Health

Health (also known as HP, which can be short for: health pool or health points) represents the life force of a unit. When a unit's current health reaches 0, it dies. Every hero has a base health pool of 150. This value is even for all heroes and cannot be altered. This means a hero's maximum health cannot drop below that value. However, a hero's health pool gets bigger for every strength point they have. Each point of strength increases a hero's health by 19. Since every hero has some base strength and gain strength as they level up, their health pool gets bigger the higher their level is.

Note: Although gaining/losing strength usually does not increase a hero's current health, some abilities which grant/reduce strength are coded so that they also increase/reduce current healh by 19, instead of only maximum health.

Display
Health of the selected unit is displayed in the UI as a green bar at the bottom of the screen. The left number is the unit's current health points and the right number is its maximum health pool. Though not displayed in the hud, a unit's total health does use decimal numbers. The visible numbers in the hud are always rounded down.

In the game map, all allied units display a green health bar above their head, while enemy units display a red health bar above their head. Heroes have larger health bars with lines in them to make it easier to determine their exact amount of health. By default, health bars for heroes display a thin line for every 250 health and a thick line for every 1000 health a hero has. There is an option to display a number above the health bar of a player's own hero. This number turns yellow when the current health is lower than two fifths (40%) of maximum health, and red if current health is lower than one fifth (20%) of maximum health. Most of these health display options can be configured to personal preference by using Console Commands.

Modifying health
Some heroes, units (neutral creeps and summoned units) and items have abilities that can affect the health pool of a, or multiple units.

Current health increasing abilities
Increasing a unit's current health, Healing a unit, is an act of increasing a unit's current health pool. Healing cannot increase the unit's health beyond its maximum health pool. Spells may apply a burst of heal on a target, which restore an amount of health in an instance, or heal the target over time, where the amount is split up in multiple instances. The difference between a heal and regeneration is that a heal is independent from the regeneration ticks. Unlike regeneration, their heal intervals can vary. A heal is not reflected in the regeneration number on the health bar.

The following abilities are able to increase unit's current health:

Current health reducing abilities
Just like how there are ways to increase a unit's current health, there also are ways to do the opposite, reduce a unit's current health, without the use of actual damage. This effect is known as HP removal (sometimes referred to as HP manipulation).

The difference between actual damage and HP removal is that the latter is not treated as damage by the game. This means it does not trgger any on-damage events, like cancling consumables or disabling s. Since it is not actual damage, this method is mostly used as cost of spells, for spells which alter a unit's health based on situations (hence the alternative calling "HP manipulation"), or to instantly kill a unit by removing health equal to its current health.

The following abilities make use of HP removal:

Maximum health affecting abilities
Besides strength there are a few other ways to increase a unit's maximum health. Usually, when increasing or reducing a unit's maximum health via other ways than strength, its current health percentage stays the same, so that no healing effect occurs.

The following abilities are able to alter a unit's maximum health pool (sources of strength are not listed):

Health granting items
Many items grant their owners a health bonus, increasing their maximum health when equipped, either by increasing their strength, or by just giving them a flat bonus. In either case, the current health percentage stays the same.

The following items affect a unit's current or maximum health pool. The affects are limited to the item's owner, which must have the item equipped, and possibly activated. (items in grey fields grant health exclusively through strength gain)


 * Armlet of Mordiggian increases health pool via strength gain only when activated.

Health regeneration
Health Regeneration determines the amount of health a unit regains each second. It is shown as a small number with a + sign at the right side of the unit's health bar.

Heroes regain health every 0.01 seconds equal to their base rate (0.25/second for most heroes), plus 0.03/second for every point of strength, plus any bonuses from items and abilities. As of now, all sources of health regeneration are either a flat value, or based on a percentage of the unit's maximum health. There are several abilities which heavily boost a unit's health regeneration rate temporarely. The |Fountain]]s of both teams regenerate any unit belonging to their team within a 800 radius by 4% of the unit's maximum health per second. Health Regeneration is not capped, however the HUD won't show any Health Regeneration over 1000 HP per second.

Base health regeneration
Heroes

Every hero has a base health regeneration rate of 0.25 HP/sec, except for the following:

Creeps

All creeps (lane and neutral creeps) have a base health regeneration of 0.5 HP/sec, except for the following:

Summons

None of the summoned wards have base health regeneration. All other summoned units have the following base regen:

Modifying health regeneration
Just like for health, there are many abilities and items which can change how fast a unit regenerates health. Most of them increase health regeneration rate by adding a flat bonus, but some also increase it based on certain things, like health or attributes.

Health regeneration increasing abilities
Health regeneration increasing abilities are usually either increase the regen rate heavily, but only last temporarily, or increase it by smaller amounts, but may last permanently.

The following abilities increase a unit's health regeneration:

Health regeneration granting items
These items passively increase the owner's health regeneration by merely having them equipped. They either grant a flat bonus, or increase health regen through the strength they grant.

Items in grey fields grant health regeneration exclusively through the strength they grant.

Basic items

Upgraded items