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Tango
Stout Shield
Gauntlets of Strength
ClarityClarity
Bracer
Urn of Shadows
Phase Boots
Power Treads
Arcane Boots
Vanguard
Drum of Endurance
Necronomicon
Crimson Guard
Heart of Tarrasque
Vladmir's Offering
Shiva's Guard
Armlet of Mordiggian
Blade Mail
Boots of Travel
Ghost Scepter
Vladmir's Offering
Heaven's Halberd
Linken's Sphere
Radiance
Observer Ward
Sentry Ward
Smoke of Deceit
Town Portal Scroll
Gem of True Sight
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Hey everybody. My name is Justinian, and I'm a dedicated Dota player of some 4 years experience. At long last, the final Dota 1 hero is here. I wrote this guide a long *** time ago in preparation for what I thought would be a speedy launch of one of my favorite Dota 2 heroes...Better late than never, I suppose. As a result, this guide will likely need some shuffling about as new items are taken into consideration, tweaks are made to the character, and so on. But for now, please enjoy this guide to UNDERLORD.
Underlord is a Dire Strength Hero whose role is, quite simply, a teamfight initiator. He is naturally tanky thanks to his decent 2.6 Strength gain, and all his skills, in some way, benefit the team most in teamfights. If you enjoy teamfighters like Sand King, Tidehunter, or Elder Titan, Underlord is someone you'll want to pick up and try.
FIRESTORM
ALL LVLS: 14 Second CD, 750 Cast Range, 400 AOE, 2 DoT Duration
LVL 1: 100 Mana, 25 DMG, 5 DPS
LVL 2: 110 Mana, 40 DMG, 10 DPS
LVL 3: 120 Mana, 55 DMG, 15 DPS
LVL 4: 130 Mana, 70 DMG, 20 DPS
So, how this works is Underlord CALLS DOWN THE FIRE! Specifically, he summons 6 waves of fire in the AOE. The waves themselves come one per second, so that's six seconds of coverage. Getting hit by a wave deals initial damage and deals damage per second for 2 seconds. The duration is refreshed every time the Firestorm hits an enemy. Now if you do the math, if an enemy stays in the Firestorm AOE the entire duration, they will take about 580 Magical damage, not taking into consideration magic resistance. This ability drops off hard late game, as you would probably expect, but it's great for farming!
PIT OF MALICE
ALL LVLS: 800 Cast Range, 275 AOE, 100 DMG and Ensare in its AOE, 7 Sec Duration
LVL 1: 100 Mana, 24 CD, 1 Sec Duration
LVL 2: 115 Mana, 21 CD, 1.5 Sec Duration
LVL 3: 130 Mana, 18 CD, 2 Sec Duration
LVL 4: 145 Mana, 15 CD, 2.5 Sec Duration
Naturally the Pit (Abyssal Under)Lord can summon a pit! When cast, all enemy units in its AOE are ensnared and damaged for 100 magical. As you'd expect, the real benefits of this spell come from the large AOE and the impressive qualities of Entanglement: It goes through magic immunity, prevents invisibility, and blocks all forms of blinking. a target does not have to be in the AOE when it activates, but a target can only be affected once. This spell makes Pit Lord a deadly force in team fights, and it's not even his ultimate! As a final note, it synergizes quite well with his Firestorm.
ATROPHY AURA
ALL LVLS: 900 AOE, 5 Self DMG Buff, 30 Allied Hero DMG Buff
LVL 1: 30 Sec Buff Duration, 18% DMG Reduction
LVL 2: 35 Sec Buff Duration, 26% DMG Reduction
LVL 3: 40 Sec Buff Duration, 34% DMG Reduction
LVL 4: 45 Sec Buff Duration, 42% DMG Reduction
Underlord's only passive ability, Atrophy Aura quite simply reduces the damage of all enemies in a 900 AOE. This essentially means Underlord does not even have to cast his abilities to be an extremely powerful presence in teamfights. What's more, the skill has an incredibly useful side benefit, that, if your team utilizes it correctly, can allow for massive turnarounds or easy picking off of a retreating force. Every single time an enemy dies in the AOE, you gain damage that stacks with every death and lasts longer and longer with every level. 5 Damage for enemy creeps, but heroes grant 30. Remember that the Damage buff is better on your allies than it is on you, so always make sure you are at the center of fights so that all allies will benefit and all enemies will suffer! Something I should mention is that Dotafire has not updated this skill. It used to be a different ability called Explusion, which was AWESOME, but it was removed in favor of this one. So, don't get confused, please.
DARK RIFT
ALL LVLS: 130 Sec CD, 450 AOE
LVL 1: 75 Mana, 6 Sec Delay
LVL 2: 150 Mana, 5 Sec Delay
LVL 3: 225 Mana, 4 Sec Delay
This ability, while not a game changing nuke, is still very much a game changer. Basically, Dark Rift is a Boots of Travel FOR YOUR WHOLE TEAM. Anyone standing in the AOE after the delay is up will get teleported to the target location, which can be a building, creep, or base. As you can imagine, this group teleport lends itself to easy base/tower defense as well as pushing towers or even base racing, so long as your TEAM LISTENS TO YOU AND TELEPORTS WITH YOU. This ult demands that you be attentive, and communicate with your team on when to use it, and quite frankly it should never really be off cooldown. One last thing to note: If you die before it's done, Dark Rift will not activate, and cancelling it will still activate the cooldown.
Items are a bit suspect on Underlord due to his ability's own usefulness. Things to consider buying are:
Radiance: Combined with Atrophy Aura, Radiance can be an extremely potent combination that will allow you to effectively carry with the best of them. Not my cup of tea, but go for it if you think you've got what it takes.
Crimson Guard: Or alternatively Pipe of Insight. Depending on what the enemy team leans more towards in terms of Damage type, these two items are a godsend and of course, they will keep you alive longer so you can collect more damage and win fights.
Drum of Endurance: If no one else is gonna buy it, why not you?
The Boot Question: What kind of boots you pick up is entirely situational. If you think you can try some carry build with Underlord, you cant go wrong with Power Treads. Most likely, you will be going with Phase Boots, so you can quickly get to where you need to go. Boots of Travel is an optimal choice late game and makes you incredibly mobile. Arcane Boots will let you spam Firestorm early, and naturally let you do a find job of supporting.
Urn of Shadows: If you wish to go all out with supporting, and there's no one on your team that would otherwise pick it up (Dazzle, Huskar, etc.), Urn is a good choice for you. The mana regen and strength gain synergizes nicely with your abilities.
Necronomicon: Necronomicon is, in my humble opinion, always a good pick up. It's relatively cheap in terms of components, and the combined damage and mana burn of your creeps with true sight at level 3 makes it all kinds of useful.
Heart of Tarrasque: All Strength heroes can benefit from a Heart...If you have the money to get one
Black King Bar: Always good to have, especially if the enemy has lots of casters that could stop you from doing what you do best.
Shiva's Guard: Always a wonderful item to get. Tons of armor and the speed debuff on enemies goes well with your Atrophy Aura.
Assault Cuirass: Being an Aura tank is great. After all, if you carry this into battle your carry can fill the slot that this would normally go with something else.
Blademail: What tank doesn't need a Blademail? More to the point, this will either make stupid enemies die on you, or smart enemies consider not attacking you, thus keeping you alive and your team happy.
Ghost Scepter: Attack heavy heroes like Sniper won't be able to do much if you have a Ghost Scepter at the ready, so keep it in mind when dealing with him and his ilk.
Heaven's Halberd: Rather than just make yourself unable to be hit, you could prevent the enemy from hitting anyone altogether! Heaven's Halberd can make you that much more of a team player as a result.
Vladimir's Offering: Another ideal aura to add to your already sick nasty aura.
Lastly,
Always Carry a Tp Scroll! They're cheaper than ever before!
FRIENDS:
: Chen can set up a nasty ultimate for you, by controlling and placing a creep in an ideal location for you and the team to Dark Rift.
: Brood's Spiderlings are always invisible so long as they are in the web, which makes them ideal creeps to Dark Rift on.
: This one's sorta ancillary, but I stand by the notion that demons gotta stick together! In reality, this is just because your auras are very nice together.
: Lycan gets a special mention on this list for one very important reason: Invisible wolves. A creep that cannot be seen does not show the particle effect for an incoming Dark Rift to the enemy. Consequently, you can set up some truly completely unexpected ganks with Lycan's wolves.
ENEMIES:
Counter-Initiation and vision are your main drawbacks as Underlord. Be wary of picking him if these guys are in the enemy lineup.
: If you are not mindful of where Tide is when you Dark Rift, you just might teleport you and anyone with you directly into a Ravage-related death. This warning applies to pretty much anyone with a nasty AoE ult, like Earthshaker or Enigma.
: You have alot of health, and that makes Lifestealer alot better at killing you. He might be inclined to go after you first with all the usefulness you bring to the party.
: Dark Rift relies on some manner of surprise. And Zeus ruins surprises with his ult. Need I say more?
: More or less, the same reason Zeus is a problem.
EARLY GAME:
Underlord can feasibly lane in any lane. You can mid, but I recommend you only do so if no one else can. Underlord can be played as a safe lane support, as I mentioned earlier. Most likely, due to your durability, you will be in the offlane, probably alone. Ideally, you will max Firestorm first and use it to get the last hits you need while staying safe. You could conceivably get an early level in your Aura, but this is only for cases where the enemy is harassing you down very hard and you need their damage cut down a peg. The problem with this is that it will push the lane, since the enemy creeps are also affected by Atrophy, so use caution. Getting a level in Pit of Malice right away is also a good idea, as it can allow for easy escapes or prevent early ganks from affecting you much if you can aim it correctly. I urge you, however, to refrain from using both regularly, as your mana pool is piss poor even for a Strength hero. Carry a Clarity or two and regularly spam Firestorm if you are really hard pressed, but don't just fire it off to harass. Enemies can easily walk out of the AOE before taking too much heat (Haha), and Pit entangles for too little time at starting levels. Once you get level 6, which should be rather quickly if you are in a solo suicide position, begin coordinating with your team.
DARK RIFTING PROPERLY:
You should get at least 2 others if you intend to gank with Dark Rift, as you lack serious nuking power. When doing this, you should initiate with your Pit, as this will stop any form of blinking or teleportation, as well as go through any magic immunity they could have (Omniknight, Lifestealer, etc.). If you intend to use Dark Rift to escape a bad teamfight, make sure you stay alive long enough to use it! Avoid direct combat while making sure that all your teammates are within the AOE; This might sound difficult, but the last thing you want is for teammates to get pissed off at you for not saving them. Make sure to teleport to a building in solid health or a creep not under fire, because if it is killed, Dark Rift WILL be cancelled. NEVER DARK RIFT INTO UNCERTAINTY. This is where wards really come in handy. You should be buying them if no one else. They are super cheap and will make Dark Rift attacks much more effective. I also cannot stress enough the usefulness of having controlled creeps to Dark Rift wherever you want rather than just on the creep lanes, or back to base.
MID GAME:
Barring the worst, you should by this point have landed several successful ganks or power pushes. Congratulations. Continue to keep doing that. Always travel with someone else; Tanky as you might be, you are not very effective on your own. Your spells work best when your allies can follow up. Your mid game should consist of trying to put as much pressure on the enemy as possible, by pushing hard with Firestorm, ganking with Pit of Malice and Atrophy, and of course, teamfighting with all the above and Dark Rift and Atrophy Aura.
LATE GAME/END GAME:
Now you pretty much become an ult walker. Prepare at any time for a base rush, or emergency team teleport. You are a high priority target, so stay alive and get your teammates where they need to be. You may be strong, but the game is now firmly in the hands of your carry. One good Dark Rift could win it all, so always be vigilant and ALIVE.
That's about all I have for now. This has been updated as of Underlord's official release day, and will be continuously update by me whenever it needs to. I hope you like it, I hope it helps, and I hope that if you have something to add or discuss, you'll do so. Constructive criticism and analysis are always welcome.
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