Over the last two days, Valve has announced two new heroes at the Dota 2 International Championship. One of the heroes announced is the heavily anticipated Underlord, a port of the Warcraft III Dota Pit Lord. He will be the last hero added into the game from the original, completing the roster. The other is a brand new hero that Valve and Dota head Icefrog had been teasing for several months now. His name is the Monkey King, and he will be the first hero to not have a direct Warcraft III connection.
Underlord is a melee strength hero that relies heavily on his abilities to make an impact on the battlefield. If you are unfamiliar with Dota 2, each hero normally has three normal abilities, plus an additional “ultimate” ability that usually is a game changer.
Underlord’s first ability rains down fire over an area, dealing area of effect damage with an additional lingering damage over time effect. His second ability creates a large circle, called “Pit of Malice”, that disables enemy heroes for crossing the boundary. His third ability, called “Atrophy Aura”, reduces enemy hero damage, while giving him a stack-able damage buff whenever an enemy dies around him. His fourth and final ability is called “Dark Rift”. He opens a large portal, teleporting him and all nearby team members to a friendly lane creep or building. Many players speculated that this ability is what held off his release, as it can be brutal to deal with while on an uncoordinated team.
While we know all the details of Underlord, we know little to nothing about the Monkey King besides what was shown in the release trailer.
We can see in the trailer that he is a melee hero, one that will surely have some sort of carry potential (meaning he will be primarily a damage dealer). Not only that, he appears to have an ability to turn himself into a tree, blending into the scenery. This makes sense, as the legendary Sun Wukong was a known trickster. He also seems to have an ability to clone himself, similar to another pole wielding melee combatant, Phantom Lancer. How they end up differing will be interesting.
The International 2016 grande finale takes place tomorrow, so check back to see the full results of the tournament. There is over twenty million dollars at stake, be sure to read about which team remaining took home the prize. You can refer back to our last article on the tournament for a quick recap.