Anti-Mage
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 11%)Oracle
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Pugna
* All of Pugna's damage is magical, which can get blocked by Fate's Edict's 100% magic resistance.
* Oracle has two abilities that apply a dispel, which can easily remove Decrepify on his ally or Oracle.
Dark Seer
* Fortune's End dispels Ion Shell and Surge, making any gank attempt on Dark Seer in the laning phase likely to succeed.
* Fate's Edict prevents all magical damage that comes from Dark Seer's abilities.
* Fortune's End dispels Ion Shell on creeps, which Dark Seer relies on to farm and zone.
Additional:
* Fortune's End can dispel Ion Shell, a skill that helps Dark Seer immensely in the laning phase, as well as
Surge, a move-speed buff, effectively allowing Oracle to control Dark Seer, especially in the laning phase.
Sniper
[wiki] rating: 2.0 (winrate: 44% pickrate: 11%)Pugna
* Sniper's huge range makes him an unviable target to use Life Drain on, forcing Pugna to risk playing out of position to use it on Sniper.
* Sniper's Shrapnel can be used to provide vision on Nether Ward, and his range allows him to easily take it out.
* A clumsy Pugna may accidentally boost Sniper's Shrapnel and
Assassinate damages if he recklessly uses Decrepify on himself or his allies.
Dark Seer
* A Sniper who is somewhat competent at positioning is hardly going to be affected by any of Dark Seer's spells thanks to Take Aim.
* However, an illusion of Sniper made with Wall of Replica is extremely powerful, and hard to deal with.
Pudge
[wiki] rating: 1.2 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 29%)Pugna
* Heroes who build a Black King Bar (or have any sources of spell immunity) to channel abilities/items can still get interrupted by Dismember: Enigma,
Juggernaut,
Phantom Assassin,
Pugna,
Elder Titan.
Dark Seer
* Abilities that deal low damage with high amounts of instances are irrelevant against Pudge during Flesh Heap's active: Gyrocopter's
Rocket Barrage and
Dark Seer's
Ion Shell are just a couple examples.
Silencer
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 15%)Pugna
* Pugna is very reliant on his abilities for damage which Silencer can take advantage off. But he has to be careful around the Nether Ward as Silencer's abilities cost a lot of mana to use.
Ursa
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 15%)Pugna
* If Ursa uses Enrage, Pugna's Life Drain is next to worthless against him, due to Ursa taking 80% less damage, therefor Pugna heals by only 20% of the damage that the spell normally deals.
* It also dispels Decrepify, Even if you wait until he casted it, he can still dispel it with Shard upgraded Earthshock
* Ursa also commonly builds Skull Basher. With his high Attack Speed from
Overpower. he can easily cancel Life Drain
* If Decrepify is defensivly casted, Ursa can still cast Earthshock both to slow you, and to deal amplified magic damage. He also commonly builds a Nullifier
* If Ursa jumps on you with a Blink Dagger he can easily wipe you out with Overpower.
* Ursa's Overpower can destroy a full health
Nether Ward and still have a few swipes leftover, Also Ursa's low mana spells means he takes negligible damage from the Nether ward anyway.
* Ursa is also a common Diffusal Blade carrier, using it to both amplify his damage, but as his primary way to catch fleeing heroes
* Pugna is also the primary target of Ursa, due to him being both quite squishy, and a serious threat to his team, Ursa prioritizes the weakest link as Fury Swipes stacking damage will quickly demolish them, allowing Ursa to safely switch heroes
Jakiro
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 12%)Pugna
* Both Jakiro's Ice Path and Liquid Frost can be used to cancel Life Drain from either yourself or an ally.
* Decrepify only makes Pugna even more vulnerable to Jakiro's magical damage, And it has no adverse effects on Jakiro himself.
* Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Macropyre can deal pure damage-over-time and pierce spell immunity, which can discourage Pugna from initiating with
Life Drain.
* Just be warned that Nether Ward can do some considerable damage to Jakiro due to high mana costs on his abilities.
Primal Beast
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Pugna
* Trample and Pulverize can be used to cancel Life Drain very quickly.
* Pugna has a very low strength gain and as a support does not have much gold to buy health items, making him vulnerable to Primal Beast's onslaught of magical damage.
* Ironically, Decrepify actually just increases Primal Beast's damage on the targeted ally if Trample is activated. However, it can be used to slow him down and prevent any further Trample damage.
Luna
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 2%)Pugna
* Luna can deal constant damage to Pugna through the low-cooldown Lucent Beam and her right clicks.
* Life Drain will be always canceled by
Lucent Beam if Pugna does not have
Black King Bar.
* Decrepify can be suicide against Luna due to
Lucent Beam and
Eclipse.
* Nether Ward is rather weak against Luna because unlike other heroes who rely on magical damage to damage or kill enemies, yet their ablities have very high mana costs, Luna does not have abilities that cost a lot of mana and Luna mostly uses her abilities to initiate a teamfight or to finish off fleeing enemy heroes.
* Luna is a common Black King Bar carrier, which allows her to protect herself against Pugna's only-magical damage output.
Additional:
* Luna can deal constant damage to Pugna through the low-cooldown Lucent Beam and her right clicks.
* Life Drain will be always canceled by
Lucent Beam if Pugna does not have
Black King Bar.
* Decrepify can be suicide against Luna due to
Lucent Beam and
Eclipse.
* Nether Ward is rather weak against Luna because unlike other heroes who rely on magical damage to damage or kill enemies, yet have very high mana costs, she does not have abilities that cost a lot of mana and Luna mostly uses her abilities to initiate a teamfight or to finish off fleeing enemy heroes.
* Luna is a common Black King Bar carrier, which allows her to protect herself against Pugna's only-magical damage output.
Clockwerk
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 8%)Pugna
* Pugna's squishiness and lack of mobility make him easy prey for a Hookshot initiation.
* Clockwerk's high health, low mana costs, and lack of reliance on Blink Dagger make Nether Ward ineffective.
* Battery Assault shuts down Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Life Drain, as the repeated ministuns prevent Pugna from channeling for an extended length of time.
Additional:
* Clockwerk loves to Hookshot low health, immobile targets like Pugna.
* Pugna's Life Drain gets immediately and repeatedly (if an Aghanim's Scepter was purchased) cancelled due to
Battery Assault, especially if Pugna is trapped inside
Power Cogs.
* Clockwerk also loves to build Blade Mail, which will deal more damage to Pugna than Clockwerk due to Pugna's low health pool.
* Finally, both Hookshot and
Rocket Flare can allow him to finish off Pugna out of range of his Nether Ward.
Tusk
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 15%)Pugna
* Pugna's low health and reliance on channeled abilities make him very vulnerable to Tusk, although Pugna can win in a straight up 1v1 later in the game.
Ember Spirit
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 11%)Dark Seer
* Flame Guard makes Dark Seer not deal any damage with his skills to Ember Spirit.
Kunkka
[wiki] rating: 1.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)Dark Seer
* X Marks the Spot prevents Dark Seer or his allies from escaping with Surge.
Death Prophet
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 11%)Pugna
* Spirit Siphon does a lot of magical damage, especially in the early game. This allows her to demolish low health heroes such as Zeus,
Pugna, especially when combined with her other spells.
Bounty Hunter
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 7%)Pugna
* Fragile heroes: Bounty Hunter has decent nuking capabilities with Shiruken Toss and Jinada thus making fragile heroes easy picks for ganking. Few examples of such heroes are:Crystal Maiden,
Pugna,
Skywrath Mage,
Io,
Witch Doctor, etc.
Earthshaker
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Pugna
* Heroes with channeled abilities can be interrupted by a long-range Fissure: Crystal Maiden,
Witch Doctor,
Bane,
Pugna,
Pudge.
Underlord
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Dark Seer
* In general, melee heroes without blink mechanisms or spell immunity will have a hard time positioning against Pit of Malice: Sven,
Tiny,
Wraith King,
Dragon Knight,
Meepo,
Doom,
Bounty Hunter,
Dark Seer,
Undying,
Alchemist,
Legion Commander.
Weaver
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Dark Seer
* Dark Seer's only disable is Vacuum. Though he starts off with high armor and health, he'll eventually have a hard time dealing with high mobility heroes such as Weaver or
Queen of Pain.
Bloodseeker
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Dark Seer
* Heroes with fast movement abilities will suffer huge damage when afflicted by Rupture: Spirit Breaker,
Earth Spirit,
Dark Seer.
Additional:
* Rupture can deal a lot of damage to either a surged Dark Seer or his allies and prevent the target from getting into position.
Monkey King
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 8%)Dark Seer
* In general, heroes who are melee with no way to fight back can be very easily poked by Monkey King to gain his Jingu Mastery stacks: Dark Seer,
Riki,
Rubick.
Queen of Pain
[wiki] rating: 0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 6%)Dark Seer
* Dark Seer's only disable is Vacuum. Though he starts off with high armor and health, he'll eventually have a hard time dealing with high mobility heroes such as Weaver or
Queen of Pain.
Phantom Lancer
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)Pugna
* Phantom Lancer creates way too many illusions for Pugna's Life Drain to destroy, overwhelming him easily.
* Doppelganger can dodge
Nether Blast or dispel
Decrepify.
* Diffusal Blade is a common item for Phantom Lancer to burn Pugna's large mana pool and deals a large amount of damage in the process.
Additional:
* Though Life Drain instantly destroys illusions, Phantom Lancer creates way too many for Pugna to handle.
* A good Phantom Lancer will also dodge your Nether Blast with Doppelganger.
* Phantom Lancer is the most natural Diffusal Blade carrier to burn Pugna's very large pool of mana away and deal a large amount of damage in the process.
Dark Seer
* Heroes that rely on illusions will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Meepo.
Nyx Assassin
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Pugna
* Nether Blast's animation makes it easy to time Spiked Carapace for a stun.
* Pugna has the largest intelligence gain in the game, making him a prime target for Mana Burn.
* Pugna needs to channel Life Drain, making him easy to hit with Impale.
Additional:
* Due to Pugna's incredible intelligence growth and terrible strength growth, Nyx should always be able to take you out with his combo, with or without an added Dagon.
Mana Burn will deal a large amount of damage in particular, especially in the late game.
* Spiked Carapace is also a great tool versus Pugna. A good player will wait for you in
Vendetta until you farm a creep wave with Nether Blast and reflect it back at you as their initiation and setup for
Impale.
Dark Seer
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage: Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker.
Storm Spirit
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 6%)Pugna
* Pugna is a very fragile hero who can easily get caught and killed by Storm Spirit's long range initiation.
* This is especially true if he has Orchid Malevolence or
Scythe of Vyse.
* Pugna has no disables that can prevent Storm Spirit from escaping.
* Even though Ball Lightning requires high amount of mana, Nether Ward is ineffective since Storm Spirit is invulnerable while using it.
* Storm Spirit's other abilities cost very insignificant amount of mana for Nether Ward to be effective.
Pugna
* Heroes with mana burn: Nyx Assassin,
Invoker,
Outworld Destroyer,
Pugna,
Lion
Chaos Knight
[wiki] rating: 0.4 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)Pugna
* Life Drain does not instantly kill the illusions from Phantasm
* Chaos Bolt and
Reality Rift can easily interrupt the channeling from Life Drain.
* Reality Rift makes it harder for Pugna to keep his distance between Chaos Knight.
* Nether Ward barely deals any significant damage on Chaos Knight as Chaos Knight's abilities do not cost a lot of mana
* The overwhelming damage of Chaos Knight and his illusions will do a quick work on Pugna's poor HP pool, or safely remove the Nether Ward from the battlefield.
Dark Seer
* Heroes that rely on illusions will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Meepo.
Templar Assassin
[wiki] rating: -2.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Pugna
* Pugna's Decrepify can render Templar Assassin's physical attacks useless.
* Pugna can also cast Life Drain on Templar Assassin, burning her Refraction instances.
* On the other hand, Pugna generally has low health and armor. Use this to your advantage.
Dark Seer
* Ion Shell destroys Refraction's protection stacks in short time.
* Surge ignores the massive slow from Psionic Trap.
Terrorblade
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 2%)Pugna
* Heroes who have channeling abilities because Terrorblade has no disables to cancel them at all and does not like buying disabling items at all: Enigma's
Black Hole,
Witch Doctor's
Death Ward,
Shadow Shaman's
Shackles,
Lion's
Mana Drain,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Pudge's
Dismember,
Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Pugna's
Life Drain,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian, and
Naga Siren's
Reel In from
Aghanim's Scepter.
Dark Seer
* Dark Seer's Vacuum and
Ion Shell allows him to clear the wave of Terrorblade's illusions.
* Wall of Replica and
Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Shard can create stronger illusions of Terrorblade.
* If Dark Seer can use Vacuum to help teammates land their AoE skills, Terrorblade will be quickly killed before he even gets a chance to use
Sunder.
Additional:
* Dark Seer's Vacuum and
Ion Shell allows him to clear a wave of Terrorblade's illusions.
* Because Terrorblade often builds items that require Ultimate Orb like
Manta Style and
Eye of Skadi, Dark Seer can create a very strong illusion of Terrorblade with
Wall of Replica and
Normal Punch from
Aghanim's Scepter.
* If Dark Seer can use Vacuum to help teammates land their AoE abilities, Terrorblade will be quickly killed before he even gets a chance to use Sunder.
Enchantress
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 2%)Pugna
* Amazingly, Enchantress has even lower health than Pugna. Though she does pack quite a punch through Impetus, she can't use it if she is under Decrepify.
* Pugna's Magical DPS is way greater than the heal from Nature's Attendants, which will also harm her quite a bit if she's next to Nether Ward.
Dark Seer
* Heroes with haste can negate Enchant's slow: Weaver,
Dark Seer,
Lycan,
Centaur Warrunner.
Viper
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Pugna
* Pugna's Decrepify allows him to save allies from being ganked by Viper, since Viper mostly relies on direct attacks in order to deal damage.
* Nether Ward can discourage Viper from spamming his abilities.
* Viper's damage over time is not enough to kill Pugna as he will have more than enough time to save himself (or his allies) with Life Drain and Viper has no solutions to cancel it.
* Pugna has no passive abilities, which renders Nethertoxin nearly useless.
Dark Seer
* Heroes who do not have nor rely on passive abilities make Nethertoxin much less effective: Clinkz,
Pugna,
Nature's Prophet,
Dark Seer,
Lycan,
Tusk
Venomancer
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 4%)Pugna
* Any hero that can outrange Plague Ward can neutralize them without putting themselves at risk of receiving Poison Sting: Arc Warden,
Chen,
Clinkz,
Drow Ranger,
Lina,
Mirana,
Nature's Prophet,
Pugna and
Sniper.
* Special mention to heroes that outrange Plague Ward after obtaining talents that increase attack range.
Dark Seer
* Venomancer is a low health hero and low range hero who is easy to harass with Ion Shell on a creep in the early game.
* Venomancer depends entirely on all his slows to keep distance or chase, but since Surge ignores slows, it is nearly impossible for Venomancer to hunt or run away from Dark Seer or his surged teammates.
Chen
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 0%)Pugna
* Heroes with channeling spells, for Chen has no disables on his own, hates buying disabling items and his creeps are often not fast enough to cancel them: Enigma's
Black Hole,
Witch Doctor's
Death Ward,
Shadow Shaman's
Shackles,
Lion's
Mana Drain,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Pudge's
Dismember,
Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Pugna's
Life Drain,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian, and
Naga Siren's
Reel In from
Aghanim's Scepter.
Dark Seer
* Dark Seer's Vacuum and
Ion Shell can clear a wave of Chen's Creeps effectively.
* Surge applies haste movement and negates the slow from
Hand of God, allowing Dark Seer to easily escape from Chen and his creeps.
Spectre
[wiki] rating: -1.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 11%)Pugna
* Nether Blast is one of the best tower pushing abilities in the game, with a low cooldown. A competent Pugna will (at the very least) destroy tier 2 towers and make space for his team before Spectre can finally come online.
* Spectre's spells, while not spammable, have a fairly high mana cost, so Nether Ward can be fairly damaging to Spectre early game. The mana degen will also dampen Spectre's early game power significantly.
* Once Pugna gets Aghanim's Scepter, he can spam
Life Drain on any illusion Spectre summons, whether it'd be from
Haunt,
Manta Style, or some other means.
* In addition, Pugna can disable Spectre's Desolate ability (although its damage is pure, it requires physical attacks) with his
Decrepify ability, leaving Spectre only with
Spectral Dagger.
Dark Seer
* Dark Seer can pull together Spectre's illusions with
Vacuum, and
Wall of Replica creates an illusion of Spectre that deals massive damage.
Mars
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 10%)Pugna
* Nether Blast,
Decrepify and
Life Drain deal high magical damage and bypasses Bulwark.
* Nether Ward reduces the amount of abilities Mars can use during fights and forces Mars to be careful about the heavy mana cost of Arena Of Blood.
* Pugna is one of few heroes that can contest Mars' ability to push and defend towers early on.
Timbersaw
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 5%)Pugna
* Nether Ward can punish Timbersaw, as Timbersaw is a spell-caster with low cooldowns. Furthermore, Timbersaw usually appears in the midst of battle, placing himself in range of Nether Ward's Mana Flares.
* Timbersaw has no stuns or silences to stop Life Drain. Since all of Pugna's Spells are magical, the damage can be devastating to Timbersaw.
* Decrepify can further increase all the magical damage done to Timbersaw, bypassing the enhanced physical resistance he can get from Reactive Armor.
Additional:
* Nether Ward can punish Timbersaw, as Timbersaw is a spell-caster with low cooldowns. Furthermore, Timbersaw usually appears in the midst of battle, placing himself in range of
Nether Ward's Mana Flares.
* Timbersaw has no stuns or silences to stop Life Drain. Since all of Pugna's Spells are magical, the damage can be devastating to Timbersaw, especially when combined with
Decrepify
Faceless Void
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Pugna
* Decrepify prevents Faceless Void from attacking trapped allies inside Chronosphere, wasting a large portion of its duration if Faceless Void can't dispel it.
Shadow Fiend
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 18%)Pugna
* Decrepify prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
* Nether Ward can do heavy damage to Shadow Fiend if he tries to cast his Requiem of Souls and his
Shadowraze.
Additional:
* Decrepify prevents Shadow Fiend from attacking for its duration, potentially preventing him from getting a kill.
* Nether Ward can do heavy damage to Shadow Fiend if he tries to cast his Requiem of Souls or spam Shadowraze.
Invoker
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 14%)Pugna
* Nether Ward on its own can greatly hinder Invoker from casting many of his abilities, at least until he gets a significant amount of HP or is under the protection of spell immunity from
Black King Bar
* Life Drain provides True sight, revealing Invoker through Ghost Walk, and forcing him or his allies to use an ability or item to interrupt its channeling
* Outside of Nether Ward's range, Invoker shall have the advantage, as Invoker has Tornado to purge Pugna's Decrepify when it is used defensively, Tornado or Cold Snap to prevent Pugna from channeling
Life Drain
* A poorly used Decrepify on Pugna's allies means Invoker's abilities can be used to deal more damage to them.
Additional:
* Because Invoker relies on casting a large amount of spells to contribute to fights, Nether Ward can force him to not cast anything at all or take a large amount of damage to cast spells.
Winter Wyvern
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 3%)Pugna
* Cold Embrace is a death sentence against Pugna, since its the perfect setup for all his abilities, especially Life Drain.
* Decrepify can be cast to save the ally under Winter's Curse effect, wasting most of its duration.
* Winter Wyvern's abilities require a lot of mana, allowing Nether Ward to deal lots of damage.
Zeus
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 14%)Pugna
* Even though Pugna's low HP means that he can be quickly burst down, his Nether Ward heavily punishes casters whose spells cost a lot of mana, like Zeus. Casting 4 of his active spells, including Nimbus, close to an enhanced level 4
Nether Ward, can make the ward deal up to 1750 magical damage.
* Decrepify can further increase the damage dealt by Nether Ward upon Zeus. However, if used on Pugna himself or on one of his allies, it will amplify the damage done by Zeus' abilities.
Axe
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 9%)Pugna
* Decrepify can be used on allies to prevent them from attacking Axe and triggering Counter Helix during Berserker's Call. He can also cast it on Axe to prevent anyone from attacking him.
* Life Drain can be used to heal himself or allies caught in Berserker's Call, preventing them from dropping low enough for Axe to kill them with Culling Blade.
Leshrac
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 4%)Pugna
* Nether Ward punishes Leshrac's constant mana usage from spamming spells.
* Leshrac needs to be in the thick of the fight to deal damage, and so cannot escape from Nether Blast nor
Life Drain easily.
Additional:
* Leshrac needs to be close to target in order to do damage, Pugna can outrun Leshrac with ease due to his superior movement speed.
* Split Earth can also be hard to land on Pugna for the same reason.
* Leshrac uses huge amounts of mana to do damage, Nether Ward forces him to either not contribute in a fight or kill himself in the process.
Enigma
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 3%)Pugna
* Enigma's abilities have a huge mana cost, meaning that Nether Ward will deal a lot of damage to Enigma.
* Pugna can heal allies trapped inside Black Hole thanks to Life Drain, Pugna can also damage multiple of Enigma's allies around him with
Life Drain when he casts it on
Aghanim's Shard upgraded
Nether Ward during teamfight.
* Nether Blast can easily kill Eidolons, especially when Enigma is pushing.
* Even though Pugna cannot cancel Black Hole on his own, smart Pugna can buy
Orchid Malevolence to stop Enigma from channeling
Black Hole and make him more vulnerable to counter-attacks with
Decrepify and
Life Drain.
Additional:
* Enigma's abilities have a huge mana cost, meaning that Nether Ward will deal a lot of damage to Enigma.
* Pugna can heal allies trapped inside Black Hole thanks to
Life Drain.
* Nether Blast can easily kill Eidolons, especially when Enigma is pushing.
Skywrath Mage
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 10%)Pugna
* Due to the high mana cost of his spells and the low cool down of them, Nether Ward can seriously damage Skywrath Mage if he isn't careful.
* Skywrath Mage's fragility makes him very susceptible to Pugna's high burst damage.
Additional:
* Nether Ward will make Skywrath Mage next to useless in fights, as his low hp pool will not allow him to sustain through the damage of the ward should he choose to cast spells. Be wary though that Skywrath's huge burst will make very quick work of Pugna's low hp should the ward be destroyed, and
Decrepify won't help Pugna at all.
Troll Warlord
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 2%)Pugna
* Troll Warlord can't switch targets at will, in order to build Fervor stacks, which makes it easy to use Decrepify in order to save allies
* During Battle Trance, Pugna can easily use Nether Blast, Decrepify and Life Drain on him
Juggernaut
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 11%)Pugna
* Decrepify prevents
Omnislash damage, until Juggernaut gets a
Nullifier.
* Without a disable, Pugna's high movement speed makes it harder to chase him with Blade Fury.
* Juggernaut has low mana and his skills cost large amount of mana. Nether Ward will hurt him more and even worse, the damage from the ward is inflicted before the Spell immunity provided by
Blade Fury.
Additional:
* Decrepify is the perfect tool against Omnislash until he gets a
Nullifier, and even then he will probably waste a couple of slashes before he uses it.
* Without an extra disable, Pugna's high movement speed makes it impossible to chase him with Blade Fury.
* Unlike some other carries like Slark or
Phantom Assassin, Juggernaut's spells cost a hefty amount of mana and he will seriously get hurt by Nether Ward. Don't forget the damage from the ward is inflicted before the spell immunity is provided by
Blade Fury.
Necrophos
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 7%)Pugna
* Nether Ward causes Death Pulse to actually damage Necrophos rather than heal him. Meanwhile, Reaper Scythe's gigantic mana cost while Necrophos is near the Nether Ward can often instantly kill him.
* Nether Blast and
Life Drain both make quick work of Necrophos's small healthpool, especially during Ghost Shroud. The latter also makes him an unappealing target for Reaper's Scythe, and can often force Necrophos to use it defensively as he has no other means of interrupting his channeling.
Warlock
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 4%)Dark Seer
* Surge allows for Dark Seer and his allies to escape from Upheaval due to it ignoring any slow.
Slark
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 17%)Dark Seer
* Dark Seer relies on Surge for most of his mobility, so he's not very vulnerable to slows, but much more to root effects and walls or pseudo-walls such as Disruptor's
Kinetic Field or
Slark's
Pounce.
Pugna
* Nether Blast will still hit Slark in Shadow Dance.
* Pugna can rarely target Slark directly with Decrepify, but he can use it defensively on an ally to prevent Slark from getting stacks.
* Despite being somewhat easy to break with Pounce, Pugna can damage Slark and provide vision over him with Life Drain.
Dark Seer
* Heroes with AoE abilities will hit Slark in Shadow Dance: Lina,
Jakiro,
Underlord,
Leshrac,
Dark Seer,
Earthshaker,
Timbersaw,
Crystal Maiden.
Legion Commander
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 13%)Pugna
* Decrepify on either hero stops Legion Commander from completing a Duel, and dissuades her from initiating Duels on ethereal allies.
* Life Drain can help Pugna's teammates win a fight, either by killing Legion Commander or replenishing her target's health.
Additional:
* Decrepify prevents Legion Commander from attacking allies during Duel, regardless if it's used on her or on the ally .
* Pugna can easily cast Decrepify, Nether Blast and Life Drain on Legion during the 4/4.75/5.5/8 seconds of duel
Arc Warden
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 5%)Pugna
* Arc Warden can't use Magnetic Field to stall the damage of Nether Blast on towers, but he can buy
Aghanim's Shard to diminish its damage.
* Arc Warden has no innate disables to stop Life Drain and
Decrepify
* The short cooldown of both Life Drain and Decrepify also means Pugna can deal with Arc Warden and Arc Warden's clone simultaneously most of the time
* A good Pugna looks to end the match early while Arc Warden, a very item reliant hero, thrives in longer matches.
Treant Protector
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 53% pickrate: 16%)Dark Seer
* Living Armor can be destroyed quickly with Ion Shell.
Broodmother
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 3%)Dark Seer
* Ion Shell zones out Broodmother in the laning phase, and can kill her spiderlings if used on one Spiderling in a group.
* Vacuum can pull Broodmother out of the treeline.
Additional:
* Ion Shell is a very powerful weapon against Broodmother's Spiderlings and makes her laning much harder.
Tinker
[wiki] rating: -1.0 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 11%)Pugna
* Nether Ward discourages Tinker from using abilities and items due to its high damage against heavy mana usage.
Muerta
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 13%)Pugna
* Heroes that commonly attack etheral units do not have any problems against Muerta such as Tinker,
Jakiro,
Pugna or
Ogre Magi
Lion
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 45% pickrate: 10%)Pugna
* Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like Skywrath Mage,
Lina,
Lion and
Invoker, but Pugna must not use Decrepify defensively against them as he will be helping them out more than anything.
Phantom Assassin
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 46% pickrate: 10%)Pugna
* Heroes that can apply early pressure before Phantom Assassin has farm are massive threats: Axe,
Viper,
Meepo,
Pugna,
Slark etc.
Alchemist
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 3%)Pugna
* Pugna's
Decrepify makes sure that either Alchemist is unable to hit anyone while also being slowed and susceptible to magical damage, or can protect an ally from physical attacks. Besides, Pugna can push early on, when Alchemist is not strong enough to repel it, so by the time Alchemist comes online, he might be forced to sit in base.
Snapfire
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 15%)Pugna
* Heroes with high movement speeds like Pugna and
Meepo can run around, to, or away from Snapfire during
Mortimer Kisses and dodge the projectiles easily due to their slow speed.
* Heroes with mobility spells (such as Queen of Pain's
Blink and
Clockwerk with
Hookshot) can easily avoid
Lil' Shredder and
Mortimer Kisses.
* Heroes with high movement speeds like Pugna and
Meepo can run around, to, or away from Snapfire during
Mortimer Kisses and dodge the projectiles easily due to their slow speed.
Wraith King
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 4%)Pugna
* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify: Riki,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
Lifestealer
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 5%)Dark Seer
* Heroes with escape abilities : Anti-Mage
Dark Seer
Slark
Storm Spirit
Windranger
Weaver can kite Lifestealer due to him having no lockdown
Keeper of the Light
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 49% pickrate: 3%)Dark Seer
* Heroes with hastes: Dark Seer,
Lycan
Lina
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 16%)Pugna
* Nether Ward will be problematic for heavy nukers and spammers like Skywrath Mage,
Lina,
Lion and
Invoker, but Pugna must not use Decrepify defensively against them as he will be helping them out more than anything.
Magnus
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 15%)Pugna
* Any hero who can counter-initiate in anticipation without getting caught in Reverse Polarity: Sven,
Omniknight,
Enigma,
Luna,
Naga Siren,
Mars,
Jakiro,
Venomancer,
Elder Titan,
Faceless Void,
Rubick,
Keeper of the Light,
Pugna,
Invoker,
Spectre,
Alchemist,
Treant Protector,
Lina,
Oracle,
Zeus,
Shadow Shaman,
Phoenix,
Razor,
Huskar,
Batrider,
Kunkka,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Sand King,
Medusa,
Dawnbreaker.
Lich
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 9%)Dark Seer
* The haste provided by Dark Seer's
Surge or a {Rune:Haste} renders your slows ineffective.
Outworld Destroyer
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 10%)Pugna
* Any heroes with high intelligence, such as Invoker and
Pugna.
Naga Siren
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 51% pickrate: 3%)Dark Seer
* Heroes that rely on illusions will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly: Phantom Lancer,
Chaos Knight,
Naga Siren,
Meepo.
Night Stalker
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 4%)Pugna
* Heroes that can punish aggressive heroes, such as: Leshrac,
Shadow Demon,
Pugna,
Death Prophet.
Razor
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 52% pickrate: 7%)Dark Seer
* Dark Seer can increase the movement speed of allies with
Surge, breaking Static Link.
Riki
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 54% pickrate: 13%)Pugna
* Heroes who are reliant on physical damage will be nullified by Decrepify: Riki,
Wraith King,
Juggernaut.
Lone Druid
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 55% pickrate: 3%)Pugna
* Pugna:
Decrepify prevent the Spirit bear from attacking or protect allies from it.
Lycan
[wiki] rating: -0.6 (winrate: 57% pickrate: 3%)Pugna
* Pugna's
Decrepify prevents the target from taking physical damage or doing damage, which poses a huge problem for Lycan, as he mainly deals physical damage.
Sven
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 2%)Dark Seer
* Strong laners are usually at a disadvantage because of how well Sven can jungle. Heroes such as Dark Seer.
Underlord and
Legion Commander may find that later Sven takes care of them very quickly after some jungle farming.
Pugna
* Pugna can save allies with both healing or by making them ethereal but needs to be careful of Sven's Aghanim's Scepter purge.
Disruptor
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 10%)Dark Seer
* Dark Seer relies on Surge for most of his mobility, so he's not very vulnerable to slows, but much more to root effects and walls or pseudo-walls such as Disruptor's
Kinetic Field or
Slark's
Pounce.
Pugna
* Nether Ward can do a ton of damage to Disruptor because of his high mana costs.
* Life Drain can be used to heal an ally trapped by Static Storm-Kinetic Field combo (if Pugna is not a target).
Meepo
[wiki] rating: -0.4 (winrate: 56% pickrate: 1%)Pugna
* Pugna's Nether Ward doesn't really hurt Meepo since he usually buys attribute items to tank up and can be killed very quickly by 4 clones. Decrepify can amplify Poof's damage should Pugna use it to avoid Meepo's right clicking.
Dark Seer
* Dark Seer can take great advantage of Divided We Stand by putting an Ion Shell on a clone in order to harass them effectively.
* Vacuum can take a single Meepo and disable them for him and his teammates to take out.
Shadow Demon
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 47% pickrate: 1%)Dark Seer
* The constant dispel from Demonic Purge will make any attempt to save the victim or himself by Surge become futile. For what it's worth, Demonic Purge will also dispel
Ion Shell.
Pugna
* All of Pugna's abilities are active, making Demonic Purge break from Aghanim's Scepter useless.
* Nether Ward punishes Shadow Demon's constant mana usage from spamming spells, especially Shadow Poison.
* An attempt to save an ally using Disruption can easily become a perfect setup for a Nether Blast for the enemy.
* Life Drain can be used to heal Pugna or an ally to save them from Shadow Demon's abilities.
* However, it can be cancelled by Disruption unless Pugna buys defensive items.
Pangolier
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 48% pickrate: 9%)Pugna
* Heroes who rely on channeling abilities can be interrupted in teamfights by Rolling Thunder: Crystal Maiden,
Pugna,
Witch Doctor
Dark Seer
* Certain heroes can mess up with Pangolier's positioning and timing (especially if he intends to use Rolling Thunder during combat): Vengeful Spirit,
Keeper of the Light,
Huskar,
Dark Seer
Sand King
[wiki] rating: 0.0 (winrate: 50% pickrate: 6%)Pugna
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Earthshaker,...
Pugna
* Pugna's
Nether Ward damages Sand King when he channels Epicenter, preventing him from using Blink Dagger afterward.
To start select enemy heroes in the field above. It's intended to be used with multiple heroes. The more enemy heroes you provide the better results you will get.
About
This website was made to help you in pick stage of online game Dota 2. It calculates rating for each possible counterpicks based on tips from web-based database made up entirely of user contributions Dota 2 wiki.
You will get the list of recommended hero counters with a list of tips written by Dota 2 wiki contributors explaining why it's good against the particular hero. In comparison to other similar websites, which show only rating based on average hero win rate from dotabuff or similar service.
How to interpret this data
Take it with a bit of grain of salt, especially if the recommendation has a low rating (<= 1), some heroes
may win a lane in an early game but would lose in late game (and vice versa). That's why sometimes
you could hero names appearing as a counter and as being countered, as on image:
You can also add your own tips, update old data and fix mistakes by editing page on Dota 2 Wiki (it works like Wikipedia - anyone can contribute, you don't even need to register) these edits will appear on this website automatically (data is updated several times per week).
Right now there is no app/overlay that will detect picks automatically (like overwolf dota plus or become the gamer), instead, you can open web version in a steam in-game browser or use mobile version on your smartphone.
Want to know more? Check FAQ
List of new features that have been added
- Results now also sorted both by rating and average hero win rate for the chosen rank (data from dotabuff)
- You can share counterpick suggestions just by copying URL. Try it: Pudge and Phantom Assassin counters
- Results from the left and right column are partially merged now: the green color shows counterpicks and red color heroes who are countered by an enemy pick.
- Added link next to each hero pointing to wiki hero page
- Counterpick suggestions will appear as you type
- Added statistics: Total entries in the database: 557, last updated: about 1 month ago
- Filtering by role: carry/durable/support - data taken directly from the game (basically the filters which you see on pick stage in dota)
- Filtering by lane: off lane/safe lane/mid lane (lane data is parsed from hero guides dotabuff)
- Tips now include icons next to the heroes/spells/item names (just like on Dota 2 wiki)
- Added item suggestions
- Heroes now can be searched by their abbreviations: CM - Crystal Maiden, Kotl - Keeper Of The Light, AM - Anti Mage etc.
- Mobile website version
- Improved UX on small screens - when selecting heroes page automatically scrolls so hero select input is displayed at the very top of screen, leaving more space for results.
- importing picks from dotabuff/opendota URL or matchid
- sorting by personal win rate after logging via steam
- dota overlay(like Overwolf Dota Plus) that will automatically detect picks and bans this will also bring synergy and ban suggestion based on opponent recent games and most played/highest win rate heroes (but don't expect it soon).
Sharing link to this site is always appreciated.
Dota 2 is a registered trademark of Valve Corporation. This site is not affiliated with Valve Corporation. All game images and names are property of Valve Corporation.
Most popular searches list
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Abaddon, Alchemist, Ancient Apparition, Anti-Mage, Arc Warden
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Pugna
* Pugna only deals magical damage, which Anti-Mage is exceptionally resistant due to Counterspell.
Decrepify with
Manta Style.
Mana Void on Pugna if he's missing a considerable portion of his mana.
Mana Break almost always dealing the bonus damage from the mana burn.
Counterspell negates a large amount of Pugna's damage, as most of Pugna's damage comes from his spells.
Blink can be used to get out of a bad situation, and Pugna has no way to prevent him from casting it.
* Anti-Mage can dispel
* Pugna has a very large mana pool. This allows Anti-Mage to constantly deal bonus damage to Pugna with Mana Break and devastate Pugna's entire team with Mana Void.
Additional:
* Since Pugna relies on his teammates for protection, it is fairly common for Anti-Mage to get multiple kills with a single use of his
* Pugna's massive mana pool will result in Anti-Mage's
*
*
Dark Seer
* Dark Seer's strength lies in his high-mana cost skills. So
Mana Break can be a great nuisance for him, since it can reduce his mana and prevent him from casting his spells.
Mana Void can deal a lot of damage if Dark Seer spent a lot of mana on his abilities.
*