Underlord, also known as Vrogros, is a top choice for many Dota 2 players, especially in the offlane role. His strong suite of area control, utility, and durability establishes him as a powerful presence in team fights. Notably, Underlord secured the fifth position in the Dotabuff (the usual source of our statistics) win rate rankings last week. This examination will explore his capabilities, drawbacks, and methods for mastering this hero - just like prior week we analyzed Medusa.
Laning Stage and Early Game
In the laning phase, Underlord shines with his ability to reduce enemy damage and sustain himself. His passive, Atrophy Aura, lowers the attack damage of enemies in a radius, making it harder for the enemy carry to secure last hits or trade hits effectively. When creeps or heroes die nearby, Underlord gains bonus attack damage, turning this defensive tool into an offensive one.
Underlord often builds items that enhance his tankiness and utility, ensuring he can remain in the lane for extended periods. His core early-game items include:
Bracer: Provides cheap stats, giving Underlord much-needed survivability and mana regeneration to spam his abilities.
Magic Wand: Allows him to recover health and mana during engagements, which is crucial for staying active in the lane.
Arcane Boots: Helps solve his mana issues, allowing him to frequently cast Firestorm and Pit of Malice.
The critical ability to max first is Firestorm, a harass tool and a method to secure creep waves. It deals significant damage over time, pressuring the enemy carry and forcing them to stay back. Pit of Malice should be leveled alongside Atrophy Aura to maintain lane control and trap opponents when they try to dive or gank.
Mid Game
Underlord transitions into a critical team fighter and utility hero in the mid-game. By this stage, players should focus on building tanky, team-oriented items that enhance Underlord's durability and ability to support his team.
Essential mid-game items for Underlord include:
Guardian Greaves: This item provides health and mana regeneration for both Underlord and his team. The active cleanse is invaluable in team fights, removing debuffs from himself and allies while ensuring sustainability.
Pipe of Insight: Essential for negating magical damage during the mid-game, particularly against spell-heavy lineups. The barrier from Pipe protects Underlord and his team from high burst magic damage.
Crimson Guard: Ideal for reducing incoming physical damage, especially against lineups focusing on right-click damage. This item, combined with Atrophy Aura, makes it significantly harder for Underlord and his team to be brought down in fights.
During the mid-game, Underlord excels in team fights and pushing lanes. His Firestorm continues to provide high area-of-effect (AoE) damage, which is particularly useful when contesting objectives like towers or Roshan. Pit of Malice is an excellent control tool, especially when placed in chokepoints or atop objectives. It forces enemies to engage poorly or risk being rooted.
Underlord's Fiend's Gate ultimate becomes increasingly essential in the mid-game, offering global mobility. It can initiate ganks, rotate to other lanes for a split push, or save allies from unfavorable fights. Proper use of Fiend's Gate can turn the tide of engagements by bringing reinforcements across the map.
Late Game and Build Path
The Underlord's role remains focused on area control and utility in the late game, though his damage output becomes secondary. His build evolves towards high-value, utility-based items that benefit the team in drawn-out engagements.
Late-game item options for Underlord include:
Aghanim's Scepter: Enhances Fiend's Gate, adding a powerful heal-over-time effect to allies passing through the portal. This item turns Fiend's Gate into an even more robust tool for relocating and sustaining your team.
Shiva's Guard: Adds both armor and AoE slow, reducing the attack speed of enemies, which synergizes well with Atrophy Aura. This item also gives Underlord extra survivability in the late game.
Lotus Orb: Provides dispel and reflects targeted spells back to enemies, which can be crucial when dealing with single-target disables.
Octarine Core: Reduces the cooldowns of all his abilities, allowing Underlord to spam Firestorm and Pit of Malice more frequently while providing extra survivability through spell lifesteal.
Underlord's role shifts to initiating or following up on other initiations. He uses Pit of Malice to lock down multiple enemies in team fights and deploys Firestorm to deal consistent damage across multiple targets. His Atrophy Aura becomes increasingly impactful as more enemies die around him, further enhancing his damage output and making him a threatening presence even in the late game.
Itemization Breakdown by Game Stages
Early Game (0-15 minutes):
Starting Items: Tango, Quelling Blade, Gauntlets of Strength, Iron Branch, Magic Stick.
Early Core: Bracer, Arcane Boots, Magic Wand.
Laning Goal: Max Firestorm to clear waves and harass the enemy, secure your farm, and apply pressure on the enemy carry. Build Atrophy Aura to weaken enemy right-click damage.
Mid Game (15-30 minutes):
Core Items: Guardian Greaves, Pipe of Insight, Crimson Guard.
Mid-Game Goal: Transition into a tanky frontliner, keeping yourself and your team alive with aura items and your innate durability. Use Pit of Malice and Firestorm to control large areas and force favorable fights.
Late Game (30+ minutes):
Late-Core Items: Shiva's Guard, Aghanim's Scepter, Octarine Core, Lotus Orb.
Late-Game Goal: Enhance your team's mobility with Fiend's Gate, providing utility while locking down key enemy targets with Pit of Malice. You'll want to protect your squishy carries by tanking damage and controlling space.
Skill Build
Max Firestorm First: Provides wave-clear, harassment, and scales into a powerful team fight ability.
Level Atrophy Aura Second: Helps dominate the lane and reduces enemy right-click damage, which is especially important when laning against physical damage carries.
Take Pit of Malice by Level 4: It's crucial for trapping enemies and controlling the battlefield, especially with team-based AoE spells like Black Hole or Ravage.
Ultimate Priorities: Take Fiend's Gate at levels 6, 12, and 18. This ability's global mobility can drastically change team fights, giving your team a strategic advantage.
Talent Choices
Underlord's talents are flexible and often depend on the state of the game:
Level 10: +75 Firestorm Radius is generally more helpful for increasing his area control and damage.
Level 15: Pit of Malice Slows by 30% is valuable for kiting enemies and improving lockdown.
Level 20: +10% Atrophy Aura Attack Damage Reduction further weakens enemy right-clickers, making Underlord tankier.
Level 25: Fiend's Gate deals 100 DPS, which can significantly increase Underlord's global presence, especially if fights drag on across different parts of the map.
Lore
Underlord, the ruler of the Abyssal Horde, commands fearsome forces from the depths. His realm lies beneath the earth, where he governs with an iron fist. Leading his soldiers into battle, he emerges from the darkest pits to bring his destructive power to the surface world. Unlike most heroes, Underlord's lore is closely tied to the forces of nature and darkness, where he manipulates the raw elements of the underworld.
Latest Updates
In the latest Dota 2 Patch 7.37b, Underlord has seen adjustments that keep him a stable pick for offlane and utility roles. While the core mechanics of his abilities remain unchanged, minor tweaks in the meta and overall game design continue to impact how he's played, especially in competitive scenes leading up to The International 2024.
General Hero Buffs: Underlord benefits indirectly from item changes and balance adjustments to other heroes. The shift in focus to more tanky, aura-building offlaners plays into Underlord's strengths, as his team fights presence and durability are enhanced when paired with items like Crimson Guard and Pipe of Insight. These items have maintained relevance in the meta, and Underlord remains a top candidate for utilizing them effectively.
Talent and Item Synergies: No direct nerfs or buffs were made to Underlord in this patch, but item changes such as nerfs to Kaya-based items and tweaks to the map structure have reinforced his core role as a zoning and team utility hero. Fiend's Gate remains crucial, especially in facilitating global movement. Late-game talents like the Pit of Malice duration increase, and the added damage to Fiend's Gate ensures Underlord continues to shine in late-game scenarios.
These updates keep Underlord viable in both casual and professional play. His ability to build tanky items and provide team utility still makes him a favored choice for controlling team fights and pushing objectives.
Benefits
Strong Laner: Underlord can easily dominate most lanes due to his high base health and regeneration. His passive, Atrophy Aura, weakens the enemy's ability to trade hits effectively.
Excellent Teamfight Presence: His abilities, particularly Firestorm and Pit of Malice, are perfect for area denial and controlling large areas during team fights.
Global Mobility: Fiend's Gate offers one of the few global abilities in the game, allowing Underlord and his team to join fights or escape across the map quickly.
Scales Well with Items: Underlord benefits significantly from utility and tanky items like Guardian Greaves, Crimson Guard, and Pipe of Insight, making him a powerful frontliner who can sustain through long engagements.
Downsides
Low Mobility: Underlord is relatively slow and lacks escape abilities without the help of Fiend's Gate, making positioning crucial.
Skillshot Reliant: Success with Underlord often depends on properly landing Pit of Malice, which requires good positioning and prediction.
Limited Burst Damage: While Underlord can deal damage over time, he lacks the burst damage that other offlaners like Axe or Sand King can offer.
Abilities
Firestorm: This ability summons a rain of fire in a target area, dealing damage over time. It's excellent for wave clearing and zone control.
Pit of Malice: Creates a pit that roots enemies who walk into it. It is excellent for locking down opponents in team fights or preventing escapes.
Atrophy Aura: Reduces the attack damage of enemies around Underlord, giving him bonus damage when enemies die. This makes him a great counter to physical damage dealers.
Fiend's Gate: Opens a portal between two locations on the map. Allies can use it to teleport across the map, offering immense strategic value.
Hints and Tips to Master
Max Firestorm First: This ability is critical for both farming and harassing enemies in the lane. Its damage over time can push waves and deal considerable damage during fights.
Use Pit of Malice for Area Control: Properly placed can prevent enemies from escaping or zone them in team fights. Combine it with other AoE spells from your team for maximum effectiveness.
Atrophy Aura's Power: Positioning is vital with Atrophy Aura to maximize its damage reduction effect on enemies. Use it to dominate lanes and negate physical damage to dealers.
Fiend's Gate for Surprise Ganks or Escapes: Underlord's ultimate is versatile. Use it to engage or disengage across the map, giving your team flex
Recommended Allies
Dark Seer
Dark Seer's Vacuum works exceptionally well with Underlord's Pit of Malice. After pulling enemies into a tight group, Pit of Malice can root them in place, locking them down for additional follow-up damage from Firestorm. This combo provides a devastating crowd-control synergy during team fights, especially when combined with other AoE spells from the team.
Crystal Maiden
Crystal Maiden's Frostbite and Crystal Nova abilities synergize well with Underlord's Pit of Malice, creating layered crowd control that makes it nearly impossible for enemies to escape. Additionally, her mana regeneration aura solves Underlord's mana issues, allowing him to spam Firestorm and Pit of Malice more effectively during prolonged engagements.
Tidehunter
Tidehunter's Ravage is a massive AoE disable that complements Underlord's control-based playstyle. After Tidehunter's initiation, Underlord can follow up with Pit of Malice and Firestorm to keep enemies rooted and burning. Both heroes excel in long, drawn-out team fights, making them a strong frontline pairing capable of overwhelming the enemy.
Grimstroke
Grimstroke's Soulbind synergizes well with Underlord's abilities, especially Pit of Malice and Firestorm. With two enemies tethered by Soulbind, Underlord can simultaneously root with Pit of Malice, creating an opportunity for massive AoE damage. The combination of Grimstroke's ultimate and Underlord's lockdown provides immense team fight control.
Disruptor
Disruptor's Kinetic Field and Static Storm abilities complement Underlord's Pit of Malice by trapping enemies inside the root while Firestorm rains down damage. Disruptor's zoning capabilities work hand in hand with Underlord's area control, making it difficult for enemies to escape or reposition during team fights.
Counters
Juggernaut
Juggernaut's Blade Fury makes him immune to magical damage, allowing him to quickly escape from Pit of Malice and avoid damage from Firestorm. His high mobility and ability to purge roots with his magic immunity make it difficult for the Underlord to control him in fights. Juggernaut's Omnislash can burst Underlord down, especially when combined with physical damage builds.
Ursa
Ursa is a direct counter to Underlord because of his ability to deal high burst damage in a short time. His Overpower and Fury Swipes allow him to shred through Underlord's tankiness quickly, while Enrage reduces incoming damage, limiting the effectiveness of Firestorm and Atrophy Aura. Ursa's mobility also allows him to chase down Underlord, making it hard for him to escape.
Outworld Destroyer
Outworld Destroyer's Arcane Orb deals pure damage based on his mana pool, which bypasses Underlord's armor and makes him vulnerable. Sanity's Eclipse also drains Underlord's intelligence, reducing his mana pool and dealing significant damage. OD's ability to banish Underlord or his allies with Astral Imprisonment further disrupts Underlord's team fight presence.
Lifestealer
Lifestealer's Rage grants him magic immunity, allowing him to ignore Pit of Malice and Firestorm completely. Additionally, his Feast ability helps him sustain in long fights by leeching health based on Underlord's high HP pool. Lifestealer's ability to isolate Underlord in fights and outlast him makes him a tough matchup.
Rubick
Rubick is a significant threat to Underlord because of his ability to steal and use Pit of Malice and Firestorm against him. A well-timed Pit of Malice or Firestorm from Rubick can turn Underlord's strengths against his team. At the same time, Rubick's Telekinesis provides additional control to prevent Underlord from e