Yesterday was day three in the Dota Underlords The Big Update saga. This was a smaller content drop than the first two days, with only three new Heroes being revealed. But one of them was an Ace Tier Hero, meaning a new unique Ace Tier effect to shake up the meta.
If you haven’t been keeping up to date with the Dota Underlords updates we’ve been seeing over the last few days, then you can catch up by taking a look at our coverage of Part One and Part Two.
Then there were three
The first new hero we are introduced to in The Big Update Preview Part Three is Shadow Demon. He’s a Heartless Demon (those are his Alliances, not his personality) who has the ability Demonic Purge. This ability will repeatedly purge an enemy, removing buffs and slowing both movement and attack speed for five seconds. When Demonic Purge ends, it will also deal damage to the targeted enemy.
Shadow Demon is a good solo Hero to hire. His Demon Alliance will give him +50% Pure Damage while there is only one Demon on your team. On top of that, he will contribute towards the Heartless Alliance effect, which causes enemies to lose 5 Armor for every two members of the Alliance on your team. Combine the Heartless effect with Shadow Demon’s Demonic Purge, and your enemies are going to be very vulnerable to attacks from your Heroes.
The next Dota Underlords Hero revealed is the Tier 4 Bristleback. The ability he brings to the board is Quill Spray. As the name implies, Quill Spray sprays quills from Bristleback and deals damage to all nearby enemies. Enemies take additional damage for each time they have been hit by Quill Spray. So, it’s a compounding effect that, if a fight goes on for a long time, will become incredibly strong.
Pairing Bristleback with Dazzle and the new Healer Alliance we met in Part One of The Big Update could make for a powerful team composition.
The Ace of Knights
Ace Tier is the highest rank Heroes have been allocated in Dota Underlords. All Ace Tier Heroes, of which there are very few, come with a unique ability that amplifies or alters the effect of the Alliance they are the Ace for. Sven, the last hero revealed today, is the Ace of Knights.
The Knight Alliance takes 15%, 20%, or 25% less physical and magic damage from enemies, depending on if you have two, four, or six members on your team. Knights standing next to another Knight will also take an additional 15% less damage. They’re what you would describe as a resilient or tanky Alliance. And the more of them you have, the hardier they become.
Sven’s Ace Tier ability, Ace of Knights, flips the Knight effect on its head. When Sven casts God’s Strength, which causes him to enrage and amplifies his damage, all Knights will lose their defense bonus and, instead, gain increased damage per Knight Alliance level. Five Knights plus Sven would make for a devastating attack force. Sven can also Cleave, allowing him to also strike nearby enemy units for a percentage of his damage.
That’s all there is for today. The Dota Underlords The Big Update blog tells us there will be more Heroes revealed in the next part. You can also head to the game’s Steam page and download it for free.
