Guide to Pugna 7.31

Pugna is a unique hero that can be used in different positions. In 7.31 the hero changed a little, he became a little stronger and skill players start playing him at high ratings. The character has the ability to deal a lot of magic damage and quickly demolish buildings.

pros and cons of a hero

pros

• Having Decrepify works against many carry heroes
• Thanks to her set of skills and Nether Blast in particular, Pugna can be very good at pushing lanes or, on the contrary, defending against enemy pushes.
• Pugna can play quite well in different lanes: mid, hard lane, or safe lane as a support.
• Fast reloading of skills.
• Very good starting speed.

Minuses

• Little health
• Requires the ability to position yourself in a fight
• There are obvious problems with mana at the initial stage of the game.
• Each skill of Pugna is universal and can be used in different situations in different ways. The hero will require enough experience from the player to get good results on that hero.

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Changes in 7.31

• Mana cost increased from 60 to 80
• Can now be cast while casting interruptable abilities

• Totem no longer heals itself when it procs
• Enemies within the radius now deal 10/15/20/25% less Ability Damage

• Aghanim's Shard upgrade has been changed. Allows you to cast Life Drain on Nether Ward's Abyssal Totem to steal life from enemies within the totem's range, but is 30% weaker. The cast will be interrupted if the totem is destroyed. Also increases Nether Ward cast range by 350.

Description of abilities

Nether Blast

• Deals 50/87.5/125/162.5 (130/167.5/205/242.5) damage to buildings.

• Visual effects and sound at the moment of 0.8 sec. delays are only visible and audible to allies.

Decrepify

• Applies a ghostly form to the target, disarming them, making them immune to attacks and 100% resistance to physical damage.
• Reduces the total magic resistance of allied heroes to 6.25% and does not slow allies.
• Reduces the magic resistance of enemy heroes to 2%/-5%/-13%/-20%.
• Can be cast on Abyss Totem and Gravestone

Nether Ward

• Illusions count as creeps when attacked by a ward, so they need 16 (28) attacks to break, as opposed to 4 for heroes.

• The mana regeneration reduction is represented by an aura with a 1600 radius. The debuff lingers for 0.5 seconds. The flashes are not related to the aura.
• Damage is dealt each time spells use mana.
• Does not react to mana loss in any way (all types of mana burn, Mana Drain, Sanity's Eclipse, etc.).
• The damage is dealt before the spell is cast; if the ward's target dies, its ability is not used.
• The source of damage is the ward itself, so effects that react to damage will react to the ward and not to Pugna (e.g. Blade Mail).
• Affects invulnerable, invisible, and creatures in the Fog of War.

Life Drain

• The bond is broken when the target becomes invulnerable or hidden, travels the break distance, or runs out of health.

• Gives True Sight to the target and reveals its location.

• Health regen equals damage dealt per tick (after all reductions)
• If Pugna or an allied hero's health is at full and the creature taking damage is a hero, then mana will begin to regenerate instead of health.
• The damage dealt to self when choosing an ally is lethal, so the ability can be used to finish yourself off.
  
• The color of the link changes depending on the situation: When draining health from an enemy, the link is red-green (pink-blue if Pugna is at full health).
  
• When transferring health to an ally, the link is lemon green (blue/green if the ally is at full health).
• Instantly destroys selected enemy illusions on the first tick. Allied illusions do not die, but are healed.
  

Learning abilities

Taking the third skill in the initial stage of the game does not make sense, since it is useless, because the enemies do not spend too much mana on abilities. Our main skills are 1 and 3. With the help of Blast, it is possible to harass opponents, and the second skill does not allow enemies to last hit the creeps normally.

Talents

The build of talents depends on the build you choose and the peak of the opponents.

Items

Most Popular Hero Items

Build Examples

Aghanim's Scepter is bought in the vast majority of cases, but after you have bought other mandatory artifacts. That is, Aghanim is definitely not bought with the first item.

Aether Lens - The lens is good because it increases the range of the application of skills and it will be more difficult for the enemy to break the link when the ult is active. In addition, the artifact increases the maximum mana and health regen, and the main skills will start to deal more damage.

Blink Dagger - Pugna doesn't have any mobility skills and sometimes it becomes a serious problem. In order to correct this shortcoming, you can use Dagger.

Dagon is bought if your team clearly lacks damage, and it’s impossible to use the ult normally. In this case, the combination of the Decrepify skill and the improved Dagon will allow you to quickly kill some enemies with a small supply of health. The artifact is rarely used, but the same is the case.

Gameplay

Pugna is a fairly versatile hero who, if necessary, can go to the mid lane or even stand in the early game on the hard lane. Here, of course, it is necessary to take into account the composition of the enemy team, since Pugna will not be relevant against all heroes. It is important to understand that Pugna does not have any skills for quickly leaving the battle or escaping, and from the control skills there is only Decrepify, which will not be able to help in every situation. During teamfights, Pugna's primary task is to plant the Nether Ward. The fact is that during the battle, all enemy heroes will begin to actively use their skills and the ward will be able to deal a huge amount of damage. In addition, during the battle, the ward will burn mana, and this may lead to the fact that some enemy does not have enough mana for a key skill. The enemy will most likely understand the danger of this skill very well and will try to destroy the ward in the first seconds of the battle. It is best to place the ward on high ground or hide somewhere in the fog of war.

Of course, Pugna is a very interesting and strong hero. Of course, you can’t call it simple, but you can learn how to play it. For a simple understanding of the hero, a few games are required, but for some more serious results, of course, you will have to sweat. Pugna has a number of strengths and the hero is not some kind of one-sided or one-button. In some situations, Pugna can even change the outcome of the battle very much, so the hero definitely deserves attention.