Today we'd like to wrap up the Hero previews by showing you the faces of the last 2 Heroes that are part of The Big Update.

Io:



Faceless Void:



Even though Season One adds 12 new Heroes to the roster, we have decided not to remove any Beta Season Heroes. You might be asking yourself: "Won't this make it harder to Rank Up Heroes?".

This is where the Jail comes in: Every 24 hours, a number of crimin Heroes are removed from the pool. This system will also make sure that when creating the list of Heroes to ban, that all Alliances can still be completed.



Not only we have found it adds a great variance to the game from day to day, but most importantly, we didn't see any change to the rate Heroes can be Ranked Up.

We hope you are all enjoying these previews while we get ready to release The Big Update.

See ya tomorrow!

Today we continue our preview of The Big Update with 3 more heroes.

Shadow Demon:



Bristleback:



Sven:




More. Heroes. Tomorrow.

Introducing Legion Commander and the Champion Alliance:






Lifestealer and Magnus are ready join your crew with their Brute Alliance:








Tune back in tomorrow for more.

The Big Update is shipping soon, and we can’t help but start to talk about it. There are many pieces to this update (hence the name) and we’ll be sharing new details daily until release.

At a high level, The Big Update marks the beginning of the end of the Underlords Beta. We’ve been constantly learning and experimenting over the last few months, and with this update we are polishing away a big chunk of ‘Beta’, getting us even closer to Version 1.0.

We'd like to start our previews by showcasing Heroes and Alliances that make part of the new roster. Let's get started!



Introducing the Healer Alliance and Dazzle:






The Insects Alliance is also here ready to bug your opponents, with 3 new heroes Weaver, Nyx Assassin and Broodmother:










We'll continue our showcase of new heroes and alliances tomorrow with Part Two, see ya then.

• Fixed an issue where, once a unit's channeling was interrupted, it could never cast at a higher power than that. This affected Keeper of the Light and Windranger. If their casts were interrupted, any later casts would be at the same power level, even if in the later casts they successfully channeled the entire channel time.
  
• Fixed the longstanding issue where more than one of the same type of Demon would still invalidate the Demon alliance.
  
• Tweaked Savage numbers to [7, 15, 25] from [4, 8, 15].

In our internal playtests, the game is different enough that the old Savage numbers (and the change to Demons) felt balanced, but public is in a very different space right now so this should work better for the public game.

NOTE: This is our last update before the Big Update. Next week you won't get a new update, but in exchange--if all goes well--we'll start showcasing each of the new features you'll find in the Big Update as we approach release day.

See you then!

• Fixed an issue where units could be forced to attack untargetable units (example: Pudge hooks an undying unit).
  
• Fixed an issue where all damage done by Medusa's Ace Effect, where all Scaled units do damage to units near them, would be credited to Medusa only.

Enchantress:

• Nature's Attendants:
  
  • Fixed an issue where the wrong heal amount was displayed on the ability tooltip.

Lone Druid's Spirit Bear:

• Entangling Claws:
  
  • Fixed an issue where Entangling Claws would never be cast.

Viper:

• Max Mana is now 50.

Big-Time Contract:

• Players can now get more than 1 of this item again.

Target Buddy:

• Can no longer be healed.

Blood-Bound:

• Changed to: When a Blood-Bound unit dies, it gives +125% Attack Damage, in addition to any existing Blood-Bound bonus it has, to a random friendly Blood-Bound unit.

Savage:

• Changed to: Allied Savage units gain +[4, 8, 15] Attack Damage each time they land an attack on an enemy or cast a damaging spell.
  
• This affects Venomancer and Sand King, the only Savage units with damaging spells.

• Removed Summon Units challenge.
  
• Fixed an issue where some abilities that preferred the unit's current target (e.g. Slardar's Corrosive Haze) could be cast outside their maximum range.
  
• Fixed an issue where Tusk could punch something so hard it never returned to earth.
  
• Added a new Notice animation for Tiny.

Lycan:

• Shapeshift:
  
  • Fixed an issue where Lycan was healing too much on shift.

Slardar:

• Corrosive Haze:
  
  • Will no longer be cast again on a target currently affected by it.

Venomancer:

• Venomous Gale:
  
  • While Venomancer still only targets units within his attack range (3 cells), the actual Gale projectile travels up to 5 cells.
    
  • Projectile damage increased to [30, 60, 120] from [25, 50, 100].

Viper:

• Viper is now a Scaled Dragon (was Dragon Assassin).
  
• Removed Viper Strike ability.
  
• Added Nethertoxin:
  
  • Viper poisons a cell, dealing [50, 100, 150] damage per second to any enemy unit in it and disabling their passives. Duration: 5s.
    
  • Mana Cost: 50.
    
  • Cooldown: 5s.

Big-Time Contract:

• Players can only have a maximum of 1 of this item now.

Savage:

• Changed to: Allied Savage units gain +[4, 8, 15] Attack Damage each time they land an attack on an enemy. This replaces the bleed effect that would be applied each time they landed an attack.

• Fixed longstanding issue where passive abilities (excepting Dragon special abilities and Sand King's Caustic Finale) used stats from one rank higher, e.g. Crystal Maiden 2-star using Crystal Maiden 3-star's values. Some units got a buff to compensate (see below), and we'll be monitoring the others.
  
• A few Bots had their electronic brains unscrewed, tweaked, and reattached.
  
• Added some new animations for benched units when under unit cap.
  
• Fixed an issue where tiny quantities of damage could generate either too little or too much Mana. Warlock casting Shadow Word would cause this.
  
• Fixed a visual-only issue where Lina and Crystal Maiden would return from the dead at the end of combat.
  
• With most summons removed (see below), removed the Summoning Stone item.
  
• Units killing themselves no longer get those kills scored. Sorry Barricades!

Axe:

• Armor changed from 5 to [5, 10, 15].
  
• Maximum Health changed from [700, 1400, 2800] to [805, 1610, 3220].

Disruptor:

• Static Storm:
  
  • Fixed an issue where total damage dealt could be wrong.
    
  • No longer gives units in the storm a miss chance.

Dragon Knight:

• Elder Dragon Form:
  
  • Fixed Corrosive Breath not working (it incorrectly had a duration of 0).

Drow Ranger:

• Attack Rate changed from 0.769 to 0.833.
  
• Attack Damage Minimum changed from [45, 90, 180] to [56, 112, 225].
  
• Attack Damage Maximum changed from [50, 100, 200] to [62, 125, 250].

Lycan:

• Attack Damage Minimum changed from [50, 100, 240] to [65, 130, 312].
  
• Attack Damage Maximum changed from [60, 120, 288] to [78, 156, 375].
  
• Summon Wolves is now Shapeshift:
  
  • No wolves are summoned.
    
  • Max HP gain from [30, 40, 50] to [40, 50, 60].
    
  • Critical Hit bonus changed from [150, 175, 200] to [200, 225, 250].

Nature's Prophet:

• Attack Rate changed from 0.714 to 0.769.
  
• Maximum Mana changed from 50 to 100.
  
• Attack Damage Minimum changed from [45, 90, 180] to [56, 112, 225].
  
• Attack Damage Maximum changed from [50, 100, 200] to [62, 125, 250].
  
• Removed Nature's Call ability.
  
• Added Wrath of Nature:
  
  • Nature's Prophet zaps a target for [250, 275, 300] damage. This bounces [3, 4, 5] times across enemies in the board, increasing the damage by [10, 13, 15]% per bounce.
    
  • Mana Cost: 100.
    
  • Cooldown: [15, 13, 11].

Shadow Shaman:

• Attack Rate changed from 0.625 to 0.8.

Tusk:

• Maximum Mana changed from 100 to 60.
  
• Walrus PUNCH!:
  
  • Mana Cost changed from 100 to 60.
    
  • Cooldown changed from 7 to 4.

Venomancer:

• Removed Plague Ward ability.
  
• Added Venomous Gale:
  
  • Launches a ball of venom in a line, poisoning enemy units so that they take [25, 50, 100] damage as well as [10, 20, 40] damage every 3s for a duration of 15s. Affected units lose 50% movement speed and 25 Attack Rate.
    
  • Mana Cost: 100.
    
  • Cooldown: [10, 8, 6].

• 2-star and 3-star visual upgrades for Batrider, Enigma, Slark, Sniper, and Warlock.
  
• The janitor took out some more crash trash.
  
• Fixed an issue where Terrorblade could Sunder with the wrong unit at cast time, including dead units.
  
• Can no longer enter combat preview mode on the board when in combat.

Bloodseeker:

• Bloodrage:
  
  • Now ramps up to his existing maximum attack speed bonus of 500 earlier, at 20% health (was 0%).

Lich:

• Chain Frost:
  
  • Bounce range changed to 2 (was 4).

Templar Assassin:

• Added Meld:
  
  • When first attacking after teleporting, Templar Assassin fires a projectile that does [50, 100, 150] damage on impact and decreases her target's armor by [2, 4, 6] for 5 seconds.

Treant Protector:

• Leech Seed:
  
  • If the target of Leech Seed dies before the ability duration expires, the seed jumps to another target for its remaining duration.

Tusk:

• Walrus Punch:
  
  • Tusk is now invulnerable while mid-Punch.

Warlock:

• Shadow Word:
  
  • Now heals 75% of the total heal instantly, and the remaining 25% over the duration of the buff. This results in [168, 337, 675] instant heal and [56, 112, 225] over the remaining duration.
    
  • Damage per second changed from [50, 100, 150] to [75, 150, 300].

Deadeye Alliance:

• Added a small health difference buffer to prevent Deadeye units constantly changing targets.

Tombstone:

• Raise Zombies:
  
  • Range changed from 2 cells to 1.

We have updated our servers with the following changes.

NOTE: Tooltips on mobile platforms will not reflect the changes until the build is updated.

• Reduced the chances of finding T4 Units by 5%, from level 6 to 8.

Arc Warden:

• Maximum Health changed from [700, 1400, 2800] to [600, 1200, 2400]

Enigma:

• Ace Effect:
  
  • Now prevents gaining mana from attacks while Hexed, Silenced or Stunned, instead of draining it.

Disruptor:

• Ace Effect:
  
  • Now reads: The effect of the Warlocks Alliance is now applied to 1 target per Alliance level.

Warlock Alliance:

• Healing changed from [50%, 80%, 130%] -> [50%, 70%, 100%].

Assassin Alliance:

• On a critical strike, Assassin's wound the target reducing healing done by [50%, 100%]