The Heroes in Dota 2 - An Introductory Guide for Underlord

Introduction

Dota 2 is a MOBA game that was released around eight years ago. Despite being so old, it still remains one of the best games in its genre. With over 120 different items and heroes to choose from, it's not hard to see why so many people from all over the world love this game. 

With that said, some heroes are way easier to play than others, which makes them more appealing to the general mass. If you are new to the game or want to try out something that's easy to pick up, this guide is for you. Today, we will take a look at Underlord, one of the tankiest heroes in Dota 2. Let's see what do we need to know about this awesome hero.

Basic Information about Underlord

This hero was mostly known as Pitlord in DotA, which is why you can often see people referring to it. He is a melee strength hero that's nearly exclusively played as an offlaner. Despite being weak at level one, once he gets a couple of levels, Underlord becomes a huge pain to deal with. He deals a perfect amount of damage and has a passive ability that steals damage. Sounds interesting, right? Let's take a look at his abilities and what we need to know about them:

• Firestorm is the offensive spell of this hero that's capable of doing some pretty significant damage at all stages of the game. It's an AoE spell that has a very small cast animation. Once used, it then automatically channels itself on the place that it was used. Apart from just raw damage, Firestorm burns a total of 4% of the maximum HP of the enemy. In order words, it is exceptionally effective against Strength heroes.
• Pit of Malice is an exciting disable that's only available to Underlord. When he uses this ability, it creates a big circle on the map that traps the enemies that are inside it or are going through it. Even though this spell doesn't do damage, it is still solid in team-fights because it can completely immobilize a couple of heroes at once.
• Atrophy Aura is one of the best passive abilities in Dota 2, especially for early game. In fact, we can safely say that this is the skill that makes all the difference in laning as well. Atrophy Aura gives Underlord with bonus damage whenever either a creep or a hero dies. Of course, the value for both is very different, with the creep providing 5 damage, whereas the heroes can provide up to 45. In addition to all that, Underlord also earns permanent bonus damage (much like LC's duel) when heroes die. As if that's not enough, this ability can also be upgraded with an Aghanim's  Scepter, making it even deadlier.
• Last, but not least, we have Dark Rift, an ability that's capable of saving Underlords' entire team at once. When used, the hero begins to cast it, and then it takes a couple of seconds actually to apply the spell. With it, Underlord can teleport to every single friendly location, similar to Boots of Travel. However, apart from the hero itself, he can also bring together his own team-mates if they are close to him. In other words, this can be used as a life-boat whenever things go wrong.

Items and Counters

Although many people prefer to buy damage items in order to benefit the most from the Atrophy Aura, we don't advise you to do that. Regardless of how much damage this hero does, it will be very hard actually to carry harder than the carries themselves. Instead, it's way better just to get team-fight based items. Here are some very popular choices:

• Guardian Greeves is a must for every single Underlord player because this item provides HP and mana regen when used. Needless to say, it is one of the best items when it comes down to team-fights as well.
• Assault Cuirass is another perfect item for Underlord, especially when he faces multiple physical-damage based heroes. 
• Shiva's Guard has a similar vibe like Assault, which is why many players decide actually to stack both items. The result is a hero that's very tanky and nearly impossible to die from physical damage.
• Pipe of Insight is another team-based item that's often purchased for Underlord. It works wonders against the pesky spellcasters that you can face.
• Crimson Guard is a very similar item to Pipe in terms of the costs. However, instead of providing magical resistance, this ability actually gives further protection against physical damage.
• Heaven's Halberd is another widespread item for Underlord, depending on the enemies he is facing.

Speaking of enemies, there are definitely not that many heroes that can stand their ground against this hero both during laning and afterward. However, there are a couple of heroes that are definitely a bit hard to deal with. 

The first one on our list is Slark. While it's true that Underlord crushes him during laning, a simple Silver Edge can completely change the way Slark approaches this hero. He can kite him around while stealing his essence shift. As a result, the pesky hero can easily build up his own damage until it's enough.

Another very annoying hero to play against is Ursa. The bear is in a similar state to Slark when it comes down to laning, but when it's over, she can easily run down Underlord in just a matter of seconds.