Dota 2 Heroes – An introduction to Dirge the Undying

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   December 11th, 2012   |  

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Dirge the Undying is a playable character that got added to the Heroes roster in Valve’s Defense of the Ancients (Dota) 2 after the release of a patch in the first month of July.

Undying is a strength hero that adds quite a bit to push line-ups. His presence in enclosed fights is where he really begins to shine.

Decay is a 300 Area of Effect (AOE) effect ability that is meant to be spammed as it has a cooldown of only four seconds. When placed on enemies, it will deal 160 damage and steal 4 strength for up to 30 seconds. As you have probably already guessed, this effect is stackable, with each stack giving Undying 76 health or taking the same plus 160 damage from the inflicted targets.

Soul Rip is a single target skill that will damage or heal a target depending on whether it is an enemy or an ally. This spell has an amplified effect depending on how many units in within a large 975 AOE. For example, the unit will either be damaged or healed by 25 for each unit within the area, with 20 units being the max. The spell will also damage any enemy unit within the AOE by 25, which incidentally cannot be fatal.

His third spell, Tombstone, will create a physical tombstone on the battlefield for 30 seconds. Any enemy within a 1000 AOE will have an uncontrollable zombie next to them, which will attack the target and slow them up by 7 percent for up to 2.5 seconds. These zombies will continue to spawn overtime and the 7 percent slow is fully stackable. On top of this, if the target is below 400 health points (HP), then this will activate a passive skill on the zombies called death lust. This passive skill will provide them both a 50 percent movement speed and 50 percent attack speed buff.

The tombstone itself is destroyable through physical damage, but at the same time you would be able to heal it with your second ability, Soul Rip.

Undying’s ultimate is called the Flesh Golem. When activated, you would turn into an absolute beast of burden for 30 seconds. While in this Golem form, units around you will take amplified damage thanks to your newly acquired plague aura. This amplified damage is based on the proximity to you however. For example, if the enemy is on the outskirts of the 750 AOE, then it will take 15 percent amplified damage. If they are within 175 units of you, then they will take a maximum of 30 percent damage. This, of course, is incoming damage of any variety. The plague aura will also slowdown enemies with the 750 AOE by 9 percent.

In addition to all this, any enemy that dies while under the effect of this plague debuff will heal undying in some way. If it is a creep that dies, then it will heal Undying by 2 percent of its maximum life. However, a hero will heal him for 6 percent of his max life upon dying.

Undying is indeed an extremely effective hero when given the role of tank. His abilities require him to be in close proximity with his enemies. With a number of spells for healing at his disposal, there is very little that he has to fear while staying on the frontlines.

Undying indeed adds his own unique flavour to Dota 2 and contributes to the competitiveness of the game.

 

Disclaimer: Credit for the information used in this article goes to DotaCinema.com.