Undying: The Teamfight God

Intro to Undying

Dirge: The Undying

Hello, and welcome to my guide to one of my favourite heroes in Dota, Dirge: The Undying.

To put it simply, Undying is a GOD when it comes to teamfights. He's a solid initiator with possibly the highest survivability factor in the game, hence his well earned title of ' Undying'.

Unlike most strength heroes, make no mistake that Undying is a caster hero; his staying power in teamfights is almost completely reliant on his spell casting, and landing his Decay on as many people as he can and as often as he can.

While Undying has potential to dominate games, the whole point of playing him is to be a terrifying presence for the enemy in teamfights, the hero that makes them immediately regret their decision to start a fight, weaken them if they decide to commit, and give your team some great chasing potential should the enemy decide to run away.

In other words, Undying can make the enemy team have a VERY bad time, from beginning to end.

This is my second guide for DOTAFire, you can find my first one for Outworld Destroyer here.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Extremely powerful at all stages of the game
• Can easily secure solo kills early game, especially against squishy heroes
• Ridiculous survivability
• If played well, can survive almost any gank
• Works well with nearly every team composition

Cons

• Mana dependent. VERY mana dependent
• Needs a good team that's willing to be aggressive and take advantage his initiation
• Needs to be played with both aggression and confidence
• Almost impossible to secure solo kills with late game
• Next to useless if silenced or stunlocked in teamfights

Overall, Undying is an incredibly strong hero, one that can completely turn the tide of a teamfight. He's unique in that early game, he can go one on one with most heroes and easily get a kill with his Decay and Soul Rip, but while his solo strength drops off late game, his synergy with the rest of his team increases as he is able to severely weaken and disable enemy heroes, and tank a colossal amount of damage.

Item build

Early game

Undying's starting items are pretty standard; Tangos and a Healing Salve for survivability, a Ring of Protection which will be built into a Ring of Basilius from the side lane at your earliest convenience (for the bonus armour and early mana regen), some Iron Branches for stats, and a couple of Clarity potions so you can spam your Decay as often as you can.

As mentioned earlier, although he's a strength hero, Undying is a caster, so after you get your Boots of Speed, build them into Arcane Boots to increase your mana pool and of course replenish some mana when you (or your team) need it. You can also disassemble them down the line if you plan on building a Bloodstone later.

If you're looking to be aggressive while in lane, I highly recommend getting a Soul Ring. Undying synergizes incredibly well with this, and it amazes me that it's not in the recommended items list in game. Use the ring, and while your lane enemy's going in for a last hit, Decay then Soul Rip (the bigger the creep wave the better), you'll take a TON of their health and replenish most of the health you lost from the Soul Ring. This is what makes Undying terrifying to lane against early game, especially if you're a squishy melee carry.

NOTE: I suggest that you don't build Bloodstone unless you and your team are doing well early in the game, it's an item that snowballs with quality over time, and if you find you're not surviving long in teamfights or low on kills and assists, then it's not worth it, and it's better going for stat or protection based items like a Shiva's Guard or Pipe of Insight, both of which are cheaper and far more useful to your team.

Early to Mid game

Once you've got your Arcane Boots and Ring of Basilius I recommend you go for a Hood of Defiance, it's relatively cheap, offers some HP regen and most importantly, 30% magic resistance, which means you can shrug off damage easier in early teamfights and ganks. If you're up against a lineup that's more auto-attackers than nukers, then it maybe worth considering going for a Vanguard or start building a Shiva's Guard buying your Platemail first for the armour.

At your earliest convenience, build into a Pipe of Insight (if you went for Hood of Defiance, or your Shiva's Guard, the earlier you can offer more support than you already do in teamfights, the better. If you find that the enemy team is foolish enough to focus you in teamfights (which is quite often the case in pubs) then get a Blade Mail. It's super cheap to build, and if activated at the right time, those enemies will regret throwing all those nukes on you as you heal a chunk of your health with Soul Rip

Late game

Items for Undying late game tend to be all situational. If your team's been doing well, then you shouldn't necessarily be in dire need of them, however, if your game goes past the 40-50 minute mark and your teams keep clashing, then you need to focus on what makes you both survivable, and what makes you a greater asset to your team. A Heart of Tarrasque will be useful if your're up against a nuke heavy line-up, but if you can't afford that, a Black King Bar would suffice. The only problem there would be that the enemy will throw those nukes on your teammates, and if you're playing with a squishy carry who's dishing out the DPS, this won't be good for them (unless they also have a BKB). Get a Heart of Tarrasque and thanks to your Decay you'll be able to withstand the damage.

Aghanim's Scepter will improve your teammate's damage amplification and increase how much you're healed upon an enemy's death, and is relatively cheap, but if you're up against some well farmed auto-attackers, it may be worth going for an Assault Curi***. It'll help you and your team withstand the damage, and reduce the enemy's armour in the process.

Finally, you may also want to consider a Scythe of Vyse, it'll increase your mana pool, give you some excellent mana regen, and of course its invaluable Hex, which can be useful if you need to shut someone down for those 3.5 crucial seconds.

Game Stages and Play Style

Early game

Undying is a pretty special hero in that he works well in most lanes. In the easy lane he can get some nice early farm and maybe get a couple of early kills should he be with someone with a decent early nuke, or if his enemy's just plain careless. In the hard lane, he can lay down some great harassment against squishy carries with his Decay and Soul Rip. In mid, he's okay, so long as he's against a squishy hero and controls the lane well, but if you have a hero on your team that's a better ganker, don't take it from them.

Don't lane Undying as a support, try and get those last hits, and secure a kill if you can. Don't let your mana drain to the point of not being able to cast anything though, especially your Tombstone. If your mid starts ganking, you need to be ready to lay it down so it can make escaping for the heroes in lane extremely difficult.

Mid game

By the time your team starts roaming and ganking, it's best for you to be with them; your ultimate Flesh Golem will weaken enemies significantly, and your Tombstone will slow down heroes with low health to a crawl. Placement of your Tombstone can be tricky to be effective, but to keep it simple, when you see an enemy, you need to think one step ahead of them. If they're on low health and you and an ally can handle them with relative ease, then it's probably best to save it. It's got a pretty high cooldown of 60 seconds, and a relatively high mana cost. However, if they're high/full health and you want to secure the kill, use it. It's generally best to place it somewhere close to them (but not next to them) and near their most logical escape route. This gives it the longest opportunity to spawn enough zombies to chase them down and slow them (and in some cases, secure the kill, should they have extremely low health. If your target is particularly high in HP, then it may be worth using Flesh Golem too, in order to weaken them further and slow them down that little bit more.

Late game and teamfighting

By late game, your ability to secure solo kills drops off quite a bit, but your team synergy goes through the roof, and by this time, this will be happening regularly. If there are any stragglers trying to push lanes out, try and lend them a hand to kill them, but once it comes time for you and your team to push, you need to be there on the frontline being ready to make the enemy's decision to fight you one they immediately regret.

When a teamfight starts, ALWAYS start off by dropping Tombstone in a spot that has the most heroes in its radius (even if it means it's in the middle of it, then use your Flesh Golem. When your team goes in with you, keep getting as close as you can to the enemy who poses the biggest threat, because your aura will both amplify the damage they take and slow them down. As you fight keep spamming your Decay as soon as it's off cooldown, it's extremely spammable with a tiny four second cooldown and still extremely effective. With each cast though, try to get as many heroes in the AoE of the spell as possible, as you'll sap strength from both of them, and the more strength you have in a teamfight, the longer you'll last.

As for your Decay, this has a couple of uses; if you find you're being quickly focused down or nuked in teamfights, you can cast it on yourself in order to heal you, but it's best used when surrounded by creeps, enemies, or even the zombies that fall from your Tombstone. You can also use this to heal a hero in dire need. It can also be used in an offensive capacity. Remember how I said earlier that the lower health an enemy is, the slower they'll go? Well if you go after one of these guys being harassed by a group of your zombies, it'll hurt them a ton.

In Summary...

As mentioned many times, Undying is a teamfight god, and a lingering threat through the entire game. Build him tanky, and make sure he has a substantial mana pool, and you'll do well throughout. Most importantly though, do NOT play him if you're too afraid to throw yourself into the heart of the action before anyone else; people forget that Dota is partly a psychological game, and if your enemy recognises your aggression, they'll act defensively, and exploiting your enemy's cowardice is extremely effective with Undying.

But it's not all about you; if you have a team that thinks you throwing your Tombstone down is a sign that you're helping them escape so they can make a safe get away, then they are the ones squandering Undying's potential. If your team's in a good position to fight, tell them that you're ready to go in, and they have to follow suit. Too many games with Undying are lost because of teams allowing him to go in alone, so make sure they know what you intend to do when you do it.

Coming soon...

• Friends and foes
• Alternate builds