Uncle Underlord - Road to Victory (All roles)

Guide Introduction

Hey guys,
Strider here. Welcome to my guide to Dota 2‘s latest hero, Underlord.
It's based on on the newest update 6.88d, focuses on everything you have to know about Underlord and intended for both new Dota 2 players and experienced ones.
I tried to prevent it from being a wall of text, I'm sure you will find it helpful.

New to Dota 2? Visit Dota 2 Wiki. Everything you have to know about Dota 2 is there.

Wondering how I formatted this guide? You can find it here.

English is not my native language, so I apologize for any mistakes. Feel free to correct any grammatical error.
Let's get started!

Hero Introduction

Underlord, also known as Pit lord, is a melee durable hero with powerful skills.
He can trap his enemies at once, cast his rain fire on them, and continue to burn them for 2 seconds.
With a 900 range aura, in case of dying an enemy unit he temporarily gains 5 bonus damage and at least 30 for heroes.
His ultimate skill allows him to transport his allies and himself to another battle field that makes him a powerful hero with a great escape mechanism.
He is not the kind of guy you want to be laning against.

Role

His roles are: Support - Nuker - Disabler - Durable and Escape.

Despite of mentioned roles, people like to play the role Carry.
Well, It's not really recommended but you can play this role when your team needs another carry or there is no carry in your team.

- What's the best role for Underlord?
- Needless to say, Durable.

There are many tank items that fits this hero very well and that's why this role is the best one for him.

- Which lane is the best lane for Underlord?
- Offlane.

Specially if you go dual.
You're survivability will be increased and enemy carry's farming benefit will be decreased.

Pros / Cons

Pros:
[ + ] Tanky hero
[ + ] Large scale abilities
[ + ] Great escape and initiation mechanism
[ + ] Not item dependent
[ + ] Strong versus pushes

Cons:
[ - ] Low base mana pool
[ - ] Slow attack speed
[ - ] Delay on casting ultimate
[ - ] High ultimate cool down time

Skills

>>>> Video <<<<

Items

Starting/Early game items:

• Tango helps you to stay in lane, doesn't matter if you're playing offlane or support.
• Clarity, Enchanted Mango and Soul Ring helps you with your low mana.
• Circlet and Iron Branch helps you with your stats and later they can be built into Magic Wand.
• Boots of Speed is a must, specially when you're ganking.
• Ring of Basilius makes you slightly tankier and significantly increases your mana regen.

Core items:

Core items are different from role to role but the main core items are:

• Power Treads, Vladmir's Offering and Vanguard.

Luxury and Late game:

• Assault Cuirass grants you and your team attack speed and armor.
• Abyssal Blade makes you tanky and grants you damage and stun.
• Radiance is great for teamfights and pushes.
• Shiva's Guard is good for pushes and helps you with your mana pool.
• Guardian Greaves is a great item when you're playing support.
• Crimson Guard grants you and your team damage block and helps you to stay longer in teamfights.
• Boots of Travel provides global mobility.

Situational items:

• Blink Dagger is a great item for initiating with Pit of Malice.
• Necronomicon helps you with pushes.
• Black King Bar is great when you're facing silencers, nukers and disablers.
• Pipe of Insight reduces magic damage and make you and your team more durable.
• Heart of Tarrasque gives you great durability.

Not recommended items:

• Bloodstone: you don't need that high mana regeneration.
• Butterfly: you're not an agility hero.

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Provides attack speed, tankiness and the ability to switch attributes. Switching treads between Strength and Intelligence on Underlord is important, because Firestorm and Pit of Malice use a lot of mana.

Good choice when solo offlaning. It greatly improves Underlord's survivability and mobility. The passive HP regen allows him to keep his HP at full, reducing the need to return to base.

Provide Underlord with both a nice speed boost and extra damage. The Phase ability will help him chase enemy heroes and it's even good for escaping. I suggest you to buy this if you're playing as a ganker.

I don't recommended it. But when you're playing as position 4 or 5 support, which is not the ideal role for Underlord, you have no other choices but to get this. Don't forget to complete it to Guardian Greaves later.

As mentioned earlier, provides global mobility and completing it to Upgraded Boots of Travel gives you even greater mobility. I suggest you to buy this in late game, after you have bought all your main cores and you're tanky enough to survive teamfights. Consider carrying enough Town Portal Scroll before buying Boots of Travel.

Lifesteal, armor, damage and mana regen as well as survivability for you and your team. You're a good aura carrier, but get this item only when your team really needs it. For example if you have someone like Treant Protector in your team, let him buy such items.

One of the best cores to have. Especially if playing against many physical damage heroes like Juggernaut or Spectre. Grants you durability as well as damage block. Later upgrade it to Crimson Guard to help the whole team with damage block shield.

Get this item if someone like Clinkz, Lina or Phantom Assassin is dealing a lot of damage. Make sure you're tanky enough to make full use out of it. Purchasing a Vanguard will help you in this case. Otherwise you may die before your enemy.

I've found this item quite useful. It gives Underlord durability, helps him with his low mana and the scaling mana regen helps him to maintain casting his spells. If the enemy team has a variety of targeting spells, spells like: Hex, Laguna Blade or Reaper's Scythe, you can get this item in order to make them think twice before casting any spells on you or your team.

A strong teamfight item that greatly increases Underlord's armor and attack speed. Gives you both offensive and defensive power. The extra armor makes you much tankier and it provides great auras for your team.

Gives a reliable stun as well as good survivability. If you want to play semi-carry somehow, it's a good option. Otherwise Crimson Guard is a better choice to complete the Vanguard with it.

Provides Underlord with a great amount of armor for durability, and intelligence for increasing the size of his mana pool, that allows him to cast spells much more frequently. Its active ability can be used to hold enemies more time in the target area of Firestorm.

It could be a great item if you get it early in the game after you're tanky enough. It provides excellent damage and is great for teamfights. The extra evasion make Underlord even more durable.

An item any team should have one of if there are dangerous nukers or casters like Crystal Maiden, Earthshaker or Lion on the enemy team. It grants you spell resistance and big HP regerenation.

Gives Underlord strong resistance against physical damage. The armor and evasion makes him harder to kill in fights. It can be used on both enemies and allies. When cast on an ally it grants them 10 armor and 25% evasion. When cast on an enemy it removes 10 of their armor and blinds them, causing them to miss 25% of their attacks. Use it wisely.

Depending on the situation, Blade Mail may would be better to get. But if you're facing so many nukers and disablers whom brought you to their knees, consider buying Black King Bar instead.

Though giving stats as well as boosting HP and mana regen, It's a highly situational item. With items like Lotus Orb or Solar Crest which grants you a better durability, you really don't need Linken's Sphere.

Greatly increases Underlord's health and provides base damage. Not only making you a harder hero to kill, but also giving you a massive regeneration outside of battle. You will stay so longer in fights with this item.

Provides attack speed,damage, health and movement speed. But still not the ideal item for Underlord. Like Linken's Sphere, a highly situational item.

Gameplay

Early Game

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Offlane
The most important thing is to stay alive when you're playing solo offlaner.
Always plant an Observer Ward, this way you can see enemies approaching you and you can get back in case of things went wrong.
Can't farm? No problem! It's better to stay safe rather than giving gold to enemy's carry.
You can earn experience by hiding in trees, getting Bounty Runes and clearing camps near you.
Use the skill Pit of Malice and the item Soul Ring wisely.
Pit of Malice is the only skill before learning Dark Rift that can save your life, and by using Soul Ring you lose 150 HP, so be cautious.

Mid lane
Spam your Firestorm, get damage from Atrophy Aura, clear some jungle camps and back to lane.
Never start the game by saving gold to buy Bottle first. Unless you have randomed. Start with the suggested purchase order "Build 1".
Don't forget to gank other lanes as well. Rune of Invisibility and Rune of Haste are your best friends in this situation.
Always carry a Town Portal Scroll, you may save a life or two.

Support
Do as the suggested build, "Build 4". Max your Pit of Malice and Firestorm.
Secure the runes for your mid laner and if necessary, sacrifice yourself to save the carry's life.
Stick with your team and always learn Dark Rift at level 6.
After buying wards, your priority in buying items should be Boots of Speed.
Like I said before, always carry a Town Portal Scroll. They're cheaper than ever.


Mid Game

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You should've had your core items such as Vladmir's Offering and Vanguard by this time.
Push lanes, destroy towers and help your team.
Be prepared for ganks, saving lives and hunting down enemy heroes.
Carry enough Town Portal Scrolls with you and have Dark Rift ready.
You're much stronger with your team so don't play solo.


Late Game

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At this stage your team needs you more than ever. Always stay with them and participate in teamfights.
Save buyback, push when necessary and do your best. By a single mistake you may lose the game.
You're a tanky hero, so let enemy heroes target you rather than targeting anyone else.
Dark Rift is your greatest ability in late game. You can win the lost game by using it precisely.

Friends / Enemies / Victims

His Call of the Wild (Hawk), because of invisibility and the ability to move freely around the entire map, is an excellent target for Dark Rift. His Inner Beast ability is also good for increasing your attack speed.

Not only his Demonic Conversions are good for casting Dark Rift, but also your skills work well together. Firestorm with Black Hole and Midnight Pulse along with Pit of Malice.

He can be both your enemy and friend. He's able to intercept split pushes from Dark Rift. On the other hand, he can use Teleportation, convert trees into treants with his Nature's Call skill, and help you to cast Dark Rift anywhere on the map.

Flame Guard allows him to stay in your Firestorm with no worries and he can counter your Dark Rift with Fire Remnant. Even if you catch him with Pit of Malice, he can escape it with using Fire Remnant.

The toughest enemy of Underlord. Even though you can catch him with Pit of Malice in Rage mode, he doesn't fear coming closer. The more tankier you are, the better he can kill you.

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Tips and Tricks

• Pit of Malice disables Anti-Mage and Queen of Pain's Blink.

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• Nature's Prophet can't use Teleportation while caught in Pit of Malice.

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• Pit of Malice stops Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness.

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• Shadow Fiend is able to use Shadowraze and Requiem of Souls in Pit of Malice.

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• Pit of Malice will trap Juggernaut when using Blade Fury.

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• Slark is able to use Pounce in Pit of Malice.

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• Puck can't use Phase Shift while caught in Pit of Malice.

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• Timber Chain lets Timbersaw escape from Pit of Malice.

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• Pit of Malice will trap Lifestealer when using Rage.

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• Dark Rift wont't cancel Enigma's Black Hole and Witch Doctor's Death Ward.

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• Pit of Malice disables Blink Dagger.

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• Force Staff can push you out of Pit of Malice.

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• Pit of Malice can be purged by Diffusal Blade.

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• You can see invisible enemies using Pit of Malice.

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• You can catch Animal Couriers and Flying Couriers with Pit of Malice.

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• Dark Rift will still teleport you if you're under the effect of Astral Imprisonment, Disruption, Infest, Phase Shift or Supernova.

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• You can cast a deadly combo with Lycan's invisible Summon Wolves and Shadow Fiend's Requiem of Souls using Dark Rift.

Things to Remember

End

That's it for now.
I hope you like it and I hope it helps you.
If you needed any help with your guide, I'll be happy to help you. Just PM me.
Have fun ;)