Items

Magic items are special objects that can be acquired through a variety of means. Most commonly, they are dropped at random by Creeps. They can also be purchased at neutral or player owned shops. Heroes can carry up to six items. After researching Backpack some ground units can pick up items as well, but they cannot use them or benefit from them. Every item has a certain level and a gold and lumber cost. Items can be sold to item shops for half of their cost.
All items have 75 Hit Points.

Item Drop[edit]

Most creep camps drop items. The items are always hold by the same creep in the camp. Most camps drop random items of a certain categorie and level.

Item Shops[edit]

Item Categories[edit]

Permanent: Most permanent items give the Hero a bonus while carried. Some items can be used without consuming the item.
Charged: Can be activated for a temporary effect. After all charges are consumed the item disappears.
Power Up: Power Ups cannot be carried in the inventory and are used immediately by the Hero. Tomes are Power Up items that grant the hero a permanent bonus.
Artifact: Permanent items of level seven and eight are called Artifacts.
Purchasable: Items that are available in shops.

Item Cooldown[edit]

Usable items often have a cooldown, before they can be used again. For charged items the cooldown is only attached to the Hero. A hero using a charged item can no longer use another ccharged item with the same cooldown group while the cooldown lasts. The item can be given to another hero and can be used immediatly, because the cooldown is only on the Hero. For permanent items the cooldown is also on the item. If an item that is on cooldown is given to another hero, it will be on cooldown for that hero as well.

DPS and EHP Increase[edit]

Sortable tables illustrating the absolute and relative increase of DPS and EHP common items have on heroes at different hero levels can be found on the respective pages:

Version History[edit]

Balance Patch History
Version	Release	Balance Changes
1.32.6	2020-06-02	Items can no longer be destroyed by projectiles while in a hero’s inventory.
1.19	2005-09-19	Creep-dropped item sell prices have been standardized. Items of the same level will now generally sell for the same amount.
1.10	2003-07-03	Items have been revamped with new level tables. Items now have a level from 1 to 8, along with one of several categories. Items of levels 1 to 6 can be charged items, permanent items, or powerups. Items of level 7 or higher are artifacts. Examples: Wand of Lightning Shield (charged), Stone Token (charged), Ring of Protection +2 (permanent), Tome of Strength +2 (powerup), Mask of Death (artifact). Tomes are now "powerups". This means that if you right-click on them with a Hero selected, the Hero will now automatically use them rather than pick them up. Added the ability to sell items back to shops.

References[edit]

http://classic.battle.net/war3/basics/heroitems.shtml

General

Specific