If you’ve so much as dipped a toe into a Dota 2 forum, you’ve probably heard of the Pit Lord. The last hero from the original Dota mod yet to appear in Dota 2, fans had been patiently waiting for him to be added to the game for years. Yesterday at the Dota 2 International’s All-Star game, it was finally announced that those years waiting would be over in just 10 days, with Pit Lord due to arrive on August 23. Fans rejoiced. Valve saw all that it had made, and it was good.
However, rather than rest, today Valve made it clear that the arrival of the Pit Lord is by no means the end of new Dota 2 heroes.
Dota 2 fans had been expecting Pit Lord for so long that it could almost be considered a meme, or the community’s own personal Half Life 3. After the introduction of Arc Warden last year, Pit Lord was the last hero from the original Dota mod to remain absent from Dota 2. Common opinion was that it was only a matter of time before he would be included – the only question was of how much, and if we’d all still be alive.
That question was answered yesterday when the Pit Lord, now called “Underlord”, made his debut appearance during the Dota 2 International All-Star match, materialising onto the stage in a burst of green AR light. And even though everyone saw it coming, fans were beside themselves.
A melee strength character, Underlord’s abilities are an AOE rain of fire with burn damage, an AOE that immobilises and damages enemies within it, and an aura that weakens enemies’ base damage while granting Underlord extra damage if they die while under its effects. Underlord’s ultimate ability also enables him to teleport himself and nearby ally heroes to another friendly unit’s position. Though exactly what role he will be most suited for is unclear, his abilities appear to lend themselves toward support (possibly exempting the aura).
With the announcement of the Underlord, the original Dota line up was complete. It would have been reasonable to expect a lengthy wait before another hero was released, if one ever was.
Which made today’s unexpected announcement of a second, all-new hero all the more exciting. Coming in the simultaneously announced New Journey Update, the Monkey King is a (presumably) melee hero based upon Monkey King Sun Wukong, a figure from Chinese mythology most well known as a main character in the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West.
Based upon the Monkey King’s introduction video (which is all we have to go on at the moment), he appears very similar to Phantom Lancer, in that he can make duplicates of himself and whack people with a large pole. He may also have a stealth ability, as the video shows him disguise himself as a tree before whacking people with his pole. (Side note: Said pole is a Monkey King Bar, an item already in Dota 2.) It would also be reasonable to assume that he will be a carry, however for now this is all speculation.
Though not part of the original hero line up, Sun Wukong did appear in the original Dota as a summonable boss. This, coupled with a patch a few months ago that inexplicably caused bananas to appear if cheats were enabled, made a few fans speculate at the Monkey King’s inclusion, but it was largely hopeful guesswork until now.
Underlord will arrive on August 23, while the Monkey King and the New Journey Update will be coming in spring.
Comments
13 responses to “Dota 2 Finally Adds Pit Lord, Then Introduces A Completely New Hero”
So every Moba now has a Wukong
Yeah but the one from dota is voiced by Matthew Mercer (from Critical Role and the voice of McCree)
So is the one from HoN though.
Same voice actor as HoN’s Monkey King actually.
With so many interesting and novel characters why the hell would you go back for such a generic “new” first character.
A sign of the sequally times for sure. 🙁
Bro, Monkey King has been in the works for 3 years. He was hinted as the next hero in Dota 1 back in the 6.x days, and was delayed from release because IceFrog/Valve decided to finish and release the rest of the Dota 1 roster in Dota 2 before releasing any new heroes.
I don’t think you should jump to conclusions like that, especially without a little research.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is this wasn’t something decided recently. We’ve known this was coming for a long time and it probably wasn’t even a hero release influenced by Valve at all. I don’t think it’s a bad thing that we’re getting Sun Wukong/Monkey King, and there’s nothing wrong with the concept at all.
Because Monkey King was hinted at 3 years ago and the theme around him and his release patch makes a lot of sense given that it’s called “A New Journey” (a reference to the Journey to the West).
Besides DotA has always had more diverse hero pool than all other games within its genre so I’m not all that concerned at future heroes being yet another LoL templated champion.
And just because they took an old concept doesn’t necessarily mean he will have a generic ability set.
Um. Isn’t Pit Lord in the photo next to the definition of a turtling/ anti-push strat hero?
Anti push is probably the most appropriate description. His abilities have changed so many times between when dota 2 was announced and now i have lost track.
The major change is atrophy aura where instead of dead bodies exploding (ala sand king caustic finale but with corpses) he was probably better at de-push before they changed it to a dmg reduction and buff for pit lord.
If he makes his way into CM, we would probably see him mostly versus agressive tri lanes as his skill set is perfect for that reason currently.
Other wise solo offlane roamer into death ball push with team would be my guess.
It’s also his ability to easily switch an entire team from offensive push to tower defence with a single ultimate that made him a major contributor to success in the role.