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.

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 having a single source of Damage Block from multiples of the same item, the chance for Damage Block stacks multiplicatively.
• When having multiple sources of Damage Block, the one with higher proc chance or Damage Block values gets prioritized, while the other sources do nothing.

This results in a diminishing stacking behavior, and it can be defined as

$DmgBlock\%=1-\prod _{i=1}^{n}b_{i}$

With b being the Proc Chance of Damage Block.

Examples

Example 1

When having two Vanguards, what is the chance for Damage Block to proc?

${\begin{aligned}DmgBlock\%&=1-\prod _{i=1}^{n}b_{i}\\&=1-(60\%)(60\%)\\&=64\%\end{aligned}}$

Therefore, when having two Vanguards, the chance for Damage Block to proc becomes 64%.

Example 2

Warlock is affected by Guard and he has one Vanguard in his inventory. What are the chances for both sources of Damage Block that Warlock currently have to proc?

Damage Block Proc Chance for both sources:

• Guard from Crimson Guard - 100%
• Vanguard - 60%

Since Vanguard has a lower proc chance, therefore Vanguard's Damage Block proc chance is multiplied with the higher proc chance of Guard, resulting in 60%. So now, there is 100% for Guard's Damage Block to proc, and a 60% proc chance for Vanguard.

This means that half of the time Vanguard's Damage Block will proc at the same time as Guard does, but since Guard has the higher block values, it gets prioritized, effectively negating half of the Vanguard's procs.

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): 70
  Blocked Damage (Ranged): 35
  

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.

See Also

• Evasion
• Armor
• Magic Resistance

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