Attack Modifier

Attack Modifiers are modifiers which apply an effect to a unit's basic attacks. These effects can widely vary, from healing, to damaging or even disabling effects. Most of these modifiers have their own rules. For example some modifiers may not stack with others, some may fully stack, some may be for melee units only and others for ranged or both. Attack modifiers can be active, in which case they require to be used manually, though most have an autocast option, but they also can be passive, proccing, or having a chance to proc on each attack.

Stacking
There is no set rule of how attack modifiers stack, except for the group of unique attack modifiers. In most cases, an attack modifier does stack with another attack modifier.

Common attack modifiers
There are many attack modifiers which are seen very commonly in the game. The only difference between them are their numbers and how they are activate, some being applied on each attack, others being chance based.

Abilities which simply grant or reduce attack speed (e.g. or ) or attack damage (e.g.  or ) are not attack modifiers in that sense, as they directly enhance the attack, instead of granting a modification.

Critical strike
Critical strike causes the attacks to deal multiplied damage. Most critical strikes are chance-based, but not all. This modifier can be used by any unit. Critical Strikes fully stack with other attack modifiers. However, they do not fully stack with themselves. Multiple sources of critical strike have all their own proc chance. But if multiple would proc on the same attack, only the one with the higher multiplier is applied.


 * Example of critical strikes are, and

Cleave and splash
Cleave causes the unit's attack to deal damage in a circular area in front of the unit. The damage is based on the unit's attack damage. Cleave can only be used by melee units. Cleaves fully stack with other attack modifiers. Multiple sources of cleave on the same unit work fully independently from each other. Each source will apply its full damage within its area, without interacting with the other cleave sources.


 * Example of cleaves are, and

Splash works similar to cleave. It causes the unit's attack to deal area damage, but this area is rather a circular area centered around the attacked unit. Splash can only be used by ranged units. Splash fully stacks with other attack modifiers. Multiple sources of splash on the same unit work fully independently from each other. Each source will apply its full damage within its area, without interacting with other splash sources.


 * Examples of splash are, and

Bash
Bash causes the unit's attack to stun the target and in some cases to also deal extra fixed damage. As of now, all bashes are chance-based. Bash can be used by any unit. Bash fully stacks with other attack modifiers, except with other bashes. Multiple sources of bashes do not stack at all. The later aquired bash will have absolutly no effect. The only exception is, which fully stacks with any other bash.


 * Examples of bash are, and

Lifesteal
Lifesteal causes the unit's attack to heal the attacking unit. In any but one case, the heal is based on the unit's attack damage. Lifesteal can be used by any unit. Lifesteal can come in the form of a regular attack modifier, in which case it fully stacks with any other attack modifier, including other sources of lifesteal, or in the form of a unique attack modifier, in which case it does not stack with most other sources of unique attack modifiers.


 * Examples of lifesteal are, , and

Mana break
Mana break causes the unit's attack to burn a portion of the target's mana and deal damage based on the amount of mana burned. Mana break can be used by any unit. Mana break can come in the form of a regular attack modifier, stacking with all other attack modifiers, or in the form of a unique attack modifier, stacking with all attack modifiers, except with other unique attack modifiers. Multiple sources of mana break do not stack at all (the source of mana break which is oldest overrides the others), regardless of which type it is.


 * Examples of mana break are, and.

Other modifiers
There are many modifiers with unique effects. Most of them are specific to a hero, unit or item. Most of them fully stack with every other attack modifier. Although these abilities have all unique effects (i.e. none of these abilities appear on more than 1 hero), these are not Unique Attack Modifiers.

Active attack modifiers
Active attack modifiers are modifiers which must be actively used on each attack to apply its effects. They also can be set on autocast, causing each attack to apply the effect if the hero can support their costs. Some of these are Unique Attack Modifiers.

When set on autocast, they still count as a regular attack. When used manually, they partly count as spell cast. This means that they won't cause any aggro from lane creeps as regular attacks do. However, they do not count as spells in any other scenario, means they cannot be used when attack is restricted and do not proc anything which triggers on spellcast.

Origin of the term "orb"
Attack modifiers in Warcraft 3 were granted to heroes from items called orbs, and were referred to as orb effects. These orb effects were the basis for many attack modifier skills and items in Warcraft 3 DotA. These attack modifiers also included a defining characteristic of the orb effects from Warcraft 3 in that they did not stack with each other, and so unstackable attack modifiers in DotA were also referred to as orb effects.

Original definition of orb walking
The original usage of the term "orb walking" referres to using actively-castable attack modifiers (orb effects) to achieve frame-perfect stutter stepping, which made heroes much better at chasing. "Stutter stepping" is the act of cancelling the backswing animation of an attack, allowing your hero to more efficiently move between attacks. With a regular attack, if you cancel before the damage point, the attack will stop, and no damage will be done. A move command can cancel a normal attack, but not a spell cast, so manually casting an attack modifier, and then issuing a move command during the attack animation will cause the hero to begin moving instantly after the damage point, completely negating the backswing animation. Achieving this without an attack modifier is theoretically possible, but extremely difficult.

Later usage of the term
Over time, the term "orb walking" began to take on new definitions, since the frame-perfect stutter stepping was a relatively obscure and advanced game mechanic, and "good enough" stutter stepping could be achieved without orb walking by most players.

The simplest misuse of the term was to call all stutter-stepping "orb walking". The term even saw some use in Starcraft, a game without any orb-effects, to describe stutter-stepping.

The most common incorrect usage of "orb walking" refers to using the technique to harass an enemy hero in lane without drawing creep or tower aggro. Normally, issuing an attack command on an enemy hero causes nearby (500 radius) creeps and towers to switch their aggro to the attacking unit. This is not the case for casting spells on enemy heroes. The act of manually casting active attack modifiers, instead of using autocast and right-click or auto-attacks, is treated as a spell cast for the purposes of aggro, making it possible to harass an enemy in the lane without the creeps and even towers refocusing their attacks on the harassing hero as they normally would when using regular attacks or autocast. However, the effect still counts as an attack and not a spell cast in regards of on-cast effects. It still uses the hero's attack speed and animations and still puts the attack on cooldown normally.

Unique attack modifiers
Unique attack modifiers (formerly known as Orb Effect) are a group of attack modifiers with certain stacking rules, which only apply to those. This means that other attack modifiers fully stack with them without problems.