Damage Block is a mechanic that reduces physical attack damage a unit takes by a flat amount. Most damage block abilities are chance-based and passive.
Contents
Mechanics[]
Axe blocking damage with Vanguard.
The ocre number displays the total amount of damage blocked.
Damage block reduces any physical damage a unit takes from attacks or from cleave, with the exception of damage dealt by attacks from ward-type units. Does not trigger against magical or pure attack damage. Damage block does not trigger against physical spell damage, with the exception of the abilities listed here. Unlike armor, damage block reduces a fixed amount of damage, instead of a percentage.
When damage block triggers, it blocks damage before other damage reducing effects do. This means that the higher the unit's armor is, the less effective damage block gets. See total attack damage for the complete calculation.
All chance-based sources of damage block use pseudo-random distribution.
Innate Damage Block[]
Passive
Self
Notes:
- All melee heroes have this innate damage block ability by default.
- Does not work against damage from wards sources (e.g. Death Ward etc.).
- Does not reduce physical damage from abilities, except from Moon Glaives.
- Stacks with all other sources of Damage Block.
- Damage Block uses pseudo-random distribution.
Blocked Spell Damage[]
The following abilities' damage is blocked by Damage Block.
1Only returned/reflected physical damage is blocked. Magical and pure damage is not blocked.
Not Blocked Instant Attacks[]
The following abilities' instant attacks' damage is not blocked by Damage Block.
Visual Feedback[]
When a damage block occurs, a ocher-colored negative number pops up on the unit, with a shield icon on the right side of the -x number. This number shows the exact amount of damage blocked.
Stacking[]
The proc chances of all sources of Damage Block work independently from each other.
When multiple sources of Damage Block proc on the same attack, only the one with the highest blocked damage value takes effect. However, multiple sources of the same value stack multiplicatively.
The probability of proccing any damage block when you have multiple damage block sources of the same value can be defined as
% Block = 1 - (1 - Damage Block Sources i )
(1 - Examples[]
- Example 1
- Huskar has two Vanguards in his inventory. What is the probability that one of them will proc when he is attacked?
- Block Chance
- = 1 - (1 - 0.6) × (1 - 0.6)
- = 1 - 0.16
- = 0.84
- As Vanguard has a Damage Block proc chance of 60%, the probability of Damage Block proccing when he is attacked is 84%.
- Example 2
- Warlock is affected by Guard and he has one Vanguard in his inventory. What is the probability for each source of Damage Block to proc?
- As Guard procs on every hit, and its blocked damage value is greater than that of Vanguard, only Guard's block will ever take effect,
- and Vanguard will have no effect on damage blocked.
Sources[]
Proc Chance: 50%
Blocked Damage: 16
All melee heroes have this innate damage block ability by default.-
Proc Chance: 60%
Blocked Damage: 70 / 35 -
Proc Chance: 60%
Blocked Damage: 70 / 35 -
Proc Chance: 100%
Blocked Damage: 75
Duration: 34
Buff is applied to all allied heroes within 1200 radius of the caster. -
Damage Block Proc Chance: 100%
Blocked Damage: 15/30/45/60 -
Proc Chance: 60%
Blocked Damage: 64 / 32
Abilities Using Damage Block Rules[]
The following abilities follow the same targeting rules as damage block, and react on everything damage block does. However, the damage blocking done by these abilities is not considered damage block.
Recent Changes[]
- Removed Poor Man's Shield.
- Damage Block (Melee)
- Now works against player-controlled units again.
- Now follows the same stacking rules as other sources of Damage Block, instead of fully stacking with all of them.
- Reduced proc chance from 100% to 50%.
- Increased blocked damage from 8 to 16.
- Damage Block (Melee) no longer works against player-controlled non-hero units.
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