Damage Types

• Attack Damage
• Heroes' Main Attack Damage
• Spell Damage
• Damage Types

Damage is any means by which unit's current health can be reduced. The 3 main damage classifications are Physical, Magical and Pure.

Damage Sources

Main Articles: Attack Damage and Spell Damage

Damage can come from attacks, abilities and items. Attack damage is the damage dealt per attack, and is displayed on the sword icon in the HUD. Generally, damage sources are split into two big categories — Attack Damage and Spell Damage.

Attack damage ( <math>A</math> ) is the amount of damage a unit is shown to deal with a regular attack. A unit's total attack damage is the sum of its main attack damage (white) and bonus attack damage (green). Most attack damage are physical damage, however, there are some exceptions to this.

Spell damage ( <math>Sp</math> ) is usually damage dealt in a separate instance from attack damage, with some exceptions. This includes all abilities (including item abilities and attack modifiers) which deal the 3 damage types — magical, physical or pure damage.

Damage Classification

All forms of damage in Dota 2 are classified by damage types. There are 3 primary damage types: Physical, Magical, and Pure.

Physical Damage is reduced by Armor or Damage Block, Magical Damage is reduced by Magic Resistance and Magical Damage Barrier, while Pure Damage is not generally reduced by anything (except for damage reduction, e.g. Enrage and Defense Matrix, which affects all damage types).

All 3 damage types have some interaction with other damage-related game mechanics as noted in the table below. Some damage sources may also have the HP Removal flag, causing the damage to ignore some mechanics which would manipulate it otherwise.

Mechanic	Damage Type Interaction
	Physical Attacks	Physical Abilities	Magical Attacks	Magical Abilities	Pure Attacks	Pure Abilities
Armor	Reduced	Reduced	-	-	-	-
Damage Block	Reduced	Normal1	-	-	-	-
Magic Resistance	-	-	Reduced	Reduced	-	-
Magical Damage Barrier	-	-			-	-
Ethereal			Amplified	Amplified	-	-
Evasion	May Miss	-	May Miss	-	May Miss	-
Invulnerability	No effect on all damage types.
Damage Manipulation2	Amplifies, Reduces and Negates all damage types.
Damage Negation2

¹ Except Moon Glaives, although considered as spell damage, its damage is blocked.

² These categories only count ability effects which directly manipulate damage, reducing (e.g. Bristleback), amplifying (e.g. Bloodrage) or completely negating them (e.g. Refraction). Abilities that amplify or reduce damage by increasing/reducing magic resistance/armor of units are not included.

Debuff Immunity

File:Debuff Immunity icon.png

Default buff icon

Main Article: Debuff Immunity

Debuff immunity is a modifier which stops most effects of debuffs' effects on a unit without dispelling the debuffs and without preventing debuffs from being placed on the unit. It also grants resistance against magical damage and immunity against pure and reflected damage, as well as protecting against mana loss.

Debuff immunity inherently grants the unit increased magic resistance, with the amount depending on the source ability. On top of this, it also grants 100% resistance against pure damage and reflected damage, meaning they deal 0 damage. Note that a 0 damage instance is still registered and still may proc on-damage effect, unless it is flagged as HP Removal.

However, these resistances are only granted against abilities that do not pierce debuff immunity. This means if an ability pierces debuff immunity and deals magical, pure, or reflected damage, it completely ignores the resistances granted by the debuff immunity. In case of magic damage, it deals damage as if the magic resistance bonus of the debuff immunity is not present.

Physical damage does not interact with debuff immunity at all, regardless of whether the ability pierces debuff immunity or not.

Physical

Most attack damage from all units (including buildings) and certain abilities deal physical damage, unless stated otherwise. The total physical damage dealt to a unit is affected by armor (percentage reductions) and damage block (flat reductions). Units under ethereal are not affected by physical damage.

Some abilities (e.g. Guardian Angel and Cold Embrace) provides physical damage immunity, although they can still be targeted by attacks and abilities.

Physical damage from abilities (and theoretically items) is usually unaffected by defense class. Unless it directly manipulates the attack damage (i.e. attack damage increasing abilities or Exorcism). Physical damage (except for Moon Glaives) from these attack damage increasing abilities are affected by armor, but are not affected by evasion and damage block.

The following abilities deal physical damage (summoning abilities and attack damage buffs are not listed):

Abilities Dealing Physical Damage

• The Leveller – Demolish
• Chipped Vest – Passive
• Abyssal Blade – Bash^{1, 2}
• Battle Fury – Cleave²
• Diffusal Blade – Manabreak^{1, 2}
• Disperser – Manabreak^{1, 2}
• Lance of Pursuit – Hound
• Rattlecage – Reverberate
• Shadow Blade – Shadow Walk^{1, 2}
• Silver Edge – Shadow Walk^{1, 2}
• Skull Basher – Bash^{1, 2}
• Mana Break – Mana Break^{1, 2}

¹ Damage is directly added to the total attack damage.

² Damage from these abilities is affected by defense class as well.

³ Half of damage dealt is physical, the other half magical.

⁴ Damage dealt is blocked by damage block.

Magical

Main Articles: Magic Resistance and Ethereal

Magical Damage sources primarily come from abilities. The majority of abilities in game deal magical damage, unless stated otherwise. Magical damage is reduced by magic resistance, and its damage is amplified against ethereal units. The majority of abilities in Dota 2 deal magical damage.

Abilities Dealing Magical Damage

• Dagon 2 – Energy Burst
• Dagon 3 – Energy Burst
• Dagon 4 – Energy Burst
• Dagon 5 – Energy Burst
• Warlock Golem – Permanent Immolation
• Fae Grenade – Shadow Brand
• Dagon – Energy Burst
• Venomancer – Poison Nova (7.33 - 7.35d)
• Gyrocopter – Call Down (Pre 7.35)
• Ceremonial Robe – Ceremonial Aura
• Giant's Ring – Giant's Foot
• Gleipnir – Chain Lightning
• Gleipnir – Eternal Chains
• Havoc Hammer – Havoc
• Cloak of Flames – Immolate
• Enchanted Quiver – Certain Strike
• Ethereal Blade – Ether Blast
• Javelin – Pierce
• Maelstrom – Chain Lightning
• Eul's Scepter of Divinity – Cyclone
• Khanda – Empower Spell
• Dragon Scale – Afterburn
• Blood Grenade – Throw Grenade
• Parasma – Witch Blade
• Dust of Appearance – Reveal
• Bloodthorn – Pierce
• Bloodthorn – Soul Rend
• Martyr's Plate – Martyrdom
• Radiance – Burn
• Ogre Seal Totem – Ogre Seal Flop
• Orb of Corrosion – Corrosion
• Orb of Venom – Poison Attack
• Meteor Hammer – Meteor Hammer
• Orchid Malevolence – Soul Burn
• Revenant's Brooch – Phantom Province
• Urn of Shadows – Soul Release
• Overwhelming Blink – Overwhelming Blink
• Wind Waker – Cyclone
• Mjollnir – Chain Lightning
• Mjollnir – Static Charge
• Witch Blade – Witch Blade
• Monkey King Bar – Pierce
• Shiva's Guard – Arctic Blast
• Spirit Vessel – Soul Release
• Stormcrafter – Bottled Lightning
• Slime Vial – Spill
• Dagon 1 – Energy Burst
• Tormentor – The Shining
• Ancient Ice Shaman – Icefire Bomb
• Mercy & Grace – Dead Shot
• Roshan – On The Move
• Roshan – Roar of Retribution
• Roshan – Slam
• Spirit Bear – Fetch
• Psionic Trap – Trap
• Necronomicon Warrior – Last Will

Pure

Pure Damage is a damage type that is not reduced by Armor or Magic Resistance. It is also not amplified by magical damage amplification abilities, fully ignores Armor and Damage Block. It does not affect invulnerable units.

There are a few sources that can manipulate Pure Damage, with Dispersion being one of them. This mechanic is called damage reduction. Pure damage affects units with Spell Immunity (because spell immunity does not block damage), but that does not mean that an ability that deals pure damage is able to target spell immune units.

For example, Laser deals pure damage, but cannot be cast on units with spell immunity.

Abilities Dealing Pure Damage

• Warlock Golem – Flaming Fists
• Timbersaw – Second Chakram

¹ Mist Coil deals pure damage to the caster, but magical damage to the target.

² Requires a talent.

³ Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

⁴ Requires Aghanim's Shard.

Flags

Several abilities have certain flags that cause them to behave differently in certain situations, all abilities can be flagged, regardless of damage types. Examples of flags include the HP Removal, the No-reflection, the No-Spell-Lifesteal and the No-Spell-Amplification flag.

HP Removal

Driven by DOTA_DAMAGE_FLAG_HPLOSS damage flag.

Abilities with the HP Removal flag ignore and do not trigger any on-damage effects, making them unable to interrupt Blink Dagger or cancel consumables (e.g. Clarity). Their damage also cannot be amplified or negated by most forms of generic damage manipulation and damage negation. In some cases, their damage ignores invulnerability as well. Damage ignored this way is still registered as such and may be counted for statistic purposes.

All damage with HP Removal flag will not generate spell lifesteal, because HP Removal will not yield damage instance.

The ability's damage values are still affected by damage classification as usual (i.e. Magical damage with HP Removal can still be affected by magic resistance and magical damage barriers).

Abilities using the HP Removal Flag

• Bloodseeker – Bloodrage¹
• Bloodseeker – Blood Mist¹
• Necrophos – Heartstopper Aura
• Oracle – False Promise²
• Orb of Venom – Poison Attack
• Orb of Corrosion – Corrosion
• Spectre – Dispersion
• Venomancer – Poison Sting
• Vhoul Assassin – Envenomed Weapon

¹ Maximum health as cost per second is considered HP Removal to the caster.

² This ability delays damage. The delayed damage is Pure and has the HP Removal flag.

Setting Health

Main Article: Setting Health

Besides healing and damaging, a unit's health may also be directly altered by setting it to certain values. Health altered this way is neither registered as a heal, nor as damage, and therefore is ignored by anything that reacts to healing and damage. It can also never be lethal, and can never set the health beyond the unit's max health. When casting the following abilities with lesser health than the health cost, the caster's goes down to 1_HP.

HP Removal is not the same as Setting Health. HP Removal is still damage, but flagged to bypasses several but not all on-damage effects, and can still be lethal.

On-Damage Effects

Besides all sources of damage manipulation and spell lifesteal, the following abilities do not react on damage which has the HP Removal flag:

Abilities Unaffected by HP Removal Damage

• Aegis of the Immortal – Expire Restore
• Bane – Nightmare
• Batrider – Sticky Napalm
• Blade Mail – Damage Return
• Blink Dagger – Blink
• Bloodthorn – Soul Rend
• Bottle – Regenerate
• Bristleback – Bristleback
• Clarity – Replenish
• Elder Titan – Echo Stomp
• Healing Salve – Salve
• Invoker – Cold Snap
• Invoker – Ghost Walk
• Lifestealer – Open Wounds
• Mjollnir – Static Charge
• Monkey King – Tree Dance
• Monkey King – Mischief
• Nyx Assassin – Spiked Carapace
• Orchid Malevolence – Soul Burn
• Regeneration Rune – Regeneration
• Spirit Bear – Return
• Tidehunter – Kraken Shell
• Urn of Shadows – Soul Release
• Viper – Corrosive Skin
• Visage – Soul Assumption
• Visage – Gravekeeper's Cloak
• Warlock – Fatal Bonds

No-reflection

Driven by DOTA_DAMAGE_FLAG_REFLECTION damage flag.

On-damage events of certain abilities do not interact with the damage of abilities which have the no-reflection flag. This is to prevent infinite damage loops in case of 2 opposing heroes with Blade Mails.

Damage Sources with No-reflection Flag

• Arcanist's Armor – Mega Shield ¹
• Blade Mail – Damage Return ¹
• Nyx Assassin – Spiked Carapace ¹
• Spectre – Dispersion ^{2 3}
• Viper – Corrosive Skin ²
• Warlock – Fatal Bonds ¹

¹ Triggers on damage effects of all abilities, except from the following list.

² Does not trigger on damage effects.

³ Flagged as HP Removal.

The following abilities do not react to abilities with the No-reflection flag:

Abilities that do not react to the No-reflection flag

• Arcanist's Armor – Mega Shield
• Batrider – Sticky Napalm
• Blade Mail – Damage Return
• Bristleback – Bristleback
• Nyx Assassin – Spiked Carapace
• Spectre – Dispersion
• Viper – Corrosive Skin
• Warlock – Fatal Bonds

No-Spell-Lifesteal

Driven by DOTA_DAMAGE_FLAG_NO_SPELL_LIFESTEAL damage flag.

Abilities with the no-spell-lifesteal flag cannot spell lifesteal, even though their damage is categorised as spell damage.

All damage with HP Removal flag will not generate spell lifesteal, because HP Removal will not yield damage instance.

Abilities not affected by Spell Lifesteal

• Arcanist's Armor – Mega Shield
• Battle Fury – Cleave
• Blade Mail – Damage Return
• Chipped Vest – Passive
• Kunkka – Tidebringer
• Luna – Moon Glaives
• Magnus – Empower
• Nyx Assassin – Spiked Carapace
• Silencer – Glaives of Wisdom¹
• Storm Spirit – Overload²
• Sven – Great Cleave
• Templar Assassin – Psi Blades
• Tiny – Tree Grab
• Tiny – Tree Throw
• Witch Doctor – Death Ward³
• Witch Doctor – Voodoo Switcheroo³

¹ The damage of the bouncing attacks is unable to spell lifesteal. The -based damage is able to spell lifesteal, including that of the bounces.

² The damage of the bouncing attacks is unable to spell lifesteal. However, Overload's area damage is able to spell lifesteal, including that of the bounces.

³ The damage of the bouncing attacks count as spell damage, but is unable to spell lifesteal.

No-Spell-Amplification

Driven by DOTA_DAMAGE_FLAG_NO_SPELL_AMPLIFICATION damage flag.

Abilities with the no-spell-amplification flag ignore Outgoing Spell Damage Manipulation.

Only spell amplification will be ignored, other spell damage manipulation is still effective.

Abilities not affected by Spell Damage Amplifications

• Arcanist's Armor – Mega Shield
• Battle Fury – Cleave
• Blade Mail – Damage Return
• Chipped Vest – Passive
• Kunkka – Tidebringer
• Luna – Moon Glaives
• Magnus – Empower
• Necrophos – Heartstopper Aura
• Nyx Assassin – Spiked Carapace
• Silencer – Glaives of Wisdom¹
• Storm Spirit – Overload²
• Sven – Great Cleave
• Templar Assassin – Psi Blades
• Tiny – Tree Grab
• Tiny – Tree Throw
• Witch Doctor – Death Ward³
• Witch Doctor – Voodoo Switcheroo³

¹ The damage of the bouncing attacks is unaffected by spell damage amplification. The -based damage is fully affected, including that of the bounces.

² The damage of the bouncing attacks is unaffected by spell damage amplification. However, Overload's area damage is fully affected, including that of the bounces.

³ The damage of the bouncing attacks counts as spell damage, but is unaffected by spell damage amplification.

No-lethality

Driven by DOTA_DAMAGE_FLAG_NON_LETHAL damage flag.

Damage with No-lethality flag is not lethal.

Most of these damage is only applied on allies.

Damage Sources with No-lethality Flag

• Abaddon – Mist Coil¹
• Bloodseeker – Bloodrage
• Bloodseeker – Blood Mist¹
• Centaur Warrunner – Double Edge¹
• Huskar – Life Break¹
• Oracle – Purifying Flames²
• Pudge – Rot¹
• Slark – Dark Pact¹
• Techies – Blast Off!¹
• Vhoul Assassin – Envenomed Weapon

¹ Damage for caster has the No-lethality flag.

² Damage for allies has the No-lethality flag.

No-manipulation

Driven by DOTA_DAMAGE_FLAG_NO_DAMAGE_MULTIPLIERS damage flag.

Damage with No-manipulation flag will ignore all Damage_manipulation, despite it is outcoming or incoming. Since spell damage amplification is a kind of damage manipulation, so it will also be ignored.

Some damage block and damage barrier are still effective.

Damage Sources with No-manipulation Flag

• Bloodseeker – Bloodrage¹
• Bloodseeker – Blood Mist¹
• Necrophos – Heartstopper Aura
• Oracle – False Promise²
• Techies – Blast Off!³
• Tinker – Laser⁴
• Ringmaster – Spotlight⁵
• Wraith King – Spectral Blade⁶

¹ Maximum health as cost per second has the no-manipulation flag.

² This ability delays damage. The delayed damage has the no-manipulation flag.

³ Current health as cost per second has the no-manipulation flag.

⁴ Damage based on max HP has the no-manipulation flag.

⁵ Damage on illusions has the no-manipulation flag.

⁶ Pure damage when debuff ends has the no-manipulation flag.

Instant Kill

This mechanic kill units without the actual use of damage. Similar to HP Removal, the instant kill effect ignores almost all damage manipulations and can only be prevented by a few abilities.

The most prominent example that uses this mechanic is expiring summoned units and illusions, which are killed once their set duration ends. Summons and illusions that get replaced on cast are killed this way as well. Min health via damage manipulation does not prevent instant kill.

Abilities that prevent or bypass instant killing usually have special interactions hard-coded into the abilities.

Instant Kill Sources

• Ancient_Apparition - Ice Blast
  
  Instantly kill debuffed enemy heroes who drop below the threshold.
• Axe - Culling Blade
  
  Instantly kill the target if their current health is below the threshold.
• Brewmaster - Primal Split
  
  Instantly kill the caster if all brewlings die.
• Lone_Druid - Summon Spirit Bear
  
  Instantly kill the Spirit Bear upon leveling up the ability, replacing it with a higher level bear.
  Instantly kills the Spirit Bear if the caster dies. This restriction is removed when acquring Aghanim's Scepter.
• Meepo - Divided We Stand
  
  Instantly kill all other Meepoes when one of the Meepoes die.
• Phoenix - Supernova
  
  Instantly kills the caster and the targeted ally if the Phoenix Sun is destroyed.

Illusions

These abilities instantly destroy illusions when used on them, unless the illusions are strong illusions.

Instant Killing Illusion Abilities

• Dagon – Energy Burst
• Dazzle – Poison Touch⁴
• Disruptor – Glimpse
• Lion – Hex
• Lion – Mana Drain
• Muerta – Parting Shot
• Pudge – Meat Hook
• Pugna – Life Drain⁵
• Scythe of Vyse – Hex
• Shadow Shaman – Hex

¹ Instantly kills the target upon landing if it is not a hero or a clone.

² Requires a talent.

³ Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

⁴ Requires Aghanim's Shard.

⁵ Kills illusions on the first tick, not upon cast.

Creeps

Instant Killing Creeps Abilities

• Axe – Culling Blade⁵
• Chen – Holy Persuasion¹
• Clinkz – Death Pact
• Dagon – Energy Burst
• Doom – Devour
• Enchantress – Enchant¹
• Hand of Midas – Transmute
• Helm of the Dominator – Dominate¹
• Helm of the Overlord – Dominate¹
• Lifestealer – Consume
• Mirana – Sacred Arrow
• Nyx Assassin – Mind Flare
• Pudge – Meat Hook
• Snapfire – Spit Out⁶

¹ Instantly kills the oldest captured unit if the max amount of units gets exceeded.

² Requires a talent.

³ Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

⁴ Requires Aghanim's Shard.

⁵ Instantly kills the target if their current health is below the threshold.

⁶ Instantly kills the launched unit upon landing if it is not a hero or a clone.

Forced Kill

The following abilities use the instant kill mechanic to forcefully remove or kill its unit(s) from the game when certain conditions are met.

Forced Instant Kill Effects

• Lone_Druid - Summon Spirit Bear
  
  Instantly kills the Spirit Bear upon Lone Druid's death.
  Aghanim's Scepter removes this restriction.
• Meepo - Divided We Stand
  
  If any of the Meepo Clones die, they all die.
• Minor_Imp - Eldritch Explosion
  
  Instantly kills the Minor Imp when it reaches its target.
• Undying - Tombstone
  
  Instantly kill all Undying Zombies when the Tombstone is destroyed or expires.

Damage Manipulation

Main Article: Damage Manipulation

Damage manipulation is a mechanic that alters damage values, either increasing or reducing it.

Trivia

The following damage types were removed in version 6.82.

Composite

Composite damage (also known as mixed damage) was a damage type that was reduced by both armor and magic resistance. It pierced spell immunity and did not affect ethereal units. This damage type was used by Acid Spray, Wild Axes, Diabolic Edict, Summon Spirit Bear's backlash damage, Land Mines and Suicide Squad, Attack!.

All of them were changed to physical damage, except for the backlash damage from the Spirit Bear, which was changed to pure damage.

Universal

Universal damage was a damage type that pierced spell immunity and was affected by magic resistance. This damage type was previously used by File:Pulverize (Earth) icon.png Pulverize, Doom, Echo Slam's initial damage, Midnight Pulse, Laguna Blade, March of the Machines and Flaming Fists.

Doom, Midnight Pulse, Flaming Fists and Laguna Blade were changed to deal pure damage, allowing them to still pierce spell immunity, while Pulverize, Echo Slam's initial damage and March of the Machines were changed to deal magical damage, and thus no longer pierce spell immunity.