For years, Undying has been a staple hard support pick.

Undying does well in the laning stage thanks to how strong Decay is, especially against melee heroes. Soul Rip a fantastic heal that comes with a low cooldown, while Tombstone is one of the best team fight spells that provides the same value as Phoenix’s Supernova.

Still, Undying has been largely ignored in recent patches, in favor of heroes who either provide better healing, such as Winter Wyvern and Phoenix, or heroes who provide a lot of burst damage and control like Lion and Hoodwink.

In the most recent Dota 2 patch 7.30d however, Undying has finally gained more than a 50% win rate in pubs. But what has caused the him to suddenly surge in win rate?

Undying has been buffed for four updates in a row including Dota 2 patch 7.30d

Dota 2, Undying, Cosmetic — Credit: Valve

Because the time between Dota 2 patches can last for months, it becomes easy to forget when a hero has been receiving multiple buffs in a row.

This often results in a hero being ignored until they are buffed into being overpowered, which might be the case with Undying right now.

Here are the buffs Undying has received over the last six months:

Decay

Now deals 2x damage to non-hero units.
Reduced mana cost from 85/95/105/115 to 85/90/95/100.

Soul Rip

Reduced Soul Rip mana cost from 100/110/120/130 to 85/100/115/130.

Tombstone

Increased hero attacks to destroy from 4/5/6/7 to 5/6/7/8.

Flesh Golem

Increased Flesh Golem movement speed bonus from 30 on each level to 30/40/50.

Hero stats

Increased agility gain from 0.8 to 1.2.
Increased mana regeneration from 0 to 0.25.
Increased health regeneration from 0 to 0.25.

Undying has been buffed numerous times over the last four updates. Decay now deals double damage to creeps, and provides the him with a solid farming option to stay relevant in the later stages of the game.

Undying also received small buffs to both health and mana regeneration, two very helpful stats at all stages of the game in Dota 2 patch 7.30d. The extra 0.4 agility gain makes the hero attack slightly faster, and provides a little more physical armor as well.

His talent tree has also received a rework and is currently in a great spot.

Undying is a great hero to use in the current meta for The International 10

Undying Grim Reformation set — Credit: Valve

Dota 2 patches 7.29 and 7.30 favored strong late-game carries who can take big neutral creep stacks and accelerate their farm.

However, Dota 2 patch 7.30d shifted the meta into a more mid-game-oriented style. Stacks have been nerfed by 15%, along with nerfs to strong late-game cores such as Sven and Luna.

The current mid-game meta perfectly fits Undying, who is at his best in the early game. Undying’s skill-set tends to peak around the 20-minute mark, which is when most matches are decided in Dota 2 patch 7.30d.

While the hero is usually hard support, this early peak has led some teams to experiment with Undying carry.

At 20 minutes, Tombstone is relatively hard to bring down. Since most cores won’t have Black King Bar at the time, it makes them susceptible to Undying’s abilities. Flesh Golem’s health boost makes him near unkillable at that stage.

And the results speak for themselves, for the first time in months, the hero’s win rate has surpassed the 50% mark, making the him a solid choice to grind MMR in pubs for Dota 2 patch 7.30d.

It will be interesting to see if the hero is contested at The International 10. With all the buffs he’s received and shift to a faster paced meta, Undying could be a big star this TI10.

After 4 consecutive buffs, Undying’s win rate finally exceeds 50%