Abyssal Underlord Guide: Be prepared for what you will face tomorrow
A new hero will be added to the client later today, the Abyssal Underlord. Here's a rundown of his spells and abilities, as well as some tips for those of you who want to give him a go!
The Abyssal Underlord will arrive soon, time to get prepared for your pubs!
General observations
Abyssal Underlord is a utility hero who specialises in AOE spells. He is also a strength hero with a base strength of 25, giving him the same starting hp as Treant Protector of 700 hp. Although his starting damage is not as lethal as Treant Protector, it is still a modest 62-68. Meanwhile, his movement speed is 305, just slightly slower than Earthshaker at 310.
Where do I play him?
Abyssal Underlord is a strong initiator, who could adapt to several roles and in dota 1 was played as a mid/offlaner, however his spells have now been altered. In Dota 2 you could run Underlord as a solo offlaner early on in order to quickly reach level six and obtain his mass teleport ultimate Dark Rift, as a support hero, or as a mid against a melee hero due to his damage reduction Atrophy Aura.
His agility gain is poor and his skills would most likely not make him an effective carry. Aside from his Aura, neither of his basic spells scale well into the late game and considering his ultimate has a 130 second cooldown at all levels it's not ideal. Abyssal Underlord will most likely be best suited to a 3-4 position role.
Spells
"Calls down waves of fire that damage enemy units in the target area, and continues to burn them for additional damage over time."
Firestorm is an area-of-effect spell that sends down 6 waves of fire at 1 second intervals. It takes 0.6 seconds to cast, with 25/40/55/70 of Magic Damage per wave. If you remain in the AOE then you also incur additional burn damage (5/10/15/20 p/s).
Sounds brilliant and as long as you can actually keep them still you could do up to 185/310/435/560 total damage before reductions. The area of effect is 400 so this might not be great out in the open but inside the jungle and on ramps, it's going to be awesome! ALSO, if you've skilled Atrophy Aura using this on a creep wave or jungle stack will allow you to boost Underlord's right click damage significantly. (5 additional damage per non-hero death) in a 900 radius. Early game this should be your go-to spell.
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.
At first glance Pit of Malice looks terrible as the damage it would deal is pathetic aside from in the very early stages of the game. A fixed 100 damage at all levels makes it sounds like an awful spell, not to mention the spell radius is "only" 275 (for context Lina's Light Strike Array is 225). Pit of Malice also can only disable a hero once per cast.
HOWEVER, Pit of Malice which lasts seven seconds has a whole host of additional disable features that will make a great spell to deal with pesky heroes (before they get their BKB obviously):
1) Pit of Malice reveals invisible units
2) Pit of Malice stops channeling spells (and with a cast range of 750 that's quite good)
3) Pit of Malice disables Blink (Queen of Pain and Antimage), Charge of Darkness, Phase Shift (ouch), Tricks of the Trade AND Blink Dagger! Yes, you read that right, BLINK DAGGER.
Nearby enemy units are weakened, losing a portion of their base damage. If it dies while under this effect, Underlord gains bonus damage.
Atrophy Aura is easily Underlord's best spell, and it has a 900 radius around the hero. The Aura's primary function is a 18%/26%/34%/42% reduction in base attack damage for any enemy unit in the area of effect, which is incredibly good.
Its second function is a buff to the hero itself, granting bonus damage to Underlord if any hero or creep dies while under the influence of the Aura. For creeps the damage increase is only +5, but for heroes it scales with each level in the spell: 30/35/40/45.
The duration of the buff also depends on the level of the spell: 25/40/55/70. This makes the spell not only extremely good in helping push lanes, but also in allowing the Underlord to becoming significantly more powerful if you can live through the fight.
To give an example, if you had Atrophy Aura level 2 and three enemy heroes died while in the AOE, you would gain over 100 damage for 40 seconds. Goodbye enemy towers. N.B. Illusions and clones such as Meepos however, do not count towards unit kills.
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.
In theory this spell is incredibly overpowered but in practise it's pretty uninspiring due to the restrictions. Although the description says short delay, the cast time of Dark Rift at level 1 is 5 seconds and it is a chanelling spell. If Underlord or the hero/unit he is travelling dies, the spell is cancelled and goes on cooldown.
The cooldown of the spell at all levels is 130, meaning it unfortunately does not reduce CD like Wraith King's ultimate for example. Dark Rift can teleport invulerable units and clones but not summons, creeps, illusions or invisible units.
At level 2 the cast delay is 4 seconds and at level 3 it is 3 seconds. The spell itself takes 0.6 seconds to cast, and during the window between the cast and the spell actually happening you are given a skill "cancel Dark Rift" if you suddenly decide it's a bad idea. However, even if you cancel the spell still goes on cooldown. If used in combination with summon heroes it might be good, but on its own it seems like too much could go wrong with this ultimate. (See Tip #3 below).
- Consider rushing Boots of Travel or buying a lot of Teleport Scrolls. If you're going for an agressive playstyle then you will have skilled his Aura over Firestorm and Pit of Malice, hence his mana pool should be good enough to not need Arcane Boots, and BoTS allow you to teleport around the map to grab your team-mates for a ride in your Dark Rift ultimate.
If that's not your cup of tea, then you will need to always carry a TP scroll after level 6, but you should be doing that anyway right? It's important to remember that his ultimate at level 1 takes 5 seconds to cast and that it does not teleport invisible units (so you can't smoke up and tp in your team-mates, sorry).
- If you do not want to push the lanes do not skill Atrophy Aura. As the Aura also works on enemy lane creeps and not just enemy heroes, you may find yourself inadvertently pushing out the lanes. Whereas if you find yourself engaging in a lot of early fights, it might be worth skilling as the damage reduction is pretty significant (18%/26%/34%/42% remember?).
- Dark Rift on its own is not particularly overpowered although it does sound sick. Due to the mass teleport ability only working on friendly creeps or buildings, it's essentially Boots of Travel but for your entire team. To boost its effectiveness you should try to recruit the services of a hero that can control creeps (like Chen) or who has very mobile summoned unit(s) like Broodmother's Spiders, Lycan's Wolves or Beastmaster's Hawk.
- As Firestorm and Pit of Malice are both AOE spells, any hero that has an AOE ultimate that disables or stuns enemies is a godsend. Heroes ultimates that could work well are Enigma's Blackhole, Magnus' Reverse Polarity or Tidehunter's Ravage. Disruptor's Kinetic Field (340 radius) also fits perfectly around both spells.
- Atrophy Aura is a substantial damage reduction for enemy heroes who use stat based items such as Drow Ranger. Also heroes like Slark and Morphling who rely on stat items such as Eye of Skadi, Sange and Yasha or Ethereal Blade will suffer greatly from the impact of Atrophy Aura, making the Underlord a worthy foe.
However, it does not reduce damage of non-stat based item (e.g. an item that says grants + X damage) such as Battle Fury or Monkey King Bar. Therefore, Underlord is not effective versus Phantom Assassin or Juggernaut who often pick up these items. Don't be fooled into thinking Atrophy Aura will reduce all damage, and keep an eye on what heroes and items your enemies have.
- Camps are your friends, epecially stacked camps . Despite the damage bonus of Atrophy Aura being only +5 for creeps at all levels, clearing out a stacked jungle stack could easily net you +40 or +50 damage without having to worry about enemy fire. You will probably need to skill Firestorm though, as the 100 damage Pit of Malice dishes out is not going to cut it. Ideally get your position 5 to do the stacking, you need to be in lane.
Feel free to submit YOUR tips for fellow gamers in the comments
Things to be mindful of
Abyssal Underlord has a lot of potential to lock down an area of the battlefield, but he does not possess a stun and his only escape is his ultimate. Because of this it might make sense to invest in a Force Staff to buff his mana pool but also to allow him to escape AND get close enough to use Pit of Malice on that troublesome Witch Doctor. Abyssal Underlord also has fairly low base armour, so don't get carried away with all your bonus damage from Atrophy Aura.
If you do not invest into sustainability items that allow you to stay in the fight as long as possible to make the most use of Atrophy Aura, you may well find yourself just a drive-by tourist in fights. Items such as Vanguard and Drums of Endurance will help you terrorise your enemies as long as possible. If you somehow reach late game a Heart of Tarrasque would be a nice addition.
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