[Guide] TLyN's Guide to Undying the Almighty Dirge

For skills you will want to take a point in Decay at level 1. The reason behind this is because Decay is one hell of a harassment tool. At level 1 it removes 4 strength temporarily and does 20 damage. That means your opponents’ maximum HP and health regeneration has been reduced. You also gain that strength for yourself and therefore can tank more and hit harder to harass or farm in lane. I typically would not get anymore points into Decay until you have maxxed out your other skills because it only adds an additional 40 damage and increases the duration of the steal(which is more than enough at level 1) and decreases cooldown(which can be pretty darn good but I prefer getting Soul Rip because you likely won't be spamming Decay in large amounts after the laning phase until the mid-late game teamfights occur. Its up to you).

Soul Rip is a great nuke/heal. It allows Undying to really aid his teammates. Getting this at level 2 is great as it pretty much removes the need to use Tangos and Healing Salves in lane. It also allows you to heal your lane partner very well. Getting another point into Soul Rip is very important at level 3 because Level 1 Soul Rip isn’t very effective being able to absorb only 5 souls (125 damage/heal). Leave Soul Rip at level 2 to max out your other beastly skill. Max out Soul Rip after you have maxxed out Tombstone to get a ridiculous heal/nuke in teamfights. I usually use it solely as a healing tool because it is much more important(to me anyway) to heal your carry/teammate who is getting beaten up than nuking an enemy.

In the image you can notice that I heal my ally, Ogre Magi with 250 HP, which prevents him from dying to the impending Broodmother's Spawn Spiderlings and 2 auto-attacks. Ogre Magi escapes with 50 HP in the end. A feat that would have been impossible without the heal.

I have healed a lot of carries/teammates who were otherwise dead and the carries were able to kill everyone due to being out alive longer than normal.

Tombstone is what makes Undying shine. It’s a building which spawns zombies! How cool is that? Zombies however are very weak in comparison with pretty much every creep in the Universe of Dota. What makes them so valuable is that they spawn very quickly and can achieve large numbers on the battlefield as well as having a stackable slowing debuff that can be applied to enemies. Zombies also begin to attack much faster should an enemy’s health reach a certain threshold. The slowing debuff is the most important as it can turn the tides of battle clearly in your team’s favour. Slow enemies can’t escape and the extra bits of damage the zombies are doing can really screw up your opponents. You will want to put skill points into this as soon as level 4. Max this skill out ASAP because it increases its radius(MOAR ZOMBIES ON ALL OF YOU), duration(EVEN MOAR ZOMBIES!), tombstone health(You can’t kill this shit!) and deathlust threshold(Zombies attack faster much earlier!).

Flesh Golem is Undying’s ultimate ability. You will get this whenever possible(levels 6, 11 and 16) as it can help a lot in teamfights. This skill makes Undying very difficult to kill in teamfights as it heals a percentage of health of whatever that died near him(Undying doesn’t need to deal the killing blow to heal). He also slows enemies around him by a certain percentage(9%) and amplifies their damage taken depending on their distance from him. So this means you will want to wade into the fight and literally be as close as possible to your enemies to maximize your Ultimate’s effectiveness.

1. Decay Level 1
2. Soul Rip Level 1
3. Soul Rip Level 2
4. Tombstone Level 1
5. Tombstone Level 2
6. Flesh Golem Level 1
7. Tombstone Level 3
8. Tombstone Level 4
9. Soul Rip Level 3
10. Soul Rip Level 4
11. Flesh Golem Level 2
12. Decay Level 2
13. Decay Level 3
14. Decay Level 4
15. Stats
16. Flesh Golem Level 3
17. Stats
18. Stats
19. Stats
20. Stats
21. Stats
22. Stats
23. Stats
24. Stats
25. Flesh Golem Level 4...no just kidding, its Stats

Undying’s default item build according to your recommended item list says Vanguard is a core item. I agree that Vanguard is a great item as it allows you to upgrade your Stout Shield but why do that when you can have Bloodstone. Vanguard gives a you a health boost and good health regeneration as well as being able to block 40 damage 70% of the time. This is pretty sweet but you can always go for the more manly man item Bloodstone. Why do I say this? Well, Bloodstone scales with the game as it refills with charges that increase mana regeneration(Literally unlimited mana), reduces gold lost upon death and reduces respawn time. Furthermore, if you die in combat(which usually is in teamfights) you will heal all allies within a large 1675 range with 400HP + 30 more for each charge in your Bloodstone. Even dead, you still get experience at the point you died(which would be in the middle of the teamfight). Besides that Bloodstone makes you even tankier than ever granting you 500 HP and 9 HP regeneration as well as a ridiculous 400 Mana. Get the parts of the item in the order as shown below.

Therefore you should be aiming for:
1 Ring of Health (To build your Perseverance) [875 Gold]
1 Void Stone (To build your Perseverance) [875 Gold]
Once you have your beautiful regeneration, you should save for:
1 Point Booster (Get this first because it gives both a boost to your maximum Health and Mana) [1250 Gold]
1 Vitality Booster (The final piece. Gives you a great Health boost but get this last.) [1100 Gold]


Now you will be wondering, “Isn’t there an Energy Booster needed too?” The answer? Your Arcane Boots! Disassemble it in your inventory and pick up the Energy Booster and congratulations! You have a Bloodstone! (Don’t forget to pick up your boots too buddy.) Even with normal Boots of Speed you still outrun quite a few heroes because of Undying’s base movement speed of 310.
This leaves you with..

At this stage you will need to think of getting even faster in order to fight or defend. Therefore you should now save up for a Boots of Travel. Yeap you heard me right. You’re gonna be the fastest zombie in the world with the ability to counter push other lanes at will. The only thing you will need is the recipe since you already have the Boots of Speed.

1 Boots of Travel Recipe [2000 Gold]

Use this effectively to counter push any lanes your opponent’s are trying to push. Use it to teleport and defend towers by dropping Tombstone.


You can see I use tombstone to screw up a push from Broodmother, Omniknight and Axe. If they stay too long they risk being caught by my team due to zombies' powerful slow debuffs.

Use it to get to the fight again should you fall in battle. Together with Bloodstone’s lowered death timer, you can get back into the thick of things very quickly which can mean a huge difference in victory or defeat.
You may now need to think about upgrading that Ring of Basillius of yours into a Vladimir’s Offering. Before doing so, PLEASE check over with your team to see if anyone ELSE has bought it. If someone already has this item, SKIP IT as multiple Vladimir's Offerings DO NOT stack.
1 Morbid Mask (Lifesteal mmmmmmmhmm!) [900 Gold]
1 Ring of Regeneration (Nothing much to say, gives Health regeneration) [350 Gold]
1 Vladimir’s Offering Recipe [300 Gold]

One of the few items you can get even before your Arcane boots is Urn of Shadows. This item gives you a pretty decent Strength boost and the heals/damage you can get out of it will be nice. Since as stated by people Undying can get into situations where he simply doesn't have enough mana, you can opt for Soul Ring. Soul Ring is perfect for Undying because it is not only cheap, his 2 skills, Decay and Soul Rip, can compensate for your health loss due to Soul Ring.
Why do I say this? Soul Ring's effect is that it removes 150 HP to grant you 150 Mana temporarily. Since your Soul Rip will likely be Level 2 already, you can easily regain the lost 150 HP because at Level 2 you can heal for 250 HP! And Soul Rip at Level 2 only costs a measly 75 mana! Therefore you are getting a free 70 mana Decay off!
1 Ring of Regen (2 HP regeneration) [350 Gold]
1 Sage's Mask (Mana regeneration never hurt anybody) [325 Gold]
1 Soul Ring Recipe [125 Gold]

You can skip your Ring of Basillius and build your Sage's Mask into a Soul Ring instead!

Support Undying
As a support Undying you should(!) get wards. Be it Observer or Sentry depending on the risk of invisible enemies. Ward the river, the runes, Places which you currently feel uncomfortable and have 0 vision. A very good item on a support based Undying is Veil of Discord. Personally it is an interesting item because of its active ability. Its active ability allows you to weaken enemy heroes and make them softer against magical damage. This includes Decay and Soul Rip! Coupled together with Flesh Golem your enemies will melt very quickly. The item also gives a nice boost of 12 to your overall Intelligence as well as HP regeneration and ARMOR which is always good for your extremely low armored Zombie. Did I also mention that it is pretty darn cheap compared to other expensive items? I however wouldn't recommend this for a team that relies almost entirely on auto attacks as it pretty much makes the active ability lame.
1 Helm of Iron Will (Gives you decent armor and health regeneration) [950 Gold]
1 Robe of the Magi (Gives an increase in your mana pool and mana regeneration) [450 Gold]
1 Veil of Discord Recipe [1250 Gold]

Which gives you..

I would also recommend Mekansm if your team lacks one. Mekansm is like the ultimate troll item. "Oh I'm just going to kill this low HP Drow Ranger and then his team is screwed over!" NOPE MEKANSM. Mekansm is a cheap item because its parts are very low in cost so you can definitely build one.
2 Ironwood Branch (You can upgrade your old branches assuming you had any) [106 Gold]
1 Ring of Regen (2 HP regeneration) [350 Gold]
1 Headdress Recipe [200 Gold]
1 Chainmail (A nice boost to your low default armor) [550 Gold]
1 Buckler Recipe [200 Gold]
1 Mekansm Recipe [900 Gold]
Obtaining the Buckler and Headdress separately instead of buying all the ingredients and recipe last allows you to benefit from having either one of the item's aura/ability.

Which will turn into this!

Items like Pipe of Insight, Drums of Endurance, and Blademail are also decent support items. They are listed as situational below.

- Vanguard (Get this early on if you are desperate getting shut down or killed a lot and can’t be man enough to grab the epic as hell Bloodstone. I personally hate it.) [2225 Gold]
- Pipe of Insight (Get this if the enemy team has heavy amounts of spellcasters and nukers.) [3628 Gold]
- Drums of Endurance (Situational. You may opt for it as it is quite cheap and is nearly as good as Aghanim's Scepter without the Ultimate upgrade.) [1725 Gold]
- Assault Cuirass (If your team in general suffer from a lack of armor or you want yourself and your team to become madmen. This item covers Undying's prime weaknesses, his low Agility gain which results in low armor and attack speed.) [5350 Gold]
- Blademail (To combat carry heroes with a dependency on auto attacks. Cheap.) [2200 Gold]
- Shiva’s Guard (To become an even bigger boss in teamfights. Gives you a lot of armor to tank and the active ability helps tons.) [4700 Gold]
- Aghanim’s Scepter (Not really worth the money. I wouldn’t recommend getting it unless you are really winning the game and have nothing better to spend on.) [4200 Gold]
- Heart of Tarrasque (The ultimate Strength hero item. Nuff said.) [5500 Gold]
- Refresher Orb (WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU...to double ulti..? Do you become a bigger zombie? Do you get to become the final boss of Resident Evil 2 which is a lump of meat that goes around clubbing shit? - SingSing[16/12/2012] Nope.) [5300 Gold]
- Sentry Wards/Dust of Appearance (You absolutely need this when going up against invisible dependent heroes like Slark/Rikimaru/Bounty Hunter) [200/180 Gold]
- Black King Bar (If you are getting shutdown pretty quickly by spells opt for this early.) [3900 Gold]
- Divine Rapier (Because fuck da police. Buy this only if you have enough gold to go to the Bahamas for a 2 month luxury holiday and back and buy a Ferrari without installments. At this point you've probably figured that I'm trolling with this one and the Refresher.) [6200 Gold]

Only go for this if your team lacks a carry(This would suck. End the game fast.) or support with good lane control/stuns. You can fill this role thanks to Decay to harass enemies and Soul Rip to aid your carry. You should also pull the creep camp to your wave to deny enemy heroes experience. DO NOT let your carry pull. They should stay in lane and fight under the protection of the tower. He/She is MUCH more important than you so give them the majority of the farm and deny whenever possible to be the ultimate baller in the history of zombies.

Possibly the best lane Undying can go for. Because of Decay and Soul Rip, enemy harass on you is nothing. Your harass on the enemy team’s carry is going to really put a wrench in their pants (Assuming they have any pants. {See Wisp}). If you have a carry in hard lane with you let him have most of the farm and apply the strategy as above. Note: Buying wards can help you BLOCK the enemy’s pull by placing the ward within sight range of the pulled creep camp. This will make sure they do not deny your precious experience and/or gold.

Not the best lane for Undying to be honest. A lot of other heroes are better at mid but if your team decides to go full retard and pick 4 melee carries with close to 0 lane control then you may have no choice but to take mid. Use Decay to the best of your ability and get a Bottle as soon as possible to get runes and consistently be more annoying.

Tip: Try to get Decay to hit all enemy heroes in the lane. It maximizes its effectiveness. You can get first blood very easily if you decay spam a few times and have a stunner as your lane partner. Have them stun your opponent once you have let off 2-3 decays on them and punch them to death with your strengthened rotting hands.


And if you're really lucky...