How to S U C C with Pugna

Introduction

Pugna is a powerful nuker with great pushing capability. He can kill squishy heroes easily and prevent physical attackers from dishing out damage. Therefore, I feel like Pugna can do a lot more as a core than he can as a support because he needs a fair amount of items to be of much use. As a result, this guide will focus on how to build core Pugna.

This guide was created by a friend of mine and since it was a best guide in world I decided to share it. OSfrog
The rest of the guide is here -> Pugna Guide

Spell Descriptions

Nether Blast:

100/175/250/325 Magic Damage
Costs 85/105/125/145 mana
400 cast range
400 blast radius
Does half damage to buildings
0.9 second effect delay
5 second cooldown
Doesn't pierce BKB

Inflicts Ethereal state for 3.5 seconds (prevents the target from receiving physical damage, disarms the target, and reduces the target's magic resistance)
Enemy magic resistance reduction: 30/40/50/60%
Ally magic resistance reduction: 25/25/25/25%
Enemy move speed slow: 30%/40%/50%/60%
Ally move speed slow: 0%/0%/0%/0%
Cooldown 15/12/9/6
Costs 60 mana at all levels
Can use in conjunction with Black King Bar to make yourself immune to most damage, shown here
Can be used on allies or enemies
Can be used on Nether Ward
When cast on Axe, can prevent Counter Helix
When cast on Legion Commander, can prevent her from hitting her target during a duel.
Doesn't pierce BKB
Blocked by Linken's Sphere

Damage is equal to 1/1.25/1.5/1.75 multiplied by the mana spent
Mana lost per second: 1.5/3.0/4.5/6
1600 activation radius
150 cast range
Requires 4 hero attacks to destroy
Requires 16 non-hero attacks to destroy
30 second duration
35 second cooldown
Costs 80 mana at all levels
Damage is dealt before enemy spells are finished casting
Doesn't pierce BKB

Health drain per second: 150/200/250 (Aghanim's Scepter: 180/240/300)
Drains 37.5/50/62.5 (Aghanim's Scepter: 45/60/75) health in 0.25 second intervals, starting 0.25 seconds after cast, resulting in 40 instances
Can drain up to 1500/2000/2500 (Aghanim's Scepter: 1800/2400/3000) health (before reductions) when fully channeled
22 second cooldown (Aghanim's Scepter: 0)
900/1050/1200 cast range
Link break distance 900/1050/1200
Link breaks when the target gets out of vision, turns invulnerable/hidden, exceeds the break distance, or runs out of health
Heals you for the amount of damage done after reductions
If you are full health while using Life Drain on an enemy hero, it will restore your mana instead
When used on an ally, it will deal damage to you and heal the amount of damage incurred after reductions
Able to deny yourself when cast on allies
Cannot heal allies with Life Drain while Spell Immune
Instantly destroys enemy illusions
Doesn't pierce BKB
Blocked by Linken's Sphere

Weaknesses

In terms of weaknesses, Pugna is prone to being easily countered by heroes such as:

Nyx Assassin:
Pugna is fairly squishy and Nyx specializes in high burts. Due to Pugna's high intelligence gain, each time you level up, Mana Burn will do more and more damage. Mana Burn, in conjunction with Impale and Vendetta break, will easily kill an unsuspecting Pugna every time.


Silencer:
Heroes like Silencer that have silences with short cooldowns will completely shut down a Pugna. Silencer also has powerful harass making it hard to stay in lane or in a fight against a Silencer.


Pudge:
For Pudge, a Pugna is easy pickings. Using Life Drain when there is a Pudge on the enemy team will usually result in Life Drain becoming a death sentence.


Anti-Mage:
Anti-Mage's Mana Break is an obvious problem for all intelligence heroes, including Pugna. His Mana Void is also an easy stun to break Life Drain or even kill you depending on your current mana. His blink also allows him to chase after you or escape from you quite easily, even with your high move speed.


Lifestealer:
Lifestealer's Rage, in addition to Open Wounds, equals a dead Pugna. If he only had one of those abilities, you'd be fine. However, the combination of a massive slow and spell immunity allows Lifestealer to kill Pugna with extreme ease.


Riki:
Like mentioned earlier, anyone that has a silence with a short cooldown is Pugna's bane. With Riki, even more so because he's permenantly invisible and because of the move speed slow which will likely prevent you from getting away when paired with Blink Strike. Not to mention, if you even try to get away, he'll only deal more damage with Cloak and Dagger.

Items:
There are a fair few items that can render Pugna useless, these include: Black King Bar, Orchid Malevolence / Bloodthorn, Hood of Defiance / Pipe of Insight, Shadow Blade / Silver Edge, Glimmer Cape, Skull Basher / Abyssal Blade, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Linken's Sphere (more so in the early game), and Scythe of Vyse.

Comments

Again, I do not own this guide. I decided to share it since I believe it is a best guide in world (Seen here). This is the first time I have posted something on here so I am new to all of the fancy features, if you have any suggestions on what I should add in order to make it look better then post them as a comment. Thank you.