Going off the rails here but I felt like talking about one of my all time favorite heroes. I bring it up because people keep forgetting he exists.
Pugna that is.
Pugna is actually quite tough to play. He's super freaking squishy combined with damage that is hard to get a grasp of, making him one of those "either you know how to play him or you hate him" heroes. But I think that if anyone takes the time to learn some of his intricacies, they can roflstomp with the best of them. He's gotten a hell of a lot better now that his blast does donkeyballs damage to towers. He also has an awesome voice that constantly implies that he's trolling you.
The key to playing this guy properly isn't learning how to use his spells. It's actually how to use his movespeed and positioning. Pugna has ridiculous movespeed right from the get go and that's what seperates you from the Crystal Maidens and Venomancers. All you have to make sure you can do in a fight is run away properly. Once that's mastered, you're 70% of the way to being a pubstar Pugna. This means never stop moving, always be able to tell what's going on while knowing where exactly your hero is, and knowing perfectly the ranges of all the spells and attacks you need to be aware of.
So yeah... a lot harder than it sounds.
Here's some more tips on more of his intricacies that aren't very obvious when you pick him up:
1. Pugna's int growth is absurd at 4 per level. This means several things. One, if you have mana problems with him, there's something wrong with your playstyle. Two, you really shouldn't get arcane boots on him. This is because his int growth will far outstrip the puny mana regen the arcane boots give. Remember the key to playing Pugna. Movespeed = win. So phase boots and boots of travel should be what you aim for.
2. I personally think that out of any AOE damage skill in the game, Nether Ward is the most powerful. Unless you're fighting a team of right click carries, you will destroy people. Not really sure why he has gotten so overlooked lately, as he can obliterate heroes such as Dark Seer and Enigma with just that one skill alone, but them's the rub. We all know how much the pro scenes like trends anyway. Also, the range on that thing is crazy at 1600, so feel free to drop it a half-screen away from the fight. It'll still kill everything.
Not to mention that because the real cooldown on the skill is only 10 seconds, you really shouldn't be afraid to use it at every and any opportunity. If you think here's even a 10% chance a fight will start, use it.
One important thing to note is that the damage from Nether Ward actually procs before the hero uses his spell. This means that if you're ever duelling a hero and you know he's going to cast something to nuke you, he will probably die first and the spell won't even be cast.
p.s: It works on ANYTHING that uses mana. Even Silencer's orb will kill him.
3. If there's one item you should always get on Pugna, it's Aghs. It makes the cooldown on his ult instant. INSTANT. Remember that your whole key is you running around, so having to stand still while channeling your ult makes you a liability. However, once you get the ult stick you can go nuts. Ult anywhere and reposition any time. Need to cast another spell? No problem. Need to move, feel free. The effects don't sound very special at first glance, but trust me... Pugna draining 300hp/s any time he likes is absolutely brutal. You can easily outdps Antimage with this skill and he can't even cancel it with his own ult once you get the ult stick.
Plus, it looks really cool and the range is hilarious.
4. This is the single most important tip here. This will make or break your Pugna. Learning how to do the decrepify + nether blast combo is vital to playing him properly. If you ever want to dominate a lane, you must know how to do this.
The key to performing the combo correctly isn't decrepify and then blast. You need to blast first, followed by decrepify later.
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TL;DR: TO WIN AS PUGNA. RUN AROUND AND NEVER GET CAUGHT. MOVESPEED = WIN. GET AGHS.
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Topic: Dota 2 (Read 243443 times)