Dota Underlors is back on the rise yet again after it received the Outlanders Update. Although some people didn’t like the new changes, the overall player count clearly states that the fans of the game are enjoying it more than before.
However, it seems like the devs of this awesome game have another gift for us. The newest update, called Jull-tide Greetings, introduces many new changes, including a new Underlord.
Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from it.
So, without
further ado, here are my 3 biggest takeaways from the new patch:
(Mandatory disclaimer: the patch is quite
new, so I could be wrong in some of my conclusions.)
New Meta
The first
driving force behind the change in strategy is the removal of the Jail system and with it – a significant part of the
hero roster in addition to some Alliances. The jail system meant that the best
strategies rotate in and out daily. The new system suggests that the meta won’t
change for a whole season, so mastering it is more important for climbing.
Of course,
not all Alliances/Builds are perfectly balanced, so learning what to rely on
and what to ignore if possible is vital.
For
example, Elusive is no longer in the game. This isn’t a huge surprise as the
Elusive Alliance failed to find a good place in the meta, but ofc. Elusives
didn’t exist in a vacuum. One of the Alliances that benefited from the Elusive
bonus very easily were Assassins.
Not only
did Assassins lose the (3) Elusive bonus (that made their Elusive/Assassins
both tankier and with higher DPS), but they lost one of their main carries and
strongest heroes – Phantom Assassin.
In the new
patch Assassins rely much more heavily on Slark to carry the game, and getting
him to three stars (in standard) is considerably harder because he became a
4-gold hero. This means that it’s probably best to ignore (6) Assassin builds.
Instead, you should stick to Scrappy/Assassin variations with (3) Assassins.
Assassins
being Weaker has another effect – the Alliances they counter directly (healing
Alliances) are more likely to do well in the meta.
Warlocks
seem to do very well right now not only because of this, but because they
retained their powerful Ace effect with Disruptor.
Some people
thought that slower level-value builds would do worse in the faster meta, but this
doesn’t seem to be the case (more on that below), which makes level-value builds like the
example below quite good.
New Selection Flow for the Underlords
Previously, you could get an Underlord at the beginning of each match. Now, you can only do this in Round 10. Every single Underlord now has Fighting Styles that contain a core and an ultimate ability.
There are no special talents for the Underlords anymore. Instead, some of them are added to the Core Underlord abilities. There is also no more Hype in the game, something that players were requesting for ages. Every Underlord will now cast its abilities when they are off cooldown. However, each Core ability will have a 50% cooldown remaining at the beginning of each round.
Economy and Pacing
The interest
cap is 3 (30 gold), and the round gold is 7 instead of 5 to compensate and keep
the optimal income per round at 10g.
At first
glance, this means games will be faster (more aggressive) because everybody
will have 20 extra gold to spend (will sit at 30 instead of 50), which means
people would become stronger a bit faster.
This is
true, but faster games don’t mean that
upgrade value builds are better than level value builds all of a sudden.
Before the
patch, pushing fast to lvl10 whenever possible to get higher-tier heroes was
the slightly superior strategy (opposed to searching for three-star upgrades on
lvl7-9). This is still the case – the only difference is that now you push for a high lvl a bit faster to keep up
with the pace of the game.
Choosing
your Underlord later in the game is an obvious improvement strategy-wise
because you can choose it based on your build, not the other way around.
The
addition of Jull himself is also great balance-wise because now we have three
distinct Underlord Archetypes: a tank
(Jull), a support/healer (Anessix), and a ranged damage-dealer (Hobgen). You
can pick your Underlords to compensate for the weaknesses of your build and
complement their strengths. That said, my first impressions are that Anessix
and Jull are better with a wider range of builds than Hobgen and that some
fighting styles are more situational than others. E.g. the Healing Support
Fighting Style for Anessix (with the Demonic Golem) seems to be very versatile,
while Hobgen’s High Damage style fits Mages perfectly but most other builds — not that well.
The actual
right Underlord choice is usually relatively straightforward:
- Anessix with Healing
Support is best with fat comps: Knights, Warriors, Warlocks, Brutes, Scrappy,
etc. - Anessix with Damage
Support is much more situational – it needs Hunters or Assassins, builds
that can easily focus down targets because of Enthrall. - Jull with both fighting styles is best with builds
with a thinner frontline (Hunters, Mages, Trolls, Warlocks, etc.) because he
himself is a capable tank. His Healing
Tank style is a bit better with more durable builds, while his Aggressive Tank style is more synergistic
with higher DPS builds. - Hobgen with High
Damage Dealer Fighting Style is best with Mages. - Hobgen with Support
Damage Dealer is good with physical damage comps that benefit from the attack
speed (Beasts, Hunters, Assassins).
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed the content make sure to check out the rest of the website — we cover Underlords extensively.
Jull, the new Underlord
According to the update, Jull is a “businessman first and a criminal second.” This hero has very interesting skills, each of which can be invaluable in certain scenarios:
- Shake it off allows Jull to reflect up to 50% of the melee damage back to the enemies. In addition, he will heal for 30% of the melee damage or 15% of the range one.
- Aggressive Tank Fighting Style inflicts double the reflected damage but over eight seconds.
- Healing Tank Fighting Style has a 10-second cooldown and it converts the damage to healing split.
- Barrels of Fun is an ability that summons barrels on the battlefield. They can hit either an ally or an enemy. In the first case, the ally will get 50% attack speed, whereas if the target is an enemy, he will receive up to 800 physical damage.
- Happy Hour – When Jull takes damage, 70% of it will be received over a period of 7 seconds.
Heroes Changes
There are a couple of small hero tweaks here and there. However, the thing that definitely caught us off-guard is the removal of 14 heroes in the game. Here is a full list of what’s not available anymore:
- Anti-Mage
- Arc Warden
- Enigma
- Lina
- Luna
- Magnus
- Mirana
- Nature’s Prophet
- Phantom Assassin
- Puck
- Techies
- Templar Assassin
- Tidehunter
- Windranger
Apart from the mentioned above, there are also more not available anymore. Read the entire changelog before you start playing because Dota Underlords looks like a very different game than before.
Whether or not this was a good Christmas present for the fans is yet to be seen. However, one thing is certain, the Dota Underlords devs are very active, which is always a good sign.
