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.

Definition
A unit can gain (usually temporarily, but not always) invisibility through certain abilities, items or from. Some units, like most wards passively 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, cast an ability or item.

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 reveals the unit, and it can be targeted again, without dispelling the invisibility.

Fade Time
Most sources of invisibility have a Fade Time to turn the unit fully invisible. During this time, the unit is still visible, can still be targeted by attacks or abilities and they appear to be partially transparent. This period of time before the actual invisibility is applies is known as Fade Time.

The characteristics of Fade Time are:
 * The affected unit does not automatically attack nearby enemies, regardless of auto attack settings during the fade time.
 * The unit can cast cast abilities or items and even attack without breaking the invisibility during the fade time.
 * The unit is not phased even when the invisibility from the ability grants phase to the unit.

Fade Delay
Fade delay refers to the short delay before the actual invisibility is applied, but it has some significant differences with Fade Time.

The characteristics of Fade Delay are:
 * The affected unit's model does not appear transparent.
 * The unit does not stop automatically attacking nearby enemies when the auto attack option is turned on (with autoattack/standard or autoattack/always).
 * The fade delay does not cause the unit to cancel an already ongoing attack order.
 * It is not possible to cast abilities or items without breaking the invisibility.
 * The unit is not phased during the fade delay even if the invisibility from the ability grants phase to the unit.

Unit Behavior
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 a ground-targeted order (A), the invisible unit attacks.

Generally, the invisibility is lost upon reaching the attack point. For Ranged heroes, this is upon projectile launch.

As for casting abilities, the invisibility is lost upon reaching the cast point of the ability. This means that abilities with extended effects i.e. or  do not cancel the invisibility upon each beam or pulse. Channeling abilities do not cancel it either when going invisible after the channeling started.

All Ranged attacks and most ability projectiles are disjointed by invisibility. However, some ability projectiles are still able to affect invisible units, and some have other effects entirely. Invisible units are still fully or partially affected by abilities which has an effect radius or affects an area.

Permanent Invisibility
The following units have permanently invisibility and are phased once they are created, learned, cast or spawned.

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 True Sight immunity, which prevents True Sight from revealing the units.

Targeting invisible units
Most spells which affect an area usually affect invisible units as well, with some exceptions. Single target spells cannot target invisible units without the help of True Sight. Although shared vision renders the unit's model visible even during invisibility, it is not enough to allow single target spells to target them.

Spells which choose specific or random targets on cast behave inconsistently with invisibility. This includes all bouncing spells (e.g. ) and multi-target spells like and. The following such spells do not target invisible units:

1 Requires. When upgraded, these spells can target secondary units, but ignore invisible ones.

2 Requires a talent. When upgraded, these spells can target secondary units, but ignore invisible ones.

3 These spells choose a new target if their current target dies. They do not choose invisible targets.

4 does not bind the target to their invisible allies, but keeps the link up if an already bound unit turns invisible.

5 also includes the single strikes from  upgraded.

6 does not seek for invisible units. The area effect does hit nearby invisible units.

7 The secondary is not created on invisible enemies. The area damage does affect invisible units.

8 does not select nearby invisible enemy units to toss. The area damage does hit invisible enemies.

The following spells have mixed interactions:

Turning invisible after cast
For most spells, it does not matter if the target turns invisible after the spell's effect already have begun. Their effects continue normally, regardless of the invisibility. There are exceptions to this.

All sources of invisibility disjoint projectiles. Even a split-second of vision loss caused by invisibility is enough to disjoint projectiles, even when regaining vision of the unit before the projectile reaches it. This disjoint does not happen when having True Sight over the unit.

Besides disjointed projectiles, the following spells behave differently when their targets turn invisible while they are active.

Patch History
Invisibilidade Невидимость 隐身