Insights beyond my Sight - A Blog about my Life, my thoughts and Game Strategies

 Pugna - The Oblivion
The Data and Stats are base from the website Dota Portal and Dota-Allstars. The following sites are very useful and there are forums available for more discussions.

Range: 600 | | Move Speed: 315 | Primary: INT
Str: 17 + 1.45 | Agi: 16 + 1 | Int: 26 + 4
Damage: 45 - 53 | HP: 473 | Mana: 338
HP Regen: 0.76 | Mana Regen: 1.05
                Attack Speed: 1.43 (+ 16% IAS) | Armor: 1.2

SKILLS:

Nether Blast (B)
Creates a blast of exploding pulses from the Nether Plane, dealing damage to units and buildings.
2 seconds casting time.
Level 1 - Deals 100 damage to units in an area, 40 to buildings.
Level 2 - Deals 175 damage to units in an area, 60 to buildings.
Level 3 - Deals 250 damage to units in an area, 80 to buildings.
Level 4 - Deals 325 damage to units in an area, 100 to buildings.
Mana Cost: 85/ 105/ 125/ 145
Cooldown: 5

Decripfy (C)
Pugna casts a powerful banishing magic on another unit. The unit is sent to the ethereal plane for a small period of time, reducing its movement speed by 50% and rendering it unable to attack. It takes 40% extra damage from spells.
              1.5 seconds casting time.
Level 1 - 13 seconds cooldown, lasts 2 seconds.
Level 2 - 11 seconds cooldown, lasts 2.5 seconds.
Level 3 - 9 seconds cooldown, lasts 3 seconds.
Level 4 - 7 seconds cooldown, lasts 3.5 seconds.
Mana Cost: 100
Cooldown: 13/ 11/ 9/ 7

Nether Ward (W)
Summons a Nether Ward that prevents enemy heroes from regenerating mana and can cast Mana Flare, which deals damage to enemy heroes as they cast spells.
Lasts 25 seconds.
Level 1 - Summons a 75HP ward that suppresses the enemies’ spellcasting abilities. Passively reduces the enemies’ mana regeneration by 150%, and can cast Mana Flare which deals 0.75 times damage to any unit that casts a spell per mana spent. Has an AoE of 700.
Level 2 - Summons a 150HP ward that suppresses the enemies’ spellcasting abilities.                      Passively reduces the enemies’ mana regeneration by 300% and can cast Mana Flare which              deals 1 times damage to any unit that casts a spell per mana spent. Has an AoE of 1000.
Level 3 - Summons a 225HP ward that suppresses the enemies’ spellcasting abilities. Passively reduces the enemies’ mana regeneration by 450% and can cast Mana Flare which deals 1.25 times damage to any unit that casts a spell per mana spent. Has an AoE of 1300.
Level 4 - Summons a 300HP ward that suppresses the enemies’ spellcasting abilities. Passively reduces the enemies’ mana regeneration by 600% and can cast Mana Flare which deals 1.5 times damage to any unit that casts a spell per mana spent. Has an AoE of 1600.
Mana Cost: 80
Cooldown: 30

 
 Life Drain (D)
Pugna summons a very powerful draining magic that absorbs the life essence of an enemy unit.
Lasts 9 seconds. Channeling Spell
Level 1 - 95 (170 with Scepter) hit point drain per second.
Level 2 - 140 (200 with Scepter) hit point drain per second.
Level 3 - 185 (300 with Scepter) hit point drain per second.
Mana Cost: 125/ 175/ 225
Cooldown: 20

My Personal Tips, Guides and Strategy I want to share:

This little fellow was once under-rated at version 5.84c because it has very low max HP and the movement speed of all heroes are the same. Even it has low max HP, many players are still able to make pugna dominate the game. Using Decripfy, Dagon and Nether Blast as a combo it can inflict devastating damage to the target. Decripfy slows down the enemy and increase spell damage to 40% making dagon level 1 inflict 560 damage and plus 455 damage for the Nether Blast Level 4. Making a total of 1015 damage for only using Level 1 Dagon. This is how basically Pugna fight or that’s how most people use pugna.

But after a long time of Pugna being famous, many players are able to know the strategy of pugna and this can be a big disadvantage to the pugna users. Like a game of chess, Dota also has no "best move of all" because your best move depends on your opponent, on how your opponent play and what kind of hero your opponent is using. So this time, I’m going to discuss to you first the weakness of pugna because knowing its weakness is the key to make pugna dominate.

I think every dota player knows that pugna has a very low HP and this is the big disadvantage of Pugna. Having a low maximum HP means you are a potential "Food" for your opponents. I recommend that pugna should stay away from the nukers.

Common Dota Nukers:

*Zeus - Seriously, this old fat man really hurts. His skills have fast cooldown and he can cast spells to you over and over again.
*Lina - One of the pretty ladies in dota with her famous Laguna Blade. Once you are caught with her stun you are good as dead if she has enough mana to hit you with laguna blade.
*Lion - Same thing with Lina but Lina is more pretty. Hahaha
*Luna - Trust me if you encounter a good user of Luna, he/she don’t need an ultimate to kill pugna.

Those heroes that I mentioned are just the common nukers, there are still lots of them that can kill pugna instantly. I recommend to use Bracers or Null Talisman to boost your stats. Use Bracers if your opponent is range and Null Talisman if melee.

Basically, pugna will always rely on the speed of the user’s hands. If the user is not fast enought then the "Nether and Dagon Combo" has a high chance of failing and probably your opponent will kill you first before you can make your move.

My Personal Pugna items:

*Boots of Travel
*Dagon
*Dagger of Escape - This item is both effective in offense and defense. Using Pugna means "you need to be quick or die really quick".
*Guinsoo’s Scythe
*Aghanim’s Scepter - this item woud make you more tougher and stronger
*Any item that can give additional hitpoints such as Satanic, BloodStone, or Mekansm. (I usually use satanic in 1vs1 - 3vs3 and mekansm in 5vs5)

Most players I played with, underestimated Pugna’s ultimate (drain life) because it is a channeling spell. Honestly, I only used it for life regeneration (I cast it on creeps to gain hp) and not for hero kill but I was able to found out that it can also be good for hero kill. With the help of Guinsoo’s Scythe and Aghanim’s Scepter, it can be deadly. Guinsoo’s Scythe will turn your enemy into sheep for 3 sec and drain life will absorb your enemy’s hp 300 per second (with Aghanim). So the total damage would be 900 damage in 3 seconds and if your opponent is not fast enough to stun or blink his way out of the range, then that would be trouble for him/her.

So far, I discuss about how pugna can survive and how he can kill. But Pugna is not all about that because he is also good in team play. Pugna can help the whole team with his nether ward when pushing or defending because the ward limits the nukers to use their spells. The effect of the Nether Ward should not be ignored because it has a high range that can inflict a large amount of damage when casting a spell. Once you set the ward, it means that the whole range of the ward is your territory. So you need to analyze where is the best place to set your ward (sometimes I place the ward visible to my enemies as a trap. Once they tried to destroy the ward, we will execute our ambush). There are some heroes that is hard to team up with Pugna such as Kardel Sniper, Bone Clinkz, Troll Warlord, Enchantress, and other heroes specialized in normal attacks because his decripfy will totally ruin the flow of team work(the victim of decripfy won’t able to engage normal attacks and cannot be normal attacked). Base on experience, lots of people got pissed with it.

That’s all I can say about pugna. If you have any comments, suggestions or other things to share about this hero, feel free to say it. I like to hear your opinions.