Damage manipulation

“

▶️ That harms me not. — Abaddon

”

There are several ways to affect the final value of a damage instance. Damage can be manipulated on both ends, from the dealing unit (outgoing damage) and the receiving unit (incoming damage). Armor and magic resistance are the most common damage manipulators, affecting incoming physical and magical damage respectively (no similar trait exists for pure damage). They usually reduce damage, but can also amplify it if their values are negative. Spell damage amplification is the main trait for amplifying (but not for reducing) outgoing spell damage (no similar trait exists for attack damage). Besides these, there are some other ways to manipulate damage, ranging from amplifying damage, reducing damage and even negating damage completely.

Sources of damage manipulation

Amplifying incoming damage

Damage amplification causes afflicted units to take additional damage.

Besides these, other ways to amplify damage is by reducing armor for physical damage or magic resistance for magical damage.

• Illusions - Generic Illusion
  
  Based on the ability the illusion is created by, it may take more damage than the hero it is based on.
• Undying - Flesh Golem
  
  Damage Amplification: 25%/30%/35%
  Duration: 6
  

Amplifying outgoing damage

Besides spell damage amplification, these abilities amplify outgoing damage.

• Beastmaster - Wild Axes
  
  Damage Amplification: 6%/8%/10%/12%
  Duration: 9
  Amplifies all damage from Beastmaster and units under his control for each axe hit.

Reducing incoming damage

Just like how damage can be amplified, it can also be reduced.

Besides these, other ways to reduce damage is by increasing armor against physical damage or magic resistance against magical damage.

• Aeon Disk - Combo Breaker
  
  Damage Reduction: 100%
  Duration: 2.5
  
• Bristleback - Bristleback
  
  Rear Damage Reduction: 16%/24%/32%/40%
  Side Damage Reduction: 8%/12%/16%/20%
  Reduces damage for Bristleback when taking damage from his rear or sides.
• Batrider - Flaming Lasso
  
  Allied Hero Damage Reduction: 0% ( 80%)
  Can be casted on allies when Aghanim's Shard is consumed.
• Buildings - Backdoor Protection
  
  Damage Reduction: 40%
  Illusion Damage Reduction: 75%
  Reduces damage from all sources (more from illusions) while under Backdoor Protection. Also reduces damage from illusions by 50% while not protected.
• Centaur Warrunner - Stampede
  
  Damage Reduction: 0% ( 40%)
  Duration: 4
  
• Crystal Maiden - Frostbite
  
  Self Damage Reduction: 0% ( 70%)
  Duration: 1.5/2/2.5/3 ( 2.75/3.25/3.75/4.25)
  Can be cast on self when Aghanim's Shard is consumed.
• Illusions - Generic Illusion
  
  Based on the ability the illusion is created by, it may take less damage than the hero it is based on.
• Kunkka - Ghostship
  
  Damage Reduction: 40%
  Duration: 10
  Reduces damage for all buffed allies, making them take that portion of damage later.
• Legion Commander - Duel
  
  Damage Reduction: 0% ( 100%)
  Duration: 0 ( 6/7/8)
  When upgraded, reduces damage for both participants to all damage except from each other.
• Lich - Frost Shield
  
  Attack Damage Reduction: 30%/40%/50%/60%
  Duration: 6 ( 8.5)
  Only reduces damage from attacks. Physical damage from spells is not reduced.
• Mars - Bulwark
  
  Front Damage Reduction: 25%/40%/55%/70%
  Side Damage Reduction: 12%/20%/27%/35%
  Only reduces damage from attacks. Physical damage from spells is not reduced.
• Medusa - Mana Shield
  
  Damage Reduction: 70%
  Damage Absorbed per Mana: 1.6/1.9/2.2/2.5
  
• Nyx Assassin - Burrow
  
  Damage Reduction: 40%
  
• Pangolier - Shield Crash
  
  Damage Reduction per hero: 12%/14%/16%/18%
  Duration: 10
  
• Spectre - Dispersion
  
  Damage Reduction: 8%/12%/16%/20% ( 13%/17%/21%/25%)
  
• Ursa - Enrage
  
  Damage Reduction: 80%
  Duration: 4/4.5/5
  
• Visage - Gravekeeper's Cloak
  
  Max Layers: 4 ( 9)
  Damage Reduction per Layer: 8%/12%/16%/20%
  Damage Reduction Cap: 80%
  Layer Recharge Time: 6/5/4/3
  Passive, loses 1 layer when taking player-based damage. Layers recharge after a short time. Also affects Visage's Familiars within range.
• Winter Wyvern - Winter's Curse
  
  Damage Reduction: 100%
  Radius: 500
  Duration: 3.25/4/4.75 ( 4.75/5.5/6.25)
  Reduces damage for the frozen target and those cursed to attack their ally.

Reducing outgoing damage

These abilities are able to reduce outgoing damage.

• Aeon Disk - Combo Breaker
  
  Damage Reduction: 100%
  Duration: 2.5
  
• Axe - Battle Hunger
  
  Damage Reduction: 0% ( 30%)
  Duration: 10
  

Stacking damage reduction & amplification

Armor and magic resistance work separately from other damage manipulators. This means they always stack multiplicatively with any other listed ability.

Besides Ghostship's rum and Mana Shield, all damage reducing and damage amplifying effects stack additively with each other. Ghostship and Mana Shield stack multiplicatively with them. Mana Shield also stacks multiplicatively with Ghostship. The damage amplification which illusions usually have stacks multiplicatively with all other damage amplifying and reducing effects (considering they are able to affect illusions).

Examples of additive stacking (all values consider highest possible value, examples ignore armor and magic resistance, 100% is the base value):

• Ursa affected by Enrage and max level Flesh Golem takes:
  

100 - 80 + 35 = 55% damage

• Spectre affected by Dispersion and Stampede () takes:
  

100 - 20 - = % damage

• A hero affected by Winter's Curse and max level Flesh Golem takes:
  

100 - 100 + 35 = 35% damage

Examples of multiplicative stacking:

• Medusa affected by Mana Shield and max level Flesh Golem takes:
  

(100 + 35) * 30% = 40.5% damage

• Medusa affected by the same as above, but also additionally by Ghostship takes:
  

(100 + 35) * 30% * 60% = 24.3% damage

• A Conjure Image illusion (taking 320% damage) affected by max level Flesh Golem and Stampede () takes:
  

(100 + 35 - ) * 320% = % damage

Stacking outgoing damage manipulation stacks in the same way as incoming damage manipulation, i.e. additively. However, since incoming and outgoing manipulations happen at different times (outgoing happens first), they stack multiplicatively with each other.

Damage negation

Damage negation causes entire instances of damage to deal no damage to its target, however, the instance is still registered. This means, if something reacts on damage without having a minimum damage threshold, it still reacts on the negated damage.

• Abaddon - Aphotic Shield
  
  Negated Damage: 110/140/170/200 ( 410/440/470/500)
  Duration: 15
  Can only negate a certain amount of damage before detonating.
• Abaddon - Borrowed Time
  
  Duration: 3/4/5 ( 5/6/7)
  Also turns the negated damage into heals for Abaddon.
• Faceless Void - Backtrack
  
  Chance: 20%
  
• Infused Raindrops - Magical Damage Block
  
  Negated Damage: 120
  Charges: 5
  Can only negate magical damage. Can only negate a certain amount of damage per charge. Goes on cooldown upon negating an instance. Ignores damage lower than 50.
• Monkey King - Mischief
  
  Duration: 0.2
  
• Nyx Assassin - Spiked Carapace
  
  Duration: 2.25
  Can only negate 1 instance of damage from each player.
• Omniknight - Guardian Angel
  
  Duration: 6/7/8 ( 8/9/10)
  Can only negate physical damage.
• Oracle - False Promise
  
  Duration: 8/9/10 ( 10/11/12)
  The negated damage is dealt immediately once the buff ends.
• Templar Assassin - Refraction
  
  Charges: 3/4/5/6 ( 7/8/9/10)
  Duration: 17
  Can only negate a certain number of damage instances. Ignores damage lower than 5.
• Winter Wyvern - Cold Embrace
  
  Duration: 4
  Can only negate physical damage.

Preventing on-damage effects

Many abilities react on damage a unit receives. In some cases, fully negating the damage causes them to not proc. However, some on-damage effects also react on 0 damage so they still may proc even when the proccing damage got negated.

The following abilities and effects do not react on damage when it gets fully negated (reduced to 0):

• Aegis of the Immortal – Expire Restore
• Ancient Black Dragon – Splash Attack¹
• Blink Dagger – Blink
• Bloodthorn – Soul Rend
• Bottle – Regenerate
• Bristleback – Bristleback²
• Clarity – Replenish
• Healing Salve – Salve
• Lifesteal – All sources^{1 3}
• Lifestealer – Open Wounds
• Mjollnir – Static Charge
• Monkey King – Tree Dance
• Orchid Malevolence – Soul Burn
• Pugna – Life Drain
• Regeneration Rune – Regeneration
• Spirit Vessel – Soul Release
• Templar Assassin – Psi Blades¹
• Tidehunter – Kraken Shell²
• Urn of Shadows – Soul Release
• Visage – Soul Assumption²

¹ These work when the damage gets negated by Aphotic Shield.

² These abilities have damage counters, which do not work when the damage gets negated.

³ Includes all sources of lifesteal and spell lifesteal, except Feast, Open Wounds and Octarine Core's Spell Lifesteal, which are listed separately.

The following abilities still do react on fully negated damage:

• Bane – Nightmare
• Batrider – Sticky Napalm
• Battle Fury – Cleave
• Blade Mail – Damage Return
• Chen – Divine Favor
• Death Prophet – Exorcism
• Dragon Knight – Elder Dragon Form (splash damage)
• Elder Titan – Echo Stomp
• Kunkka – Tidebringer
• Lifestealer – Feast
• Lone Druid – Summon Spirit Bear
• Magnus – Empower
• Spectre – Dispersion¹
• Spirit Bear – Return
• Sven – Great Cleave
• Tiny – Tree Grab
• Tiny – Tree Throw
• Viper – Corrosive Skin
• Warlock – Fatal Bonds¹

¹ The damage of Dispersion and the damage spread of Fatal Bonds are fully unaffected by any form of reduction, except for magic resistance and armor.

Min Health

Lina casting Laguna Blade on a low health Dazzle affected by Shallow Grave and Blade Mail. Lina takes the full Laguna Blade damage.

Min Health, just like regular damage negation, prevents a unit from dying. However, the way in which that is achieved is completely different. Instead of directly reducing or negating damage, this mechanic rather manipulates the health of the unit. This property (MODIFIER_PROPERTY_MIN_HEALTH) prevents a unit's health from dropping below the value it is set to. It does not affect the damage itself, meaning on-damage effects react on the full damage, and not how much damage was dealt effectively, so they can be triggered normally.

The following abilities use the Min Health mechanic:

• Dazzle - Shallow Grave
  
  Min health: 1
  Duration: 4/4.5/5/5.5
  
• Troll Warlord - Battle Trance
  
  Min health: 1
  Ally duration:
  
• Wraith King - Reincarnation (Wraith Delay)
  
  Min health: 1
  Duration: 7
  Requires Aghanim's Scepter. Affects all allied heroes within a 1200 radius. Once the min health is reached, the ally gets a buff that continues applying min health, for the given duration, followed by an ensured death.

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