Magic resistance is an attribute of heroes, similar to armor. Instead of reducing physical damage, it reduces magical damage. All heroes, except Meepo and Visage, possess 25% magic resistance from their armor type. This percentage is completely independent of their amount of armor. Certain Hero summons, such as Enigma's Eidolons, also possess intrinsic magic resistance.
Magical damage
Magical damage is a type of damage caused mostly by abilities. Unlike physical damage, it is not affected by armor. However, it is affected by magic resistance dealing more or less damage, depending on the unit's current magic resistance. Besides magic resistance, magical damage, just like physical and pure damage, is also affected by damage manipulation.
Mechanics
All Heroes have a basic 25% magic resistance, except for Meepo and his clones, who have 35% and Visage, who has 10%. This means that, by default, for most heroes, all magical damage is reduced by 25%, or only 75% of the ability's damage is dealt. Most non-hero units have a 0% base magic resistance.
Stacking
There are many abilities and items which can increase or decrease a unit's magic resistance. All sources of magic resistance bonuses and reductions stack diminishingly. This means a unit's magic resistance value changes less, the higher its magic resistance is, and more, the lower it is.
Formula
For total magic resistance of a unit (multiply the result by 100 to get the percentage value):
- Total magic resistance = 1 − ((1 − natural resistance) × (1 − first resistance bonus) × (1 − second resistance bonus) × (1 + first resistance reduction) × (1 + second resistance reduction))
For magical damage after magic resistance:
- Actual damage = magical damage × (1 − natural resistance) × (1 − first resistance bonus) × (1 − second resistance bonus) × (1 + first resistance reduction) × (1 + second resistance reduction)
Example:
- Anti-Mage with level 4 Spell Shield and a Cloak has a magic resistance of:
- 1 - (1 - 0.25) × (1 - 0.5) × (1-0.15) = 68.125%
- Visage under the effect of Veil of Discord and a level 4 Decrepify has a magic resistance of:
- 1 - (1 - 0.1) × (1 + 0.25) × (1 + 0.6) = -80%
As one can conclude, it is not possible to reach 100% magic resistance, no matter how many sources are stacked or how much the sources grant or reduce. However, there are several abilities which grant 100% magic resistance. Because of the stacking rules, these abilities prevent a unit's magic resistance to be reduced or increased, as the formula will always result in 100%, no matter how big the magic resistance bonus or reduction.
Effective HP
Despite each source of magic resistance increasing the magic resistance value less the higher it is and making them seem less effective, each sources increases the unit's effective HP against magical damage by their base value. Effective HP means, how much damage can a unit take before dying, after reductions. In this case, magic resistance increases a unit's effective HP against magical damage. A unit with 0% magic resistance has 100% effective HP against magical damage, means magical damage equaling 100% of its health is required to kill it. Most heroes have 25% magic resistance by default, making their effective HP against magical damage 133.33%
Formula:
- Effective HP = Total HP / ( 1 - magic resistance × 0.01)
Example:
- Anti-Mage has 1480 health at max level. With his basic magic resistance, max level Spell Shield and a Cloak, he has an effective HP of:
- 1480 / (1 - 68.125 × 0.01) = 4643.14 effective HP
- Visage has 2031 health at max level. With his basic magic resistance, while under the effect of Veil of Discord and level 4 Decrepify, he has an effective HP of:
- 2031 / (1 - -80 × 0.01) = 1128.33 effective HP
Magic resistance on units
| Unit | Base magic resistance |  (Aura)
|
 
|
|
|
ability
|
Hero ability (at max) |
Hero ability + (Aura)
|
Hero ability +
|
Hero ability +
|
Hero ability +
|
Hero ability + ability
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard hero | 25% | 32.5% | 36.25% | 47.5% | 52.75% | 64.94% / 58.75% | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Meepo | 35% | 41.5% | 44.75% | 54.5% | 59.05% | 69.61% / 64.25% | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Visage | 10% | 19% | 23.5% | 37% | 43.3% | 57.93% / 50.5% | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Anti-Mage Huskar |
- | - | - | - | - | - | 62.5% | 66.25% | 68.13% | 73.75% | 73.75% | 82.47% / 79.38% |
| Viper | - | - | - | - | - | - | 43.75% | 49.375% | 52.19% | 60.63% | 64.567% | 73.7% / 69.06% |
| Rubick | - | - | - | - | - | - | 41.5% | 47.35% | 50.27% | 59.05% | 63.145% | 72.65% / 67.82% |
| Pudge | - | - | - | - | - | - | 34% | 40.6% | 43.9% | 53.8% | 59.42% | 69.15% / 63.7% |
| Enigma's Eidolons | 50% | 55% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Siege creeps & Lycan's Wolves | 80% | 82% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Necronomicon summons | 40% | 46% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Warlock's Golem | 33% | 39.7% | - | - | - | 63.15% | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Sources of magic resistance bonus
- Anti-Mage - [[Anti-Mage#|]]Passive Magic Resistance Bonus: 26%/34%/42%/50%
Radius: 900
Hero Magic Resistance Bonus: 5%
Non-Hero Magic Resistance Bonus: 20%
Multiple sources of Cloak Aura stack.-
Passive Magic Resistance Bonus: 15%
-
Passive Magic Resistance Bonus: 15%
Glimmer Magic Resistance Bonus: 45%
Glimmer Duration: 5
Glimmer provides the magic resistance bonus only while invisible. Has a 0.4 seconds fade time and re-applies itself for the duration. -
Passive Magic Resistance Bonus: 30%
-
Max Magic Resistance Bonus: 20%/30%/40%/50%
Grants magic resistance for each point of health missing, reaching the cap at 10% health. -
Passive Magic Resistance Bonus: 30%
Radius: 900
Aura Magic Resistance Bonus: 10%
Aura also affects the item holder -
Passive Magic Resistance Bonus: 6%/8%/10%/12%
- Rubick - [[Rubick#|]]Radius: 900
Magic Resistance Bonus: 10%/14%/18%/22%
Aura. -
Passive Magic Resistance Bonus: 33%
Only available on level 4. -
Passive Magic Resistance Bonus: 10%/15%/20%/25%
Sources of magic resistance reduction
-
Radius: 275
Magic Resistance Reduction: 15%/20%/25%/30%
Vortex Duration: 16
The effect lingers for 0.5 seconds. -
Radius: 275
Magic Resistance Reduction: 12%/19%/26%/33%
The aura's debuff lingers for 1 second. -
Magic Resistance Reduction: 40%
Enemy Duration: 3
Ally Duration: 4
Does not stack with the reductions of other ethereal effects, the one with higher value takes priority. -
Magic Resistance Reduction: 40%
Duration: 4
Does not stack with the reductions of other ethereal effects, the one with higher value takes priority. -
Magic Resistance Reduction: 20%
Duration: 3/3.5/4/4.5
Does not stack with the reductions of other ethereal effects, the one with higher value takes priority. -
Enemy Magic Resistance Reduction: 30%/40%/50%/60%
Ally Magic Resistance Reduction: 25%
Duration: 3.5
Does not stack with the reductions of other ethereal effects, the one with higher value takes priority. -
Magic Resistance Reduction: 30%/35%/40%/45%
Duration: 3/4/5/6 -
Magic Resistance Reduction: 25%
Duration: 16
Sources of 100% magic resistance
These abilities grant 100% magic resistance to the affected units, reducing every magical damage they take to 0, and ceasing the effects of magic resistance reductions.
-
Duration: 10/9/8/7/6/5
Duration decreases with each use, capped at 5. - Earth - [[Earth#|]]Duration: Permanent
-
Duration: Whole leap duration or up to 5 seconds, whichever is shorter.
-
Duration: 5
-
Duration: 0.8/2/3.2 ( 2/3.2/4.4)
Provides immunity until Omnislash stops. Does not dispel any buffs and debuffs. -
Duration: 3/4/5/6 ( 4/5/6/7)
-
Duration: 3
The affected unit's HUD does not reflect the bonus granted by Stone Gaze. -
Duration: Permanent
-
Duration: 4/5/6/7
-
Duration: 3/3.5/4/4.5
Magical damage barrier
A magical damage barrier absorbs a set amount of magical damage. It absorbs the damage before it is reduced by magic resistance, unless the resistance is provided by spell immunity. This means when a hero with a 25% magic resistance and a 300 health damage barrier gets hit by 400 magical damage, the shield will absorb 300 of that. The exceeding 100 are not absorbed and are now reduced by the 25% magic resistance down to 75. So in this scenario, the hero takes 75 damage. This means a barrier is more effective the lower a unit's magic resistance is, similar to how damage block is more effective, the lower the armor is.
Magical damage barriers do not absorb magic damage which is directly added to attack damage (for example, Time Lock and Monkey King Bar's Mini-Bash), as they only absorb magical damage which counts as spell damage. Effects which add magical damage directly to the attack damage count as attack damage as well, and not as spell damage, and are therefore not absorbed.
Multiple sources of magical damage barriers do not stack. When affected by multiple, all of them deplete at the same time. For example, if a unit is affected by a level 4 Flame Guard (500 barrier health) and by Pipe of Insight (400 barrier health), and then takes 300 magical damage, both shields lose 300 capacity, leaving Flame Guard with 200 and Pipe of Insight 100 absorb capacity.
Sources of magic damage barriers
-
Barrier Health: 50/200/350/500 ( 550/700/850/1000)
Duration: 8/12/16/20 -
Barrier Health: 325
Duration: 12
This is an old ability. -
Barrier Health: 400
Duration: 12
See also
