LogFAQs > #961954816

Lord knows Void's in enough of those, but no.

116 Underlord (melee Strength)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/2/9/AAAACbAAC1Tl.jpg
Base abilities: Firestorm, Pit of Malice, Atrophy Aura, Dark Rift
Shard upgrade upgrades Firestorm to allow self-casting, where it will follow Underlord around. Also improves its cast animation, and lasts for three more seconds (so three more waves of fire.)
Scepter upgrade new ability Fiend's Gate, which creates two portals at a targeted area and by Underlord's feet which allies can channel for two seconds on to teleport between.

This hero's just a shame. I can not appreciate Underlord in the slightest from his old WC3 incarnation of being Azgalor Expulsion was too damn fun for this world. It's unfortunate that corpse mechanics really don't exist anymore, but I digress.

Since Underlord was introduced he has almost consistently felt like one of the lowest-impact heroes in the game, even if it's nowhere's near true for his early game. Underlord is notorious for being one of the worst lane allies to accompany simply because of Firestorm, and as such he's usually left to solo, which is a double-edged sword: it's not uncommon for his enemies in the lane to get free farm underneath their tower, since he can't do anything against them short of overextending and slapping it a bit with a few Atrophy Aura stacks. Firestorm deals incredible damage-over-time and is hugely spammable with his stat growth and typical item choices, but beyond that all he has is hitting slightly harder if a creep wave died nearby. His kit looks promising to be a teamfight monster and a pick your battles sort of hero, but while the damage is great, it doesn't ramp up quickly enough to matter, especially if people are weaving in and out of combat.

All of this is skirting his ultimate, Dark Rift. On paper, it's amazing an uninterruptable-once-cast mass teleport to a targeted ally, centered around Underlord after a few seconds, short of Underlord or his target dying. In practice, there's a reason I called him out as being clip-show fodder. It's so, so easy to pull Underlord's allies out of a winning teamfight, and it's choreographed just where it's going to show up by a not-so-subtle audio indicator on the targeted unit. Games have been thrown by an entire team teleporting directly into a Black Hole in an effort to be sneaky because the Underlord was too thick to cancel it. Speaking from experience.

He's boring to play, never feels like he has quite the impact he looks like he's going to, and when things go wrong for him, it does so in spectacular fashion. Hard pass.

Next hero hint: strangely not a vampire.