It’s been a week of revelations from Valve, as they have unveiled numerous Heroes, Alliances, modes, and mechanics coming to Dota Underlords with The Big Update. But today is the final day of reveals, and there’s one last secret to uncover. She’s the second Underlord to be revealed, and her name is Anessix.
Titled the Mistress of Secrets, Anessix is a hybrid Underlord who heals her allies and summons demons to fight on her behalf. It’s quite different from Hobgen, the first Underlord revealed, who just wants to watch the world burn – including his allies.
Underlords are a new unit being introduced to Dota Underlords in The Big Update. They are the first unit you’ll choose when you start a game, effectively making them the starting point for your strategies. Each Underlord has its own unique set of abilities, which will determine the Heroes and Alliances you hire and your playstyle for the game.
But each Underlord can be played in numerous ways. Using the talent system, you can focus on certain aspects of your Underlord. You can make them your main source of damage or a stronger support for your Heroes. The choice is yours, and each game of Dota Underlords will play out differently.
Secret strategies
Anessix will synergize well with members of the Demon Alliance because she generates additional Hype if there are more Demons on the board. But remember, you can only have one type of Demon on your board to get the Alliance’s bonus. So, if you’re going to use Anessix to summon her Demons, you’re going to lose the effect.
Her Martyr’s Boon ability will cause Anessix to take damage, but provide healing to allies. This ability could pair excellently will the new Healer Alliance, which amplifies all friendly healing.
With her Pure Pain ability, Anessix deals a continuous burst of pure damage for a short time. Pure damage is unaffected by armor or spell resistance, so it is strong against defensive Heroes and Alliances. Used in conjunction with one Demon, who also deals pure damage, this could be a very devastating ability.
Both Anessix’s ultimate abilities in Dota Underlords are focused on summoning demons. One option is that she can cause her entire team to gang up on one enemy Hero with Enthrall, and then, if it dies, Anessix will bring them back as a demon. Alternatively, she can summon a Demonic Golem to the board. If your gang is strong and you’re ahead in the match, ganging up on one Hero with Enthrall will be very powerful, allowing you to overwhelm your opponent. If you’re not near the top of the leaderboard, you’re probably better off getting an additional unit to fight for you with Summon Demonic Golem.
A woman of many talents
As for her Talents, you can begin to see how Anessix could be built in different ways. Let’s not forget that all Underlords will have over 20 talents to choose from. We’re only seeing four right now.
Exploit Weakness will make your demon-summoning abilities even stronger. With it, your companions will inflict Break on their targets for three seconds when they attack. Or you could make Anessix and her companion harder to kill with Transfusion, which heals her and her companion by damaging enemies with Pure Pain.
Alternatively, you could use Pure Pain to buff your entire army by choosing the Phantom Pain talent. This will give your army +2 armor per level while Pure Pain is active. Assuming there’s a talent that increases the duration of Pure Pain, you could turn a tanky army into an unkillable force or help an offensive-focused army to survive longer.
An interesting strategy might be to focus on recruiting Blood-Bound units and choosing Anessix’s Instant Regret talent. When Blood-Bound units die, they give +125% attack damage, plus any existing Blood-Bound bonus it has, to a random friendly Blood-Bound unit. Instant Regret, on the other hand, will inflict Break on enemies that kill your units affected by Martyr’s Boon. So, as your opponent kills your units, your army will get stronger and your enemy’s will get weaker.
And that’s everything coming to Dota Underlords with The Big Update. As soon as Valve gets the green light on all platforms, the update will go live.
You can download Dota Underlords on PC for free through Steam.
