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Aphotic Shield icon
▶️ A shield impenetrable.
Abaddon

Damage Barrier creates a barrier around a unit that protect them from incoming damage based on its max capacity.

Definition[]

Damage Barrier Definition Examples
Physical Damage Barrier Physical
  • Only absorbs physical damage from attacks.
Resonant Pulse icon Resonant Pulse
  • Absorbs all physical damage from abilities and attacks.
Pavise icon Protect
Magical Damage Barrier Magical
  • Absorbs all magical damage coming from abilities and attacks.
Flame Guard icon Flame Guard
All Damage Barrier Universal
  • Absorbs all damage coming from abilities and attacks.
  • Has the lowest priority in the group of damage barriers, its capacity is depleted last when combined with other damage-type barriers.
Aphotic Shield icon Aphotic Shield
Damage barrier priority1

Damage Barrier interaction visualized.

Damage Barrier directly reduces damage upon hit based on its damage barrier type.

After Damage Block, other generic damage reductions (e.g. armor, magic resistance, etc.) and damage-negating sources, the Damage Barrier absorb damage values. The damage barrier source applied the earliest will be depleted first. When combined with other higher-priority damage-negating sources (e.g. Borrowed Time icon Borrowed Time or Refraction icon Refraction), damage barrier sources do not absorb any damage until the damage-negation sources expire.

Damage Barrier has the following properties:

  • Does not interact with negative damage during damage calculations.
  • Only absorbs flat incoming damage based on their barrier damage type. Has a lower limit of 0.
  • Despite absorbing and negating damage and causing most on-damage effects to not trigger, the damage instance still deals a 0-damage instance.
  • The barrier damage type capacity value is shown on the HUD as Physical Damage Barrier Physical / Magical Damage Barrier Magical / All Damage Barrier Universal damage barriers respectively.
    • Stacks additively with the same damage-type barrier sources, and independently with other damage-type barrier sources.

Physical Damage Barrier[]

Physical Damage Barrier Sources

Magical Damage Barrier[]

All Magical Damage Barrier Magical Damage Barrier has the MODIFIER_PROPERTY_INCOMING_SPELL_DAMAGE_CONSTANT which absorbs magical attack damage and spell damage, including magical damage with the HP Removal flag.

1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

Universal Damage Barrier[]

All All Damage Barrier Universal Damage Barrier has the MODIFIER_PROPERTY_INCOMING_DAMAGE_CONSTANT which absorbs all types attack damage and spell damage, including damage with the HP Removal flag.

1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

Mechanics[]

Damage Barriers completely negate the incoming damage they block, so that most on-damage effects do not trigger, however, a 0 damage instance is still registered.

The barriers block damage after magic resistance and armor, but before generic incoming damage manipulation. Since barriers interact with incoming damage, outgoing damage manipulation is always applied first.

Example 1
Anti-Mage minimap icon Anti-Mage has a 200 health damage barrier, and gets hit by 500 magical damage. How much actual magical damage will he take?
Base magic resistance: 0.25
Magical Damage Taken
= 500 × (1 - 0.25) - 200
= 175
Anti-Mage minimap icon Anti-Mage will take 175 magical damage in this example.
Example 2
Anti-Mage minimap icon Anti-Mage additionally has 45% generic incoming damage reduction applied on him. How much actual magical damage will he take?
= (500 × (1 - 0.25)- 200) * (1- 0.45)
= 96.25

This means the exceeding 175 magical damage is not absorbed, and the damage is reduced by generic incoming damage reduction to 96.25 magical damage. In this example, Anti-Mage minimap icon Anti-Mage takes 96.25 magic damage. This means a barrier is less effective when combined with generic incoming damage reduction.

Before Barrier Absorption[]

The following sources may manipulate the damage before damage barriers absorb the damage.

1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.
Constant Magical Damage Block Sources

After Barrier Absorption[]

The following sources manipulate the damage after damage barriers absorb the damage.

Stacking[]

Damage Barriers

Void Spirit minimap icon Void Spirit affected by 3 types of Damage Barriers, universal, physical, and magical.

A unit can be affected by all 3 types of damage barriers at once, all working independently. Multiple sources of the same type of damage barriers stack additively. All Damage Barrier Universal damage barriers have the lowest priority in the group of damage barriers, its capacity is depleted last when combined with the other types. This means if a unit is affected by a universal barrier and a magical/physical barrier, and then takes magical/physical damage, the universal barrier will absorb the damage at last.

Example 1
Clockwerk minimap icon Clockwerk is affected by Level 4 Power Cogs icon Power Cogs and Pipe of Insight icon Barrier of Pipe of Insight. He then takes 1000 magical damage. Without accounting for magic resistance damage reduction, what is the remaining Magical Damage Barrier magical barrier capacity he has?
Barrier capacity: 200 + 450 = 650
Magical damage taken:
= 1000 - 650
= 350
Since incoming magical damage is less than all individual barriers. Both Power Cogs icon Power Cogs and Pipe of Insight icon Barrier will now have and remaining magic barrier capacity respectively in this example.
Example 2
Clockwerk minimap icon Clockwerk from the previous example is now also affected by a Level 4 Aphotic Shield icon Aphotic Shield. He then takes 800 magical damage.
Barrier Capacities: Power Cogs icon Power Cogs + Pipe of Insight icon Barrier: 650 Magical Damage Barrier magical barrier, Aphotic Shield icon Aphotic Shield: 210 All Damage Barrier universal barrier
The Magical Damage Barrier magical barrier first absorbs the magical damage based on Damage Barrier priorities.
= 650 - 800
= -150
The Magical Damage Barrier magical barrier's capacity is depleted, and the remaining 150 damage will be absorbed by the All Damage Barrier universal barrier.
= 210 - 150
= 60
The damage instance is completely negated and Clockwerk minimap icon Clockwerk has a All Damage Barrier universal damage barrier with a remaining capacity of 60.


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