Blade Mail

Item

Old Abilities

Changelogs

Blade Mail B L
A razor-sharp coat of mail, it is the choice of selfless martyrs in combat.
Cost 2200 Bought From Armor
Active Damage Return Bonus +10 Intelligence +6 Armor +22 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe

Blade Mail is an Item purchasable at the Main Shop, under Armor. It can also be completed solely with items from the Side Lane Shop.

Additional information

• One Blade Mail grants a total of 6 armor, 110 mana, 0.4 mana regeneration, 0.71% spell damage and 22 (32 to intelligence heroes) attack damage.

Ability

Damage Return

Play

Ability
No Target

Affects
Enemies

For 4.5 seconds, duplicates any damage taken back to the unit that dealt the damage.

Damage Returned: 100%

Duration: 4.5

20

25

Returned magical damage is reduced to 0.

Modifiers

Item Blade Mail Reflect: Undispellable.

Notes:

• Interrupts the user's channeling spells upon cast.

• Returns the same damage type as received.

• Returns incoming damage before all manipulations. However, damage manipulation on the enemy still affects the damage normally.

• Reflected physical damage is affected by damage block as well.

• The returned damage is always dealt right after the incoming damage.

• Returned damage has the no-reflection flag, preventing its damage from interacting with other sources of damage with the same flag.

• Fully ignores self-inflicted damage, and damage flagged as HP Removal.

• Returns damage back to the source. This means damage done by summons is reflected back to the summons, not to their owner.

• Damage Return has a global range and affects units through the Fog of War or invisibility.

• Returned damage cannot be amplified with spell damage amplification and cannot spell lifesteal.

• Does not work against wards, buildings and allied units.

Recommended heroes

Axe

• If taking Counter Helix damage was not enough of a punishment for attacking the Axe, then Blade Mail will make the same people cry tears. Few heroes can stomach taking damage from both abilities early on, and Blade Mail retains the same lethality in the late game unlike Counter Helix which scales off.
• On the side note, Blade Mail gives Axe much needed points in Intelligence early on, allowing him to cast a bit more before running out of juice.

Legion Commander

• Tresdin is, hands down, one of the best - if not the best - carrier of Blade Mail in the game. Her ultimate ability, Duel, forces enemies to engage her head-on and attack her without pause, maximizing Blade Mail's efficiency if it's in her possession. Coupled together with her above average health pool, this combo is deadly from start to finish.

Clockwerk

• Similar to Axe and Legion Commander, Clockwerk can stop heroes from running away from him and forces out engagements while continously barraging the enemy with Battery Assault. Having Blade Mail makes it so much worse for them as Clockwerk's high health pool makes it very unlikely that he will die first
• Clockwerk also benefits from all the stats Blade Mail provides.
  • The extra armor is very needed as Clockwerk is otherwise short in armor
  • The extra attack damage let him hit harder with his right-click
  • Clockwerk suffers badly from a miniature mana pool, so the extra Intelligence points are very needed.

Tips

• It is a powerful counter against a Bloodthorn and break from Silver Edge to prevent them from attacking you while under the debuff.
• Enemies with copious amounts of damage resistance or high health could very easily ignore Blade Mail's ability. Heroes like Ursa, Spectre and Abaddon are good examples of said resistant heroes, or items such as Pipe of Insight or Heart of Tarrasque.
• It can be useful to get Blade Mail if you get outcarried, to counter the DPS and turn the enemy's damage against them.
• Buy it as a counter if the opposing team has high damage (crits, nukes or attack speed) and have low health. If timed properly, some heroes can get killed just from their own damage. And even if you cannot do that, it could make the enemy hesitant to attack you for 4.5 seconds.
• A good situation to use Blade Mail is if you're inflicted with a heavy damage over time ability. For example, you can kill (or severely damage) Bloodseeker by walking around with Rupture, or Tinker by staying under his March of the Machines. However, do make sure that you yourself can take the damage you'll be receiving, else you'll just be helping the enemy instead.
• The return is only dealt to the unit who attacks. Therefore, Techies' mines and Witch Doctor's Death Ward and Shadow Shaman's Serpant Ward won't affect their main hero as they are considered a separate unit.
  • Since the Blade Mail returns damage on the unit who attacks the owner you can use a Necronmicon book to attack, the melee Necronmicon will die quicker to return 800 damage.
• This is a commonly bought item for initiator heroes that can soak up some damage (commonly Strength heroes), such as Clockwerk or Spirit Breaker.
• Blade Mail is less effective with evasion because it reduces the hits you receive.
• It also loses effectiveness against enemies who can turn themselves or their allies invulnerable with abilities like Phase Shift or Astral Imprisonment, or with Eul's Scepter of Divinity, as Blade Mail cannot damage invulnerable units.

Items Synergy

• Shadow Blade, Blink Dagger and Force Staff: are good ganking and initiation items.
• Mask of Madness: will protect you while under the debuff of the Mask of Madness from being attacked.
• Assault Cuirass: gives you more armor than your enemy and armor reduction aura, allowing to return more physical damage than you take, since it gets reflected before reductions.
  • The same applies to magic resistance or any other source of damage reduction. For example, even if incoming damage is fully blocked by spells like Borrowed Time, Blade Mail still reflects the full damage.

Counter items

• Eul's Scepter of Divinity: disable an enemy while the return damage is active.
• Satanic: the active Unholy Rage gives a total of 200% lifesteal, to heal more than the damage returned by the blademail.
• Scythe of Vyse: will disable your enemy from using the damage return.

Gallery

• 

  Activating Blade Mail

• 

  Icon when Molten Claw is equipped