Armor is an attribute shared by all units. Armor is used to determine the amount of damage reduction (or amplification if an armor value is negative) a unit takes from physical damage sources. Higher armor values reduce more damage. Armor is increased by Agility, certain abilities, and some items. Most items in the armor shop provide armor bonuses.
Main armor
Main armor is the armor value shown in white numbers below the shield icon in the HUD, consisting of base armor and the armor granted by a hero's agility. The only way to improve a hero's main armor is to increase its agility.
The formula to calculate a hero's main armor is:
main armor = base armor + (agility * (1 / 7)).
Base armor
Base armor is the part of the main armor that never changes throughout a game. It consists of one fixed value set for each unit individually. The base armor of a unit can be a negative number. Since only heroes have agility, the HUD of all non-hero units shows their base armor.
The base armor of heroes can be calculated with this formula:
base armor = main armor - (agility * (1 / 7)).
Armor granted by agility
The sum of agility points a hero has is multiplied by (1 / 7) and added on top of the base armor to define the main armor value. Agility can be increased by acquiring levels, as well as specific skills and items.
Armor of heroes
{{#ask: | ?armor | ?agility | ?agility growth | limit=120 | link=none | format=template | template=Template:Hero armor table el | introtemplate=Template:Hero armor table start | outrotemplate=Template:Hero armor table end }}
Bonus armor
Bonus armor is the armor value shown in green numbers with a plus on the left, right below the white armor number on a unit's statistics. Whenever an item or skill shows a +armor value, e.g. Blade Mail (+6 Armor), it increases the bonus armor of the affected unit. The difference between main and bonus armor is that illusions only benefit from main armor, although their HUD still shows the bonus armor just like on other heroes, to make them less obvious to the enemy.
Armor manipulation
Armor increasing abilities
The following abilities are able to increase unit's armor:
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 3
Aura, buffs all allies within range. Buff lingers for a short while. Stack with itself.
Armor Bonus: 40
Duration: 2/2.4/2.8/3.2
Buffs Axe upon cast.- Dazzle - [[Dazzle#|]]Radius: 575 ( 775)
Armor Bonus per Second: 0.75/1/1.25 ( 1.25/1.5/1.75)
Duration: 24
Buffs all allies within the area upon cast. -
Armor Bonus: 3/6/9/12 ( 6/12/18/24)
Passive, permanent bonus. -
Armor Bonus: 5.6/8.4/11.2
Increases armor by granting agility. Bonuses are temporarily lost when enemy heroes get too close. - Lich - [[Lich#|]]Armor Bonus: 3/5/7/9 ( 38/40/42/44 for buildings)
Duration: 40
Buffs the target upon cast. - Lone Druid - [[Lone Druid#|]]Radius: 1000
Armor Bonus: 10/15/20
Duration: 6
Buffs all of Lone Druid's units within range upon cast. -
Armor Bonus: 4/6/8
Increases armor until transforming back. - Morphling - [[Morphling#|]]Armor Bonus: 0.14 per shifted strength
-
Armor Bonus: 8
Duration: 45
Buffs the target upon cast. -
Armor Bonus per 4 Minutes: 0.7
Passive, increases Roshan's armor as time goes by. -
Armor Bonus: 0.14 per converted agility
Stack Duration: 15/30/60/120
Steals 1 of each stats from attack targets and converts them into agility for self. The stacks' durations are independent from each other. -
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 5/10/15/20
Duration: 8
Buffs allies within range upon cast. -
Max Stacks: 5/10/15/20
Armor Bonus per Stack: 1/1.2/1.4/1.6
Stack Duration: 10/13/16/19
Passive, grants a stack whenever attacked. The stacks' durations are independent from each other. - Tiny - [[Tiny#|]]Armor Bonus: 3/4/5/6
Passive, permanent bonus. -
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 1/3/3/3
Tier 1 towers provide 1 armor, tier 2/3/4 provide 3 armor. -
Armor Bonus: 6
Grants armor until toggled off. -
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 3
Aura, buffs all allies within range. Buff lingers for a short while.
-
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 5
Aura, buffs all allies within range. Buff lingers for a short while. - Buckler - [[Buckler#|]]
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 2
Hero Duration: 25
Non-Hero Duration: 30
Buffs allies within range upon cast. -
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 2
Duration: 10
Buffs allies within range upon cast. -
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 2
Boost Health Threshold: 20%
Boosted Armor Bonus: 15
Aura, buffs all allies within range. Buff lingers for a short while. -
Ally Armor Bonus: 7
Duration: 7
Increases the target ally's armor upon cast.This is an old ability. -
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 2
Duration: 25
Buffs allies within range upon cast. -
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 2
Aura, buffs all allies within range. Buff lingers for a short while. -
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 2
Aura, buffs all allies within range. Buff lingers for a short while. -
Ally Armor Bonus: 12
Duration: 7
Increases the target ally's armor upon cast. -
Radius: 900
Armor Bonus: 4
Aura, buffs all allies within range. Buff lingers for a short while.
Armor reducing abilities
The following abilities are able to reduce unit's armor:
-
Radius: 625
Armor Reduction: 4/5/6/7 ( 9/10/11/12)
Spray Duration: 16
Aura, debuffs all enemies within range. The debuff lingers for a short while. -
Radius: 300
Base Armor Reduction: 50%
Duration: 6
Debuffs all enemies within range upon cast. Only reduces base armor and that granted by agility.This is an old ability. -
Max Stacks: 4 ( 8)
Armor Reduction per Stack: 1/1.4/1.8/2.2
Hero Duration: 5
Creep Duration: 10
Applies a debuff on the target upon cast. All stacks expire simultaneously. -
Armor Reduction: 1/3/5/7
Duration: 8
Applies a debuff on the target upon cast, before the attack is applied. - Dazzle - [[Dazzle#|]]Radius: 575 ( 775)
Armor Reduction per Second: 0.75/1/1.25 ( 1.25/1.5/1.75)
Duration: 24
Debuffs all enemies within the area upon cast. -
Radius: 350
Base Armor Reduction: 40%/60%/80%/100%
Aura, debuffs all enemies within range. The debuff lingers for a short while. Only reduces base armor and that granted by agility. -
Armor Reduction per Attack: 1
Armor Reduction Cap: 10
Debuffs the attack target upon projectile impact, after the attack damage is applied. The stacks expire simultaneously. - Morphling - [[Morphling#|]]Armor Reduction: 0.14 per shifted agility
-
Radius: 320
Armor Reduction: 2/3/4/5
Duration: 8
Debuffs all enemies within range upon cast. -
Strike Interval: 0.7/0.6/0.5 ( 0.6/0.5/0.4)
Armor Reduction per Strike: 1
Duration: 30
Adds a stack on the attack target upon lightning impact, after the damage is applied. Does not reduce armor of struck buildings. Armor Reduction expires when the storm does. -
Radius: 900
Armor Reduction: 3/4/5/6
Aura, debuffs all enemies which have vision over Shadow Fiend within range. The debuff lingers for a short while. -
Armor Reduction: 10/15/20
Duration: 18
Debuffs the target upon cast. -
Armor Reduction: 0.14 per lost agility
Steals 1 of each stats from attack targets and converts them into agility for self. The stacks' durations are independent from each other. -
Armor Reduction: 2/4/6/8
Duration: 10
Debuffs the attack target upon projectile impact, after the attack damage is applied, but before Meld damage is applied. -
Armor Reduction: 3/4/5/6 ( 9/10/11/12)
Duration: 4
Debuffs the target upon projectile impact. -
Radius: 300
Armor Reduction: 0.14 per lost agility
Duration: 7
All affected agility heroes lose agility, and therefore lose armor for the duration. -
Travel Distance: 1400
Radius: 300
Armor Reduction: 3/4/5/6
Duration: 15
Debuffs all hit enemies. -
Attack Interval: 1.25/1.1/0.95/0.8
Armor Reduction per Attack: 1
Duration: 16
Adds a stack on affected units on each interval, before the damage is applied. Armor reduction lasts as long as the beetle does or until it is killed.
-
Radius: 900
Armor Reduction: 5
Aura, debuffs all enemies within range. Debuff lingers for a short while. -
Armor Reduction: 2
Duration: 8
Debuffs the attack target upon attack/projectile, before the attack damage is applied. -
Armor Reduction: 7
Duration: 15
Debuffs the attack target upon attack/projectile, before the attack damage is applied. -
Armor Reduction: 5
Duration: 8
Applies the armor reduction on the caster in the form of a buff, so it cannot be removed with allied dispels. -
Armor Reduction: 7
Duration: 7
Debuffs the caster and the target enemy upon cast. Also debuffs self when targeting allies.This is an old ability. -
Armor Reduction: 12
Duration: 7
Debuffs the caster and the target enemy upon cast. Also debuffs self when targeting allies.
Armor granting items
The following items increase a unit's Armor. The effects are limited to the item's owner, which must have the item equipped.
{{#ask: [[Bonus armor::>>0]] OR [[Active armor::>>0]] | ?item cost# | ?bonus armor# | ?active armor# | userparam = Armor increasing items | limit = 200 | link = none | format = template | template = Item bonus value table el | introtemplate = Item bonus value table start | outrotemplate = Item bonus value table end }}
Damage multiplier
Damage multiplier based on hero's armor rating
Damage increase of armor reductions as a function of existing armor
All units, including buildings, have an inherent base armor value and armor type. Any physical damage dealt to a unit suffers either a damage reduction or a damage increase depending on the target's armor.
The damage multiplier for both positive and negative armor:
- Damage multiplier = 1 - 0.06 × armor ÷ (1 + 0.06 × |armor|)
In Dota 2, the cap on this number is 100% damage amplification or reduction, but it requires an infinite amount of negative or positive armor to truly reach these caps.
Examples
Armor Damage multiplier Armor Damage multiplier 1 94.3% -1 105.7% 2 89.3% -2 110.7% 5 76.9% -5 123.1% 10 62.5% -10 137.5% 15 52.6% -15 147.4% 20 45.5% -20 154.5%
Effective HP
Relationships between effective HP %, damage multiplier and armor
It is useful to first understand the concept of effective HP. The damage reduction and increase percentage formulas are directly related to the effective HP formulas in the previous section. The amount of physical damage a unit can take before dying (hence likelihood of surviving) is not proportional to damage reduction percentages, but to effective HP. Effective HP is the amount of physical damage one can take before dying, and is based on the unit's HP.
For positive armor values, a unit gains 6% of their health per armor as effective HP. A hero with 0 armor and a base HP of 1000 increases his effective HP by 60% if he increases his armor to 10. For negative armor values, the effective HP reduction diminishes with decreasing armor, trending towards 0%.
| Armor | -20 | -10 | 0 | 10 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effective HP | 647 | 727 | 1000 | 1600 | 2200 |
One has to consider that effective HP only takes physical damage in consideration. The example assumes that all the damage the unit takes is physical. Armor actually grants 6% of the physical damage one takes. This becomes more evident with burst magical damage (such as Lina's or Lion's ultimate): the armor value in those cases count for nothing.
Calculating effective HP:
- Effective HP = Total HP ÷ Damage multiplier
Example 1:
- A level 25 Sven has a total HP of 2183 and 11.46 points of armor. What is his effective HP vs physical damage?
- 2183 HP ÷ ( 1 - (11.46 × 0.06) ÷ (1 + 11.46 × 0.06) ) = 2183 HP ÷ 0.5925 = 3684 effective HP
- Sven can tank 3684 of physical damage before he dies.
Example 2:
- The same Sven from previous example is hit by a maxed Corrosive Haze. His armor is now -8.54. What is his effective HP vs physical damage?
- 2183 HP ÷ ( 1 - (-8.54 × 0.06) ÷ (1 + 8.54 × 0.06) ) = 2183 HP ÷ 1.3388 = 1631 effective HP
- Sven can tank 1631 of physical damage before he dies.
Armor types
There are several different types of armor, which determine how much damage a unit takes against certain attack damage types. Each of the 3 different armor types either reduces, increases or does not affect the damage from each of the damage types, on top of armor values manipulating them.
Example
A hero with 100 attack damage attacking a siege unit which has 0 armor deals 50 damage to it, because the attack type "hero" deals 50% less damage against the armor type "structure", which is the siege creeps' and all buildings' armor type. If the siege creep would gain 5 armor, the 100 damage attack would deal (100 * 0.769 * 0.5) = 38.45 damage. The same attack would deal 76.9 damage to a unit with any other armor type, since attack type hero deals full damage to them.
This table shows how much damage each armor type reduces against each attack damage type and which unit uses which armor type (units which take a set amount of damage per attack are excluded).
| Armor Type | Used by | Attack Damage Type | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hero | Basic | Pierce | Siege | ||||
| Hero | Heroes, Primal Split spirits, Warlock's Golem, Familiar, Roshan | 100% | 75% | 50% | 85% | ||
| Basic | Lane creeps, Observer and Sentry Wards, courier, Hawk, All neutral creeps, Skeleton Warrior, Plague Ward, Eidolon, Treant, Greater Treant, Forged Spirit, Spiderling, Spiderite, Boar, Lycan Wolf, Necronomicon Archer and Warrior, Spirit Bear, Proximity Mine, Stasis Trap, Remote Mine | 100% | 100% | 150% | 100% | ||
| Structure | Buildings, siege creeps | 50% | 70% | 35% | 150% | ||
Trivia
- In DotA 1 the base magic resistance was bound to the assigned armor. In case of Hero Armor only 75% of the magic damage was applied. Some heroes possessed hidden passive skills to alter their base magic susceptibility albeit Hero Armor to
90% ( Visage) or 65% ( Meepo). Nowdays in DotA 2 magic resistance works independently from armor. - The deprecated Light damage type used to be called Chaos damage in DotA 1.
- Regarding armor in DotA 1, Weak was named Light, Soft was referred to as Unarmored, Basic was called Medium and Strong was known as Heavy.
Negative armor disparity
Negative armor damage multiplier for DotA and Dota 2
This graph shows how much more additional damage a target takes when armor debuffs are applied, using the WC3 DotA armor formula.
Amplified damage from negative armor is calculated differently in WC3 DotA than in Dota 2.[1].
Negative armor in WC3 DotA has a cap of -20 armor (71% damage increase). Further reducing the armor does not change the damage increase.[2]. Also, the more aggressive damage amplify formula is used resulting in a max damage increase of 71 %. The amplified damage is calculated from this formula:
- Damage increase = 1 - 0.94^(-armor)
Comparison table
| Armor | WC3 DotA Damage amplification | Dota 2 Damage amplification | Relative difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.0 % | 0.0 % | N/A |
| -5 | 26.6 % | 23.1 % | 2.9 % |
| -10 | 46.1 % | 37.5 % | 6.3 % |
| -20 | 71.0 % | 54.5 % | 10.6 % |
| -40 | 71.0 % | 70.6 % | 0.2 % |
| -60 | 71.0 % | 78.3 % | -4.1 % |
Balance changelog
See also
References
- ↑ Dota2 Development Forum bug report: [Confirmed] Negative armor has a different effect in DotA2 in comparison to Dota1
- ↑ PlayDotA Mechanics: Damage and Armor - DotA Mechanics
