Vrogros the Underlord or the Overpowerlord?
Dota‘s latest hero is out and he’s an absolute monster. Vrogros the Underlord is not the kind of guy you want to be laning against. With spammable nukes and an aura that saps your damage, whilst boosting his own, we’ve already seen plenty of threads complaining that he’s totally overpowered. Of course, he’s not available in Captains Mode yet so we don’t know how he’d fit into competitive play. Were Valve a bit too generous with his tool kit? Let’s take a look.
Abilities
Firestorm – Waves of fire that do max health based damage per second as well as magic damage, this skill is not to be underestimated. It has a relatively short cooldown and mana cost and scales better than most nukes. Most importantly, it provides Underlord an easy way to find farm, whether you’re pushing out waves or stacking and farming the jungle. Firestorm ensures that Underlord has more farm than your average support can find and also gives him a great way to dish out damage in team fights. This skill should normally be maxed first.
Pit of Malice – A ranged area-of-affect 2.5 second disable that isn’t an ultimate? It’s like a mini ravage but on a twelve second cooldown at level four. This ability provides an easy way to set up kills or to lock an enemy team in place for a Firestorm. Generally you’ll max this second. Even if you miss with the pit, it lasts 7 seconds and you’ll be surprised how often enemy heroes walk into it.
Atrophy Aura – You’ll always want an early point in this one but subsequent levels don’t add too much value so it can be maxed last. This ability gives you bonus damage whenever creeps or heroes die nearby and you can easily walk away from a successful team fight with plus 200. This makes Underlord a nightmare to lane against and the base damage reduction will make enemies struggle to last hit. It will severely weaken right clickers throughout the game – especially Morphling and other illusion based carries who rely on stats to provide their damage.
Dark Rift – Underlord’s ultimate is perhaps his hardest ability to use. Coordinating ganks across the map is tough in practice, but it does provide a decent save and plenty of utility. It’s mostly used to transport your team mates back to the fountain when they have been ganked. You can also used it to counter split pushing tactics, provide assistance across the map, and quickly jump into Roshan.
So is he balanced then?
Nope. Underlord frighteningly strong hero and when played as a support he provides a ridiculous amount of value. Most worryingly, he’s only been out a week so players are going to get better at using him. Once we’ve worked out a counter we’ll let you know. For now, consider banning him out of your games.