The much-awaited ‘Mage nerf hammer/Knights OP’ update was released earlier today for Underlords. Thankfully, Mages were not completely destroyed by the changes. The Mage class itself didn’t get any nerfs. Keep reading to know what happened with Mages.
Dota Underlords Balance Update – June 25th, 2019
I will only be covering the balance changes that were made in this update. Apart from the balance changes, there were a few performance optimization updates that were included. Now let’s get started.
- Sounds from combat occurring on other player’s boards can now be heard from yours.
I was really happy when I read this change. But as soon as I updated the game and started playing, this change got me extremely furious. Sounds of spells from a lot of different boards are played over and over, whenever you switch from one board to another. This becomes really annoying when you want to have a quick look at what synergies/units everyone else is going for.
- New opponent selection logic: This addresses the community feedback of fighting the same opponents over and over.
This statement by itself doesn’t explain much. Thankfully, an employee from Valve posted a comment on Reddit which gives more details on this change.
This makes me feel that Valve has learned a lot from IceFrog about balancing. The comment makes it very clear as to how the ‘opponent selection logic’ was changed, but if you’re looking for a tl;dr: Your opponent will still be selected randomly, but you are less likely to you fight someone who has attacked you recently. Also, you will never face anyone two times in a row unless its down to the last 3 players.
- Fixed unit stats not reflecting all items and equipment when querying before combat started.
I am ecstatic that they added this. This makes it so easy to see which unit is the best to give a certain item to. For anyone who didn’t understand the change – When you give an item to a unit, the increase in stats will now show on the portrait of the hero.
- Fixed friendly AI not casting spells after Pudge hooked an enemy.
I hadn’t noticed this bug ever, which is funny because Pudge is one of my favorite units. I’m just going to treat this as a buff and be content.
- Troll Global Item (Coordinated Assault): Now stacks.
Trolls seem quite weak right now, and I doubt this tiny buff will make any difference. Also, why didn’t this item stack in the first place? I know for certain that Forged in Battle (the Brawny global item) and Strange Bedfellows (the Demon global item) stack. The devs should really start mentioning in the item descriptions as to which items stack and which don’t.
- AI will now cast spells on the ground under a target instead of on the target’s location. Fixes floating Spells if the target happened to be flying through the air.
This means that spell projectiles will reach the unit in the same time, regardless of whether the unit is on the surface of the board or if its in the air due to a stun (like Ravage or Burrowstrike).
- Dragon Alliance: Now requires 2 units.
- Dragon Alliance: Now Unlocks an additional ability for each member of the Alliance.
- Dragon Knight: Breathe Fire is now his base ability.
- Dragon Knight: Dragon Alliance now unlocks Dragon Form.
- Dragon Knight: Hit Points increased from 800/1600/3200 to 1000/2000/4000.
- Dragon Knight: Gained +10 Health Regeneration.
- Puck: Dragon Alliance now unlocks Phase Shift.
- Viper: Dragon Alliance now unlocks Corrosive Skin.
So the Dragon synergy and its units got some incredible buffs here. Dragon Knight is a pretty decent unit to have now, even if you don’t have Knights. Because you can tap into the Dragon synergy with just 2 Dragon units now.
No details were mentioned about the new abilities – Breathe Fire, Phase Shift and Corrosive Skin in the patch notes. Here’s the full descriptions of these abilities:
- Pocket Sand: Now also slows mana gained on receiving damage by 50%.
- Pocket Sand: Will debuff a random enemy unit within 2 cells if no units are within 1 cell of the assassin landing.
Pocket Sand is the Assassin global item. Assassins are quite weak right now. This tiny buff will not bring them back into the game.
- Keeper of the Light: Illuminate now costs 150 mana.
- Keeper of the Light: Health decreased to 550/1100/2200.
I know that everyone wanted Gandalf to get nerfed, so here you go. These are some really heavy nerfs however. It takes a very long time for him to gain full mana and charge up his spell now. This gives you extra time to finish his allies off and start chomping on him before he wipes all your units from the board.
- Desperate Measures: Now also increases mana gained on receiving/dealing damage by the same amount as attack damage.
Desperate Measures is a tier 5 item that gives +1% damage to your units, per 5 HP your ‘Underlord’ is missing. Now it increases mana gain of your units by the same amount. This seems like a very strong item now and I doubt anyone would ignore it anymore.
- Scrappy Alliance: Now provides 8 armor and 9 health regeneration instead of 10 armor and 15 health regen. It provides double the amount if your starting army is smaller in size than your opponent’s.
Where did this even come from? It’s not like Scrappy units were annoyingly strong in the early-game or the late-game either.
This is a nerf to Scrappy in every scenario except for when you have a smaller number of units than your opponent. I was already not a big fan of the Scrappy units, now I don’t think I will ever run them at all.
- Knight Alliance: Now gives a constant 15/25/35% damage reduction and an additional 20/25/30% when next to another Knight.
I’ve played quite a few Boss lobbies after the patch came out, and everyone is going for Knights.
Knights are really strong right now and you should definitely go for them if no one else is. Currently there’s only a very few scenarios in which the Knights strategy can fail. I will make a guide later on how to counter Knights in this patch. So look out for it!
- Chaos Knight: Damage Increased from [40-110, 80-220, 160-440] to [55-135, 110-240, 200-480].
Chaos Knight did seem very underwhelming in the previous patch. This buff increases his damage by quite a lot. His average damage per hit has been increased from 75 to 95 at 1*, 150 to 175 at 2*, and 300 to 340 at 3*.
- Boots of Speed: Now Tranquil Boots. Passive +16 health regen and 100% bonus move speed.
Boots of Speed was probably the most worthless item in the entire game. Now it provides 16 HP regen which is an incredible amount for the early game. If you’re worried that Tranquil Boots might work the same way they do in Dota 2, you can relax – Tranquil Boots won’t break on taking damage.
- New Item – Pipe of Insight: +50% Magic Resistance. Once the first enemy has 100% mana, apply a shield that blocks 400 magic damage to allies up to 1 cell away. (once per battle)
An incredible item to counter magic damage. Mages were extremely OP in the previous patch and even now they’re quite strong. I’m just thankful that we have more options to defend against them.
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