I For One Welcome Our New Abyssal Underlords

Introduction

What is up ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. My name is BKvoiceover I am a guidemaker on Dotafire. I enjoy long walks on the beach, spending time with my girlfriend, and destroying the lives to 2k MMR scrublords. Here's a picture of my beautiful mug for reference

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I sincerely welcome one and all to my guide to Vrogros the Pit Lord. Oh I'm sorry, Vrogros the Underlord. Please don't sue me Blizzard.

To me Underlord is an interesting hero as before the Dark Rift Update I had never played him, but had done a lot of research on him, watched old Dota 1 games, and was hyped up as all hell for his port into Dota 2.

So together we will venture together into the mind of Vrogros the Pit Lord... I mean Underlord to learn the secrets that the Premier Rat Lord himself can reveal to us. So without further ado, let's begin.

Hero Overview

Alrighty, let's get down to brass tacks and discuss what this Underlord is all about.

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Underlord is a melee strength hero that comes equipped with a neat set of basic yet intimidating abilities that pretty much solidify him as a very powerful offlaner, or position 4 support. With a wave clearing ability, a root, a damage reduction, and an AOE Boots of Travel. This hero can punish any mistake made by the enemy with a lost tower, set of barracks, or an ancient.

in the right hands Underlord can make make any hero quake in their Boots of Speed and hand you victory on a silver platter. However in the wrong hands it will draw your team into a deep, dark abyss of lost MMR as you are crushed beneath the weight of reports for all of eternity. Because beside his massive strengths, just like any hero he comes with weaknesses. But that's what this guide is for, to make sure that you go into a game of Dota 2 ready to drink the salty tears of your enemies.

First up, let's discuss his Skills and Skill Build.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Every hero comes with a set of skills that makes them good at what they do, however they can't be great at everything. Every hero has their strengths and weakneses, and it's important to discuss what these are. Because when you go into battle, you need to know what your weapon is capable of.

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- Decent Strength Gain.
- Good Intelligence gain for a strength hero.
- Good Zoning Abilities.
- Reduces Enemy Damage.
- Not Item Dependent.
- Mobile.
- Good Base Damage (62-68).
- Ok Starting Armor (3.71).

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- Very Poor Agility Gain.
- Low Mana.
- Magic Damage Scales Poorly.
- Requires Good Team Coordination to make good use of Dark Rift
- Little to no Solo Potential.

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Skills and Skill Build

Before entering the field of battle, it is best to understand and respect the tools that you have at your disposal. So let's dive right into his skills and his skill build

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: Underlord's first ability is called Firestorm. When cast the ability will call down 6 waves of fire at 1 second intervals upon a target area. When hit by one of these waves any enemies caught will take an initial amount of damage as well as receiving lingering burn damage for 2 seconds after the hit. Note that the amount of health lost on the impact damage is static, while the lingering burn damage is based on your Max Health.

After picking this ability up at level 2. We usually max this ability by level 7 as we want to capitalize on the massive amount of damage this skill can deal early on.

All in all this ability is very fluid in its uses. It can be used to push lanes, farm jungle stacks, cause chaos in teamfights, and help secure pickoffs on unsuspecting heroes, as well as disabling those annoying Blink Daggers. It also works well in conjunction with your W ability Pit of Malice which we will discuss next.

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: Underlord's W ability is called Pit of Malice. Sounds awfully spooky doesn't it? Well it is. When this ability is cast on the ground it conjures a pit at the target location that lasts for 7 seconds. Any unit that enters that area during that time will be rooted for 1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds as well as taking 100 magical damage. Each unit can only be rooted once by this pit.

We usually max this ability seconds, getting our first point in the ability at level 4. While this ability is powerful, Firestorm should take precedence over Pit of Malice

This ability is great for punishing overextending enemies as well as for ganking their mid hero. Since this ability is a root and not a stun however, the affected units can still turn, cast spells, use items and attack. However the root does disable spells such as Queen of Pain's, and Anti-Mage's Blink, Nature's Prophet's Teleportation, Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness, Puck's Phase Shift, and Riki's Tricks of the Trade. As well as disabling blink daggers. Force staffs do still work however.

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: Underlord's thirds ability is called Atrophy Aura. Atrophy Aura is a passive ability that can wreak havoc at all points in the game. When an enemy is within 900 units of Underlord he comes under the effect of this passive which decreases their attack damage by 18%/26%/34%/42%. But should an enemy unit die while under the effects of this aura, Pit Lord will gain bonus attack damage for 30/40/50/60 seconds depending on the type of unit that died. Recieving 5 damage if it was a creep or 30/35/40/45 damage if it was a hero.

We put one point into Atrophy Aura at level one to help with our laning. But other than that the ability is maxed last. Not because it's bad, but mainly because the other 2 abilities are better early in the game, and atrophy aura really shines later in the game when bigger fights are taking place and you are recieving more damage.

The main purpose of this ability in the early game is the help secure you last hits while making last hitting more difficult for your opponent. Much like Shadow Fiend's Necromastery ability Underlord will get more powerful the more last hits he gets, while consistently making it difficult for the opponents carry to last hit. Another reason why Underlord's skill set screams offlaner. Later in the game when heroes are beginning to pack more of a punch this ability also shines, making enemies weaker at all stages in the game.

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: Alright ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for Underlord's ultimate ability, Dark Rift. This ability is very powerful when used in the right situations. In short the ability opens a dark rift at a targeted friendly unit or structure's position. After a short delay of 5/4/3 seconds depending on the level of the ability, all friendly heroes within a 450 unit range of Underlord will be teleported to that unit's location. The ability can be cancelled at any time during the cast. However if this is done or if the friendly unit or structure you were teleporting to dies before the ability finished casting. The ability goes on cooldown.

This ability is extremely powerful at all points of the game, and can punish your opponents very deeply for a bad teamfight. Because of this we pick up Dark Rift at the standard level 6, 11, and 16.

This ability can be used equally as effective in both an offensive and defensive role. Offensively it can be used to mount a fast push off the back of a successful teamfight, possibly leading to a tower, racks, or a throne. It can be used in response to a gank from the enemy team in another lane in order to turn around a bad fight. It can be used defensively to teleport your team to safety should a fight go awry. This ability can be very fluid in its uses, and when done correctly you can really put your opponents between a rock and a hard place.

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That will cover Underlord's abilitiess. Now it's time to take a look into the next step of building a truly terrifying Underlord. His Items

Item Build

For the most part, Underlord is a very item independent hero. He doesn't require much to become a monster in lane and really only requires a few, cheap items to deal with his shortcomings and make him a true Underlord.

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At the start of the game Underlord comes in clocking a good amount of HP, but just like any strength hero they tend to clock in a very low amount of mana, which means Underlord can really come to struggle if they aren't careful. So for the most part Underlord's starting items are similar to many strength offlaners.

: Since you're going offlane it usually means you'll be going up against 2, sometimes 3 enemy heroes. And depending on how your team lanes, you might be alone. Stout Shield will simply help you stay in lane when under pressure from the opposing team's support.

: One healing salve as well as a tango will round out your basic regeneration items, keeping you in lane.

: Honestly this spot is a toss up between either Claritys or Enchanted Mangoes, either of which work. I personally like Mangoes over claritys as they can give you a good chunk of mana in a pinch if you need to secure a kill or escape a gank. Plus the passive regeneration doesn't hurt. So 1 Mango, or 2 Claritys work.

: And with 65 gold remaining we'll round out our build with a small stat boost from a single iron branch. While the buff is minimalistic, it doesn't hurt.

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observer wards: As a support you will have your choice of courier or wards depending on what is needed and whether or not another support has purchased these items.

: Basic regeneration is nice for keeping you and your lane partner in tip top shape health wise.

: Since Underlord tends to suffer from mana problems early in the game it is good practice to stock up on clarities.

: And then to round out our starting items a spare iron branch never hurts and provides a small boost to his stats.

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Getting into the early parts of the laning stage we are gonna choose some simple items to help with farming as well as some mobilty, and items to help with mana.

: Pretty much core on any hero, this item is important for Underlord to get as soon as possible as they will build into Arcane boots which will help Underlord's small mana pool.

: Magic wand is a nice item that will build from the iron branch we got earlier. Aside from the stats it will also help nicely with Underlord's mana pool.

: This is more a situational item than anything, but this will help you farm faster and get more damage for your atrophy aura. It will also help you farm jungle stacks much faster should you decide to rotate in their for a short period of time to work towards your core items.

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: Pretty much core on every hero, get these ASAP.

: Magic Wand provides nice stats and a nice way to get mana and health back instantly. Essentially solidifying your lane presence.

: A fantastic, and cheap way to reduce magic damage and help to keep you in lane, and also increases your ability to survive ganks.

: Wind Lace provides a fantastic way to increase your movement speed even more, making chasing enemies down much easier considering the unreliable nature of Pit of Malice.

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Now getting into the bread and butter of Underlord's necessary items. Everything from Mana, to initiation, and lockdown in order to cement Underlord as a very tanky initiator.

: Almost a necessity on Underlord, Arcane boots will give Underlord a big stimulus to his poor mana pool as well as having a support items for the rest of your team.

: Having a strong disable and nuke doesn't mean much if that means you can't get the drop on enemies. Getting a Blink Dagger early on can cement you as a threat throughout the game with good situational awareness.

: This item might seem a bit unorthodox however it can be extremely useful in every stage of the game for Underlord. It gives passive movement speed, passive mana regeneration as well as a nice disable that can be a great set up for Pit of Malice into Firestorm.

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: Tranquil boots are fantastics boots as they give you a lot of movement speed and armor for the cost. Great for sustaining you in lane.

: Since we are cutting arcane boots out of the equation for a support Underlord we are gonna be picking up a Soul Ring to feed our insatiable hunger for mana.

: Assuming that you end up ganking/roaming for kills and ways to assist your allies you should be filling up a lot of Urn charges, also the massive mana regen and strength are nice additions to Underlord.

: Mekansm is a fantastic item pickup as it gives a healing and armor aura, as well as the great active ability is has to heal and increase the armor or nearby heroes. They also build into Guardian Greaves if you choose to go for arcane boots rather than tranquils, and have way more gold than you know what to do with.

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When it comes to situational items, some are more core than others. These are not in any particular order, they are listed in the order I thought of adding them in. Some improve his mobility, his tankiness, his support abilities, and much more.

: This item provides a very useful lifesteal aura which can greatly increase your team's pushing power and survivability in the early and midgame.

: Aether lens increase the cast range of all your abilities which can help alleviate the long cast times on all of his abilities. The passive mana regeneration and spell damage also doesn't hurt.

: Assault Cuirass is a very powerful aura item that gives your team armor while reducing enemy armor, in addition the attack speed that the item offers is extremely useful for pushing and powering up your Position 1 hero.

: Force Staff is another mobility/support item that can be useful in offensive and defensive roles. Either to catch up to an enemy, force an enemy into a bad position, Get an ally into a beneficial position, or save an ally from certain death. Plus the Int. and health regen the item offers it helpgul as well.

: Heaven's Halberd can be incredibly useful when dealing with powerful Hard Carry's, keeping them from dealing the majority of their damage which in the late game can mean the difference between sweet victory, and utter destruction.

: This item can be great for countering targetted lock down spells. The ability to drop the shield onto allies can make you an invaluable asset to your team depending on the situation.

: Shiva's Guard offers lots of intelligence, armor, and a very powerful active ability that is great in all parts of the game. This is what I meant when I said that some items are more core than others.

: With a global boots of travel ability, having a powerful pushing item can be amazing for your team. One good fight for your team could mean a powerful push that literally cannot be stopped by anyone. Plus the true sight offered by the necronomicon warrior can help deward enemy wards and deal with invisible enemy units.

: Ok, I know I'm gonna get some heat for not putting this ability in the core item section. And honestly I would build this on Underlord in a lot of cases, however, since this is an offlaner that is mainly focusing on being a powerful initiator I have left this inbetween Core and Situational. The health regeneartion, and passive armor are great, and the active can really help turn a fight around the your team. Also these can build into Guardian Greaves should you want to go down that route. I would build Mekansm as a core if I was playing him as a position 4.

: Ghost Scepter can help keep you in the fight for that precious few seconds where your Dark Rift can help your team disengage, and to help you survive long enough to hit enemies with another Pit of Malice and/or Firestorm.

: Heart of Tarrasque is another fantastic item that can make you extremely hard to kill and also making your pushing ability even more fantatic than it already is. Clocking in a bonus 1000HP is nothing to snuff at.

[icon-pipe of insight size=64]: Pipe of Insight is another one of those items that is more core than others. Against heavy spell damage lineups this item can stop heroes dead in their tracks. It can provide a decent solution to magic damage up until and even after your other cores pick up Black King Bars.

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upgraded boots of travel: Both Boots of travel are useful as you aren't gonna want to use your dark rift simply to solo push, you'll want to save it for a team push off the back of a good teamfight.

: Guardian Greaves are fantastic late game boots that build from Arcane Boots, and Mekansm. So if you want to go more of a position 4 hero, or it comes to the late game and you want to truly be six slotted, guardian greaves are a good choice.

: Glimmer Cape can be a good support item that can get you or an ally out from between a rock and a hard place. Not recommended on this hero, but is always there should you ever need it.

: Just like Guardian Greaves, Octarine Core can be built from disassembling your arcane boots and adding your energy booster to a soul booster which will be then added to your Octarine Core. The spell lifesteal is useful for sustaining your push and the cooldown decrease is very nice as your ultimate has a very long cooldown, also being able to reduce the cooldown of Firestorm and Pit of Malice is useful.

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With a wide variety of items to choose from, Underlord can become terrifying with many combinations of these. And now that we've covered Items it's time to get into discussing who Underlord may go up against. What enemies he's strong against, what enemies he's weak against, and what allies he helps the most

Friends and Foes

In a game with 111 heroes other than Underlord, you will find friends, but you will definitely find enemies. Heroes that help bring out your strengths, and heroes that will exploit your weaknesses. It's important to know about all of these heroes and know when it's best to pick Underlord, and when it's best to leave him on the back burner.

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Underlord can make friends with anyone that can provide him with mana to supplement his lack of mana. Shoutouts go out to.

: Keeper of the Light
: Crystal Maiden
: Io


In addition, any hero with a disable or nuke to help kill enemies quickly and efficiently can become good friends with Underlord. Heroes like.

: Centaur Warrunner
: Tiny
: Storm Spirit

And of course with an AOE boots of travel ability, he can be a pushers best friend. Allowing them to teleport around the map almost instantly and punish bad fights and overextension. He is also able to teleport illusions as well, making illusion pushers even more powerful. Heroes such as.

: Lycan
: Lone Druid
: Terrorblade
: Luna

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Even though Underlord comes into the game clocking a large amount of HP, his lack of agility means low armor. So the first batch of heroes that will make his day hard include heroes that can reduce armor or can capiatlize on his low armor. Heroes like

: Slardar
: Chaos Knight
: Bristleback

A special shoutout goes to Lifestealer as the sheer amount of HP that Underlord is clocking makes Lifestealer all the better. Combined with a short BKB and slow, he can make Underlord's day a living hell.... heh, get it... cause he's a demon... and he's from hell... ok I'll stop now.

: Lifestealer

Another type of counter to Underlord that isn't mentioned often are heroes that are not affected much by his Atrophy Aura whether that be a hero whose major early game damage and farming ability is not hurt by the decrease in base damage. Heroes like

: Axe with his Counter Helix
: Ursa with his Fury Swipes

Heroes that can mess with a Dark Rift Push, or simply nullify Dark Rift completely. These heroes include.

: Naga Siren can cancel Dark Rift with Song of the Siren
: Nature's Prophet can slow a push with Teleportation
: Io can slow a push by using Relocate

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Laning

Now that we know a lot about Underlord and who he works well with, it's time to go into lane and begin the reign of the Underlord. But where are we gonna go? Well there are really only 2 viable places for Underlord to go. Either Offlane in a Position 3 farming role, or as a lane support or roaming support in position 4. Either way here are some tips to get you through the laning stage.

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Conclusion

This will conclude my guide for Underlord. Thank you so much for reading my guide for the most Abyssal of Underlords. I hope you can take what you have learned from this guide and use it to turn yourself from a Pit Noob to a Pit Lord! Also if you guys have any questions, concerns, or things you'd like to see changed in the guide feel free to drop a comment down below. And if you liked the guide be sure to give it a +1. Thank you one and all, this is BKvoiceover signing off. See you on the battlefield.

Toodledoo :)

-BK