry(s) alive!

An example of what you should be doing during the laning phase

Closing off

In short, Pugna is a ton of fun to play as! He has high magic damage output, can drain his enemies of life and keep his teammates alive!

This is not the to-end-all-discussions guide to playing Pugna. I think he's a fantastic hero and I would love to see him picked more. His abilities are a bit weird at first but, just go into a few bot matches and familiarise yourself with them. Practice your nuking combo (adding blink dagger helps too).

Thank you all so much for reading my guide! I'm currently working on a video guide for Oracle , another seemingly difficult and ambiguous hero to use.

And don't forget, a message to all you supports out there:
https://soundcloud.com/devilish-jho/buywardsplsgiulo

(This guide is currently WIP)

[Jacob Rees-Mogg]

@AbyssalMage Agreed. However, by the time you get Aghs and Heart, you don't need to be within the fray to heal your teammates. Granted, you can't heal your teammates when you're dead though. I'd probably pick it up if I was ballin'

[abysmag]

Since Pugna is kind of a semi-core the heal when he dies is always nice

[Zennock]

Yah point taken. Its just the fact that you respawn faster. Stuck in my head.

[Jacob Rees-Mogg]

@Zennock V2 Pugna honestly doesn't need bloodstone. He gains a huge mana pool by late game, and it's more preferable to get Shiva's and/or heart. Unless you want to rapidly press R every 0.5 seconds. But that's not how Life Drain should be used

[Zennock]

Have you thought of Blood Stone instead of Heart? Since the scepter makes the cool down zero you can spam your ult with BS.

[abysmag]

Did you mention he has one of the highest base MS?

[Jacob Rees-Mogg]

@LunaticDelusion I had mentioned healing your teammates with Life Drain earlier. Updated with Rod of Atos and Diffusal blade. Added Decrepify trick. Thank you for your input.

[LunaticDelusion]

No diff.blade/atos in items,nothing about using w on allied tomb/nether ward,you don't even mentioned that you can use life drain to heal allies..
Probably a good guide for the person who knows nothing about the game,but it's hard to call this guide advanced.

[Rifftt]

Very very very very good and detailed guide. 1+ Rep.