This is my first attempt at writing a guide and English is my third language so I apologize in advance for my low level English and grammar.
Note: This guide is best seen with a PD account and not a guest as for images not shown for guests





Table of Content





Introduction

I have been playing Dirge for a while and with much pleasure, I decided to write a guide to show they way I play him and maybe to teach people who are new to dirge a few things. I know the guide lacks in depth strategies but I'll try my best.

Background:

Considered to be an exceptionally filthy and despicable specimen by all who encounter him, including his fellow zombies, Dirge has wandered in from the wastes outside to serve the Lich King in hopes of finally obtaining a place of acceptance amongst the Undead masses. While he is still considered to be unpleasant as ever by the rest of the Scourge, his horrifying abilities, which include raising self-replicating lesser ghouls and spreading vile, rapidly communicable plague throughout the enemy ranks, are unquestionably powerful and may just give the Scourge the edge they need to complete their unholy conquest once and for all.

Stats

Strength: 25+2.1 each level
Agility: 10+0.8 each level
Intelligence: 27+2.0 each level

Pros and Cons



Skills






Skill Build

Because all of the skills are useful even during early game and leveling any of the skill to 4 fast wont help him much, skill build can be very flexible.

Level 1 |Rip
Level 2 |Decay
Level 3 |Rip
Level 4 |TombStone
Level 5 |Rip/TombStone
Level 6 |Flesh Golem
Level 7 |TombStone/Rip
Level 8 |TombStone/Rip
Level 9 |TombStone
Level 10 |Rip
Level 11 |Flesh Golem
Level 12 |Decay
Level 13 |Decay
Level 14 |Decay
Level 15 |Stats
Level 16 |Flesh Golem
Level 17-25 |Stats

Explanation:




Item Build



Any combination of branches/tangoes/salves and clarities.



You need all the mana you can get, urn and RoB can be skipped if someone else on your team carries one.



Rejected




Proper usage of skills

Decay



Thats the range of decay, its not long but its decent for a melee hero
The maximum reach is really 925 because of 300 aoe to both sides


When using decay you should keep 4 things in mind:

1.It is aoe so hitting as much heroes as you can in mandatory. Try aiming with decay to hit at least 2-3 heroes at a time in team clashes, its not rocket science and the aoe is rather large(600) and above hero range casting range(625)

Example:



Bad; I hit only 2 out of 3 heroes, my range and skill aoe allow me to hit the third



I hit all the 3 heroes


2. Mana management, if your mana is low or you have generally low regen and pool; don't spam and avoid to use decay. Its better to save the mana for rip. On the other hand, if you are overflowing with mana, don't hesitate to spam decay, it stacks.


3. Don't cast decay on targets that you or your allies are not going to attack in the near future (20-30 sec), its manacost is high and most probably the strength will return to the targets before you manage to take advantage of it. However you can cast delay to buff yourself up before going into the enemy lines.


4. Especially during early game, try aiming for agility and int heroes who already got low hp and str. Followed by rip and an ally nuke it will obliterate them. Aiming at tanks like centaur and tide in most of the cases tickles them a bit and anyway- your teammates are not going to focus them. More likely they will focus a lion with -20 str.



Rip

1.Never, ever try heal with no units nearby
Yes, it sounds silly and obvious but in the heat of battle when your teammates are screaming for a heal, it is very tempting to rip them for a puny 50 hp. Most likely they will get mad at you and call you an idiot, even though they asked for it.


Look at the pointed wildkin, it rip him with the 3 neutrals nearby. Thats the same amount of units you may get while your ally wants you to heal them

2. Tombstone comes first, when you enter the battle you wont always have 10 units and 10 heroes around, even if they do, they might be too far to be counted for rip.
Always put your tombstone for extra units to rip off.

3. Rip got quite a large casting range, use it for your advantage. Kill those smart ass fleeing heroes or harass the enemies from a safe distance.



Rip's range(blue) compared to decay's range(green)

4. Avoid using rip with less than 10 units around you, the damage/heal will be too small. If you got tons of mana and know that no new creeps/units are about to arrive, go ahead and use it, it got a short cd.

5. Rip damages all the units around you for 25, its minor effect but don't forget about it.

6. Rip is more powerful as a heal than a nuke because of spell resistance.


TombStone

Zombie stats
Tomb stats
1. The thing that makes tombstone worth leveling is the increase in area of unit that are targeted, the bloodlust skill of the zombies is useful but not really worth the increase in mana.

2. You can initiate the battle with tombstone; it will start damaging your enemies and cause some confusion, if enemies choose to ignore it, you are already in an advantage in the fight. If they choose to destroy the tombstone it will give an opening for your allies and you to jump on them.
More recommended letting the real initiator like magnus or ES and place the stone in the middle of the action and most likely no one will attack it and allow to deal larges amounts of damage during early and mid game.

3. Unlike decay and rip, tombstone got a small casting range(250).
Be careful while casting it not to go too far into your enemies and die, its better to put the tombstone at 600~ range of the fight.

4. Tombstone is great for stopping pushes ( the more units come, the more zombies it summons) and not bad for pushing as long as you manage to get 2 creep waves with it.


5. During early game, tombstone is a way to counter ganks. When you see you are about to be attacked(hopefully and with a bit of luck) just place the tombstone and one of the 3 will happen; 1.they charge you and after you heal with rip, they die. 2.they wait till tombstone is over and you got a chance to escape or tp 3.They go away poor and with no success.


6. If the creep wave is about to die or hero is about to escape, don't bother using tombstone. You will just waste mana and precious cooldown.

7. Both tombstone and flesh golem got 30 sec duration, use them simultaneously. Unless you might need the slow for a long duration (60 sec)

8. Don't forget you can heal the tombstone.



Flesh Golem

Not much to say about that, pretty much click and rampage on enemy heroes.
Make sure you always got it at team clashes as 30% damage is lot, even if the situation is not 5v5 it is still worth activating this.


Mind Games

With slight juking you can turn the tides of a battle, even just stepping back a little and coming back into the fight.
3 of your skills heal you and tombstone synergies well with golem and rip. In addition, while enemy is focused on you, they ignore the little zombies whacking them.
Decay is potentially a 76 hp heal, doubled by hero amount.
Rip can heal for 0-500, combined with units, heroes and zombies its not a problem to reach full heal(25 units).
Golem will make you receive abnormal amounts of heals, even if you run away from the plagued units your zombies will kill them and you will get healed. Besides, you don't have to kill the units by yourself, your allies can save you by killing units and thus healing you.



Tauren is chasing me while I'm on low hp and he is full

Notice how my ulti and tomb is on and the presence of creeps, I also have decay and rip off cooldown.




Notice how I'm alive with even more hp then before and TC died after 2 decays and a rip




Laning And Combating

Early game

Dirge is better in a dual/tri lane and should not solo, he got poor early game farming ability and sticking him solo will make him worthless in mid game.
Actually if you lane solo against a dual or a slightly weak solo you can manage pretty fine and get some fast levels, but dual is still better because you can net some kills.

Good lane partners would be ranged nukers/slowers or one with summons.

A good example would be crystal maiden, she got a slow, a nuke+disable and a nifty mana aura.
Bane/Enigma/Zeus/Lina/Visage are all valid partners.
Dazzle and Warlock laned with dirge is a nice lane to outlast strong double stun lanes.
Dirge should not be used in most of the cases as a babysitter because it will damage his mid game. If you have to babysit, make sure that you don't lane double melee.

Head to your lane with your basic regen items and consider getting RoB to benefit your partner.
Never forget to last-hit, getting a few hits on the way is not disastrous as you can heal yourself. Don't bother denying if you know it will hurt you. Exchanging hits with a melee enemy is ok because you can heal afterwords.
Always manage you mana as rip is a powerful cost efficient heal that can make you stay in the lane forever.
When you see an opportunity, don't hesitate, nuke the hell of your enemy. At level 3 you will deal 187 damage after spell reduction with rip and another 98.5 with decay. Combined with an allied nuke and a possible slow/stun will get you the kill. If your lane partner got a long lasting slow/stun, don't hesitate placing your tombstone and charging the slowed targets.

Don't bother changing lanes or ganking as you can handle even the worst lane combos, you should focus your early game on getting last hits and occasionally getting a kill with your partner.

After your void, point booster and phase boots you are strong enough to gank or help your team by pushing and defending towers with scroll and tombstone.[/hidden]

Mid Game

This is where team pushes and battles will occur, you are a valuable part in the team and mid game is where Dirge shines. Rip is at its full power because of big masses of units and heroes around and all those units and heroes provide good targets for placing a tombstone and sweeping the gold. Golem also shines because your hp pool is small enough to be quickly healed by all the dying creeps, amp aura rocks as well it synergies well with those big strong aoe spells like magnus's, earth shaker's and tide's ultimates.


What to do during team fights?

It very easy, you place your tombstone at a reasonable spot, cast decay at the most crowded area, rush in the enemies with golem on,try to attract the detention and spells of your enemies as you can handle nukes pretty well, keep casting decay and rip on low hp heroes, watch the enemy team die. Don't forget to heal your teammates and block enemies to save fleeing allies if you can.[/hidden]


Late Game


You start losing your mighty presence and all those carries you were eating during early and mid are now packed with some high tier items and a bkb.
Help your team push and defend and try to end the game fast, don't forget to tank and always use tombstone when on cooldown because large waves of creeps will come.

Best Allies and Worst Enemies



Unlimited mana and a great lane partner.

Heroes with big Aoe damage/disable, they allow your zombies to whack and the damage is amplified by your flesh golem's aura




Anti-tanks



Those guys munch on your hp in percentage, meaning, the more hp you have; the more they hurt you.


Be careful when using tombstone with es around, it is as bad as it used to be with echo effecting dead units but it still hurts.





Fun Facts

I. Techies' mines hurt Tombstone
II. Undying got the lowest agility, 29 at level 25 while tiny got 30
III. Dirge with bkb and ulti on is huge
IV. If you use refresher orb, you can turn off flesh golem


Replays

2145434_090706_DotaV6_5.w3g

Its a match in 2009 Asia championship between China and Philippines.
Dirge is played by China's zippo.


undying.w3g
This one is played by me in Garena Europe, the level is quite low on our side and there was very little cooperation during early-mid. We won because sentinel's well farmed Sven left the game. Sentinel were 3-4 friends.
Some good rip usage and tombstone and golem placing, also phase and stick helped alot.