Damage is any means by which unit's current health can be reduced. Heroes, creeps, towers and fountains are all capable of dealing damage.
The 3 main damage classifications are Physical, Magical and Pure.
Damage sources
Damage can be dealt by attacks, abilities and items. Attack damage is the damage dealt per attack, and is displayed on the sword icon in the HUD. Heroes start off with a basic damage plus 1 extra damage per point of primary attribute. As heroes level up, they gain primary attributes and therefore gain damage. Items that grant increased "Damage" increase attack damage, and do not affect abilities and items. Abilities and items can also deal damage. These are generally fixed. However, some abilities can be upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter, while others scale with hero stats, conditions or enemy health etc.
Attack damage
Attack damage is dealt by regular physical attacks. It is influenced by a couple of factors such as the value of the attack damage itself, the according attack damage types, armor and the armor types, damage block and others.
Spell damage
Spell damage is all damage which is not dealt by physical attacks. This includes all spells which deal magical, physical or pure damage. Even the damage dealt by attack modifiers counts as spell damage, as long as the effect deals its damage in a separate instance from the attack damage.
Spells can be amplified with Null Talisman, Kaya, Kaya and Sange, Yasha and Kaya and Bloodstone. The damage amplification sources stack all additively. The amplification does not only affect spell damage dealt against enemies, it also causes damage afflicted to allies or the own unit to get amplified.
Another effect making exclusive use of spell damage is Bloodstone's Spell Lifesteal.
Damage Classification
All forms of damage in Dota 2 are classified by damage types. There are 3 primary damage types: Physical, Magical, and Pure. Physical Damage can be reduced by Physical Armor or Damage Block, Magical Damage can be reduced by Magical Damage Resistance, while Pure Damage cannot be reduced by either armor or magical damage resistance. All 3 primary damage types have some interaction with other damage-related game mechanics as noted in the table below. Damage may also have the HP Removal flag, causing the damage to ignore some mechanics which would manipulate it otherwise.
Game Mechanic | Damage Type's Interaction with the Mechanic | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Physical Attacks | Physical Abilities | Magical | Pure | ||
Armor | reduced | reduced | normal | normal | |
Damage Block | reduced | normal1 | normal | normal | |
Magic resistance | normal | normal | reduced | normal | |
Ethereal | no effect | no effect | amplified | normal | |
Evasion | may miss | normal | normal | normal | |
Damage amplification2 | amplified | amplified | amplified | amplified | |
Damage reduction2 | reduced | reduced | reduced | reduced | |
Damage negation2 | no effect | no effect | no effect | no effect | |
Magical damage barrier | normal | normal | no effect | normal | |
Invulnerability | no effect | no effect | no effect | no effect | |
Spell immunity | normal | depends3 | depends3 | depends3 |
1 The only exceptions are Moon Glaives and The Swarm, whose damage is blocked.
2 These categories only count ability effects which directly manipulate damage, reducing, amplifying or completely blocking them, such as Bloodrage, Bristleback and Refraction. They do not include abilities which amplify or reduce damage by increasing/reducing magic resistance/armor of units, such as Counterspell, Corrosive Haze, and Battle Cry.
3 By itself, spell immunity does not interact with any damage type. All spells are rated as to whether or not they can pierce spell immunity independent of their damage type. Thus, spell immunity only governs if a spell has any effect, not how much damage it inflicts. To receive no effects from a spell, the spell must not pierce spell immunity and the target would require both spell immunity and 100% damage reduction of the damage type the spell inflicts. A 0 damage instance is still registered and may proc on-damage effects (unless it is flagged as HP Removal). If a spell does not pierce spell immunity, then it does not attempt to damage the target in the first place, so that no 0 damage instance occurs.
Physical
Physical attack damage
Physical damage can be inflicted by regular attacks from all units (including structures), and by certain abilities. Physical damage is modified by both armor and Damage Block, is unaffected by magic resistance, and cannot affect ethereal units. The abilities Guardian Angel and Cold Embrace make their targets completely immune to physical damage, although they can still be targeted by attacks and abilities.
Physical spell damage
Physical damage from abilities (and theoretically items) is usually unaffected by armor type. The exceptions are Exorcism and physical damage abilities that add their damage directly to the hero's attack, which have the hero attack damage type, dealing 50% to structure armor type (used by all buildings and siege creeps), and 100% to all other types. They are all affected by armor value, but none by evasion and Damage Block (except for Moon Glaives and The Swarm, which are affected by Damage Block).
The following hero abilities deal physical damage (summoning abilities and simple attack damage buffs are not listed):
- Abaddon – Aphotic Shield
- Abaddon – Borrowed Time
- Abaddon – Mist Coil
- Abyssal Blade – Bash1, 2
- Alchemist – Acid Spray
- Alchemist – Unstable Concoction
- Alchemist – Unstable Concoction Throw
- Anti-Mage – Mana Break1, 2
- Axe – Battle Hunger
- Bane – Brain Sap
- Bane – Enfeeble
- Bane – Fiend's Grip
- Batrider – Firefly
- Batrider – Flamebreak
- Batrider – Flaming Lasso
- Batrider – Sticky Napalm
- Battle Fury – Cleave2
- Beastmaster – Call of the Wild Hawk
- Beastmaster – Drums of Slom
- Beastmaster – Primal Roar
- Beastmaster – Wild Axes
- Brewmaster – Thunder Clap
- Bristleback – Quill Spray
- Broodmother – Silken Bola
- Broodmother – Spawn Spiderlings
- Broodmother – Spinner's Snare
- Centaur Warrunner – Retaliate
- Chen – Martyrdom
- Chen – Penitence
- Chipped Vest – Passive
- Cleave – Cleave2
- Clockwerk – Battery Assault
- Clockwerk – Hookshot
- Clockwerk – Power Cogs
- Clockwerk – Rocket Flare
- Dark Seer – Ion Shell
- Dark Seer – Normal Punch
- Dark Seer – Vacuum
- Dark Willow – Bedlam
- Dark Willow – Bramble Maze
- Dark Willow – Shadow Realm
- Dazzle – Poison Touch
- Dazzle – Shadow Wave
- Death Prophet – Exorcism2
- Diffusal Blade – Manabreak1, 2
- Disperser – Manabreak1, 2
- Dragon Knight – Elder Dragon Form2
- Drow Ranger – Frost Arrows
- Drow Ranger – Marksmanship1, 2
- Drow Ranger – Multishot
- Elder Titan – Earth Splitter3
- Elder Titan – Echo Stomp3
- Enigma – Black Hole
- Enigma – Malefice
- Enigma – Midnight Pulse
- Invoker – Chaos Meteor
- Invoker – Cold Snap
- Invoker – Deafening Blast
- Invoker – E.M.P.
- Invoker – Ice Wall
- Invoker – Sun Strike
- Invoker – Tornado
- Io – Spirits
- Kunkka – Tidebringer2
- Lance of Pursuit – Hound
- Lifestealer – Feast1, 2
- Lone Druid – Entangling Claws
- Lone Druid – Summon Spirit Bear
- Luna – Moon Glaives4
- Magnus – Empower2
- Magnus – Horn Toss
- Magnus – Reverse Polarity
- Magnus – Shockwave
- Magnus – Skewer
- Mana Break – Mana Break1, 2
- Marci – Dispose
- Marci – Rebound
- Marci – Unleash
- Mirana – Sacred Arrow
- Mirana – Starstorm
- Monkey King – Wukong's Command
- Nyx Assassin – Impale
- Nyx Assassin – Mind Flare
- Pangolier – Rolling Thunder
- Pangolier – Shield Crash
- Phoenix – Icarus Dive
- Phoenix – Launch Fire Spirit
- Phoenix – Sun Ray
- Phoenix – Supernova
- Primal Beast – Onslaught
- Rattlecage – Reverberate
- Razor – Eye of the Storm
- Riki – Cloak and Dagger1, 2
- Sand King – Burrowstrike
- Sand King – Caustic Finale
- Sand King – Epicenter
- Sand King – Sand Storm
- Shadow Blade – Shadow Walk1, 2
- Shadow Shaman – Mass Serpent Ward
- Silver Edge – Shadow Walk1, 2
- Skeleton Archer – Searing Arrows
- Skeleton Archer – Tar Bomb
- Skull Basher – Bash1, 2
- Slardar – Bash of the Deep1, 2
- Slardar – Slithereen Crush
- Snapfire – Firesnap Cookie
- Snapfire – Lil' Shredder
- Snapfire – Mortimer Kisses
- Snapfire – Scatterblast
- Snapfire – Spit Out
- Sniper – Headshot1, 2
- Sven – Great Cleave2
- Techies – Blast Off!
- Techies – Proximity Mines
- Techies – Sticky Bomb
- Templar Assassin – Meld
- The Leveller – Demolish
- Timbersaw – Chakram
- Timbersaw – Second Chakram
- Timbersaw – Timber Chain
- Timbersaw – Whirling Death
- Tiny – Tree Grab
- Vengeful Spirit – Magic Missile
- Vengeful Spirit – Nether Swap
- Vengeful Spirit – Wave of Terror
- Venomancer – Noxious Plague
- Venomancer – Poison Nova
- Venomancer – Poison Sting
- Venomancer – Venomous Gale
- Visage – Soul Assumption
- Void Spirit – Aether Remnant
- Void Spirit – Astral Step
- Void Spirit – Dissimilate
- Void Spirit – Resonant Pulse
- Weaver – The Swarm4
- Windranger – Powershot
- Winter Wyvern – Arctic Burn
- Winter Wyvern – Splinter Blast
1 Damage is directly added to the unit's attack damage.
2 Damage from these abilities is affected by armor type as well.
3 Half of damage dealt is physical, the other half magical.
4 Damage is blocked by Damage Block.
Magical
Magical Damage is caused primarily by spells, although not all do magic damage. Magic damage is reduced by magic resistance, and deals higher damage against ethereal units. The majority of abilities in Dota 2 deal magical damage.
All abilities not explicitly listed under another damage type section inflict magical damage.
Pure
Pure Damage is a damage type that is not reduced by Armor or Magic Resistance. It is also not amplified by magical damage amplification abilities, fully ignores Armor and Damage Block. It does not affect invulnerable units.
There are a few sources that can manipulate Pure Damage, with Dispersion is one of them. Pure damage affects units with Spell Immunity (because spell immunity does not block damage), but that does not mean that an ability that deals pure damage is able to target spell immune units.
For example, Laser deals pure damage, but cannot be cast on units with spell immunity.
The following abilities deal pure damage:
- Axe – Counter Helix
- Axe – Culling Blade
- Bloodseeker – Bloodrage
- Bloodseeker – Rupture
- Doom – Doom
- Enchantress – Impetus
- Huskar – Burning Spear2
- Jakiro – Macropyre3
- Leshrac – Diabolic Edict
- Meepo – Ransack
- Nyx Assassin – Vendetta
- Omniknight – Hammer of Purity
- Omniknight – Purification
- Oracle – False Promise
- Outworld Destroyer – Arcane Orb
- Pudge – Meat Hook
- Pudge Wars Reborn – Meat Hook
- Pudge Wars Reborn – Sun Strike
- Queen of Pain – Sonic Wave
- Spectre – Desolate
- Spectre – Spectral Dagger
- Templar Assassin – Psi Blades
- Tinker – Laser
- Witch Doctor – Death Ward
1 Mist Coil deals pure damage to the caster, but magical damage to the target.
2 Burning Spear deals pure damage only with Huskar's level 25 talent, else it deals magical damage.
3 Laguna Blade and Macropyre deal pure damage only when upgraded by Aghanim's Scepter, else they deals magical damage.
Flags
Several abilities have certain flags that cause them to behave differently in certain situations. There are 2 different flags: The HP Removal flag and the No-reflection flag. All spells can be flagged, regardless of what damage type they use.
HP Removal flag
Spells flagged as HP Removal fully ignore any form of damage manipulation (with a few exceptions listed below), means they cannot be amplified, reduced or blocked except by magic resistance and magical damage barriers in case of magical damage and armor in case of physical damage, which is also reduced by damage block. They also ignore and do not trigger any on-damage effects, making them unable to cancel consumables for example. Most spells flagged as HP Removal deal pure damage. The HP Removal flag also causes damage to ignore invulnerability, however, this is not always the case. Even when flagged, the damage is still registered as such and may be counted by statistics as damage.
Note: Not all source of health loss are damage. Several abilities which reduce a unit's health without triggering on-damage effects do so by directly setting a unit's health to specific values. Unlike damage with the HP removal flag, these health manipulation truly bypass any on-damage effect and are not registered as damage at all. For more details, see Health setting.
The following abilities use the HP removal flag
- Kunkka – Ghostship1
- Necrophos – Heartstopper Aura
- Oracle – False Promise1
- Orb of Venom – Poison Attack
- Spectre – Dispersion
- Techies – Blast Off!2
- Undying – Soul Rip3
- Venomancer – Poison Sting
- Vhoul Assassin – Envenomed Weapon
- Lua error: Found no Cargo data for "Zeus - Static Field".
1 These abilities delay damage. The delayed damage is pure and has the HP Removal flag.
2 Blast Off! deals magic damage flagged as HP removal to the caster.
3 Soul Rip deals magic damage flagged as HP removal to secondary units.
Besides all sources of damage manipulation and spell lifesteal, the following abilities and items do not react on damage which has the HP Removal flag:
- Aegis of the Immortal – Expire Restore
- Bane – Nightmare
- Batrider – Sticky Napalm
- Blade Mail – Damage Return
- Blink Dagger – Blink
- Bloodthorn – Soul Rend
- Bottle – Regenerate
- Bristleback – Bristleback
- Broodmother – Spin Web
- Clarity – Replenish
- Elder Titan – Echo Stomp
- Healing Salve – Salve
- Invoker – Cold Snap
- Lifestealer – Open Wounds
- Mjollnir – Static Charge
- Monkey King – Tree Dance
- Monkey King – Mischief
- Nyx Assassin – Spiked Carapace
- Orchid Malevolence – Soul Burn
- Regeneration Rune – Regeneration
- Spirit Bear – Return
- Tidehunter – Kraken Shell
- Urn of Shadows – Soul Release
- Viper – Corrosive Skin
- Visage – Soul Assumption
- Visage – Gravekeeper's Cloak
- Warlock – Fatal Bonds
No-reflection flag
The no-reflection flag causes several on-damage events not to interact with the damage of spells which have the no-reflection flag. This is to prevent infinite damage loops (for example 2 opposing heroes with Blade Mail).
The following sources of damage have the no-reflection flag:
The following spells do not react on damage which has the no-reflection flag:
Instant Kill
Besides damage, a unit may also be killed with the instant kill mechanic, without the actual use of damage. Similar to HP Removal, instant killing effects ignore almost everything and can only be prevented by a few spells.
Summoned units and illusions that expire after a set amount of time are killed with the instant kill mechanic. Summons and illusions that get replaced on cast are killed this way as well. The instant kill mechanic cannot bypass the min health mechanic by default. Instantly killing abilities which do bypass it do it with the help of special interactions coded into the abilities.
The following abilities use the instant kill mechanic
- Instantly kills debuffed enemy heroes who drop below the threshold.
- Instantly kills the target if their current health is below the threshold.
- Instantly kills the caster if all brewlings die.
- Instantly kills the oldest persuaded unit if the max amount of units gets exceeded.
- Instantly kills the target if it is an illusion.
- Instantly kills the target if it is an illusion.
- Instantly kills the targeted creep.
- Enigma - [[Enigma#|]]Instantly kills the targeted creep.
- Instantly kills the targeted creep.
- Instantly kills the already dominated creep upon dominating a new one.
- Instantly kills the infested creep.
- Instantly kills the target if it is an illusion.
- Instantly kills the target if it is an illusion.
- Instantly kills all other Meepoes when one of the Meepoes die.
- Instantly kills the hit target if it is a creep.
- Instantly kills the target if it is an illusion on the first tick of damage.
- Instantly kills the target if it is an illusion.
- Instantly kills the target if it is an illusion.
- Instantly kills the target upon release if it is not a hero or a clone.
- Instantly kills the target upon landing if it is not a hero or a clone.
- Becomes an instant kill only when upgraded with Aghanim's Shard. Instantly kills the target upon impact damage if their health is below the threshold.
Damage manipulation
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.
Removed damage types
More pages for my Black Grimoire!
The following damage types were removed in patch 6.82 in order to simplify the game mechanics.
Composite
Composite damage (also known as mixed damage) was a damage type that was reduced by both armor and magic resistance. It pierced spell immunity and did not affect ethereal units. This damage type was used by Acid Spray, Wild Axes, Diabolic Edict, Summon Spirit Bear's backlash damage, Land Mines and Suicide Squad, Attack!. All of them were changed to physical damage, except for the backlash damage from the Spirit Bear, which was changed to pure damage.
Universal
Universal damage was a damage type that pierced spell immunity and was affected by magic resistance. This damage type was previously used by Pulverize, Doom, Echo Slam's initial damage, Midnight Pulse, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Laguna Blade, March of the Machines, and Flaming Fists. Doom, Midnight Pulse, Flaming Fists and Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Laguna Blade were changed to deal pure damage, allowing them to still pierce spell immunity, while Pulverize, Echo Slam's initial damage and March of the Machines were changed to deal magical damage, and thus no longer pierce spell immunity.
Version History
- Removed Strong armor type.
- Moved the following units to the soft armor type (effectively 125%->100% from basic damage, 75%->150% from pierce damage and 125%->100% from siege damage): All neutral creeps, Eidolon, Skeleton Warrior, Treant, Greater Treant, Forged Spirit, Spiderling, Spiderite, Boar, Lycan Wolf, Spirit Bear, Plague Ward, Techies' mines and Psionic Trap.
- Moved the following units to the hero armor type (effectively 125%->75% from basic damage, 75%->50% from pierce damage and 125%->85% from siege damage): Earth, Storm and Roshan.
- Siege damage against heroes increased from 75% to 85%.
- Removed the Light attack type and moved the following units to the Standard attack type (effectively 40->50% vs structures): Centaur Conqueror, Hellbear, Hellbear Smasher, Wildwing Ripper, Satyr Tormenter, Ancient Granite Golem, Ancient Black Dragon, Forge Spirits, Spiderlings, and Warlock Golems.
- Removed the Weak armor type (effectively 200->150% from piercing damage) and moved the following unit to the Soft armor type (same as creeps): Beastmaster's Hawk.
- Removed the Basic armor type (effectively 150%->125% from basic damage and 50%->125% from siege damage) and move the following units to the strong armor type (like various other neutrals use): Kobold Soldier, Vhoul Assassin, Ghost, Hill Troll Berserker, Hill Troll Priest, Harpy Scout, Harpy Stormcrafter, Beastmaster's Boar, Undying's Tombstone, Pugna's Nether Ward, Templar Assassin's Psionic Trap, Techies' Land Mine, Stasis Trap, and Remote Mine.
- Composite and universal damage types removed to simplify the game mechanics.
- Composite damage was used by Acid Spray, Wild Axes, Diabolic Edict, Summon Spirit Bear's backlash damage, Land Mines and Suicide Squad, Attack!. All of them were changed to physical damage, except for the backlash damage from the Spirit Bear, which was changed to pure damage.
- Universal damage was previously used by Pulverize, Doom, Echo Slam's initial damage, Midnight Pulse, Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Laguna Blade, March of the Machines, and Flaming Fists. Doom, Midnight Pulse, Flaming Fists and Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Laguna Blade were changed to deal pure damage, allowing them to still pierce spell immunity, while Pulverize, Echo Slam's initial damage and March of the Machines were changed to deal magical damage, and thus no longer pierce spell immunity.
- Changed piercing damage to heavy armor to 75% from 100%.
- Chaos damage now does 40% damage to fortified (down from 50%).
- Chaos Damage now does same as hero damage to structures, 50% instead of 100%.
Patch History
- Base values for damage, Armor, Strength, Agility and Intelligence are now displayed alongside the bonus values rather than being totaled.