Undying

Undying the Almighty Dirge is a melee Strength Hero who serves as a formidable tank and a dangerous spellcaster. His abilities force opponents to either kill him or suffer powerful debuffs in a teamfight. Decay is a spammable ability that steals enemies' Strength in an area, making them more fragile and Undying himself more durable as the fight goes on while also being exceptionally potent during the early laning phase, leaving your opponents with mere scraps of health. Soul Rip can act as both a powerful heal or nuke, redirecting the flow of living energy to a target. By ripping some of the health of his ally or enemy in an area, the target can be healed if an ally, or damaged if an enemy. This is empowered by Tombstone, which acts as a static tank by summoning Zombies to slow Undying's foes while active. With the Zombies summoned, Soul Rip can perform to its fullest, while Decay weakens Undying's foes. Finally, Undying can transform into a horrific Flesh Golem. This transformation increases all allied damage by a significant percentage, and helps keep him alive as his team kills the enemy. Monstrous and truly horrifying, Undying finds great pleasure in keeping himself alive and vital, while his adversaries suffer as he delivers death to the field. With powerful abilities that allow him to perform well in large fights, the Dirge may never cease.

Recommended items
Starting items:
 * and are standard regeneration items that should be bought to sustain in lane.
 * helps Undying spam out more spells in the early game.
 * allows Undying to put up with a lot of harassment in the early game.

Early Game:
 * provides a good amount of mana regeneration and armor for Undying to use.
 * heal you after killing an enemy, and combined with increase you nuke power in a fight.

Core Items:
 * are another way to help with Undying's lackluster mana pool, as well as provide mana to his allies.
 * The stats, hp regen and armor help you and you allies. Can be upgraded Later to a

Situational items:
 * and are a great way to deal with magic and physical damage on the enemy team, respectively.
 * is a direct upgrade to that can be used to benefit your whole team.
 * provides both of Undying's needs in tankyness and mana.
 * is a great choice if you are getting focused down in teamfights too much.
 * is an obviously great disable and mana regeneration item for Undying.
 * Purchase if you're going to build combined with, Guardian Greaves gives more armor and HP regen, also the heal is mana free.

Tips

 * Decay is very useful even if left at level 1. Max it when team battles begin to start: you can spam it even more and make enemies squishier.
 * Undying can be played in many ways: if you are going for a more supportive role, use your Tombstone and your Flesh Golem to slow the enemies while spamming Decay, then let your lane partner get the kill. Otherwise, use Soul Rip to finish a Hero while there are many creeps nearby: this way it deals more damage.
 * Do not use Soul Rip to harass, but use it to heal a friendly hero or to finish off enemies. This is more effective if there are many units nearby, such as creeps if you are laning, or heroes if you are initiating.
 * While initiating, use Tombstone and Flesh Golem, then Decay/Soul Rip: this way these abilities deal more damage.
 * Though his spells are individually quite cheap, you have almost always mana problems since both Soul Rip and especially Decay are very spammable. Consider getting Arcane Boots during the laning phase, then disassembling it once you have enough to buy the remaining pieces of a Bloodstone. You can then convert your standard boots to Phase Boots allowing you the mobility and chase power to keep Flesh Golem's powerful aura on the right targets during a teamfight.
 * Another good item for Undying in the early game is Soul Ring. After using Soul Ring, you can cast decay for free. If you hit 2 or more Heros with this spell, you make up for the HP cost for Soul Ring.
 * If you do not have enough money to buy a Bloodstone in time or you would prefer cheaper items, try to make yourself as tanky as possible: if you are initiating, enemies target you first. That is why you need an early Vanguard and/or a Hood of Defiance if the opposing team has a lot of nukers. Other useful items that increase your HP are Rod of Atos, which solves most of your mana problems too, and Heart of Tarrasque.
 * If a ward spot is nearby at the outset of a fight, remember that you can cast your Tombstone on top of it, making it invisible to enemy heroes (unless they have a ward up there). You can also use the Tombstone as a temporary ward anywhere thanks to its long duration, but this is not usually advised as it has a lengthy cooldown.
 * Should the enemy team have an Earthshaker, it is unwise to place a tombstone at the beginning of a teamfight. Each zombie causes the echo to deal extra damage, likely obliterating your entire team (or at the very least severely injuring them).
 * Zombies are spell immune and require a certain amount of attacks to kill. Therefore they are unaffected by most AoE spells but take full damage from multishot-type abilities. Be aware of heroes with these abilities that can easily deal with your Tombstone zombies, such as Gyrocopter's Flak Cannon.
 * Attacks from illusions will count as hero attacks for the purposes of destroying the Tombstone. Keep that in mind when placing the Tombstone if the enemy team has heroes like Phantom Lancer or Naga Siren.
 * If Naga Siren is on your team, be aware that Tombstone summons zombies even when the enemy targets are sleeping and untargetable. This can be used to your advantage.
 * In a fight, Broodmother's Spiderlings can be a valuable weapon. The mass amounts of spiderlings easily brings your Soul Rip to maximum effect, making her a powerful partner to gank with.

Trivia

 * In DotA, his hero name was Dirge, and his hero title was Undying.
 * Undying was originally an intelligence hero. He became a strength hero as he got reworked in the 6.58 gameplay patch. All his abilities, but Soul Rip got reworked. His old abilities are explained below.
 * Undying makes several references to the Left 4 Dead series, saying names of special infected, campaign names, and even the title itself in his dialogue.
 * One notable reference is Undying's line, undying rare 01.mp3 "No dead are safe from Blueheart Bob."; this phrase is highly similar to the famous Left 4 Dead "Chicago Ted" graffiti line ("No zombie is safe from Chicago Ted").
 * Undying also references the Half Life series in a rival line towards ( undying rival 09.mp3 "For Lamarr."). Dr. Kleiner, who shares his voice actor with Tinker, has a pet headcrab named Lamarr. Headcrabs are small, parasitic creatures that attach themselves to the head of their victims, after which the victims turn into zombies.
 * Undying's taunt against undying rival 05.mp3 "Where is your ex-parrot?" is a reference to the famous Parrot Sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
 * Undying's taunt against undying ally 10.mp3 "Carl? Is that you?" is a reference to the 6.72's leaked changelog (which turned out to be a fake), where Invoker's name "Kael" was mistakenly translated into "Carl".
 * A dirge is a sombre song of mourning or grieving, typically performed at a funeral.
 * Undying's line, undying purch 02.mp3 "Shop smart." is a reference to the Army of Darkness movie.
 * Undying has the lowest agility stat growth of any hero, along with.