A New Challenger: Abyssal Underlord

We’re all waiting patiently on the release of the Abyssal Underlord, but here’s a breakdown of the character so you’re ready when that finally happens.

I have to say, the Abyssal Underlord, formerly known in the Warcraft 3 mod as the Pit Lord, was one of my favorite heroes to play. There’s something about being an enormous, havoc wreaking pain-train that really tickles my fancy.

The wait has been long for many of us. Too long, in my case (come on pain-train!). After all, Abyssal’s the last of the original cast of heroes to be ported to Valve’s standalone version of the game. Though we were given no promises, it was certainly hinted at very strongly that we’d be seeing him before TI6. But with TI6 rapidly approaching, that’s increasingly unlikely that’s going to happen.

Get on it Valve. Don’t you know I’m waiting?

Whatever. I’m still hyped he’s in production. Before TI6, after TI6, all I really care about is that he’s released. I’ve heard some interesting theories as to why he might be delayed. My favorite cites the use of his ult, Dark Rift, to mass TP characters to a new platform/major update. I wouldn’t put that past Valve, but that’s all speculation at this point.

I’m still pretty hyped about Abyssal. You should be too. Let me tell you why…

Firestorm (Q)

Classic Pit Lord… er, I mean Abyssal Underlord. As we’ve seen previously on the WC3 platform, he can call down an AOE attack to rain fire upon his enemies. That’s right – burn baby, burn! Following a .6 second cast animation, a 400 radius area is pummeled six times, once per second. Each wave deals damage, and being hit causes enemies to take burn damage for two seconds. Welcome to the danger zone.

Pit of Malice (W)

Abandon all hope ye who enter here. Abyssal summons a pit with an AOE the same size as Ancient Apparition’s Ice Vortex. All enemies who stumble into its bounds are rooted to the spot. This is a great way to trip up agile heroes or blinkers, and the damage rooted heroes take is an added bonus. Although the pit lasts for a whopping seven seconds, units can only become entangled one time per cast. Still, this an excellent deterrent or chase spell.

Atrophy Aura

Under the gaze of the pain-train, all enemies feel weakened. Within 900 range of Abyssal, opponents can expect to have their base attack damage reduced. Furthermore, any units that fall while under the effects of Atrophy Aura grant him a temporary bonus to his attack damage, with an even more damage awarded for fallen heroes. At max level, Atrophy Aura robs enemies of 42% of their base damage. Yikes!

Dark Rift

Darkness is in everyone. With this ability, abyssal targets a friendly unit anywhere on the map and teleports himself and all nearby ally heroes to that location. This skill functions like Boots of Travel for multiple heroes, creating opportunity for cross-map ganks, counter-ganks, split pushes, and counter pushes. I imagine the pros will have fun with this one…

But don’t get your hopes up.

Abyssal Underlord is still locked up in Valve’s digital laboratory, and many of the abilities we’ve come to know and love in him may yet be tweaked. I expect most changes will be for balancing purposes, meaning cooldown, damage dealt, damage caps, and AOE are up in the air.

But don’t worry, I’ve got my eyes on updates. I’ll be sure to let you know on any major gameplay changes. As soon as I get my mitts on more details, you can expect a part two to this article.

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