Cleave
From Liquipedia Dota 2 Wiki
| “ | ▶️ No room to swing a cat in this crowd.
— Kunkka
|
” |
Cleave causes a 
melee unit's attacks to deal a portion of its damage in an area in front of it.
Mechanics[edit]
Sven cleaving through a creep wave.
Cleave causes the unit's attack to deal damage in a trapezoid in front of the attacking unit. The damage is based on the unit's total attack damage values. Cleave can only be used by melee units, 
ranged units cannot cleave by default.
Cleave does not affect the primary target, and it cannot miss when hitting secondary targets. However, a missed attack does not cleave. Cleave hits invisible, but not hidden or invulnerable units, and does not work against wards and buildings.
Stacking[edit]
Multiple sources of cleave on the same unit work fully independently of each other. Each source applies its full damage within its area, without interacting with the other cleave sources.
- Example 1
- Sven with level 4 Great Cleave, has level 4 Empower buff and Battle Fury would deal 3 different instances of cleave damage on each attack to units, with each instance using its own starting radius, distance and end radius in front of him.
Ability Draft[edit]
Main Article: Ability Draft
Ranged heroes are unable to cleave. The cleave-granting ability either has its cleave part disabled for them, or the ability is unobtainable by them. An attack is classified as melee when the attack does not rely on projectiles.
If a game mode allows ranged heroes to obtain the normally unobtainable cleave abilities (e.g. Ability Draft), these cleave sources (e.g. Tidebringer and Great Cleave) fully work for them. The cleave area, just like for melee heroes, is based on the attacking unit's position and happens on attack hit. This means the cleave damage is always applied in front of the attacking hero, even when the target was much further away.
Damage[edit]
Cleave's damage type is physical and is entirely based on the unit's total attack damage (before reductions). Its damage pierces spell immunity and is fully affected by damage manipulation.
While cleave damage is considered spell damage, certain flags are applied to it:
- No-spell-lifesteal flag, preventing its damage from utilizing spell lifesteal.
- No-spell-amplification flag, preventing its damage from being amplified with spell damage amplification.
Area of Effect[edit]
Great Cleave area of effect visualized.
The area of effect for cleave sources is shaped like an isosceles trapezoid. This trapezoid is in front of the attacking unit, so that the attacking unit is always at the center of the shorter side of the trapezoid.
Double the starting radius equates to the length of the shorter side of the trapezoid, the cleave distance equates to its height, and double the ending radius equates to the long side parallel to the short side of the trapezoid.
Attack Modifier Interactions[edit]
Main Article: Attack Modifier
Although cleave is an attack modifier, it works independently on itself and does not interfere with any other attack modifier.
For example, the armor reducing effect of Corruption applied to the primary attacked target does not increase the cleave damage, despite the target receiving extra damage from armor reduction. However, if an attack modifier increases the total attack damage (e.g. Critical Strike), it affects the cleave damage.
Some abilities which grant conditional attack damage bonuses may or may not be included in the cleave damage. The following is a list of abilities that are taken into account by cleave:
Conditional Attack Damage Bonuses Considered by Cleave
Cleave Sources[edit]
Cleave Sources
- 1 Requires
talent. - 2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.
- 2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.
- 3 Tidebringer is not affected by Quell.
Talents[edit]
special_bonus_cleave_x
- Deals
physical 
spell damage correspondingly to the hero's attack damage value, and is defined as:
- Affected by
damage block sources on the enemy individually within the area-of-effect. - Has the following damage flags:
- Stack independently with other cleave sources.
- The total ability area-of-effect is an isosceles trapezoid in front of the hero.
- Deals
-
- The damage is applied immediately to all valid enemy units within the area-of-effect regardless of the ability visual effects.
- Does not proc cleave when attacking the following units:
Ally units.
- Does not damage the following units:
- Neither proc nor damage the following units:
- There are different ability IDs for the following cleave values:
- 6845 (15%)
- 6603 (20%)
- 6801 (25%)
- 7122 (30%)
- 7899 (35%)
- 7200 (40%)
- 6631 (60%)
- 6827 (100%)
- 7201 (130%)
- 455 (140%)
- 7124 (150%)
- 7670 (175%)
The following heroes have a talent that grants them cleave.
| Bonus | Level 10 | Level 15 | Level 20 | Level 25 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left | Right | Left | Right | Left | Right | Left | Right | |
| Cleave |
|
|||||||
Splash[edit]
Splash is in some ways the ranged version of cleave. It works similarly as cleave, with the main difference being the damage is typically dealt in a circle around the attacked unit, instead of a trapezoid in front of the attacking unit.
Splash does not affect the primary target, and it cannot miss when hitting secondary targets. However, if an attack misses, no splash damage is applied within the radius. Splash damage works with attack modifiers the same way as cleave does.
Just like cleave, splash also works for melee heroes. Doom is able to acquire Splash Attack from Ancient Black Dragon (with Devour).
Splash Sources[edit]
Abilities Granting Splash Attacks
Splash Radius: 250
Splash Damage: 100%
Passive ability. Splashes damage based on how much the primary target took. Deals physical damage.
Splash Radius: 275
Splash Damage: 20
Active ability. Splashes damage around the target unit. Deals physical damage.
Damage Radius: 2.5
Active ability. Ability values are based on Tree Throw.
Other Sources[edit]
Besides Cleave and Splash, there are some unique attack-based area damage abilities that share some similarities with cleave and splash, or with each other.
Tree Grab[edit]
Tree Grab area damage visualized.
Tree Grab shares several similarities with cleave. Its damage is calculated based on Tiny's total attack damage. It also considers armor value, defense classes, and deals physical damage.
The biggest difference to cleave is how its damage area is calculated. While cleave sources is shaped like an isosceles trapezoid, Tree Grab's area is a semicircle on top of a rectangle. The ability's area is also locked on Tiny, being in front of him, no matter how far away the attack target is.
Psi Blades[edit]
Psi Blades area damage visualized.
Spill Area Width: 550/600/650/700
Spill Length Multiplier: 0.85/0.9/0.95/1
Attack Damage Spilled:
Psi Blades causes Templar Assassin's attack to damage enemies behind the attacked target. The spill damage is based on how much exactly the primary attack target took, and is dealt as pure damage to units behind it. The damage counts as spell damage, but it ignores outgoing spell damage amplification and cannot spell lifesteal.
The spill area has a rectangular shape, with a width of 550/600/650/700 and has a length of 0.85/0.9/0.95/1 × ΣAtkRange. The spill area can be further increased by other attack range bonuses. Templar Assassin's position is checked as the projectile hits the target, not upon launching.
Version History[edit]
Description
- Cleave damage is now affected by armor value as well, instead of only armor type. [?]
- Cleave now uses a trapezoid-shaped area, instead of a circular area.
- Battle Fury: From 280 radius to 150 starting radius, 520 distance, and 280 end radius.
- Empower: From 240 radius to 150 starting radius, 460 distance, and 240 end radius.
- Great Cleave: From 300 radius to 150 starting radius, 550 distance, and 300 end radius.
- Grow: From 400 radius to 150 starting radius, 600 distance, and 400 end radius.
- Tidebringer: From 450/500/550/600 radius to 150 starting radius, 675/750/825/900 distance, and 450/500/550/600 end radius.
- Cleave damage is no longer affected by spell damage amplification.
- Cleave damage can no longer spell lifesteal.
Patch History[edit]
Description
