Damage Types

• Overview
• Changelog

Taste my blade!

The three damage types are Physical, Magical, and Pure:

• Physical is affected by Armor
• Magical is affected by Magic Resistance
• Pure is not affected

Physical Damage

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 Class

Physical damage caused by standard attacks can have different attack class depending on the unit, the attack classes are represented by 3 abilities (Runty, Piercing, Reinforced). If a unit does not have any of these 3 abilities, their attacks deal full damage and are only altered by the target's armor and other damage manipulators.

Attack Class	Damage Against			Used by
	Hero	Non-Hero	Fortified
Default	100%	100%	Hero - 50% Non-Hero - 70% Spell Damage - 100%	Hero, Clones, Illusions, Creep-Hero and non-hero unit that is not listed in another class
Runty	75%	100%	70%	Melee Creeps
Piercing	50%	150%	35%	Ranged Creeps
Reinforced	100%	100%	150%	Siege Creeps, Towers, Fountain

Runty

Targeting
Passive

Runty Units Deal reduced damage to hero units

Attack Damage Reduction Against Heroes	25%

Attack Damage Reduction Against Reinforced Units	30%

---

	Undispellable.
	Not disabled by Break.
	Affect illusions.

Piercing

Targeting
Passive

Piercing Units Deal Bonus Damage to non-hero, non-heavy units and reduced damage to heroes and heavy units

Attack Damage Bonus Against Non-Hero Units	50%

Attack Damage Reduction Against Heroes	50%

Attack Damage Reduction Against Reinforced Units	65%

---

	Undispellable.
	Not disabled by Break.
	Affect illusions.

Reinforced

Targeting
Passive

Reinforced Units and Buildings Deal Bonus Damage to other Reinforced Units and Buildings and take less attack damage from other units.

Attack Damage Bonus Against Reinforced Units	50%

Hero Attack Damage Reduction	50%

Non-Hero Attack Damage Reduction	30%

Piercing Attack Damage Reduction	65%

Player-Controlled Units Attack Damage Reduction	10%

Illusions Attack Damage Reduction	60%

---

	Undispellable.
	Not disabled by Break.
	Affect illusions.

Magical Damage

Magical damage is the most common damage type for spells.

• Magical damage is reduced by Magic Resistance and amplified by Magic Amplification
• Ethereal units amplify magical damage taken

Pure Damage

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

•  Mist Coil
  • Self Damage

Axe

•  Counter Helix

Bane

•  Brain Sap

Bloodseeker

•  Blood Rite
•  Rupture

Doom

•  Doom

Enchantress

•  Impetus

Enigma

•  Midnight Pulse
•  Black Hole

Invoker

•  Sun Strike

Lina

•  Laguna Blade

Lone Druid

•  Summon Spirit Bear
  • Backlash

Nyx Assassin

•  Spiked Carapace

Omniknight

•  Purification

Outworld Devourer

•  Arcane Orb

Pudge

•  Meat Hook

Queen of Pain

•  Sonic Wave

Silencer

•  Glaives of Wisdom

Spectre

•  Desolate

Techies

•  Blast Off!
  • Self Damage

Templar Assassin

•  Psi Blades

Timbersaw

•  Whirling Death
•  Timber Chain
•  Chakram

Tinker

•  Laser

Non-Damage Types

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

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

Huskar

•  Burning Spear

Kunkka

•  Ghostship

Phoenix

•  Icarus Dive
•  Fire Spirits
•  Sun Ray

Terrorblade

•  Sunder

Undying

•  Soul Rip

Weaver

•  Time Lapse

Armlet of Mordiggian

•  Unholy Strength

Soul Ring

•  Sacrifice

Instant Kill

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	Unit is an illusion

No-Trigger

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

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

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:

• The attacker can lifesteal off the damage dealt, but it cannot crit or cleave
• The damage can be reduced by damage reduction​
• The damage cannot be amplified by attack damage bonuses
• Does not work against wards and buildings, but works on allied units

---

Fury Swipes and Mana Burns:

• Does not work on allied units

---

Javelin, Bashes, and Mini-Bashes:

• The damage is not reduced by Magic Shield

---

Nethertoxin:

• Can crit

---

Shadow Blade and Silver Edge:

• Can cleave

---

Roshan:

• Works against wards and buildings

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

Patch Version	Balance Changes
7.23
	Siege damage against heroes increased from 85% to 100%
7.06
	Siege damage type vs structures increased from 150% to 250%
6.87
	Removed Strong armor type, and moved affected units to Soft type, which is now renamed to Basic type
6.86
	Siege damage against heroes increased from 75% to 85% Removed the Light attack type and moved the following units to the Standard attack type Removed the Weak armor type and moved the following unit to the Soft armor type Combined the Basic and Strong Armor types
6.82
	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 Universal damage type removed This was a rare type that always pierced Spell Immunity and was reduced by Magic Resistance Composite damage type removed This was a hybrid type that was reduced by both Armor and Magic Resistance 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

• Armor
• Damage Block
• Magic Resistance
• Spell Immunity

External links

• http://www.playdota.com/forums/showthread.php?t=204911