Lifesteal

“

▶️ Your life is mine now.

— Lifestealer

”

Lifesteal heals the attacking unit while damaging an enemy. Certain attack modifiers that deal damage in a single instance as the attack damage may conditionally Lifesteal. A unit can gain Lifesteal from abilities, items or talents granting percentage-based values (e.g. Morbid Mask).

Definition[]

Mechanics	Aspect / Definition	Examples
Lifesteal	Heals the attacking unit while damaging an enemy with the unit's physical attack damage. Does not heal from magical attack damage. Instant attack heals the attacking unit as long as the instant attack can be affected by attack modifiers.	Lifesteal
Pseudo-Lifesteal	Heals the unit conditionally using lifesteal following all properties of the mechanics.	Sidekick
Lifesteal Manipulation	Manipulates the healing values of lifesteal sources.	Sange
Spell Lifesteal	Heals the unit while damaging an enemy with spell damage. Heals the attacking unit while damaging an enemy with the unit's magical attack damage.	Voodoo Mask

Total Lifesteal[]

Percentage-based lifesteal sources from items, abilities, and talents stack independently and additively of each other after the sources' respectively creep lifesteal multiplier. All lifesteal sources are summed up, then lifesteal amplification is applied to the unit's lifesteal value as a multiplier. All lifesteal manipulation sources stack multiplicatively of each other.

The heal value from lifesteal is based on a percentage of the total physical attack damage dealt to the attacked unit from the attacking unit. Therefore, if an attack damage instance exceeds the target's current health and kills it, the heal value is based on the attack damage value the dying target would have received if it had not died. Lifesteal heals more on critical strike procs and works conditionally on certain attack modifiers.

Neither heals from magical attack damage sources (e.g. Monkey King Bar procs) nor spell damage sources of all damage types. Lifesteal only heals from physical and pure attack damage.

Instant attacks hitting secondary targets can heal from lifesteal as long as attack modifiers work with the instant attack source.

However, the heal value from lifesteal is not affected by most damage manipulation effects on the attacked target (e.g. Flesh Golem or Aeon Disk). For example, for illusions, their heal value from lifesteal is based on their outgoing damage manipulation values (i.e. total attack damage of the illusion), but the heal value from attacking illusions is not affected by the incoming damage manipulation values (i.e. attacking illusions).

There are currently no limits to how much a unit can heal from lifesteal.

Percentage-based lifesteal sources from items heals for 60% of their usual value when attacking creeps. Treats attack against clones, illusions and creep-heroes as heroes, attacks against Roshan as creeps.

Calculating the total lifesteal value of a unit involves using a few values and a multiplier and can be defined as:

Total Lifesteal
- ± Lifesteal Sources
  - × Creep Lifesteal Multiplier
- + Shared Lifesteal Sources
  - × Creep Lifesteal Multiplier
  - × Source Lifesteal Amplification
- × Wielder Lifesteal Amplification

Lifesteal Manipulation[]

Main Article: Lifesteal Manipulation

Lifesteal manipulation affects every source of Lifesteal. All sources of lifesteal manipulation - whether incoming or outgoing - stack diminishingly, and have a higher and lower limit of 100% and -100% respectively.

Lifesteal Manipulation neither affects Spell Lifesteal nor Spell Lifesteal Manipulation sources.

Lifesteal Manipulation Sources

¹ Requires

talent.

^2a Requires

Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires

Aghanim's Shard.

Equations[]

The amount of healing granted from lifesteal to the attacking unit is calculated by a percentage of the

Total Heal = Total Attack Damage Dealt × Total Lifesteal-%based

Total Lifesteal = Self Lifesteal Amplification × $\prod_{i=1}^{n}$ (Lifesteal-%based × Creep Multiplier)_i + $\prod_{i=1}^{n}$ (Source Lifesteal Amplification × Shared Lifesteal-%based × Creep Multiplier)_i

Conditional Attack Damage Bonus[]

Main Article: Conditional Attack Damage Bonus

These abilities give direct attack damage bonuses under certain circumstances, these bonuses are not displayed in the HUD and its damage type is not limited to physical damage; nonetheless, they are considered as attack damage since it is dealt in one instance together with a unit's attack damage. Only physical conditional attack damage bonuses increases the healing value from lifesteal.

Sources[]

Lifesteal Ability Sources

¹ Requires

talent.

^2a Requires

Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires

Aghanim's Shard.

Lifesteal Ability Sources (Does not Heal from Overkill Damage)

Marci – Sidekick

Items[]

Lifesteal Item Sources

Talents[]

Lifesteal

Ability
Passive

Affects
Self

There is no description for this ability.

Lifesteal: Varies

Illusion Notes:

Lifesteal is not functional despite particles being visible.

Grants the hero's attack lifesteal, healing them based on the attack damage they deal.

Stacks additively with other lifesteal sources.

Cannot lifesteal off of wards, buildings and allied units.

The following lifesteal values exist:
- 8%/10%/12%/15%/18%/20%/25%/30%/35%/40%/100%

The following heroes have a talent that grants them lifesteal.

Bonus	Level 10		Level 15		Level 20		Level 25
Bonus	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right
Lifesteal			15%	20%

Pseudo-Lifesteal[]

Some lifesteal sources work differently and conditionally, their mechanics are unique to the sources themselves. More information can be found in their ability's respective notes.

Lifestealer - Open Wounds

Heals everyone for all the damage they deal to the debuffed target, including spell damage.
Lone Druid - Spirit Link

Heals Lone Druid based on the attack damage dealt by his Spirit Bear.
When cast on an ally hero, the Ability Upgrade heals the affected target based on the attack damage dealt by Lone Druid instead.
Lycan - Wolf Bite

The lifesteal is granted to the ally immediately upon cast. Grants regular lifesteal and shared lifesteal to both, the caster and the target.
The shared lifesteal heals both the caster and target as long as they do not exceed the penalty distance.
Marci - Sidekick

The lifesteal is granted to the ally immediately upon cast. Grants regular lifesteal and shared lifesteal to both, the caster and the target. Applies penalty multiplier to both the lifesteal and shared lifesteal values when the distance between Marci and the affected target exceeds the penalty distance.

Spell Lifesteal[]

Main Article: Spell Lifesteal

Spell lifesteal allows the hero to heal from spell damage they deal. Just like attack damage lifesteal, spell lifesteal is calculated by a percentage of the actual damage done to units. However, unlike attack damage lifesteal, it does not heal for overkill damage dealt to a unit, so if a spell's damage exceeded the target's current health and killed it, the heal is based on the target's remaining health.