Pugna
In the realm of Pugna's birth, near the vents of the Nether Reaches, there stood a lamasery devoted to the Arts of Oblivion, which drew its power from the nether energies. The Grandmaster of the temple compound had himself passed into Oblivion several years prior, leaving his academy without a leader. From the moment of their master's death, the regents of the temple began rites of divination to identify their master's reincarnation, and eventually all signs converged on the immediate neighborhood. Several villages squatted in the shadow of the temple, their alleys and plazas full of the laughter of squalling children. <br><br>Pugna, a mere thirteen months of age, was but one candidate among the local brats, and on the appointed day he was presented at the temple alongside two other promising tots. The lamas offered a jumble of worn relics to the children, treasured possessions of their former grandmaster. One boy reached for a porphyry wand that had belonged to the lama...and put it in his nostril. An impish girl pulled out an amulet that had also been the lama's, and immediately swallowed it. Pugna regarded the other two coolly, gave a merry laugh, and blasted them with gouts of emerald flame, reducing them to ashes in an instant. He then snatched up the wand and amulet, saying 'Mine!' The regents hoisted the beaming Pugna on their shoulders, wrapped him in their grandmaster's vestments, and rushed him to the throne before his mood could change. Within five years, the temple itself was another pile of ash, which pleased Pugna to no end.
Base STR
19 +2
Base AGI
21 +1.3
Base INT
26 +5.2
Move Speed
325
Attack Range
630
Base Armor
0
Attack DMG
21–28
Projectile
900
Innate Abilities
Oblivion Savant
Pugna can cast spells and use items while channeling. Pugna receives 1.5% spell amplification per destroyed tower.
SPELL AMP:
0%
Abilities
Nether Blast
Cooldown
5s
Mana
100 / 115 / 130 / 145
An exploding pulse deals damage to enemies and structures in the area. Deals 65% damage to structures.
BLAST DELAY:
0.8
RADIUS:
400
BLAST DAMAGE:
95 / 170 / 245 / 320
- Damage is delayed by 0.8 seconds.
The Arts of Oblivion include a deafening blast of emerald flames from the Nether Reaches.
Decrepify
Cooldown
16 / 13 / 10 / 7s
Mana
80
A powerful banishing spell that slows a unit and renders it unable to attack or be attacked. Healing on affected allies is increased, while afflicted enemies take extra magic damage instead.
ALLY HEAL AMPLIFICATION:
10 / 15 / 20 / 25%
ENEMY INCREASED MAGIC DAMAGE:
-20 / -30 / -40 / -50%
ENEMY MOVE SLOW:
-45 / -50 / -55 / -60%
DURATION:
3.5
- Only magical and pure damage can affect a unit under the effects of Decrepify.
- Doesn't slow allied units.
- Can be used on your Nether Ward.
A now-mastered relic from his childhood, Pugna delights in banishing others into the Nether Realm, whether for good, evil, or simple enjoyment.
Nether Ward
Cooldown
40s
Mana
80
Pugna places a Nether Ward at the target location. The ward will fire at any enemy hero who casts a spell dealing base damage plus the damage multiplier of the mana spent by the enemy hero.
WARD ATTACK RANGE:
1400
BASE DAMAGE:
50 / 70 / 90 / 110
DAMAGE PER MANA:
1 / 1.2 / 1.4 / 1.6
ATTACKS TO DESTROY:
4
WARD DURATION:
21 / 24 / 27 / 30
- Nether Ward deals damage before the actual spell is cast, so if the caster dies the spell will have no effect.
- Nether Ward can be decrepified.
- Illusions and creeps deal 25% damage to Nether Ward.
While at the lamasery for the Arts of Oblivion, Pugna learned to dominate his classmates with a simple ward charged with Nether magic.
Life Drain
Cooldown
7s
Mana
115 / 160 / 205
CHANNELED - When cast on an enemy, Pugna drains health from the target enemy unit to heal himself and granting vision over the target. When cast on an ally, Pugna will drain his own health into his ally.
ENEMY DRAIN PER SECOND:
150 / 250 / 350
ALLY DRAIN/HEAL PER SECOND:
150 / 250 / 350
MAX DURATION:
10
Pugna has truly become more powerful than even the grandmaster of Oblivion.
Talents
Aghanim's Scepter
Life Drain
Reduces cooldown by 7s. When targeting an enemy hero, Pugna reduces their outgoing spell damage by 0% per second up to a maximum of 0% and increases his own, up to a maximum of 0%. When draining through a Nether Ward using Shard, the rate of increase/decrease is 0% instead. Debuff lasts 0 seconds.
Aghanim's Shard
Nether Ward
Increases cast range to 150.
Life Drain
Life Drain can target your Nether Ward, causing life drain to refract to all enemy heroes within 700 units of the ward for 0% of its normal value. The effect is interrupted if the ward is destroyed.
Hero Performance
Median across all public matches · OpenDotaForm
49%
Win rate in recent matches
Performance
62%
KDA ratio (kills + assists / deaths)
Laning
19%
Last hits per minute over full game
Farm
47%
Average gold per minute
Fighting
20%
Average kills + assists per match
Experience
62%
Average XP per minute
Strategy
When to Pick Pugna?
Pugna is genuinely one of the strongest heroes in pubs right now according to Hawk Live—and then immediately in the same breath they add that he is not picked at the professional level at all. That sentence contains everything you need to understand about Pugna as a hero. In the pub environment, where five-man coordination is inconsistent and enemy heroes freely spam spells inside your Nether Ward radius without realizing the damage it is doing to them, Pugna is oppressive.
At the professional level, where every player is mentally tracking every ward on the map and the entire enemy team coordinates to destroy Nether Ward the moment it lands, he is a liability. You need to figure out which environment you are playing in and pick accordingly. The current patch gave him a genuinely important mechanical change—Nether Ward damage is now sourced from PUGNA rather than from the ward itself.
This means Pugna's spell amplification is innate, which gives him 1.5% spell amp per destroyed enemy tower, and now applies to ALL Nether Ward damage simultaneously.
A Pugna who has two towers destroyed—which in the current aggressive laning patch happens by the fifteen-minute mark in a large percentage of games—has Nether Ward dealing 3% amplified damage on every enemy spell cast in range, stacking multiplicatively with Decrepify's magic damage amplification when both are active on the same target simultaneously.
A Leshrac standing inside a Nether Ward radius who casts Pulse Nova with two towers destroyed and a Decrepify on him is taking Nether Ward flare damage amplified by Pugna's tower kill spell AND Decrepify's magic damage at the same time. The burst from a single high-mana spell cast can chunk 30-40% of an intelligence caster's health in one proc. You framed him as good in combination with magical damage dealers — and that is exactly right.
Leshrac, Queen of Pain, Skywrath Mage, Invoker—any mid that spams high-mana abilities constantly is simultaneously generating enormous Nether Ward damage on the enemy team while Pugna amplifies every spell they cast with Decrepify.
The Muerta combo you mentioned specifically is real and disgusting—Decrepify on a target during Muerta's Pierce the Veil means only magical and pure damage can affect that target for the Decrepify duration, which is exactly what Pierce the Veil's spells deal, and the enemy hero being decrepified cannot right-click back and has their magic resistance reduced simultaneously.
That is a three-ability kill setup with zero possibility of the target trading back physically while Muerta pours magic damage into them uncontested.
He is situational specifically because his win rate collapses against lineups that make smart decisions—the current hard support win rate of 52.1% at Immortal rank tells you he performs better the closer you get to the style of play where enemies do not automatically destroy the Nether Ward and heroes freely spam spells inside its radius.
Avoid picking him into lineups that are primarily physical damage dealers with minimal spellcasting—a Night Stalker, Lifestealer, and Ursa lineup doing almost exclusively right-click damage produces almost zero Nether Ward procs, leaving Pugna as a life drain support without his primary teamfight ability contributing anything.
Also completely terrible are strong silence lineups—Silencer's Global Silence arriving while Pugna is channeling Life Drain or positioning Nether Ward cancels everything simultaneously and leaves him in the open with every cooldown suddenly unavailable.
Tips & common mistakes
- Nether Ward damage is now sourced FROM PUGNA—which means Decrepify cast on an enemy hero who is inside the Nether Ward radius simultaneously amplifies both the Nether Ward flare damage AND the Nether Blast damage in a single combo window. The correct sequencing is Nether Ward placement first, then Decrepify on the target standing inside the radius, then Nether Blast. Every damage source hits simultaneously during the Decrepify window, and the combined amp from both the innate tower kill spell amp and Decrepify's magic damage increase applies to all of it at once.
- Nether Ward fires its flare BEFORE the enemy spell takes effect—which means a hero standing inside the ward's radius who casts an expensive ability takes the Nether Ward damage before their ability deals damage. If that flare kills the caster before the spell resolves, the spell is cancelled entirely. This is most relevant against Lina's Laguna Blade, Lion's Finger of Death, and other expensive single-target nukes where the flare damage triggers before the kill attempt connects. Most pub Pugna players are not aware the damage order reversal makes Nether Ward a soft counter to high-mana instant-kill ultimates.
- Decrepify on an ally is a legitimate save tool—it makes the ally immune to physical damage for its duration while increasing any healing they receive. In the current meta where physical damage carriers like Lifestealer and Night Stalker are right-clicking everything to death, a Decrepify on your carry the moment they get dove makes them physically immune for three to four seconds while simultaneously allowing Life Drain healing to amplify. Most pub Pugna players never Decrepify allies and only think of it as a nuke setup tool.
- Life Drain can be channeled on the Nether Ward itself with Aghanim's Shard—which refracts the Life Drain onto all enemy heroes within the ward's radius simultaneously. This turns a single-target heal ability into an AOE life drain affecting every hero inside the Nether Ward area at the same moment. The interaction requires both Aghanim's Shard AND an active Nether Ward, but the setup converts what was a support single-target heal into a teamfight AOE drain that heals Pugna for each hero affected simultaneously.
- Pugna can cast spells and use items WHILE channeling Life Drain—which is the innate ability confirmed on the current patch. Most pub Pugna players stop casting the moment Life Drain begins because they assume channeling means complete immobility. Wrong. Drop Nether Ward during a Life Drain channel. Cast Decrepify on an approaching threat during a life drain channel. Use items during the channel. The ability to maintain spell usage while healing simultaneously is what separates experienced Pugna players from average ones.
- Nether Ward lasts only 25 seconds—most games lose enormous Nether Ward value because Pugna places the ward in an incorrect position thirty seconds before the teamfight starts, it sits in the wrong place during the warmup period, and then the actual fight begins when the ward has fifteen seconds remaining rather than the full duration. Place the Nether Ward when the fight is ABOUT TO START, not as a preemptive setup ten minutes before any engagement is happening.
- Decrepify on the Nether Ward itself makes it immune to physical attacks for the duration—an enemy trying to right-click the ward to destroy it suddenly finds it untargetable for two to four seconds. Use this when a melee hero is attacking the ward and you need it to survive another few seconds to proc on the incoming carry spell. Most pub Pugna players never Decrepify their own ward even when it is being attacked.
Summary
Pugna is situational—Hawk Live confirmed it directly, the win rate data confirms it, and the Dotabuff first impressions article specifically flagged that the HP and mana drain component on Nether Ward being removed makes him significantly weaker at the high-immortal and professional levels where enemies are smart enough not to spam spells inside the radius voluntarily.
But in pub environments where enemies blindly cast high-mana abilities inside the ward, where the tower kill innate spell amp stacks with Decrepify's amplification on every single Nether Ward proc, and where the Muerta plus Decrepify combination creates a kill setup that physical carries literally cannot trade back against—Pugna is genuinely oppressive.
Pick him into magical damage lineups that reward Nether Ward value, pair with Muerta or any mid that spams expensive spells constantly, and make the enemy team decide every teamfight whether to cast spells and take Nether Ward flare damage or hold cooldowns and lose the fight to your carries anyway. That is a no-win scenario for them—and Pugna is the hero that creates it.
Popular Items
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Early Game
Core
Late Game
Popular Neutral Items
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