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

Overview[]

Damage Manipulation can affect damage but different from Damage Block.

Damage Manipulation has the following properties:

  • Damage Manipulation can manipulate on both sides, from the dealing unit (outgoing damage) and the receiving unit (incoming damage).
  • Damage Manipulation can both amplify and reduce damage.
  • Damage Manipulation always manipulates damage by percentage.
    • Especially, Damage Negation is a special kind of Damage Manipulation. It can not generally be considered as a 100% damage reduction.
  • Damage Manipulation can manipulate negative damage.
    • If Damage Manipulation percentage are over 100%, the positive damage can be manipulated to negative damage, and the negative damage also can be manipulated to positive damage.
  • Damage Manipulation which belongs to the same type can stack additively.
  • Damage Manipulation which belongs to different types can stack multiplicatively by the priority.

The following Damage Manipulation are shown by the priority.

Outgoing Attack Damage Manipulation (etc. Illusion Outgoing Attack Damage Manipulation) is not shown in this page. For these description please visit Attack Damage.

Main Article: Attack Damage

Outgoing Damage Manipulation[]

Outgoing damage manipulation causes the afflicted unit to deal increased or reduced damage.

Spell Damage Amplification[]

Driven by MODIFIER_PROPERTY_SPELL_AMPLIFY_PERCENTAGE.

Affects spell damages by percentage and stacks additively, including some damages with HP Removal flag.

Spell Damage Amplification do not apply to damage that is Unaffected by Amplification.

Outgoing Spell Damage Amplification Sources

The following heroes have a Talent talent that grants them outgoing spell damage amplification.

Bonus Level 10 Level 15 Level 20 Level 25
Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right
Spell Amplification
  • Earth Spirit minimap icon +10%

Many items grant their owners a spell damage amplification bonus by giving them a direct bonus. The effects are limited to the item's owner, which must have the item equipped.

Bonus Spell Damage
Item Value Item Cost Cost/Value Point
Divine Rapier icon Divine Rapier 25 5600 Gold 224 Gold
Fairy's Trinket icon Fairy's Trinket 5 N/A N/A
Kaya icon Kaya 10 2000 Gold 200 Gold
Kaya and Sange icon Kaya and Sange 12 4050 Gold 337.5 Gold
Meteor Hammer icon Meteor Hammer 10 2850 Gold 285 Gold
Timeless Relic icon Timeless Relic 15 N/A N/A
Vambrace (Intelligence) icon Vambrace (Intelligence) 6 N/A N/A
Yasha and Kaya icon Yasha and Kaya 12 4000 Gold 333.33 Gold
Values do not include portions from actives or auras.


Spell Damage Amplification can be negative to reduce spell damage.

Outgoing Spell Damage Reduction Sources


Unique Spell Amplification[]

Kaya icon Kaya-based items are driven by MODIFIER_PROPERTY_SPELL_AMPLIFY_PERCENTAGE_UNIQUE.

Do not stack each other and only the highest are effective.

Outgoing Universal Damage Manipulation[]

Driven by MODIFIER_PROPERTY_TOTALDAMAGEOUTGOING_PERCENTAGE.

Generally affects all types damage by percentage.

Outgoing Universal Damage Manipulation Sources

Incoming Damage Manipulation[]

Incoming damage manipulation causes the afflicted unit to take increased or reduced damage depending if it is an enemy or an ally.

Damage Negation[]

Damage negation causes entire instances of damage to deal no damage to its target, however, the instance is still registered. This means, if something reacts on damage without having a minimum damage threshold, it still reacts on the negated damage.

The following sources are shown by Damage Negation in different damage types. Generally, there are no priority between them. It means that different Damage Negation is possible to trigger at the same time.

Physical Damage Negation[]

Driven by MODIFIER_PROPERTY_ABSOLUTE_NO_DAMAGE_PHYSICAL.

Among them, all Ethereal sources provide Physical Damage Negation.

Pure Damage Negation[]

Driven by MODIFIER_PROPERTY_ABSOLUTE_NO_DAMAGE_PURE.

Among them, all Debuff Immunity sources provide Pure Damage Negation.

  • Do not affect pure damage that pierces Debuff Immunity.
1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

Universal Damage Negation[]

Driven by MODIFIER_PROPERTY_AVOID_DAMAGE.

Affects all types damages.

  • Some damage with HP Removal can also be negated. However, the trigger situations depend on the ability sources.

Base Damage Manipulation[]

Armor and magic resistance are the most common damage manipulators, affecting incoming physical and magical damage respectively.

For these description please click the link below.

Main Article: Armor
Main Article: Magic Resistance

Incoming Physical Damage Manipulation[]

Driven by MODIFIER_PROPERTY_INCOMING_PHYSICAL_DAMAGE_PERCENTAGE.

Only affects physical attack damage and stacks additively.

Incoming Physical Damage Amplification Sources
Incoming Physical Damage Reduction Sources


Generic Incoming Damage Manipulation[]

Driven by MODIFIER_PROPERTY_INCOMING_DAMAGE_PERCENTAGE.

Most abilities that affect damage use the generic damage manipulator.

Generic Incoming Damage Manipulation causes the afflicted unit to take increased or reduced damage depending if it is an enemy or an ally. All sources within these lists stack additively with each other.

  • Therefore, some 100% damage reductions are still possible to receive damage when stacking with other damage amplifications.

Certain damage manipulations can only manipulate specific damage. More information regarding the ability's incoming damage manipulations can be found in their respective ability notes.


Generic Incoming Damage Amplification Sources




Generic Incoming Damage Reduction Sources

Unique Damage Negation[]

Driven by MODIFIER_PROPERTY_AVOID_DAMAGE_AFTER_REDUCTIONS.

Deals a constant 100% damage reduction, including damage with HP Removal flag.

Illusion Incoming Damage Manipulation[]

Driven by MODIFIER_PROPERTY_INCOMING_DAMAGE_ILLUSION.

Illusion will receive Damage Manipulation when taking damage.

More value information can be found in illusion page.

Main Article: Illusions

Target Dummy Damage Negation[]

Target Dummy Damage Negation affects all damages including damage with HP Removal flag.

Stacking[]

Armor and magic resistance work separately from other damage manipulators. This means they always stack multiplicatively with any other listed ability.

The effects of incoming and outgoing generic damage manipulators stack additively with themselves. Unique damage manipulators stack multiplicatively with themselves. The three sources of damage manipulation stack multiplicatively with each other after they have been combined with all of their own type.

Many source of damage manipulations have conditions on them like Bristleback ability icon Bristleback where it has damage manipulation only on damage that hits his back or sides, so each damage instance calculates damage manipulation separately. Additionally, outgoing generic damage manipulators do not apply to damage that is Unaffected by Amplification.

The total damage manipulation DM is defined as

Stacking outgoing damage manipulation stacks in the same way as incoming damage manipulation, i.e. additively. However, since incoming and outgoing manipulations happen at different times with outgoing manipulation calculation happening first, they stack multiplicatively with each other.

Example 1: Spell Damage Manipulation

Spectre minimap icon Spectre has level 4 Dispersion icon Dispersion and is affected by level 3 Fiend's Gate icon Fiend's Gate, Veil of Discord icon Magic Weakness and Ghostship icon Ghostship's rum buff. An enemy casted level 4 Bloodrage icon Bloodrage on himself and has Kaya icon Kaya. What would the damage manipulation for Spectre be in this scenario?
Incoming Generic Manipulation sources: Dispersion icon Dispersion: -0.2, Fiend's Gate icon Fiend's Gate: -0.07, Veil of Discord icon Magic Weakness: 2.
Outgoing Generic Manipulation sources: Bloodrage icon Bloodrage: 0.3, Kaya icon Kaya: 0.1
Unique Generic Manipulation sources: Ghostship icon Ghostship: -0.15
Spell Damage :

Note that Veil of Discord icon Magic Weakness, Bloodrage icon Bloodrage and Kaya icon Kaya's amplification only apply to spell damage, therefore another calculation will be needed for non-spell damage .

Non-Spell Damage :

In this example, Spectre minimap icon Spectre would take 324.87% spell damage and 62.05% damage from non-spell damage from the enemy in this scenario.

Example 2: Additive Stacking[]

All values in this section consider the highest possible level of an ability but exclude talents and aghanim's upgrades unless otherwise mentioned. Examples ignore armor and magic resistance.

Ursa minimap icon Ursa is Enrage icon Enraged and is affected by Flesh Golem icon Flesh Golem.

100% - 80% + 35% = 55% damage

Spectre minimap icon Spectre with Dispersion icon Dispersion and is affected by Fiend's Gate icon Fiend's Gate.

100% - 20% - 7 = 73% damage

A hero affected by Winter's Curse icon Winter's Curse and Flesh Golem icon Flesh Golem at the same time.

100% - 100% + 35% = 35% damage

Example 3: Other Multiplicative Stacking[]

All values in this section consider the highest possible level of an ability but exclude talents and aghanims upgrades unless otherwise mentioned. Examples ignore armor and magic resistance.

Medusa minimap icon Medusa activated Mana Shield icon Mana Shield and is affected by Flesh Golem icon Flesh Golem.

(100% + 35%) * (100% - 98%) = 2.7% damage

Medusa minimap icon Medusa activated Mana Shield icon Mana Shield, is affected by Ghostship icon Ghostship rum buff and is affected by Flesh Golem icon Flesh Golem.

(100% + 35%) * (100% - 98%) * (100% - 15%) = 2.295% damage

A Conjure Image icon Conjure Image illusion (taking damage) affected by Flesh Golem icon Flesh Golem and Fiend's Gate icon Fiend's Gate

(100% + 35% - 7) * = Expression error: Unexpected / operator.% damage

Preventing On-damage Effects[]

Many abilities react on damage a unit receives. In some cases, fully negating the damage causes them to not proc. However, some on-damage effects also react on 0 damage so they still may proc even when the proccing damage got negated.

The following abilities and effects do not react on damage when it gets fully negated (reduced to 0):

1 These work when the damage gets negated by Aphotic Shield icon Aphotic Shield.

2 These abilities have damage counters, which do not work when the damage gets negated.

The following abilities still do react on fully negated damage:

1 The damage of Dispersion icon Dispersion and the damage spread of Fatal Bonds icon Fatal Bonds are fully unaffected by any form of reduction, except for magic resistance and armor.


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