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In this article, we will talk about some of the common strategies in Dota Underlords and compare them to familiar strategies in Auto Chess to get a basic grasp of the newly forming Underlords Meta.
If you want a general comparison, you can check it out here: Underlords vs Auto Chess. And if you are entirely new to the game or the genre, you can check out our Basics of Dota Underlords article.
Disclaimer: The game is new and balance patches are hitting regularly, so don’t take the information below as a “how to” guide, but as an opinion piece that you can compare with your own experience and knowledge of the game.
Before we dive into some specific strategies, I’d like to discuss two factors which I believe are a major driving force in the difference between Dota Underlords and Auto Chess strategy principles.
Global items in Underlords make a big difference compared to Auto Chess, but they are quite intuitive to include in your strat so I won’t focus on them here (we’ll discuss them in-depth in another article).
Having only one item per hero, however, also makes a big difference but less obviously so.
In Auto Chess, some strategies have an easily identifiable “main carry”. This would be the Dragon Knight in the (6) Knights + (3) Dragons strat, or e.g. a three-star Phantom Assassin in (6) Assassin + (3) Elf strats, Terrorblade in Demon strats, etc.
These units are your main damage dealers, so you would often put most of your high-value items on them. Having Madness, Battlefury and ideally a survivability item like BKB on your Phantom Assassin is the dream (not easy to achieve, but still something you strive towards).
In Underlords, however, you can only put one item on a unit. Battle Fury is great on PA, but it gives only splash, no bonus damage. Putting it on her means you wouldn’t have space for a damage or attack speed item, etc.
Similarly, if Bloodseeker is your main damage dealer, you would have a choice to make. BKB is amazing on him, but so are DPS items – you have to make a choice.
All of this means that strategies that heavily focus on one unit (Terrorblade, Dragon Knight, etc.) are a bit weaker in Underlords compared to Auto Chess. Your builds are more efficient when you have a few tanks and a few damage dealers on which you can distribute a couple of high-value items.
Proximity Auras and items (that take effect if the units are standing right next to each other) are relatively common in Dota Underlords. This gives an advantage to ranged lineups because they don’t move much during the round, while melee lineups can easily get dragged away from each other and lose the aura buff quite randomly.
This
is a major reason why e.g. Hunters were (and arguably still are) much better in
Dota Underlords than they are in Auto Chess. Sniper and Medusa stay put right
next to Drow, who gives them her aura and increases their DPS tremendously.
This
is also a major reason why Knights are arguably a bit weaker in Underlords
compared to Auto Chess – they need to stay next to each other to retain the
buff, which makes them vulnerable to AoE. If they separate, they might lose the buff. Moreover, the last Knight standing
is guaranteed not to have the buff.
This also has an effect on AoE spells and positioning:
In Auto Chess, in the late game, some lineups work best when you spread them out on the board so that it is less likely that multiple units get hit from the same AoE spell. This is also possible in Underlords, but often you want to keep heroes right next to each other because of the proximity auras, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to AoE spells.
Because of this, Kunkka, Tide, Medusa, Enigma, Disruptor (who are already S-tier in Auto Chess) are arguably even stronger in Dota Underlords, and BKB is probably one of the most important items in the game to put on a damage-dealer.
On top of that, Refresher is more common in Underlords, and all of the above units with Refresher (especially Kunkka for control and Enigma for damage) can single-handedly win you fights vs clumped-up enemies.
Hunters + Warriors were broken when the game came out, but it is arguably still one of the good strategies in Underlords. There are a couple of reasons for this:
You start with Drow + Pudge as key units and two additional Hunters + two additional Warriors to get the Synergies ASAP. In the mid game, you can replace your weaker heroes with the more expensive units in the lineup above.
In the late game, you have a few possibilities:
Primordials (Elementals) are stronger in Underlords compared to Auto Chess for the simple reason that you have four non-legendary Primordial heroes, which means you can build the (4) Primordial bonus much more reliably (Tiny, Morph, Razor, Arc Warden). Arc Warden himself, combined with a tankiness item like Vanguard/Heart/etc. and his Tempest Double is a beastly frontline tank, which is something that Assassins need.
Assassins are also arguably stronger compared to Auto Chess because:
Going for Primordial + Assassins gives you two variations in the early-mid game. You can choose to go for (2) Primordial + (6) Assassins (as in this example), or for (4) Primordial with (3) Assassins as in the other tab.
This variation, obviously, is the offensive one.
Morph and Tiny serve as your tanks, all other units are damage-dealers. It’s still possible to reach the (4) Primordial synergy on lvl9 if you chose to do so. Alternatively, if you’re not playing against melee strategies, you can try to get Medusa or ideally – Tide. This will give you the (2) Scaled magic resistance bonus because of Slark + some control. An additional elf (Treant, Anti-Mage, etc.) is also possible to include to give Templar and Phantom Assassin evasion. (9) Assassins are also possible to reach, but quite harder to get and requires lvl10 if you want to save the (2) Primordial synergy while also being worse in terms of utility.
If you’re playing against other melee drafts (Warriors, Knights, Elves, other Assassins), you can choose to get the (4) Primordial bonus first. This will make your whole army much tankier and will buy time for your Assassins to deal damage.
You can still go for (6) Assassins afterward to maximize your damage.
Warriors
into Mages is a very solid draft. Warriors are the most consistent opening because you can transition into multiple strong strategies (Hunters, Mages, Savage, or even to just commit to Warriors).
Out of those transitions, Mages and Hunters are the easiest and most consistent to go for.
Mages are an amazing damage-dealing synergy. With (3) Mages you can include multiple other synergies (Humans, Warlocks, etc.) or units that just work well with the magic resistance reduction.
Usually, however, in the late game you want to go for (6) Mages: KotL + the (6) Mages huge magic resistance reduction pretty much instantly wipe the enemy board. The only thing you need to worry about are (4) Scaled, which are awkward to include in any strat besides Hunters (who need Tide to do so). Managing to get (6) Mages with all units on two-stars is almost a guarantee you'll nudge your way into top 3 or 4.
In general, you have a few variations of this strategy:
Humans: one is to go for (4) Humans as in the example
above. One additional Warlock will give you some lifesteal (e.g. Necro, later you'll get (2) Heartless from including Lich as well). You can also choose to go for the more standard (6) Mages in the late game. The Human mages are the best mage variation against other mages because the Silence is critical against frontline AoE control units.
Brawny (Orcs): The (4) Brawny bonus + the (3) Warriors bonus is an easy way to build a tanky frontline, and the Browny global item (Forged in Battle) is a good way to make your frontline even better if you manage to get it early and collect the (4) Brawny units sooner rather than later. Disruptor is also great with Mages – his damage gets buffed, and the silence allows your Mages to cast their spells first.
Primordial: Keep Tiny + Razor and if you are facing melee drafts you can choose to go for (4) Primordials + (3) Mages. This is probably the variation which is stronger in Underlords than in Auto Chess because it doesn’t require Enigma. The (4) Primordials bonus is great against Assassins and Warriors, but it's not that good against Hunters and Mages.
Knights
bonus (especially the (6) Knights) is less reliable than in Auto Chess as
mentioned because of the Knights proximity aura.
It's also harder to make DK into a super carry because you can put only one item on him.
That said, the damage reduction Alliance bonus received considerable buffs and became one of the best (if not the best) defensive synergies in the game. This variation benefits a lot from an additional Warlock to gain the (2) Warlock bonus from already having Necrophos for the (2) Heartless.
The draft is pretty decent, but it has two major drawbacks compared to Auto Chess:
That said, this variation has both great tankiness and insane DPS. In the late game, you can go for all (6) Knights and/or (2) Dragons with DK.
Thank you for reading!
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