Underlord in 7.41f: Fiend’s Gate Got a Bit Better, Pit of Malice Lost Scepter

Hi. Today I looked at Underlord in patch 7.41f, and the reason is pretty clear: this hero still lives around his heavy, grindy game, where what matters isn’t flashy trades, but surviving long enough to get to the right buttons and turn a fight with a timely teleport. Underlord has always felt to me like a hero about patience, not rush: he slowly forces the fight to follow his rules, and if you give him space, it becomes very unpleasant.

Role and abilities

Underlord is a Strength, melee hero with a difficulty of 2 out of 3. In terms of roles, he’s listed as Support, Nuker, Disabler, Durable, and Escape, but to me he is above all a hero who loves long, scrappy fights and values every inch of map control he can win.

• Firestorm rains waves of flame over an area and deals periodic damage to victims based on their maximum health.
• Pit of Malice creates a fissure that damages and roots anyone caught in it.
• Atrophy Aura reduces nearby enemies’ base damage, and if a victim dies, Underlord temporarily gains bonus damage.
• Invading Force is a passive ability: after teleporting, allied heroes take less damage for a short time and move faster.
• Fiend’s Gate opens two portals and gives the team a way to join a fight or get out of it; with Aghanim’s Scepter, it also creates a Pit of Malice fissure under each portal.

I like that everything in Underlord’s kit is tied to space: fissures, auras, gates, and slowing the enemy’s pace. He isn’t the kind of hero who just jumps in and breaks a lane; he’s more the one who forces everyone else to play a game that feels awkward for them. And in a patch where games are often decided by who survives the transition into mid and late items better, that logic feels very alive to me.

Changes in recent patches

If you go from newest to oldest, the hero got hit exactly where his late game and map control feel more resilient.

• 7.41f: Pit of Malice lost its Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade; Fiend’s Gate’s cooldown with Aghanim’s Scepter was shortened from 100/95/90 to 90/85/80 seconds.
• 7.41e: the teleport preparation for Fiend’s Gate can now be interrupted by rooting.
• 7.41: Invading Force no longer upgrades with Fiend’s Gate; damage reduction and movement speed bonus were reworked; Firestorm wave damage was increased; Atrophy Aura damage reduction was strengthened; at level 15, the talent that reduces Firestorm cooldown got stronger; at level 25, the damage per second around Fiend’s Gate increased.

To me, the biggest thing here isn’t a single number, but the direction. Fiend’s Gate keeps getting small but nice buffs, while Pit of Malice seems to be moving further and further away from the idea of “buy Scepter and forget about it.” That makes item choices a bit less straightforward, and I’m more interested in that: Underlord doesn’t become sharper from these changes, but he does become more precise in how he closes off the map.

Statistics

According to OpenDota, over the last 7 days Underlord was played 222,769 times in public matches, and his win rate was 48.4%. That’s 94th out of 127 heroes by win rate and 70th by number of games. The numbers don’t look like a hero that’s carrying the meta on his back, but I wouldn’t call it a failure either: Underlord remains a noticeable, fairly popular pick, just without that sweet confidence you get from truly comfortable heroes.

• Herald — 51.2%
• Guardian — 50.6%
• Crusader — 49.8%
• Archon — 49.0%
• Legend — 47.9%
• Ancient — 46.9%
• Divine — 45.7%

What stands out to me here is the steady drop across ranks. That often means the hero is easier to get value from in lower brackets, while in higher ones he runs into tempo, positioning, and the question of when exactly Underlord should force his heavy game. To me, this is a classic hero story: he feels more comfortable when his plan can be built piece by piece, rather than when he has to stay ahead of events all the time.

In professional matches, according to OpenDota, Underlord had 10 picks, 3 wins, and 22 bans. That doesn’t look like a hero around whom teams build an entire draft, but there are enough bans to remember that he’s still respected for his ability to shut down movement and force very unpleasant scenarios.

Items and matchups

In professional matches, OpenDota shows that Underlord most often plays around a pretty grounded, practical item setup: first he clings to survivability and basic economy, then he picks up everything that helps him live through fights and keep the map under control.

• Starting out: Gauntlets of Strength, Iron Branch, Tango, Magic Stick, Circlet, Faerie Fire
• Early game: Boots of Speed, Soul Ring, Bracer, Chainmail, Power Treads, Phase Boots
• Mid game: Staff of Wizardry, Ogre Axe, Blade of Alacrity, Point Booster, Aghanim’s Scepter, Aghanim’s Shard
• Late game: Shiva’s Guard, Black King Bar, Soul Booster, Mystic Staff, Crella’s Crozier, Lotus Orb

I think this item pool reads the hero’s idea very clearly: first he just has to stay alive and press his buttons on cooldown, then he expands his impact through flexible items, and in the late game he takes the things that help him not fall apart in the middle of a fight and keep control of the area. This isn’t a hero about instant burst, but about building pressure.

Looking at matchups in professional games, Underlord feels best against Phantom Assassin, Ancient Apparition, and Abaddon. And according to the same data, his hardest opponents are Enigma, Treant Protector, and Lycan.

To me, this makes perfect sense: Underlord likes heroes he can drag into an awkward zone and strip of freedom, while he struggles more against heroes that either break his positioning game or don’t let him keep his pace on the map. It’s another reminder that for Underlord, the important thing isn’t a beautiful fight, but the right geography of the fight.

Conclusion

After 7.41f, Underlord still sits in the same category of heroes I wouldn’t call flashy, but I would respect for honest work. Fiend’s Gate got a small tune-up, Pit of Malice lost some of its old convenience, and on that backdrop the hero looks less like a speeding locomotive and more like a slow control mechanism that can still make the game feel very cramped. By the numbers he doesn’t look dominant, but I wouldn’t write him off either: if the patch once again starts valuing survival into key items and careful map play, Underlord can absolutely get louder again.

Source: official Dota 2 and OpenDota data.

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