That’s it. It’s done. All heroes from the original Warcraft III Dota have now been ported to Dota 2. We can finally rest easy, and it only took 5 years. The final hero, the Pit Lord, was unveiled during the All-Star match at this year’s Dota 2 International following the release of Techies in 2014 which was done under similar pretense.
The Underlord, as he is now called, was hinted at a few months ago during the Legion Commander short comic, and today he arrives for your playing pleasure. What will he add to the game? Well, besides looking like Godzilla, the Underlord has a unique set of abilities which will make the game extremely interesting, especially in these first few weeks. Let’s take a close look.
“Conjure waves of abyssal flame to immolate enemies held paralyzed in your spiteful grip. Feast upon the carnage of battle, gaining strength as foes perish around you, their attacks diminished by your very presence. Tear a rift in reality to teleport yourself and your teammates across the map, delivering bloody retribution to any who would defy the will of Vrogros the Underlord.”
Sticking with rich Dota 2 lore, Underlord brings his own story to the game, alongside familiar abilities seen throughout his reign in Dota 1. Utilization of Underlord will be left to the professionals, but his unique set of abilities do lend towards a more disabler/support hero being able to do a lot of damage with a combination of his abilities. He also adds a ton of mobility with his ultimate, Dark Rift, which requires some further explanation.
Firestorm
“Calls down waves of fire that damage enemy units in the target area, burning for additional damage over time.”
This Area of Effect (AoE) spell is great for clearing waves, bullying enemies, and farming up a storm early on in the game. It scales in damage and AoE as you level up and becomes an absolute annoyance in late game team fights as Fire rains from the sky.
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 spell can be used as a combination with Firestorm as it disables units for a short period of time, while damaging them. Each unit caught in, or entering the Pit of Malice, will be disabled once, making the ability great for zoning out enemies.
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 passive ability is the bread and butter of Underlord. Combined with the above mentioned abilities, Underlord gains a short damage buff when units die under the effects of the aura. This beefs up his damage making the combination of Firestorm and Pit of Malice deadly when attacking heroes or clearing creep waves.
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.”
This is where you’ll have the most fun with Underlord, teleporting your team around to friendly units. The spell is great for late game pushes, adds a ton of mobility, and allows you keep pushing and annoying the enemy team with your clearing capabilities.
UI Updates
There are also a number of UI updates with the latest patch which make the game a whole lot prettier. The end game overview scoreboard got spruced up, as well as a statistics page allowing you to compare against your teammates.
Overview
Survey the performances of each team’s lineup on the Overview screen. Click on an individual hero for a detailed analysis of their play style in the match and how it compares to that player’s averages on the hero. Then, bring up an opposing hero to see how they rate head-to-head. You can even scroll through each hero’s item progression by game time, and peruse the digital items they wore into battle.
Scoreboard
The Scoreboard hosts the traditional post-match info such as kills, net worth, inventory items, last hits, and more. Now you can also see how many times each player killed an enemy hero, what support items and gold each teammate contributed to the cause, and which build order everyone selected when leveling up their abilities.
Graphs
Track the trends and shifts of each game with the Team XP and Net Worth graphs; see which players dominated the race for gold and XP in the Player Net Worth and Player Level graphs; and find out when important items came into play with the Player Items timeline. You can select or deselect individual players and hover over the graph to chart their respective courses towards victory or defeat.
The Dark Rift patch offers some much needed changes to Dota 2, including the addition of a new hero, but most important is the attractive new UI.
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Last Updated: August 24, 2016
