Underlord Comprehensive Guide (Dark Rift Update)

Introduction

Hey everyone, welcome to my guide on the Underlord. This is my first ever guide and I have done my best to make sure that it is simple and easy to understand for anyone from a newbie to a seasoned pro.

Lore:
Neither myth nor song exist to tell of their coming.

Deep below the surface of the world lay unknown wonders and horrors. Down and down again, well beneath the slithering magma fields and simmering roots of dormant volcanoes stands the obsidian city of Aziyog, its incomparable stonework spanning an endless cavern. Within honeycomb walls mortared with the bones of countless slaves lies the domain of the Abyssal Horde, and their brutal underlord Vrogros.

Armed by the monstrous forgemasters of his kind and well-practiced in the arts of the Dark Rift, Vrogros is able to conjure forth flame and crippling malice through the twist between worlds. He seeks always to expand his holdings, destroying or enslaving all he encounters. Yet the lands offered by the subterranean realm are few, and so his sights have turned upward. By his command the first waves of abyssal invaders have already marched through the rift, a few doomed legions meant merely to test the might of nations above. Now, as his full force readies itself for unending conquest, Vrogros himself steps into a sunlit world to announce his coming reign. Those who face the Underlord will bow and pay tribute, or be crushed where they stand.

Roles:
Underlord is a pretty flexible hero when it comes to the roles he can fulfill.
a. Offlaner
b. Mid
c. Support

Although the offlane feels too good to be true for an Underlord, it isn't the only way that he can be played. The other 2 positions are also just as valid. If u go for the mid build then we get a radiance and that combined with Atrophy Aura gives you enough added damage that you don't really buy any damage items.
Now some might say that mid is a position that's given to the hero that needs quite a bit of farm while staying active during team fights. I agree to that. But, for my build of Underlord the best way to get the required items is by staying in the mid till one point and then roaming and ganking as much as possible, while also farming the jungle camps and pushing lanes.The latter two will be discussed in a later section.
Moving on.

Skills

So alright we know what the Underlord is capable of and all that, but what does he have in his arsenal to kick some serious butt.... Let's find out.
Firestorm

Calls down waves of fire that damage enemy units in the target area, burning for additional damage over time.
So there are basically six waves of fire that reign down upon an area and deal damage and also percentage based burn damage

Firestorm is your daily bread and butter. Seriously. Lets just check out how much damage it can deal if all 6 waves hit.
Level 1:
Wave damage is 25 so, 25*6 = 150
Level 2:
Wave damage is 40 so, 40*6 = 240
Level 3:
Wave damage is 55 so, 55*6 = 330
Level 4:
Wave damage is 70 so, 70*6 = 420
And that is excluding the percentage based burn damage.
With this skill you can clear a triple stacked hard camp in about 40~50 seconds.
But in a real team fight it is impossible to inflict the entire damage of the spell because the targets will keep moving and it is very easy to escape the 400 radius AOE.
But it still a useful tool in zoning out the opponent.
Pit of Malice

A deadly pit is conjured at the target location; any unit that enters is unable to move for some time and takes damage. Each enemy unit can only be affected once.

This is a pretty straight forward ability, you cast it in an area and anyone who enters the pit takes 100 damage and is rooted in place and disarmed for 1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds.
The pit has a radius of 275 and lasts 7 seconds, so anyone who isn't initially in the cast area but ends up going into it is still affected by it. Great for repositioning and initiating.
Atrophy Aura

Nearby enemy units are weakened, losing a portion of their base damage. If a unit dies while under this effect, Underlord gains bonus damage.

This is what makes you the most ridiculous hero in the game. It has damage reduction and damage amplification. So what this passive ability does is emits an aura in a 900 AOE which affects enemy units present in that area reducing their base damage by upto 42%.
Now keep in mind that this isn't bonus damage but base damage(the number that appears in white in the hero damage area in-game). So if you think you can reduce the bonus damage of aDaedulus or aMonkey King Bar then your absolutely wrong.
The other part of this skill is the damage amplification part. At max level you can get upto 45 bonus damage per hero kill, and the 5 bonus damage per creep is standard for all levels. So lets say you clear a triple stacked hard camp of centaurs, satyrs and wildwings each such camps have 3 creeps each so a total of 9 creeps and with 5 damage per creep we get 45 bonus damage in hardlly 40 seconds. Now i know you might think that "It's just 45 bonus damage.... it wont matter that much", but trust me it will matter cause with this 45 bonus damage you can jump a support and kill him faster than before. And for that at max level you get 45 bonus damage so a total of 90... then kill the next support.... see where I'm going with this?? At the end of your roaming phase you will have atleast 135-140 bonus damage and the next teamfight might win you the game.
And do you wanna know the best part about this ability?? It doesn't have a cap.... i have got about 190 bonus damage and n0tail in the all star match got about 350 bonus damage but that was a 10v10 so I guess that doesn't count.
Dark Rift

Opens a dark rift at the targeted friendly unit's position. After a short delay, Underlord and all nearby friendly heroes are teleported to that unit's location. Dark Rift can be cancelled at anytime during the cast. If it is cancelled in this way or the target unit dies before the spell becomes active, Dark Rift goes into cooldown.

This is the one ability that makes him a great split push/escape hero, say you have a nice 120-150 atrophy bonus damage, which mind you is definitely achievable, and there is just one lane of barracks remaining in your enemy's team and you just finished a teamfight, call all your buddies to the fountain and wait for them to heal, target one of the creeps in your desired lane and BAAM!!!! Your whole team get teleported to the creeps location along with you. This can also be used in a similar way to escape from a fight so you can save your ally.

Iems Explanations

Items.... now this is where my opinion differs from most others, the role of Underlord according to me is not the kind of guy who sits in the back spamming his spells and wasting his mana. No, to me this guy has the ability to 3-4 shot most squishy hero but he needs time in a fight. How do you give a guy who has a 2.6 strength gain more time in a fight??? A couple of things come to mind:
1. Armor
2. More HP
3. Regen
4. Evasion
5. Lifesteal

For Armour, the Underlord needs items as his base armor is just 4 and with a measly agility gain of 1.3 his armor at max is 11.... If you have a lot of HP and not enough armor to reduce the incoming physical damage it'll just be a matter of time before you go down.
Hence the Assault Cuirass or the Blade Mail if your getting concentrated on. With AC you get 15 armor and any ally in a radius gets bonus 5 armor so it's a valuable pick up.

For more HP, we make items like the Octarine Core or Vanguard that give us raw HP. But we can also buy strength items that also have the added benefit of adding to Underlord's base damage. Items like the Echo Sabre or BKB are useful in this case.

Early in the game you will be using a lot of mana spamming your Q to farm jungle camps and so losing HP in the process too, so items that give you additional HP Regen are also essential.
If you escape a fight with 120 bonus damage from the Atrophy Aura and you can regenerate quickly enough and come back to kick some more a** then that could win you the game and keep your streak going. Regen is especially good against long rangers like Sniper or Tinker's Missiles or Clockwork's Flares and also against most damage-over-time spells.

Evasion.... There are a limited number of options for this kind of tankiness, the Solar Crest or Heaven's Halberd or Radiance(The other being Butterfly but that doesn't do much for a strength hero like Underlord). I prefer the Radiance because of the burn, couple that with Octarine Core's spellsteal and you can have a decent amount of HP regenerating while just chasing someone down. You don't really need another disarm because of your 2nd skill, but if you prefer going for the Halberd instead, hey it's your call! Solar Crest is great for helping your carry take down Roshan or hell you can do it too... But the one thing ii dislike about the items is that it reduces your armor and considering the meager armor Underlord has it doesn't seem like that good of an idea.

For Lifesteal we can make the Octarine Core or some other form of lifesteal(like Satanic)
but it is very situational as you generally don't end up being the one dealing the maximum damage despite your passive.

So as far as the items in my build go they are pretty self explanatory.

For Offlane Build

Start off with Tangos, Stout Shield, Ring of Protection and a Healing Salve.

Early Game:

After a while of last hitting get the Magic Wand and also the Boots of Speed(Base brown boots). Finish off the Phase Boots and get a ring of Basilius.You might ask "why Phase why not Treads or Tranquils??" Because Underlord is quite slow with those on. The active of the Phase gives you the exact boost required to chase down an enemy and chop his head off. Then get yourself a Morbid Mask and from this point on you can start roaming and killing squishy supports or out-of-position carries(with help of course).

Mid Game:

After you get your Morbid Mask, start ganking for kills to speed up completion of Vlads. After that's done go for the Blink Dagger.Then get the Echo Sabre. Now this is where you decide whether to go for Heaven's Halberd or Blade Mail, if you are taking a lot of enemy fir then best go for the Blade Mail. If you are in the lead then go for the Halberd and kick some a**.

Late game:

This is where s**t gets real. Get yourself the Assault Cuirass to inflict some serious -ve armor damage on the enemy team. This item is the best all round late game item Underlord can get cause it gives you both armor and attack speed, the two things that you lack. Alternatively you can also go for the Heart of Tarrasque.
The other option if they have a lot of physical damage is get the Crimson Guard, the Damage block can help a lot in certain circumstances.
Yes we all know he has a team wide TP, but you should use that to get into fights, not get out. Which is why you should also always have TP Scrolls on this guy.

For Mid Build

Start off with 2x Clarity, a Tango, 2x Iron Branch and a Stout Shield.

Early Game:

After a while of last hitting get the Magic Wand and also the Boots of Speed(Base brown boots). Finish off the Phase Boots and start working on you Radiance.You might ask "why Phase why not Treads or Tranquils??" Because Underlord is quite slow with those on. The active of the Phase gives you the exact boost required to chase down an enemy and chop his head off.

Mid Game:

After you get your Sacred Relic, start ganking for kills to speed up its completion. You must absolutely finishat least the relic by the 15 minute mark if the Radiance should have an impact on the game. If you are not able to get even the relic by that time go for the Heaven's Halberd instead. The reason you've taken mid is so you can farm quicker than the other lanes and gank top or bottom if you see a window and farm the jungle camps with your Q, not being able to get even a relic at 15 mins means that you have a tough opponent and so you shouldn't waste time farming such big items. Trust me, I've been there.
Once you have your Radiance, work on your Vanguard and go hard core jungler. You can switch the order of the two items but i feel that it's far easier to farm a Vanguard with a Radiance than farm a Radiance with a Vanguard. After that's done go for the Linken's Sphere or the BKB based on the enemy teams magic power. If a lot of AOE magic is being used go for the BKB, else go for the Linken's, but personally i like the Linken's better cause of the regen. That coupled with the Vanguard..... who needs to go back to the fountain!!

Late game:

This is where s**t gets real. Get yourself the Assault Cuirass to inflict some serious -ve armor damage on the enemy team. This item is the best all round late game item Underlord can get cause it gives you both armor and attack speed, the two things that you lack. After this if you want to go full blown DPS get yourself the Abyssal Blade or the Monkey King Bar and watch enemies beg you for mercy.
The other option if they have a lot of physical damage is get the Crimson Guard, the Damage block can help a lot in certain circumstances. Or the Octarine Core is still a valid option.
Also If you want to tank up even further, get the Heart of Tarrasque.

Support Build

You don't play this guy as your everyday, run-in-the-mill support. If you want to use his entire potential you have to play him as a roaming support. This means staying active all through the game and looking for kills. Leave your lane for the most part and just roam the map like a scavenger of dead bodies :p.

Start off with Tangos, Stout Shield and a Healing Salve. Also buy the Animal Courier. The Healing salve isn't for your personal use, it's so you can use it on an ally under fire and turn the battle around. Also since you ARE a support, you should carry some wards at all times to deward or ward.

Early Game:

After a while of last hitting get the Orb of Venom and Magic Wand and also the Boots of Speed(Base brown boots). Finish off the Arcane Boots and get a ring of Basilius. The active of the Arcane gives you and those around a lot of mana in the early game. Then get yourself a Vanguard and a Soul Ring and from this point on you can start roaming and killing squishy supports or out-of-position carries(with help of course) while also jungling to get some of those items.

Mid Game:

After you get your Soul Ring, start ganking for kills to speed up completion of Blink Dagger. After that's done go for the Veil Of Discord .Then based on whether you have a lot of magic damage or dps enemies, get the Pipe Of Insight or Crimson Gurad.

Late game:

This is where s**t gets real. Get yourself the Assault Cuirass to inflict some serious -ve armor damage on the enemy team. This item is the best all round late game item Underlord can get cause it gives you both armor and attack speed, the two things that you lack.
The other option if they have a lot of physical damage is get the Scyth of Vyse and hex their carry or highest damage dealer and GG.
Yes we all know he has a team wide TP, but you should use that to get into fights, not get out. Which is why you should also always have TP Scrolls on this guy.

Runes

So let's discuss as to which runes are most beneficial to this hero:
Double Damage: A valuable pickup as it will only increase the base damage, but not the best.
Arcane: Arguably the best rune pickup for Underlord as he has very mana heavy spells which have moderate cooldown. Arcane rune reduces mana cost and cooldown for the time it is active.
Regeneration: Nuff Said.
Haste: Great rune for ganking and chasing almost dead heroes.
Bounty Nuff Said.

Creeping / Jungling

This hero is one of the best junglers in the game. He can farm stacked camps very fast thanks to his Q. So what you do is ask your position 5 to stack the easy camps for you first and then you keep nuking them down with your Q. Once you have a maxed out firestorm clear a triple hard camp stack and work for your items. In this way you can also nuke down creep waves. I have seen the mid tower go down by as fast as 10-15 minutes with this hero. Get Radiance and push waves and GGWP in 30 minutes. Also what you can do is shoot down towers lane by lane. That way the opponent won't know which tower you'll attack next. And keep 2xTP Scrolls on you at all times. I've gotten killed a lot of times because i didn't have a TP Scroll and was roaming in places i shouldn't have.

Pros / Cons

Pros:
- Makes you the team's tank and aura carrier.
- Can help you get quite a few stacks of your passive.
- Helps make use of that bonus damage that you get.
- Best counter for any Stat based DPS hero like Anti-Mage or Drow Ranger

Cons:
- Takes a while to come online.
- Underlord might not be the best hero for Mid in your team.
- Not great at challenging for the rune

Hero Matchups

Now that we've seen his play style and skills lets see who he does well against and who he does well with.

Heroes Underlord works WELL WITH

Basically any hero who can stun the enemy or use summons or has an AOE burst damage spell is a great hero for Underlord to work with like:

Chen
Enchantress
Beastmaster
Lion
Shadow Shaman
Witch Doctor
Skywrath Mage
Nature's Prophet
Warlock

All these have either one or more of the following skills that make them a great combo with Underlord:
- Summons
- High Burst
- Stun/Hex
- AOE Burst damage spells/Attacks
- Slows

Heroes Underlord works WELL AGAINST

Underlord can stomp heroes who are stat dependent. In other words he can be devastating for all those heroes who make items to boost their stats and gain base attack damage as his Atrophy Aura will reduce this specific form of damage by upto 42%.

Sven
This a****le is such a pain to deal with because once he gets his BKB you surely have to burst him down before he activates it or else your entire team(or at least the slaying party sent) pretty much lose gold and end up with a cooldown. But not with Underlord. Since Underlord reduces base damage, as long as the Sven builds items that give him more strength our guy can tank him. Even with God's Strength active he still deals only 42% his original base damage as God's Strength only amplifies the base damage by upto 200% and gives him as bonus damage if the base strength is reduced by 42% so does the final GS damage. Now Sven will, instead of dealing 3xTotal Damage will deal 1.4x lesser. What a relief!!!
Clinkz
Another pain to deal with. Due of his high agility growth a farmed and level heavy Clinkz can hit really hard thanks to the Bloodthorn now being a reality. But if he fights against an Underlord he won't be hitting as hard so YOU have more a chance to kill HIM.
Drow Ranger
If this girl starts making damage items even Bristleback will get scared enough to **** his pants but that's generally not what the Drows get. Drows get at best a Daedulus or MKB at the end of the game, rest all her items(in about 70% of the games) are stat based items. But the one thing you need to be very careful of is that Silver Edge. Make sure you shut her down enough so that you can get enough before she gets the Silver Edge.
This guy has a Agi Gain thats in the top 5, at least. His builds have fewer damage oriented items than stat based items.
Yasha- Stat
Manta Style- Stat
Buterfly- Stat
Battle Fury- damage
MKB- damage
Although there are 2 damage items, only the Battle Fury is the real cause for concern as +55 damage in the early-mid phase of the game is a problem. The MKB will come in later in the game when you will have enough chances to slow him down. On the other hand if the AM goes for the Manta Style or Butterfly instead..... You can just go and kill him.
Morphling
This guy is pretty hard to catch as he can hit really hard.... I mean like ridiculously hard. Why you ask?? Because he has the insane ability to morph his strength into agility and as if that's not enough he gets bonus agility and strength from the ability of the same name, Morph. But fret not cause Underlord has come to the rescue. His atrophy aura is most devastating to this particular hero cause if a Morphling goes all agility, it will do only 58% of its original damage. But the Shotgun Combo doesn't get affected much as Atrophy doesn't reduce the stats, just the damage given by the stats.
Slark
Although Slark has Silver Edge as a core in most scenarios, if you're not the target of the first strike then all's well. Also there is always the option to use the BKB. The way Slark gets his power is by stealing attributes from enemies and converting them to agility. Which in other words is STATS!!! I don't think i need to explain what happens after that.

These are but a few heroes that Underlord does well against.

Heroes that can kick Underlord's A**

Underlord is tanky as all hell, true but if there is something that can kill tanky heroes its spells. Yes you can make a BKB or a Linken's to avoid being initiated on but think of the times when your BKB is on cooldown.... When you're farming the jungle with just above half health what if a Lion with a blink just jumps you, stuns you, hexes you, and blows you to bits. That could be the deciding moment for the game.
Let's see who all are a b***h to deal with.
Witch Doctor
Worlds most irritating stun, and a high damage ult and a spell that deals damage over time and bursts of damage based on remaining health...... Need i say anything more??
Zeus
This bloke can pretty much blow anyone up if they're not careful.
Skywrath Mage
As annoying as he is squishy, this guy can deal a lot of damage if given the right setup.
Lich
Lich with Aghanims Scepter is a force to be reckoned with. His fost blast deals damage and slows, his ulti damages and slows and bounces around to you allies.So even though you don't die your team might, and then you'll die.
Warlock
Aghanims-Refresher on this guy and he'll chew you and your team for breakfast, even if you have BKB ready.
Sniper
I don't really think i need to say much about this guy..... He's a piece of s**t any way you slice it.

There are many more, too many to name, but with the correct playstyle you can even win against them.