The latest update to Dota Underlords comes with buffs to Warlock and Templar Assassin, while nerfing the powerful Tombstone contraption.

The namesake hero of the Warlock alliance is now more viable thanks to a huge buff to his Shadow Word ability, which now gives an instant burst heal to allies instead of its previously slow, progressive healing.

Shadow Word now heals allied targets for 75% of its total heal instantly, with the remaining 25% spread over the duration of the buff. This results in it instantly healing for [168, 337, 675] and [56, 112, 225] over the remaining duration. When used on enemy targets, it still deals damage over time, but the total amount of damage has also been buffed, from [50, 100, 150] to [75, 150, 300].

Templar Assassin has also been buffed, and can now use Meld, alongside her existing Dota 2 ability, Refraction. When she first attacks after teleporting, Meld fires a projectile that does [50, 100, 150] damage on impact and decreases the target’s armor by [2, 4, 6] for 5 seconds, making it easier for Templar Assassin to burst down enemy heroes.

The other big change in the update is a nerf to the powerful Tombstone contraption, which summons a zombie equivalent to the level of an allied or enemy hero that dies within its area-of-effect.

Tombstone can too often swing the tides for a player in the lategame, especially if the board is filled with three-star heroes or those that have lots of summons.

Because of that, the range of Tombstone’s area of effect has now been nerfed from two cells around it to just one. This make it so that a player with a Tombstone on his board has to put it in his frontline for it to be fully effective, making it much more vulnerable to being destroyed before its powerful abilities can kick in.



The patch also includes minor tweaks to hero abilities, such as Bloodseeker’s Bloodrage ability now ramping up to his maximum attack speed bonus of 500 at 20% health and Tusk now being invulnerable while casting Walrus Punch.

More heroes are also being given better looks at higher levels, with Batrider, Enigma, Slark, Sniper, and Warlock now getting their 2-star and 3-star visual upgrades.

For the full patch notes, check here.

This latest update is expected to be among the last minor patches before the “Big Update” — which adds two playable Underlords, the Duos team mode, six new heroes, and three new alliances — hits early next month.

READ MORE: Dota Underlords’ new Duos Game Mode will let you team up with a friend