Damage block

Damage Block

 

Changelogs

 

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.

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 the attacks of ward-type units. Damage block does not trigger against physical spell damage, with the exception of the spells listed below. 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 final attack damage for the complete calculation.

All chance-based sources of damage block use pseudo-random distribution.

Innate Damage Block

Damage Block (Melee)

Ability
Passive

Affects
Self

Grants a 50% chance to block 16 damage from incoming attacks on melee heroes.

Proc Chance: 50%

Blocked Damage: 16

Notes:

• All melee heroes have this innate damage block ability by default.

• Does not work against wards ( Plague Ward, Mass Serpent Ward, Death Ward).

• Does not reduce physical damage from spells, except from Moon Glaives and The Swarm.

• 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.

• Blade Mail – Damage Return¹
• Luna – Moon Glaives
• Nyx Assassin – Spiked Carapace¹
• Spectre – Dispersion¹
• Weaver – The Swarm

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.

• Pangolier – Swashbuckle

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. This results in multiplicative stacking behaviour.

The probability of proccing any damage block when you have multiple damage block sources can be expressed as:

$BlockChance=1-\prod _{i=1}^{n}(1-p_{i})$

With $p_{i}$ being the Proc Chance of the $i^{th}$ source of Damage Block.

Examples

Example 1

Huskar has two Vanguards in his inventory. What is the probability that one of them will proc when he is attacked?

As Vanguard has a Damage Block proc chance of 60%, the probability of Damage Block proccing when he is attacked is:

${\begin{aligned}BlockChance&=1-\prod _{i=1}^{n}(1-p_{i})\\&=1-(1-0.6)\times (1-0.6)\\&=1-(0.4)\times (0.4)\\&=1-0.16\\&=84\%\end{aligned}}$

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?

The Proc Chance and Damage Block for both sources are:

• Guard from Crimson Guard: 100% chance, 70 damage blocked
• Vanguard: 60% chance, 32 damage blocked on a ranged hero like Warlock

As Guard procs on every hit, and it's 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

• Damage Block - Damage Block (Melee)
  
  Proc Chance: 50%
  Blocked Damage: 16
  All melee heroes have this innate damage block ability by default.
• Abyssal Blade - Damage Block
  
  Proc Chance: 60%
  Blocked Damage (Melee): 70
  Blocked Damage (Ranged): 35
  
• Crimson Guard - Damage Block
  
  Proc Chance: 60%
  Blocked Damage (Melee): 70
  Blocked Damage (Ranged): 35
  
• Crimson Guard - Guard
  
  Proc Chance: 100%
  Blocked Damage: 70
  Duration: 39
  Buff is applied to all allied heroes within 1200 radius of the caster.
• Tidehunter - Kraken Shell
  
  Damage Block Proc Chance: 100%
  Blocked Damage: 18/30/42/54
  
• Vanguard - Damage Block
  
  Proc Chance: 60%
  Blocked Damage (Melee): 64
  Blocked Damage (Ranged): 32
  

Abilities Using Damage Block Rules

The following abilities follow the same targeting rules as damage block, meaning they react on everything damage block does. Note that the damage blocking itself done by these abilities is not considered damage block.

• Mars – Bulwark

Recent Changes

Main Article: Damage Block/Changelogs

Version

Description

7.28

• Removed Poor Man's Shield.

7.23c

• 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.

7.23b

• Damage Block (Melee) no longer works against player-controlled non-hero units.

Mechanics Stats Armor Attributes (Strength / Agility / Intelligence) Collision size Health (Health regeneration) Magic resistance Mana (Mana regeneration) Movement speed Status resistance Turn rate Vision Attack Attack animation Attack damage Attack modifier (Bash / Cleave & Splash / Critical strike / Lifesteal / Mana break) Attack range Attack speed Cast animation Cast range Damage types Motion buffer range Projectile speed Spell damage Spell lifesteal Abilities Abilities Aura Channeling Cooldown Damage block Damage manipulation Damage over time Evasion Talents Teleport Status effects Attack immunity Break Cyclone Disable Disarm Ethereal Fear Forced movement Hex Hide Hypnosis Invisibility Invulnerability Leash Phased Root Silence Sleep Slow Spell immunity Stun Taunt World Experience Gold Glyph of Fortification Map (Minimap) River Scan Runes Time of day Trees Gameplay Creep control techniques Denying Disjoint Dispel Ganking Harassment Hero complexity Initiating Item passive stacking Item sharing Jungling Lane Pushing Random distribution Roles Trap Units Ancient creeps Buildings Couriers Creep-heroes Heroes Illusions Lane creeps Neutral creeps Roshan Summons & Wards