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Damage Types

From Liquipedia Dota 2 Wiki
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The three damage types are Physical, Magical, and Pure:

Physical Damage[edit]

Physical damage is caused by all standard attacks from units and some spells.

  • Physical damage is reduced by positive armor and amplified by negative armor
  • Damage Block reduces physical damage from attacks, but not from spells
  • Ethereal units are not affected by physical damage
  • Evasion grants the chance to dodge attacks, but will not dodge damage from spells

Attack Types[edit]

Physical damage caused by standard attacks can have different attack types depending on the unit:

  • Basic attacks are used by most creeps and summons
    • Deals less damage to buildings, siege creeps, and heroes
  • Pierce attacks are used by some creeps and summons
  • Siege attacks are used by towers and siege creeps
    • Deals very high damage to buildings and siege creeps, but less damage to heroes
  • Hero attacks are used by all heroes, and a few special summons
    • Deals half damage to buildings and siege creeps


Attack types are affected by different armor types listed in the table below:

Attack Type Armor Type
Basic Fortified Hero
Basic 100% 70% 75%
Pierce 150% 35% 50%
Siege 100% 250% 100%
Hero 100% 50% 100%

For a comprehensive list, see: Table of Armor and Damage Types

Magical Damage[edit]

Magical damage is the most common damage type for spells.

Pure Damage[edit]

Pure damage is not affected by Armor or Magic Resistance.

  • Pure damage can be reduced and amplified by a few specialized game mechanics
  • Spell amplification boosts all damage types from spells, including physical and pure spells

Abaddon Abaddon[edit]

Axe Axe[edit]

Bane Bane[edit]

Bloodseeker Bloodseeker[edit]

Doom Doom[edit]

Enchantress Enchantress[edit]

Enigma Enigma[edit]

Invoker Invoker[edit]

Lina Lina[edit]

Lone Druid Lone Druid[edit]

Nyx Assassin Nyx Assassin[edit]

Omniknight Omniknight[edit]

Outworld Destroyer Outworld Devourer[edit]

Pudge Pudge[edit]

Queen of Pain Queen of Pain[edit]

Silencer Silencer[edit]

Spectre Spectre[edit]

Techies Techies[edit]

Templar Assassin Templar Assassin[edit]

Timbersaw Timbersaw[edit]

Tinker Tinker[edit]

Non-Damage Types[edit]

The following mechanics remove hit points but do not trigger on-hit effects. The underlying mechanic is the damage source not causing a hit. This results in it being ignored by effects which only trigger on hit. A hit is defined as damage greater than 0 from a standard damage type (either physical, magical, or pure). Because the following mechanics do not cause a hit, they are considered Non-Damage Types and are in an entirely different category from standard Damage Types.

HP Cost[edit]

HP Cost does not count as damage and is always non-lethal. It cannot be reduced or amplified by anything.

Huskar Huskar[edit]

Kunkka Kunkka[edit]

Phoenix Phoenix[edit]

Terrorblade Terrorblade[edit]

Undying Undying[edit]

Weaver Weaver[edit]

Items[edit]

Armlet of Mordiggian Armlet of Mordiggian[edit]

Soul Ring Soul Ring[edit]

Instant Kill[edit]

Under certain conditions, some abilities may provide an Instant Kill.

  • This has no damage type and simply kills the target when the requirements are met
  • Instant kill damage is not spread by shared damage effects
Hero Abilities
Hero Ability Kill Condition
Ancient Apparition Ice Blast Unit is under the health threshold
Axe Culling Blade Unit is under the health threshold
Brewmaster Primal Split If all warriors die, Brewmaster dies
Disruptor Glimpse Unit is an illusion
Doom Devour Unit is a non-ancient creep or summon
Drow Ranger Marksmanship Unit is a creep or summon (except ancient creeps)
Enigma Demonic Conversion Unit is a non-ancient creep or summon
Lifestealer Consume Unit is non-hero and Infestable
Lion Hex Unit is an illusion
Mana Drain Unit is an illusion
Lone Druid Spirit Bear If Lone Druid dies, the Spirit Bear also dies
Mirana Sacred Arrow Unit is a non-ancient creep or summon
Meepo Divided We Stand If one Meepo dies, they all die
Oracle False Promise Unit took too much damage
Phoenix Supernova If the sun dies, Phoenix also dies
If the sun dies, Phoenix and an allied hero (if chosen) also die
Pugna Life Drain Unit is an illusion
Shadow Shaman Hex Unit is an illusion
Wraith King Reincarnation
Wraith duration ends
Item Abilities
Item Ability Kill Condition
Dagon Energy Burst Unit is an illusion
Hand of Midas Transmute Unit is transmutable
Scythe of Vyse Hex Hex Unit is an illusion

No-Trigger[edit]

Damage dealt by the following abilities will not trigger on-hit effects, despite having a damage type.

Hero Abilities
Hero Ability
Spectre Dispersion
Venomancer Poison Sting
Zeus Static Field
Unit Abilities
Unit Ability
Vhoul Assassin Envenomed Weapon

No-Reflection[edit]

Damage dealt by the following abilities cannot be reflected.

Hero Abilities
Hero Ability
Nyx Assassin Spiked Carapace
Spectre Dispersion
Venomancer Poison Sting
Viper Corrosive Skin
Warlock Fatal Bonds
Zeus Static Field
Unit Abilities
Unit Ability
Vhoul Assassin Envenomed Weapon
Item Abilities
Item Ability
Blade Mail Damage Return

Direct Added Damage[edit]

Some damage effects have deprecated interactions still found within the game. The following abilities add damage directly to the user's attack despite being a different damage type, and interact with lifesteal and damage reduction as if it were part of the user's standard attack damage itself, despite being abilities.

Overview:

Fury Swipes and Mana Burns:

  • Does not work on allied units

Javelin, Bashes, and Mini-Bashes:

Nethertoxin:

Shadow Blade and Silver Edge:

Roshan:

Hero Abilities
Hero Ability
Anti-Mage Mana Break
Faceless Void Time Lock
Riki Cloak and Dagger
Slardar Bash of the Deep
Sniper Headshot
Troll Warlord Berserker's Rage
Ursa Fury Swipes
Viper Nethertoxin
Unit Abilities
Unit Ability
Necronomicon Warrior Mana Break
Roshan Bash
Item Abilities
Item Ability
Abyssal Blade Bash
Diffusal Blade Manabreak
Javelin Pierce
Monkey King Bar Mini-Bash
Skull Basher Bash
Shadow Blade Shadow Walk
Silver Edge Shadow Walk

Version History[edit]

Patch Version Balance Changes
7.23
  • Buff Siege damage against heroes increased from 85% to 100%
7.06
  • Buff Siege damage type vs structures increased from 150% to 250%
6.87
  • Rework Removed Strong armor type, and moved affected units to Soft type, which is now renamed to Basic type
6.86
  • Buff Siege damage against heroes increased from 75% to 85%
  • Rework Removed the Light attack type and moved the following units to the Standard attack type
  • Rework Removed the Weak armor type and moved the following unit to the Soft armor type
  • Rework Combined the Basic and Strong Armor types
6.82
  • Rework There are now three primary damage types and a Spell Immunity Piercing status with each
  • Physical can now be blocked by Spell Immunity, Pure can now pierce Spell Immunity, on an individual spell basis
  • Rework Universal damage type removed
  • This was a rare type that always pierced Spell Immunity and was reduced by Magic Resistance
  • Rework Composite damage type removed
  • This was a hybrid type that was reduced by both Armor and Magic Resistance
  • Rework HP Removal removed, replaced by HP Cost
  • Remaining uses are as an alternative cost for spells or as functional HP modifications, these are now considered usage costs in the game and are never lethal

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

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