Introduction
“Another corpse... on the battlefield.”
Undying is a melee strength hero who thrives off of his staying power in fights, with his abilities growing stronger the more heroes and units there are involved in any given engagement. He is typically played as a greedier, 4th position support/utility hero.
Undying's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Very strong teamfighter
- Potential to be extraordinarily tanky for a support
- Strength steal from enemies makes them deceptively squishy early on
- Tombstone wrecks melee heroes and squishy supports
- Has a strong heal that is also a nuke
- Strong counter-initiator
Cons
- A very greedy support pick – needs levels and some measure of farm
- Huge mana issues
- Effectiveness tapers off late-game
- Melee attack range
- Relies on strength steal for tankiness, making him susceptible to burst initiation
Item Build
Undying is usually played as a lane support in public matchmaking, either as part of a trilane or dual lane. He is a very rare pick competitively, but when he is picked up it is also as a greedier support hero. The safest option is to be a defensive lane support, but to only pick him up if the second support hero has lockdown.
Starting Items
So you’re likely playing as a support, so you need to act like one. Make sure your team has both a Courier and a set of Observer Wards at the start. Often you can split the cost between yourself and another support, but if not then you need to buy both.
After that, for starting items you want to get plenty of regen:
- A set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, and a Clarity.
If someone else on your team bought Wards or Courier at the start then you can grab a couple of Iron Branches and an extra Clarity.
Early Game
Observer Wards are core whenever they’re off cooldown, naturally. Make sure that between yourself and the other support on the team the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark as well.
Grab some basic Boots of Speed as soon as possible, and upgrade any Iron Branches you may have into a Magic Wand. You may wish to purchase an early Ring of Basilius as well, to help tank up a little and give you some early and much-needed mana regeneration. If you intend to buy a support Vlads for the team then it’s an excellent pick-up to make at this stage.
Now you can start working towards your big ticket core items.
Core Items
Arcane Boots really are the upgraded boots of choice for such a mana hungry hero as Undying, who has no in-built mana regeneration ability like a Lich. All four of your abilities have fairly high mana costs and for the mostpart low cooldowns, so you’ll be burning through a lot of mana even before you purchase a Mekanism, which is your next core item.
Mekanism is your priority core pick-up. If there are no more viable Mekanism carriers on your team that will get it up much faster than you (such as a mid Viper, or a jungle Chen), then Mekanism should be your go-to core item.
Mekanism is an absolutely fantastic item on any support, especially on a healing support like Undying – a hero that also becomes more impactful in lengthier engagements. Mek makes him much beefier and allows him to stay alive longer in fights, getting of all of his abilities and, hopefully, multiple strength steals using Decay.
So Mekanism is absolutely necessary for your team with its burst AoE heal and armour, but be sure to check with your team to see if anyone else intends to build one before you get started on it. If someone else does intend to build it then you can move straight onto a luxury item pick-up (likely a Pipe of Insight).
Luxury Items
Pipe of Insight – I wouldn’t usually recommend a Pipe of Insight on a Mekanism carrier (having both on one hero is very risky), but always a good item to have if the enemy team has any magic damage (which they almost certainly will).
If you didn’t buy the team’s Mek then I would absolutely consider Pipe core. If you did buy the Mek I would opt for Pipe only if you’re confident you can’t be burst down right at the start of teamfights.
Vladmir’s Offering – Vlads is actually a fantastic support item, because most melee cores that would benefit a fair bit from it simply don’t have the room to waste on such a mid-cost item. Your entire team will benefit from the bonus damage, mana regeneration, and armour auras, but it’s doubly good if any of your team’s core heroes are melee DPS’ers thanks to the lifesteal aura. And, of course, being melee yourself you get a lot out of it too.
Drums of Endurance – Great all-round stats to help tank you up, cost-efficient, easy to build into, and gives your entire team bonus attack speed and move speed auras. I love getting this on a support if I opt for an early Bracer in order to get some quick stat gain and none of my cores have built one yet.
Heaven’s Halberd – A good defensive item that is often overlooked. Halberd will prevent a single target attacking anyone on your team for 3-4.5 seconds. On top of that you gain a nice chunk of strength and survivability, which synergises superbly with Undying’s role as a tanky, teamfight-oriented support hero.
Shiva’s Guard - A highly expensive luxury item, but the +15 armour and +30 intelligence are great bonuses on top of a 40% enemy attack slow aura and 40% movement slow and 200 magic damage AoE nuke. A good defensive, anti-carry teamfight item that provides a lot of team-wide utility and synergises perfectly with your role as a teamfight support that likes to get stuck in. Unfortunately, it’s probably too expensive for you to avoid in all but the longest or most one-sided of games.
Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes. Good for some decent stat gain as well.
Force Staff – You can never go wrong with Force Staff on a support hero (assuming you actually use the active!!). A Force Staff can be used to mitigate your poor movespeed and lack of innate positioning ability. It's great for clutch escapes and also gives you even more utility for your teammates (you can use Force on allied heroes, yourself, and enemies).
Scythe of Vyse – The 3.5 second Hex is superb in teamfights and for picking off enemy heroes though. The enormous cost makes it prohibitively expensive for most supports, but if the game is going very late and you're almost 6 slotted it's a great option.
Aghanim’s Scepter – On top of +10 all stats, 200 health, and +150 mana, Aghanim’s also provides a nice buff to your ultimate: it increases the damage amplification of Flesh Golem from a minimum of 5/10/15% and a maximum of 20/25/30% to 15/20/25% and 30/35/40%, respectively. It also increases the amount Undying is healed by the death of creeps from 2% to 3% and by the death of heroes from 6% to 10% of Undying’s own max health.
On the whole, a good luxury item to opt for if you’re teamfighting a lot and have plenty of opportunities to put Flesh Golem to use.
Situational Items
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Vanguard – Vanguard has a degree of stigma attached to it because of its cost inefficiency and will often be criticised as an item pick up, yet despite that it’s still a common pick-up on Undying at all skill levels. And it is actually good if you can get it early, but you should absolutely lean towards a Mekanism instead in my opinion – Mek gives so much more to your team whilst performing a similar role to Vanguard in tanking you up.
Crimson Guard – A good defensive/utility item. If you decide to opt for an early-ish Vanguard then later upgrading it into a Crimson Guard is a good way of buffing your inventory in the late game when Vanguard’s usefulness tapers off and inventory slots are at a premium.
So you get a nice chunk of flat health (250), +2 all stats, +5 armor and 6 health regeneration. On top of that you gain a passive Damage Block ability, which gives an 80% chance to block 20-40 damage, and an active Guard ability, which allows you to create a shield which applies to yourself and allies in a 750 unit radius that grants everyone affected by it +2 armor and a 100% chance to block 50 damage.
Blade Mail – Blade Mail is also situational. If you have a poor game it can sometimes be the most cost-effective item to get which helps prevent you feeding.
It's also a great pick up if the enemy team consists of fairly squishy heroes with high damage output (such as Phantom Assassin, or Skywrath Mage).
Boots of Travel – Great for the late game, when you need to free up a slot which would otherwise be taken up by a TP Scroll. With this, you combine your Boots and TP Scroll slot into one, allowing you to put a slot to better use.
Linken’s Sphere - Linkens can be a decent luxury item on Undying. The stats it provides are decent but expensive for its price, and the mana regeneration should put an end to your mana problems, but you’re really getting it for the passive Spellblock.
If the enemy team has a lot of single-target disables, or that one key ability which is really frustrating one of your teammates’ ability to do their job in teamfights, then it’s worth considering because the Spellblock ability can also be transferred to an ally, making it a great way of protecting your team’s carry if they’re the focus of stuns or big single target disables that go through Spell Immunity, such as Batrider’s Lasso, or Bane’s Fiend’s Grip.
Skill Build
Undying actually has one of the most flexible skill builds in all of Dota, so although in the image above and descriptions below I have pointed out one of my most popular build orders for Undying, it should be willing to be flexible with your skill build, focussing on those abilities you find most useful for the particular situation in each game.
Decay is a magic damage nuke and temporary strength stealer. It is always skilled first but tends to be maxed second or, more often, last. Decay deals a small amount of magic damage (20/60/100/140) to enemy units in a 325 unit radius. At the same time, Decay also steals 4 strength from each enemy hero it hits, and that strength is given to Undying for 40 seconds.
The strength steal element is what makes Decay a strong ability. Indeed it is regarded as one of the strongest level 1 abilities in the game, making already squishy enemy heroes extremely fragile at level 1 after just one or two uses of Decay. In teamfights the effect is magnified, providing Undying is able to hit multiple targets with it.
Soul Rip is a healing ability which also doubles up as a magic damage nuke. It is usually skilled last but maxed second. Soul Rip deals up to 180/264/364/480 magic damage if cast on an enemy unit or heal if cast on an allied unit.
Soul Rip’s effectiveness depends entirely on how many units (both creeps and creeps) are nearby. It actually only deals 18/22/26/30 damage/healing per unit within a 1300 unit radius of Undying, with additional levels in Soul Rip increasing the number of units Undying can steal health from – 10/12/14/16 respectively.
Tombstone is a strong teamfight damage dealing and slow ability. It is always maxed first, although often skilled last. Tombstone allows Undying to summon a Tombstone at a target location. Zombies spawn every 3 seconds next to every enemy unit within 600/800/1000/1200 units of the Tombstone, and deal damage and slow enemy units and heroes.
Tombstone is actually considered to be Undying’s ‘real’ ultimate because of how impactful it is in teamfights. It does, however, have a lengthy 60 second cooldown and a high mana cost of 120/130/140/150. It also grants a significant gold bounty if killed by the enemy team.
Undying’s actual ultimate, Flesh Golem, unlike most ultimates in Dota 2 is not usually skilled until ~level 9 or 10. This is because you need to get one early point in Decay, 3 or 4 points in Soul Rip, and a maxed Tombstone as quickly as possible.
Flesh Golem is a slightly complex skill. It transforms Undying into a large golem which lasts for 30 seconds. The golem causes damage taken by enemies within a 750 unit radius of Undying to take bonus damage, varying depending on how close they are to Undying. It also slows enemies slightly and heals Undying whenever an enemy hero or unit dies within the ultimate’s radius.
Gameplay Tips
Decay is an extremely potent level 1 ability. If a fight breaks out on your lane at level 1 you should have the edge; cast Decay on enemy heroes to steal strength, making yourself deceptively tanky and the enemy heroes extremely squishy.
In teamfights, aim to cast Decay on as many enemy heroes as possible, but don’t be so concerned with hitting multiple enemies that you hold off on casting it at all; its low, 4 second cooldown makes it quite spammable, and since the stolen strength stacks you want to get off as many Decays as possible.
| Note: Decay actually has the effect of also healing Undying every time he successfully lands it on an enemy hero. He is healed for 76 HP every time. |
Remember that Soul Rip can heal allies and be used to nuke enemies. As with Decay, it has a fairly low cooldown, but not so much so that you’ll be able to spam it, so if an ally is on low health be sure to prioritise it on healing them ahead of nuking enemy heroes.
Because Soul Rip’s damage/heal is based entirely on how many units (heroes and creeps) are nearby, you really need to fight by creep waves or your own Tombstone (the zombies count!) in order to get the most out of it.
| Tip: You can actually cast Soul Rip on your Tombstone. Not many Undying players realise this, and although you’ll usually want to cast it on an ally or enemy, Tombstone’s high value impact in teamfights makes it a viable healing target. It’s also a great way of denying the enemy its gold bounty if they’re choosing to focus it down just before it dies. |
Think of Tombstone as an ultimate-like ability. You do not want to waste it because of its lengthy cooldown and high mana cost. Cast it in the midst of teamfights, or if your team is initiating.
Tombstone is also a great way to protect teammates when tower diving. The zombies will distract the enemy creeps and tower, taking aggro away from your team’s heroes when diving the tower (unless right clicking an enemy hero).
The slow effect from Tombstone makes it hellish for melee cores without BKB and squishy supports to fight in range of it. Use this to your team’s advantage to zone out more fragile enemy heroes from a teamfight. If they choose to enter the fight regardless then the zombies will deal significant damage to them.
Flesh Golem amplifies the damage dealt by your team to enemy heroes, but you must remain within a 750 unit of the relevant enemy heroes, so you’ll only really want to use it when you’re tanky enough to get stuck into teamfights. The aura is only at its most potent if Undying is within 200 units (i.e. melee attack range). This is one reason it is not typically skilled at level 6.
Because of the amplification effect from Flesh Golem you ideally want to cast it first, ahead of your other abilities, so that the damage they deal is amplified. Sometimes, however, this will scare enemies off, so you may need to wait for your team to initiate first or lay down a Tombstone before using Flesh Golem. That’s fine, just remember to use it straight after.
The slow from Flesh Golem is quite low (just 5-20% depending on how close the enemy is to Undying), but it stacks with the Tombstone’s slow effect, so the two abilities synergise well with one another.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
