Pugna is quite a versatile hero, such that he is viable in most lanes due to his various utility skills. In fact, Pugna’s pick rate increased tremendously at the Bali Major 2023 after the Dota 2 patch 7.33d, making him the most popular pick, second only to Techies, who has worse win rate than the former.

While Pugna’s primary role is of a support, mid Pugna has gained popularity in recent updates as he greatly benefits from items and experience anyways.

Pugna can destroy buildings quickly with Nether Blast, amplify enemy’s magic damage taken with Decrepify (or casted on self to avoid physical damage) and heal allies or deal tremendous damage with Life Drain. Nether Ward is a summonable that’s great against spell casters that use mana heavily. Nevertheless, Pugna is very squishy, which is why playing him carefully with good positioning is crucial.

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Complete Pugna Spell guide

Nether Blast

After a short delay, Pugna creates an explosion, dealing damage to all enemies within its AOE, and half the damage to buildings. This is maxed first as an irritating nuke against opponents in your lane. It also serves to secure lasthit on the important ranged creep, as its high damage means the enemy can’t deny it. When using it, try to affect enemy heroes as well as creeps/buildings in its AOE.

Decrepify

Casting this skill before Nether Blast causes the target unit to take amplified magical damage but the same target will be immune to physical damage and unable to attack. Decrepify slows enemies and reduces their magic resistance, so use it offensive in the lane. This is usually maxed alongside Nether Blast due to its synergy.

During the laning phase, you can use also Decrepify to prevent the enemy from last-hitting the ranged creep while making it easier to land your Nether Blasts. Decrepify can be used to kite enemy carries very well if they don’t have magic immunity or another form of dispel. You won’t be able to attack them, but they will be slowed and won’t be able to attack you either. However, be careful when using Decrepify in unfavorable situations, such as preventing your ally from attacking a target or vice versa. Consider your ally’s intentions and whether or not casting Decrepify can disrupt their objective.

You can cast Decrepify on your Nether Ward too, as well as an allied Undying’s Tombstone.

Nether Ward

Pugna creates a ward that drains enemies of their mana when they are near and deals damage when they cast a spell based on a multiplier of the casted spell’s mana cost. Nether Ward is usually maxed last because there tend to be less teamfights in the early game, so it’s not worthwhile. However, if you’re facing a hero like Tinker or Outworld Devourer, it can be effective to max Nether Ward instead of Decrepify.

The ward can quickly be placed in front of you by double-clicking the keybind. Try to hide the Nether Ward in trees or hidden in the fog of war, but still close enough to a fight. This means the enemy is less likely to find it, even when the Nether Ward’s zap indicates where the source of the Nether Ward could be located at.

The damage from Nether Ward is applied before the spell that the enemy is attempting to cast is triggered. This makes it very strong against any strong nuking spell with a high mana-cost such as Lina’s Laguna Blade, Lion’s Finger of Death or Skywrath Mage’s Mystic Flare.

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Life Drain

Pugna’s ultimate drains the health of an enemy, healing Pugna for the same amount. Life Drain can also be casted on an ally to heal them at the cost of Pugna’s HP. If Pugna has full HP and uses this on an enemy, it will instead begin to restore mana. You can use Life Drain to deny yourself by casting it on an allied unit, but be careful as dying by deny might not be what you intended.

Another handy perk of Pugna’s Life Drain is that it instantly kills enemy illusions but will heal allied ones. Hence, it’s very effective against illusion-based heroes and those who buy Manta Style. If you use Decrepify on yourself before healing an ally, you will heal them faster.

Life Drain provides true sight and shared vision on the affected enemy. This means that they have to move outside of the range of Life Drain for you to stop draining them. This will be a challenge even for the best Dota 2 players.

Talents

Level 10: +200 Health or +20 Movement Speed

Pugna has 335 base movement speed, which is the second highest, along with KotL and second only to Enchantress. The extra 20 ms isn’t significant considering you would get Tranquil Boots in the early game. Instead, having bonus 200 health is great for the extra Life Drain, and improves your survivability too.

Level 15: +3 Nether Ward Health or -1s Nether Blast Cooldown

The extra Nether Ward health requires an additional 3 hits on the ward to destroy it. In general, this is more useful than the mere 1s reduced cooldown on Nether Blast. The ward is effective against all enemies within its AOE, so it’s better to have the Nether Ward around longer. However, if pushing and snowballing in midgame is your team’s objective, then the reduced Nether Blast cooldown will help to push towers quicker.

Generally, the extra Nether Ward health is better, but if you are pushing aggressively with your team, then dealing more instances of Nether Blasts is fine too.

Level 20: +1s Decrepify Duration or +20% Life Drain Heal

The extra Decrepify duration can be very good against heroes that deal physical damage or heroes you need to kite, such as Ursa or Phantom Assassin. It will have a 0.5s downtime which is very strong against heroes with almost entirely physical damage. By casting it on their target every time they go on you, The extra duration is also very good if you have lots of magical damage on your team as you’ll give your allies more opportunities to deal a greater amount of damage. It can also be good if you just need the extra 2 seconds of slow as well.

However, the extra 20% Life Drain Heal will effectively provide you with more sustainability during teamfights and allow you to restore HP lost in battle a lot faster. If you find that you’re taking much damage during fights, the extra heal might be a better option.

Level 25: +1.75 Nether Ward Damage Per Mana or +160 Nether Blast Damage

The extra Nether Ward damage is incredibly strong against heroes that Nether Ward is usually very strong against. In the late game, it falls off a bit as enemies get BKBs or gain mobility items and move the fight away from the Nether Ward, making it unreliable.

The Nether Blast damage is definitely better, as it’s a more reliable source of damage that helps you push towers effectively. In most games, this is preferred, but if you are against heroes like Skywrath Mage or Invoker, then the Nether Ward damage can be very deadly as well.

Which Items to Build on Pugna

Starting Items

• Tango
• Healing Salve
• Iron Branch
• Magic Stick
• Enchanted Mango
• Observer/Sentry Wards

Pugna is usually played as a support, so the usual consumables are necessary, such as Tangoes, Healing Salve (for your carry ally!), Iron Branches and Enchanted Mangoes. Wards for vision, blocking jungle camps to prevent pulling and remove blocked camps. If the lane has skill spammers, consider a Magic Stick to collect stacks of free healing and try to hold off from using the Iron Branches to build into a Magic Wand.

For the mid lane, the usual healing consumables and a Bottle to collect Water runes. Pugna has a low base damage, so stat items, notably intelligence, are great for him.

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Early Game Items

Bottle

A Bottle will give you enough mana regeneration to keep your lane pushed in with Nether Blast and take the mid tower relatively quickly. You can control the runes quite well with Pugna because you have very high movement speed and have a great pushing spell with a very low cooldown.

Boots of Speed

Boots of Speed ensures that you have higher movement speed than most heroes, making you an elusive walker. Pugna is also one of the few heroes that can buy both Arcane and Tranquil Boots as both offers significant impact for Pugna.

Arcane Boots

Arcane Boots are usually the early game boots on Pugna. You will usually disassemble them into an Aether Lens later. These give you more mana in the early game and help you keep casting Life Drain and having full HP.

Magic Wand

A Magic Wand should be picked up if Pugna already bought a Magic Stick earlier because as soon as you hit level 7, you should look to be aggressive on the map, pushing towers and taking early fights. A Magic Wand stores stacks during chaotic early fights will help to sustain you.

Mid Game Items

Aether Lens

An Aether Lens is a great item on Pugna because it allows helps him to cast all of his spells from a safer distance. This is particularly helpful for Life Drain, as it will force enemies to have to run eve farther away from you. It will help you to siege towers with Nether Blast more easily, and help allies with Decrepify more easily. The extra mana is also very nice for Pugna. You can build these by disassembling Arcane Boots.

Tranquil Boots

Tranquil Boots provide passive, accelerated health regen when you aren’t being attacked. This goes well to restore your health when you already use up your health for casting Life Drain on your ally. It’s literally an infinite healing lifehack.

Kaya

Kaya’s spell amplification is great for Life Drain and other magic skills as it increases the amount of healing you receive, gives you more intelligence and reduces mana usage.

Aghanim’s Shard

Pugna’s Aghanim’s Shard upgrade is arguably one of the most valuable, even among the best Dota 2 hard support heroes. After securing your level 15 talent that increases the health of your Nether Ward, you can place the ward aggressively in the middle of fights. The shard upgrades Life Drain to target on Nether Ward, which refracts the life drain on multiple enemies in its AOE.

Late Game Items

Glimmer Cape

A Glimmer Cape can be good if you need a defensive item that reduces the amount of magical damage you take and allows you to reposition yourself in teamfights. This is one of the most important support item if you’re playing as a support Pugna as it’s relatively cheap and quite effective to save allies.

Force Staff

A Force Staff may be needed on Pugna against heroes such as Clockwerk or Nature’s Prophet. The ability to Force yourself out of danger is very strong, and it allows you to survive fights and chase enemies much more easily. It’s also a great item against slows if the enemy line-up has many. A Force Staff is also a great item if you’re playing in a support role as it’s a cheap item that gives you some nice stats and can help you save allies and yourself. You can pull off some incredible plays if you use Force Staff correctly, or embarrass yourself by misclicking and ending up in the Dota 2 Reddit meme section.

Kaya and Sange

An extension to your Kaya, by purchasing Sange too, you gain bonuses in terms of health regen and lifesteal amplification, alongside some status resistance. These are stats that are vital for Pugna, so this is always a welcomed upgrade at only an extra 2050 gold.

Rod of Atos

Pugna lacks disables, so Rod of Atos is a great picJCp against heroes with high mobility spells such as Puck or Ember Spirit, as it prevents them from escaping and allowing your allies to land their disables and for you to burst them down.

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Situational Items

• Blink Dagger allows you to position yourself for Life Drain while letting you escape in clutch moments while the enemy can’t attack you in your Decrepify state. Pros love it and it’s one of the most popular items in Dota 2 esports to this day.
• Lotus Orb only if the enemy team has lots of single-target spells, then a Lotus Orb can be a gamechanger, as it will discourage enemies from using them on you or your ally. However, it will not help against spells like Duel or Sunder.
• Aeon Disk if you are being burst down too quickly, then an Aeon Disk offers a second chance at avoiding certain death. It gives you 2.5 seconds to reposition yourself in fights and stop the effects of spells like Fiend’s Grip. It is a situational item, although it can be a good item at late game if you rely on not dying in fights.
• Ghost Scepter is a good item against a line-up with mostly physical damage with few or no dispels. It effectively allows you to use Decrepify offensively without having to worry about needing to use it on yourself to survive. Having a Ghost Scepter will also allow you to use Decrepify to save allies more liberally, as you will always have the ethereal form ready for yourself as well.
• Eul’s Scepter of Divinity against spells that you can dispel, such as most silences and slows. It can also be used to great effect to dodge spells like Homing Missile and JCnkka’s X Marks the Spot combos. The movement speed it provides stacks well with Pugna’s high movement speed, alongside stats such as intelligence and mana regen.
• Veil of Discord if you have a lot of magical damage on your team and are looking to end the game in the early-to-mid game, then a Veil of Discord could be an affordable item. It amplifies magic damage you deal even further when stacked with Decrepify and is great for allies with AoE magical damage spells. The stats it provides makes you more durable and helps you survive in the early to mid-game.
• Dagon Level 5 can be a great item on Pugna. It gives you ability to deal a massive amount of burst damage to enemies through Decrepify. It’s very effective against line-ups that have quite squishy heroes or if you need to end the game in the early or mid-game. It’s great if you’re snowballing and ahead, but if you’re behind in gold, it may be better to get some item that offers you or your team more utility and a better chance of catching up.

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Interesting Match-ups for Pugna

1. High mana-cost spells will result in the caster taking a large amount of damage if they are within range of the Nether Ward. Try to place the ward so that it is hidden from the enemies or right before you expect them to cast it, so that they will have little time to react to the fact that there is now a ward where there was not one when they cast their previous spells right before.
2. Winter Wyvern can cast Decrepify on the target affected by Winter’s Curse to prevent them from taking any damage. Just make sure you don’t move too close to your ally before doing so, as you’ll end up under its effects as well. Hence, why Aether Lens is recommended for its longer cast range.
3. Illusions are instantly killed by Life Drain, and if you have an Aghanim’s Scepter, you can easily deal with heroes like Specter and Anti-Mage.
4. Magic Resistance heroes will be tankier against Life Drain and, as a result, reduce the amount of healing you receive from using it on them. Try to cast Decrepify first, if possible.
5. Disables and any silences or stuns will prevent you from channelling Life Drain or using Decrepify to potentially save yourself. Make sure to get some defensive items in this case.

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