Diffusal Blade

Diffusal Blade
	An enchanted blade that allows the user to cut straight into the enemy's soul.
Artifacts
Recipe

Item

Old Abilities

Changelogs

Diffusal Blade is an item purchasable at the Base Shop, under Artifacts.

Additional Information[]

The item's attributes grants the following bonuses:

120 mana and 0.5 mana regeneration.
15 attack speed and 2.5 main armor.
15 and 10 main attack damage to / heroes respectively.

Abilities[]

Inhibit

▶️

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies

Targets an enemy, slowing it for 3 seconds.

Cast Range: 600

Move Speed Slow: 100%

Slow Decay Intervals: 5

Non-Hero Root Duration: 3

Slow Duration: 4

15

0

Modifiers []

Any

Notes:

The slow decreases in 0.8-second intervals, so it slows for 100%/80%/60%/40%/20, going one step down every 0.8 seconds.

When cast on non-hero units, the root and slow are applied at the same time, so overall, the slow lasts for 1 second, preventing it from moving and casting certain mobility abilities.
- Does not provide True Sight over the target.

Treats ancient creeps and creep-heroes as heroes.

Manabreak

Ability
Passive

Affects
Enemies

Damage
Physical

Each attack burns 40 mana from the target, and deals 1 physical damage per burned mana.

Burns 8 mana per attack from melee illusions and 8 mana per attack from ranged illusions.

Mana Burned per Hit (Hero): 40

Mana Burned per Hit (Illusion): 8

Burned Mana as Damage: 100%

Notes:

Burned mana as damage is considered as a conditional attack damage bonus.
- Although the attack damage bonus values are not displayed in the HUD, it is still considered and directly added to the wielder's attack damage.
- The attack damage bonus values are not considered by critical strike.
- However, it is considered by lifesteal and cleave, and it can be reduced only by flat reductions (e.g. damage block).
- Since it is considered bonus attack damage, it is not affected by percentage-based attack damage bonuses or reductions.

Effectively increases the wielder's attack damage by 40 against units which have enough mana to burn.
- Effectively increases the attack damage of an illusion by 8 against units which have enough mana to burn.

Applies the mana loss first, then the damage.

Does not work against allied units when attacking them.

Manabreak from multiple Diffusal Blades does not stack.
- Fully stacks with other sources of mana break.

Recommended Heroes[]

Generally works well with illusion-based heroes:

Chaos Knight	Naga Siren	Phantom Lancer	Riki	Spectre

Others[]

The bonus attributes and the Manabreak ability make Diffusal Blade a cost-effective damage item on agility carries/heroes in general.

Tips[]

Because of the way Manabreak interacts with illusions, Diffusal Blade is most common and most effective on heroes with easy access to them, such as Phantom Lancer.

Similarly, this is also why Manta Style and Diffusal Blade are so commonly seen together: after picking up one of the two, the other becomes that much more effective and attractive to buy.

The movement slow is an effective way to kite melee characters and can both increase your team's damage output vs them (by preventing them from running away and making it easier to hit them with spells), and reduce their damage output vs your team (by preventing them from getting close enough to hit anything).

The movement slow can help your illusions and/or summoned units stick to their attack target.

Can trigger an enemy's Linken's Sphere.

Trivia[]

The Manabreak passive used to be called Feedback and got changed at some point without notification.
Since version 7.07, Diffusal Blade can no longer be upgraded.

Gallery[]

Manabreak
Inhibit
Level 2 icon (unused)

Recent Changes[]

Main Article: Diffusal Blade/Changelogs

Version

Description

7.31

Item cost change:
- Now requires 1 Blade of Alacrity to build instead of 2 (-1000 cost).
- Increased Recipe cost from 700 to 1050 .
- Total cost decreases from 3150 to 2500 .
Reduced agility bonus from 24 to 15.
Reduced intelligence bonus from 12 to 10.
Manabreak
- Now stacks with Anti-Mage's Mana Break.
- Reduced mana burned per attack for illusions from 12/8 to 8.

7.29

Increased agility bonus from 20 to 24.
Increased intelligence bonus from 10 to 12.
Manabreak
- Increased damage per burned mana from 80% to 100%.
- Reduced mana burned per attack for illusions from 16/8 to 12/8.

7.24b

Reduced Manabreak mana burned per attack from 50 to 40.