Undying

Undying Zombie
Summon
Level	1
Duration	15/20/25/30
Health	2
Health regeneration	0
Armor	0
Magic resistance	33 %
Attack damage	30‒36 ( 80‒86)
Acquisition range	800
Attack range	128
Base attack time	1.6
Attack animation	0.3+0.3
Movement speed	375
Follow range	100
Turn rate	0.5
Collision size	8
Vision range	1400 • 1400 (G)
Bounty	0
Experience	0
Model scale	1.05
Notes	Uncontrollable; Abilities:; Deathlust; Spell Immunity

Tombstone
Ancient Ward
Level	4
Duration	15/20/25/30
Health	6/8/10/14
Health regeneration	0
Armor	5
Magic resistance	33 %
Collision size	16
Vision range	1800 • 1800 (G)
Bounty	125/150/175/200
Experience	0
Model scale	0.8
Notes	Abilities:; Spell Immunity

	Undying
Movement Speed	310
Turn Rate	0.6
Vision Range	1800/800
Attack Range	150
Projectile Speed	Instant
Attack Animation	0.3+0.3
Base Attack Time	1.7
Magic resistance	25%
Collision Size	24
Legs	2

Hero

Gear

Sounds

Lore

Old Abilities

Changelogs

Known Bugs

Undying, the Almighty Dirge, is a melee strength hero who serves as a formidable tank and a dangerous spellcaster. His abilities force opponents to either kill him or suffer powerful debuffs in a teamfight. Decay is a spammable ability that steals enemies' Strength in an area, making them more fragile and Undying himself more durable as the fight goes on while also being exceptionally potent during the early laning phase, leaving your opponents with mere scraps of health. Soul Rip can act as both a powerful heal or nuke, redirecting the flow of living energy to a target. By ripping some of the health of his ally or enemy in an area, the target can be healed if an ally, or damaged if an enemy. This is empowered by Tombstone, which acts as a static tank by summoning zombies to slow Undying's foes while active. With the zombies summoned, Soul Rip can perform to its fullest, while Decay weakens Undying's foes. Finally, Undying can transform into a horrific Flesh Golem. This transformation increases all allied damage by a significant percentage, and helps keep him alive as his team kills the enemy. Monstrous and truly horrifying, Undying finds great pleasure in keeping himself alive and vital, while his adversaries suffer as he delivers death to the field. With powerful abilities that allow him to perform well in large fights, the Dirge may never cease.

Bio[edit]

Undying, the Almighty Dirge
Play "Where go the living, the dead soon follow."
Role:	Support / Durable / Disabler / Nuker
Lore:	How long has it been since he lost his name? The torn ruin of his mind no longer knows. Dimly he recalls armor and banners and grim-faced kin riding at his side. He remembers a battle: pain and fear as pale hands ripped him from his saddle. He remembers terror as they threw him into the yawning pit of the Dead God alongside his brothers, to hear the Dirge and be consumed into nothingness. In the darkness below, time left them. Thought left them. Sanity left them. Hunger, however, did not. They turned on each other with split fingernails and shattered teeth. Then it came: distant at first, a fragile note at the edge of perception, joined by another, then another, inescapable and unending. The chorus grew into a living wall of sound pulsing in his mind until no other thought survived. With the Dirge consuming him, he opened his arms to the Dead God and welcomed his obliteration. Yet destruction was not what he'd been chosen for. The Dead God demanded war. In the belly of the great nothing, he was granted a new purpose: to spread the Dirge across the land, to rally the sleepless dead against the living. He was to become the Undying, the herald of the Dead God, to rise and fall and rise again whenever his body failed him. To trudge on through death unending, that the Dirge might never end.
Voice:	Fred Tatasciore (Responses)

Abilities[edit]

Decay

Play

Ability
Target Area

Affects
Enemies / Self

Damage
Magical

Undying steals strength from all enemy heroes in an area, dealing base damage as he claims the enemy's strength for himself.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 650

Radius: 325

Damage: 20/60/100/140

Strength Steal: 4 (

10)

Duration: 45

10/8/6/4 (

8/6/4/2)

70/90/110/130

Increases strength steal.

Strength loss persists if debuff was placed before spell immunity.

Illusions of Undying or affected enemies do not reflect the gained or lost strength. They keep the original strength values of the heroes.

Modifiers

Decay Buff: Undispellable.

Decay Debuff: Undispellable.

The strength of the living is simply borrowed from the strength of the dead.

Notes:

Successive casts of Decay fully stack on the targets and on Undying.

Cannot reduce a hero's strength below 0, but Undying always gains the full amount of strength for each hit enemy hero.

The strength steal takes place before the damage.

Hit heroes lose 20 current and max health for every stolen strength point. So their health is reduced by 80 ( 200) before the damage is applied.

Heals Undying for 20 health per stolen strength. So the minimum heal is 80 ( 200).
- When hitting all 5 enemy heroes, it heals for 400 ( 1000) health.

When multiple Meepo clones are in the area, only one of them (randomly chosen on each cast) gets his strength stolen.
- The same applies to Arc Warden and his Tempest Double.
- The damage still hits all Meepos and all Arc Wardens.

Does not steal strength from illusions.

Each status buff of Decay increases Undying's model size by 2%. This has no impact on his collision size.

Despite the visual effects, the stolen strength is gained instantly.

When Undying dies, he loses all the stolen strength, but the affected enemies do not get theirs back, and vice versa.

Soul Rip

Play

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies / Allies

Damage
Magical

Undying rips health away from all nearby units and uses it to heal an ally, or damage an enemy. Soul Rip can also be used to heal Tombstone.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 750

Search Radius: 1300

Damage/Heal per Unit: 18/22/26/30

Maximum Units: 10/12/14/16

24/18/12/6

100/110/120/130

Can be cast on and counts nearby spell immune allies.
Cannot be cast on and does not count nearby spell immune enemies.

Units counted towards damage still lose health.

Even allies feel despair in Undying's presence.

Notes:

Can be cast on Tombstones, but not on any other ward type unit.

When cast on an allied Tombstone, it heals it for 2/4/6/8 health. Always heals for this fixed amount, regardless of unit count.

Can target enemy Tombstone, but does not damage nor heal it.

Cannot be cast on Tombstone zombies.

The 1300 search radius is centered around Undying, not the target.

Units within the area are selected randomly and have to pay 18/22/26/30 health as part of the health cost. This health loss is never lethal.

Does not count Undying, the target, wards, buildings, invisible enemies and units in the Fog of War.

Spell immune allies are counted, including the zombies from Tombstone.

Units which require a certain amount of attacks to be killed do not lose health when counted in by Soul Rip.

If there are no valid units within the search radius, the damage or healing equals zero.

The damage or heal are summed up and the target receives them in once instance.

Soul Rip can damage or heal a unit for up to 180/264/364/480 health (before reductions).

Tombstone

Play

Ability
Target Point

Affects
Enemies

Damage
Physical

Summons a tombstone at the target point. Zombies will frequently spawn next to every enemy unit in the area around the Tombstone, and attack them. Zombies have the Deathlust ability, which causes their attacks to slow the target, and if the target reaches below a certain amount of health, increases the attack and movement speed of the zombie.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 600

Zombie Spawn Radius: 600/800/1000/1200

Zombie Spawn Interval: 3

Hero Attacks to Destroy Tombstone: 3/4/5/7

Non-Hero Attacks to Destroy Tombstone: 6/8/10/14

Hero/Tower Attacks to Kill Zombie: 1

Other Attacks to Kill Zombie: 2

Tombstone Duration: 15/20/25/30

70

120/130/140/150

Dirge calls on his fallen brothers to fight for the Dead God.

Notes:

Destroys trees within 300 radius around the Tombstone upon cast.

Zombies do not spawn for invisible units or units in the Fog of War.

Zombies do not spawn for wards, buildings, couriers, hidden units and zombies from an enemy Tombstone.

The zombies are uncontrollable and do nothing but attack their set target. However, they can be boosted by allied spells or auras.
- An exception here is Howl, which does not affect the zombies.

The first wave spawns immediately as the Tombstone is summoned, resulting in 5/7/9/10 possible waves per cast.

When a zombies' target turns invisible, the associated zombies die after 0.1 seconds.

When a zombies' set target dies, the associated zombies die instantly, unless the target was a Meepo.
- In the case of Meepo clones dying, the zombies just stand around until the Tombstone is gone.

When a zombies' set target runs into the Fog of War, the associated zombies still follow it.

When the Tombstone expires or is killed, all its zombies instantly die.

The zombies can only die to physical attacks (meaning e.g. Counter Helix cannot affect them).
- It does not matter how much damage an attack actually deals, it only has to successfully hit a zombie in order to count.
- This means that missed attacks do not deal any damage to zombies.

Illusions are treated as creeps when attacking the Tombstone, so they take twice as many attacks to destroy it as heroes.
- However, when attacking zombies, illusions are treated as heroes, requiring only one attack to kill them.

Flesh Golem

Play

Ability
No Target

Affects
Enemies / Self

Undying transforms into a horrifying flesh golem that possesses a Plague Aura. This aura slows all enemy units within 750 range and amplifies the damage they take; the closer to Undying, the more damage and slow. When a plagued unit dies, Undying is healed equal to a percentage of his own maximum health.

Cast Animation: +

Effect Radius: 750

Min Damage Amplification: 1%

Max Damage Amplification: 20%/25%/30%

Min Move Speed Slow: 1%

Max Move Speed Slow: 20%

Own Max Health as Heal per Hero Death: 10%

Own Max Health as Heal per Non-Hero Death: 2%

Duration: 30

75

100

Illusions get a new Flesh Golem buff, lasting for the full 30 seconds, regardless of how much is left on Undying himself.

Modifiers

Flesh Golem: Undispellable.

Flesh Golem Plague Aura: Undispellable.

The flesh of the recently dead add to the power of Dirge's plague.

Notes:

Flesh Golem interrupts Undying's channeling spells upon cast.

Undying is healed when an affected unit dies within the effect radius, regardless of who killed it.

Dying illusions do not trigger the heal.

Both, the damage amplification and the slow are strongest within a 200 radius around Undying.
- The effects get linearly weaker the further away units are from Undying, reaching the minimum at 750 range.

Amplifies all 3 damage types, including self-inflicted damage and damage dealt by allies.

Plague Aura's debuff lingers for 0.5 seconds.

Flesh Golem is fully canceled on death.

Undying Zombie[edit]

Deathlust

Ability
Passive

Affects
Enemies

Slows enemy units on attack. If the attacked unit's health goes below the threshold, the zombie receives enhanced movement and attack speed.

Fixed Health Threshold: 100/200/300/400

Percentage Health Threshold: 20%/25%/30%/35%

Threshold Move Speed Bonus: 50%

Threshold Attack Speed Bonus: 50

Move Speed Slow: 7%

Slow Duration: 2.5

Modifiers

Tombstone Zombie Deathlust: Dispellable with any dispel.

Deathstrike Slow Counter: Undispellable.

Deathstrike Slow: Dispellable with any dispel.

Notes:

The slow from multiple attacks and multiple zombies fully stacks.

Each stack lasts 2.5 seconds. They do not refresh each other's duration.

The number of current stacks can be seen on the debuff icon (a number is visible on it).

The health of the target is checked in 0.5 second intervals. If their target is below the threshold, the Deathlust Frenzy buff is placed.

The buff lasts for 2.5 seconds, but gets refreshed as long as the target stays below the threshold.

Does not trigger against Familiars.

Spell Immunity

Ability
Passive

Affects
Self

This creature does not feel the effects of most magical spells.

Magic Resistance Bonus: 100%

Notes:

The Tombstone has this ability as well.

Talents[edit]

Hero Talents
-2s Decay Cooldown	25	+15 Armor
+30 Movement Speed	20	+50 Tombstone Zombie Damage
+300 Health	15	+35% XP Gain
+90 Gold/Min	10	+15 Health Regen

Notes:

The health regen is added as a bonus and does not benefit illusions.

Gold granted from the talent is unreliable gold.

Upgrading health increases maximum health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.

The armor is added as bonus armor, and therefore does not benefit illusions.

Recommended items[edit]

Starting items:

Tango and Healing Salve are standard regeneration items that should be bought to sustain in lane.
Clarity helps Undying spam out more spells in the early game.
Stout Shield allows Undying to put up with a lot of harassment in the early game.

Early Game:

Ring of Basilius provides a good amount of mana regeneration and armor for Undying to use.
Urn of Shadows can heal you after killing an enemy, and combined with Soul Rip increases your nuke power in a fight.

Core Items:

Arcane Boots are another way to help with Undying's lackluster mana pool, as well as provide mana to his allies.
Aghanim's Scepter provide tremendous boost on Decay strength steal, and improving Undying overall survivability in team fight
Mekansm's stats, health regen and armor help you and your allies. Can be upgraded later to Guardian Greaves.

Situational items:

Hood of Defiance and Vanguard are a great way to deal with magical and physical damage on the enemy team, respectively.
Pipe of Insight is a direct upgrade to Hood of Defiance that can be used to benefit your whole team.
Shiva's Guard provides both of Undying's needs in tankiness and mana.
Blade Mail is a great choice if you are getting focused down in teamfights too much.
Scythe of Vyse is an obviously great disable and mana regeneration item for Undying.
Purchase Guardian Greaves if you are going to build Arcane Boots combined with Mekansm. Guardian Greaves give more armor and health regen, also the heal is mana-free.

Gameplay[edit]

Strategy & Tips

Counters &
Matchups

Audio[edit]

Responses

Sounds

History[edit]

Lore

Old Abilities

Changelogs

Equipment[edit]

Trivia[edit]

In DotA, his hero name was Dirge, and his hero title was Undying.
Undying was originally an intelligence hero. He became a strength hero as he got reworked in the 6.58 gameplay patch. All his abilities, but Soul Rip got reworked. His old abilities are explained here.
Undying makes several references to the Left 4 Dead series, saying names of special infected, campaign names, and even the title itself in his dialogue.
- One notable reference is Undying's line, Play "No dead are safe from Blueheart Bob."; this phrase is highly similar to the famous Left 4 Dead "Chicago Ted" graffiti line ("No zombie is safe from Chicago Ted").
- Undying refers to Bounty Hunter as a Hunter due to the Hunter in Left 4 Dead being able to ambush players, just like how Bounty Hunter can.
- Spirit Breaker is referred to as a Charger due to the Charger sprinting at other players and repeatedly stunning them, just like how Spirit Breaker can.
- Venomancer is referred to as a Spitter for its ability to spit acid at players, similar to Venomancer himself.
- Alchemist is referred to as a Jockey as the Jockey climbs on players and steers them, similar to how the Alchemist himself steers his Ogre.
Undying also references the Half Life series in a rival line towards Tinker (Play "For Lamarr."). Dr. Kleiner, who shares his voice actor with Tinker, has a pet headcrab named Lamarr. Headcrabs are small, parasitic creatures that attach themselves to the head of their victims, after which the victims turn into zombies.
Undying's taunt against Kunkka Play "Where is your ex-parrot?" is a reference to the famous Parrot Sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Undying's taunt against Invoker Play "Carl? Is that you?" is a reference to the 6.72's leaked changelog (which turned out to be a fake), where Invoker's name "Kael" was mistakenly translated into "Carl".
A dirge is a sombre song of mourning or grieving, typically performed at a funeral.
Undying's line, Play "Shop smart." is a reference to the Army of Darkness movie.
Undying has the lowest agility stat growth of any hero, along with Skywrath Mage.