Vrogros the Underlord Guide
The 112th and final hero has now been ported over from the original DOTA.
Underlord (aka Pitlord) is somewhat of a durable support, with quite an amount of crowd control. That makes him out to be a good offlaner, though you can lane him pretty much anywhere depending on your choice. Seems like his role isn’t quite set in stone yet.
I will discuss his skill-set, his possible roles, pub trends, and what seem to be the most optimal builds at this early stage.
Underlord Skills
Firestorm
“Calls down waves of fire that damage enemy units in the target area, and continues to burn them for additional damage over time.”
- Total duration of Firestorm is 7 seconds and can deal up to 185/310/435/560 total damage (before reductions) in a 400 AoE. Has a pretty good cast range of 750, and would be his main source of AoE damage
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 his main disable, has the same cast range and duration as Firestorm plus an AoE of 275 and there you have a combo. Reveals invisible units inside the Pit for the duration, disables channeling spells (though you can start channeling after the initial disable), and disables mobility spells like Blink Dagger, QoP’s/AM’s Blinks, Phase Shift, Teleportation, etc.
Atrophy Aura
“Nearby enemy units are weakened, losing a portion of their base damage. If it dies while under this effect, Underlord gains bonus damage.”
- The aura has an AoE of 900, decreases only a percentage of base damage (raw bonus damage from items will not be affected)
- This is what makes Underlord a potent mid (even a carry by some, though I disagree). Overall the passive isn’t that great as it seems to be, and doesn’t fit the rest of his skillset that much
- Note that his weapon glows more the more damage he gained with the passive (click for an example)
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 any time 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.”
- His signature spell. You want Io’s Relocate on steroids? Here you go. You want another hero for r[A]t Doto? Here you go.
- Has a global cast range, 450 radius, cooldown of 130/120/110 and a teleport delay of 5/4/3 seconds
- It may not seem as flexible as Relocate (due to restrictions, being able to teleport only to allied creeps/heroes and buildings) but it has much more possibilities to be a game deciding one.
- Always keep in mind Dark Rift goes on cooldown if you cancel it during cast so only do it when you are sure about it, 2 minutes of cooldown is quite a bit.
Loot Market Suggested Item Build for Underlord
I’m only going to cover offlane as I find it best suited for Underlord, but feel free to try out any other build you like.
Starting items:
Early game:
Core items:
Situational items:
Luxury items:
You want to solve your mana problems as soon as possible and an occasional rotation to the nearest camp should be much nicer with an Iron Talon.
Your earliest choices are going to be:
- Am I purchasing a Bottle? If you intend to rotate a lot then yes, but keep in mind Underlord is not an amazing ganker. Your rotations will probably be for an early push.
- Am I upgrading Arcane Boots into Guardian Greaves or going for Boots of Travel? Work this out with your allies, but if you do a lot of 5 man pushes I’d take Guardian Greaves.
Then later on go with the flow, all of the items I listed excel at sticking with your team and pushing.
Few examples:
- Do we have a lot of melee heroes / summons? Do we have Vladimir’s Offering? If not, get it.
- The enemy team is struggling with mobility in teamfights (e.g. they have an Ursa or similar)? – Get Shiva’s Guard.
- Their Disco Cow is destroying us? Get a Pipe.
Suggested Underlord Skill Builds
There are two skill builds for Underlord. They vary depending on your offlane situation.
- “I can stay at range and get some exp/gold” build:
- “Too dangerous, I need to leave the lane and go jungle” build
Most of the times you want to start off with Pit of Malice on level 1, then, depending on your lane on top, decide your next move. Can you stay in the lane and get experience and some last hits with Firestorm? Go with build one. If not, go with the second build.
Aura is great once you hit the woods. Jungling Underlord isn’t that hard, especially with Iron Talon and a couple of levels.
It will be interesting to see how Underlord’s pub trends change and if he will reach competitive play (I mean if Techies did it…anyone can). Happy Pitlording everyone!