Root
| “ | ▶️ Thanks for standing still, ganker!
— Sniper
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Root (formerly known as Ensnare and Entangle) is a status effect that prevents affected units from moving, and from casting some mobility spells.
Contents
Mechanics[edit]
Root does not prevent a unit from moving by setting its movement speed to 0. It instead impairs movement in the same way as stuns do. They do not interrupt the move order either, so that the unit resumes moving towards its destination as soon as the root expires.
Root does not interrupt a unit's attack or spell cast orders either. If a unit is attacking or midst a cast animation, getting rooted neither stops it from attacking, nor cancels the cast of the spell. The unit continues executing those orders normally. If the unit's attack target or spell target gets out of range while the unit is rooted, it starts moving towards the target to attack it or cast the spell on it as soon as the root expires, similar to how the unit resumes its move command.
Some sources of root prevent a unit from attacking while rooted. However, this is not a mechanic of root. In these cases, the source abilities also apply a disarm along with the root.
Roots do not interrupt channeling spells, but always cancel the teleports of Town Portal Scroll and Boots of Travel. Some roots may apply true sight over the affected units, while others do not.
A consistent trait of roots is their ability to disable numerous mobility spells. Since a root is not a hard disable, several blink, pseudo-blink and teleport spells are disabled while rooted, to prevent an easy escape. However, although it prevents casting those spells, it does not cancel them when getting rooted while the spell is already cast. In such cases, the unit remains rooted at its new location. A list of disabled spells can be found below.
Rooting abilities[edit]
The following abilities root enemy units:
Hero Duration: 1.5/2/2.5/3 (
3/3.5/4/4.5)
Non-Hero Duration: 10 ( 11.5)
Provides True Sight: Yes
Applies disarm.
Duration: 1.75
Provides True Sight: Conditionally
Conditional True Sight
Duration: 1/1.5/2/2.5
Provides True Sight: No
Can affect unrevealed invisible units.
Non-Hero Duration: 3
Provides True Sight: No
Only roots non-hero units.
Duration: 1.5/2/2.5/3 ( 2.5/3/3.5/4)
Provides True Sight: Conditionally
Conditional True Sight.
Duration: 2
Provides True Sight: Yes
Can affect unrevealed invisible units.
Duration: 2/3/4/5
Provides True Sight: Yes
Min Duration: 0.25
Max Duration: 2.5 ( 3.5)
Provides True Sight: Conditionally
Conditional True Sight
Duration: 2
Provides True Sight: Conditionally
Conditional True Sight
Hero Duration: 3
Non-Hero Duration: 9
Provides True Sight: Yes
Duration: 2/3/4/5
Provides True Sight: Yes
Duration: 0.9/1.2/1.5/1.8 ( 1.3/1.6/1.9/2.2)
Provides True Sight: Yes
Can affect unrevealed invisible units.
- These roots with "Conditional True Sight" only provide true sight over the target for the duration of the root as long as, at the time the root is applied, the target is not fading into invisibility, and the target is not already completely invisible. Examples:
- An invisible enemy hero can be seen due to Dust of Appearance. The root will not apply true sight.
- Bounty Hunter casts Shadow Walk and is in the process of fading into invisibility when he gets rooted. The root will not apply true sight.
- Bounty Hunter gets rooted first and then casts Shadow Walk. The root WILL provide true sight.
- An enemy hero affected by Moonlight Shadow is soon to be invisible. The root WILL provide true sight, because Moonlight Shadow uses a fade delay instead of a fade time.
Self-rooting abilities[edit]
Some abilities root the caster to prevent them from performing certain orders like moving or attacking.
Roots and disarms the caster during Rolling Boulder, so it cannot move, blink or attack during it.
Roots and disarms the caster during Omnislash, so it cannot move, blink or attack during it.
Roots and disarms the caster while Burrowed, so it cannot move, blink or attack during it.
Roots and disarms the caster inside the Snowball, so it cannot move, blink or attack during it.
Roots and disarms the caster during Supernova, so it cannot move, blink or attack during it.
Disabled by roots[edit]
The following abilities are disabled by root:
Anti-Mage – Blink
Blink Dagger – Blink
Boots of Travel – Teleport
Chaos Knight – Reality Rift
Earth Spirit – Rolling Boulder
Earthshaker – Enchant Totem
Ember Spirit – Activate Fire Remnant
Faceless Void – Time Walk
Magnus – Skewer
Meepo – Poof
Mirana – Leap
Monkey King – Primal Spring
Monkey King – Tree Dance
Morphling – Waveform
Nature's Prophet – Teleportation
Pangolier – Rolling Thunder
Pangolier – Swashbuckle
Phantom Assassin – Phantom Strike
Phantom Lancer – Doppelganger
Phoenix – Icarus Dive
Phoenix – Toggle Movement
Puck – Phase Shift
Queen of Pain – Blink
Riki – Blink Strike
Riki – Tricks of the Trade
Sand King – Burrowstrike
Slark – Pounce
Spirit Breaker – Charge of Darkness
Spirit Breaker – Nether Strike
Storm Spirit – Ball Lightning
Timbersaw – Timber Chain
Town Portal Scroll – Teleport
Tusk – Snowball
Version history[edit]
- Root abilities no longer interrupt the target in any way, and no longer cancel channeling spells.
- Frostbite no longer applies a 0.1 second ministun.
- Searing Chains, Overgrowth, and Nature's Guise no longer interrupt the target's current order.
- Town Portal Scroll and Boots of Travel can no longer be cast while rooted, and are interrupted by root when already channeling.
- Nether Strike can no longer be cast while rooted.
- Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Enchant Totem can no longer be cast while rooted. [?]
- Doppelganger can no longer be cast while rooted.
- Activate Fire Remnant can no longer be cast while rooted.
- Root now disables the following movement spells:
- Blinks: Reality Rift, Poof, Phantom Strike, Blink Strike and Burrowstrike.
- Pseudo-blinks: Rolling Boulder, Time Walk, Skewer, Leap, Tree Dance, Primal Spring, Icarus Dive, Waveform, Pounce, Ball Lightning and Timber Chain. [?].
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