Invisibility



Invisibility is a status effect which makes units and heroes not appear on their opponent's screen or minimap, and makes them unable to be targeted directly by the enemy. Invisibility makes the unit's model appear transparent, but clearly visible still for allies. If it is an allied hero, its dot on the minimap also turns into a ring for the duration. A unit can gain (usually temporarily, but not always) invisibility through certain spells, items or the Rune of Invisibility. Some units, like most wards have permanent invisibility and do not need to acquire it through other sources. Generally, a unit keeps the gained invisibility until the duration runs out, or they perform an attack or a spell or item cast. True Sight and shared vision allows a unit to see invisible enemies without dispelling the invisibility. True Sight makes the units appear transparent, while shared vision only shows a silhouette. Both make the unit directly targetable again, without dispelling the invisibility.

Fade time and fade delay
Most sources of invisibility require some time to turn the unit fully invisible. During this time, the unit is still visible and targetable.

The fade time is a short delay before the actual invisibility is applied, during which a unit's model appears transparent, but still visible to everyone. During it, the unit does not automatically attack nearby enemies, no matter if auto attack option is turned on or not. It also stops attacking when an attack order was already ongoing. Unlike during the actual invisibility, during the fade time, the unit can cast spells or items and even attack without canceling the invisibility. It is safe to perform those actions during the fade time. During the fade time, the unit is not phased, even when the invisibility of the spell phases the unit.

The fade delay is also a short delay before the actual invisibility is applied, but has some significant differences. First off, during the fade delay, the unit's model does not appear transparent. The unit also does not stop automatically attacking nearby enemies when the auto attack option is turned on, and also does not cause the unit to cancel the already ongoing attack order. It is also not possible to cast spells or items or attack during the fade delay without resetting it. During the fade delay, the unit is not phased, even when the invisibility of the spell phases the unit.

Unit behavior during invisibility
While invisible, a unit never automatically attacks any nearby enemy, not even when it is revealed by True Sight and being attacked. However, when issuing an attack ground order, the invisible unit attacks. Generally, the invisibility is lost upon reaching the attack point. For ranged heroes, this is upon projectile launch. Depending on the source, invisibility may or may not apply a phase effect on the unit.

As for spell casts, the invisibility is lost upon reaching the cast point of the spell. This means that spells with extended effects like or  do not cancel the invisibility upon each beam or pulse. Channeling spells do not cancel it either when going invisible after the channeling started.

All ranged attacks and most projectiles of abilities are disjointed by invisibility. It is enough for a unit to turn fully invisible even just for a split second as a disjointable projectile flies to fully disjoint it. However, some projectile abilities still affect invisible units, and some have other effects entirely. Invisible units are still fully or partially affected by spells which affect an area.

True Sight
True Sight allows a unit to see invisible enemies that are in range. Some of the listed spells provide True Sight only during certain situations. Spells which provide shared vision are not listed here, since it is not actual True Sight. A list for that can be found here.

Some abilities provide immunity towards True Sight. This means they prevent True Sight from revealing them.

The following abilities provide True Sight immunity:, and  (requires , turns Techies' mines within a 125 radius immune to True Sight).

Invisibility interactions with other spells
All abilities that grant invisibility disjoint projectiles, unless the enemy has True Sight over the unit, in which case the projectile still keeps track of the target until it leaves the radius of True Sight. All physical attack projectiles of each unit and hero, as well as many spell projectiles can be disjointed. Undisjointable spell projectiles fully affect invisible units.

While most abilities affect units even if they are invisible, some only partially affect invisible units, and many do not affect them at all. These include mostly target-seeking abilities and very few area effect abilities. Some other spells also have unique interactions with invisibility. All not listed spells either fully affect invisible units, or cannot target them to begin with.