Buildings

Buildings

 

Changelogs

 

Old Abilities

 

Buildings are a type unit that are not controlled by any player. At the beginning of each match, a set of buildings spawn at set locations for both teams. Both factions have the same set of buildings, with only their appearance differing from each other. Buildings take mostly defensive roles and are the main objective of the game.

All buildings have the same base properties. They are immune to most spells (with only a few spells affecting them), have the structure armor type, deal siege damage if they can attack and are immobile. When destroyed, some buildings grant gold to the entire enemy team, while others grant gold only to whoever made the last hit. Once below 10% health, buildings (except for the Ancients) can be denied to prevent the enemy from getting their gold bounties, or to reduce the amount they get. Buildings do not grant experience. Once destroyed, a building is permanently lost, as they do not respawn.

There are a total of 29 buildings on each side.

Towers

Radiant and Dire towers

Towers are the main line of defense for both teams, attacking any non-neutral enemy that gets within their range. Both factions have all three lanes guarded by three towers each. Additionally, each faction's Ancient have two towers as well, resulting in a total of 11 towers per faction. Towers come in 4 different tiers:

• Tier 1 towers, located at the end of each lane.
• Tier 2 towers, located halfway through each lane.
• Tier 3 towers, located on top of the 3 ramps at each base.
• Tier 4 towers, located in pairs in front of each Ancient.

Tier 1 towers are invulnerable during the preparation phase, until the battle begins. Each Tier 2 and tier 3 tower is invulnerable until the lower tier tower preceding it in its lane is destroyed. The two tier 4 towers are invulnerable until any of the tier 3 towers have been destroyed. Barracks do not have to be destroyed to make tier 4 towers vulnerable. Both of the tier 4 towers must be destroyed in order to remove the Ancient's invulnerability.

All towers have a vision range of during the day and during the night and can attack. Additionally, all towers have True Sight in a area around them, and have one defensive and one supportive ability. Towers never attack nearby neutral creeps.

Building	Health	Deny Health	Armor	HP Regen	Backdoor Protection
Tier 1 Tower					N
Tier 2 Tower					Y
Tier 3 Tower					Y
Tier 4 Tower					Y

Building	Damage	BAT	DPS	Attack Range	Projectile Speed
Tier 1 Tower	‒
Tier 2 Tower	‒
Tier 3 Tower	‒
Tier 4 Tower	‒

Towers grant a gold bounty to whoever makes the last hit, but also grant a team bounty to the entire team. No team bounty is granted when a tower gets denied.

Building	Team Bounty	Last Hit Bounty	Last Hit Total	No Last Hit Total
Tier 1 Tower		‒	‒
Tier 2 Tower		‒	‒
Tier 3 Tower		‒	‒
Tier 4 Tower		‒	‒

Attack priority

Towers are using regular auto-attacking, so when multiple enemies engage the tower, it naturally targets the first enemy that gets within its attack range. It sticks with that target until it can no longer be attacked (it dies, gets out of attack range or becomes attack immune). Once that happens, it chooses the next attack target using the following priority system.

1. Closest enemy unit attacking the tower itself
2. Closest enemy unit attacking an ally of the tower
3. Closest enemy unit

It does not matter whether the unit is a hero or a non-hero unit, they are treated equally. Units treated differently are wards and siege creeps. These units are always attacked as last. If a tower attacks one of these units, and then another unit or hero come within range, the tower immediately switches to the new unit. Siege creeps have a higher priority than wards.

There are two additional scenarios where the tower switches its attack target immediately:

1. If an enemy hero attacks an allied hero while within 500 range of the tower, it immediately switches to that enemy hero. This only works against enemy heroes. Non-hero units attacking heroes do not cause the tower to switch aggro towards them. The attack does not have to finish or connect, the attack order alone is enough. However, it has to be a regular attack, instant attacks or manaully casting an active attack modifier do not count. This behavior is akin to lane creeps' behavior, which do the same in this scenario.
2. On the other side, if an enemy unit (hero or non-hero alike) is ordered to attack its own allies (hero or non-hero alike), the tower immediately switches aggro to another unit, using the priority system mentioned above. This as well does not require the attack to start, the order alone is enough. Enemies can de-aggro the tower only once every 2.5 by using this technique. This behavior is also equal to that of lane creeps. When the tower already started its attack on a unit, it will finish that attack, even when aggroed or de-aggroed with these techniques. This means it is impossible to cancel the tower's attacks by changing its aggro. Its attacks only cancel when its current target cannot be attacked anymore.

Tower abilities

Tower Protection

Ability
Aura

Affects
Allied Heroes

Increases armor of nearby allied heroes.

Radius: 900

Armor Bonus (Tier 1): 3

Armor Bonus (Tier 2/3/4): 5

Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

Modifiers [?]

Tower Aura Bonus

Undispellable

• The aura's buff lingers for 0.5 seconds.

• Multiple instances of Tower Protection do not stack.
  • When teleporting from a tier 2/3/4 tower to a tier 1 tower or vice versa, the armor bonus updates after the linger time.

• Only affects allied heroes, creep-heroes and illusions. Other allied units are not affected.

• Affects invulnerable, but not hidden heroes.

Barracks

Radiant and Dire ranged (L) and melee (R) barracks

See also: Lane creeps

Barracks (commonly shortened to Rax) are buildings, defended by their tier 3 towers, that are responsible for keeping lane creeps as powerful as their counterparts. There are two Barracks for each lane per faction - one for melee creeps (called Melee Barracks or Melee Rax), and one for ranged creeps (called Ranged Barracks or Ranged Rax). The ranged barracks are always located to the left of the melee barracks on each lane and both factions.

Barracks are invulnerable until the tier 3 tower guarding them is destroyed. The loss of barracks does not stop lane creeps from spawning. However, destroying Barracks grants the destroying team super creeps in that lane, corresponding to which one was destroyed, which are more powerful and grant less bounties than regular creeps. Super melee creeps spawn when the melee barracks get destroyed, while super ranged creeps spawn when the ranged barracks are destroyed. When all 6 Barracks of a team are destroyed, mega creeps start spawning on every lane for the enemy, even more powerful than super creeps.

All barracks have a vision range of 900 during the day and 600 during the night. They cannot attack, have no special abilities and have no True Sight.

Building	Health	Deny Health	HP Regen	Armor	Backdoor Protection
Melee Barracks	2200	220	5	15	Y
Ranged Barracks	1300	130	0	9	Y

Barracks grant a gold bounty to whoever makes the last hit, but also grant a team bounty to the entire team. Denying Barracks does not reduce the team bounty.

Building	Team Bounty	Deny Bounty	Last Hit Bounty	Last Hit Total	No Last Hit Total	Denied Total
Ranged Barracks	90	90	90‒135	540‒585	450	450
Melee Barracks	155	155	90‒135	865‒910	775	775

Ancients

Radiant's and Dire's Ancient

Ancients (also commonly refered to as Thrones, or Tree for Radiant's ancient and Throne for Dire's ancient, as legacy names from DotA) are massive structures found inside each faction's base and are the main objective. In order to win, the enemy team's Ancient must be destroyed, while the own one must be kept alive. Ancients are guarded by their two tier 4 towers. The Ancients are invulnerable until both of their tier 4 towers are destroyed.

Both ancients have a vision range of 2600 during the day and 2600 during the night. Additionally, they have True Sight in a 900 area around them.

Building	Health	Deny Health	HP Regen	Armor	Backdoor Protection
Ancient	4500	N/A	12	23	Y

Fountains

Radiant's and Dire's fountain

Fountains are buildings located in the respawn areas of both bases, and provide scaling health and mana regeneration to all allied units near it. They also heavily defend the spawn area, blasting intruding enemies with very rapid high-damaging attacks, which have 25% accuracy and dispel consumables, and disable Blink Dagger, Heart of Tarrasque and other abilities that are normally disabled by player-based damage. Fountains use the same attack priorty system as towers, except that they cannot be aggroed immediately by attacking an enemy hero. Fountains are permanently invulnerable, so they can never be destroyed.

Both fountains have a vision range of 1800 during the day and 1800 during the night and can attack. Additionally, they have True Sight in a 1200 area around them.

Building	Damage	BAT	DPS	Attack Range	Projectile Speed	Backdoor Protection
Fountain	290‒310	0.15	2000	1200	1400	N

Fountain ability

Rejuvenation Aura

Ability
Aura

Affects
Allies

Heals 5% HP and 6% mana per second.

Radius: 1200

Max Health as Regen Bonus: 5%

Max Mana as Regen Bonus: 6%

Aura Linger Duration: 3

Modifiers [?]

Fountain Rejuvenation

Undispellable

• The aura's buff lingers for 3 seconds.

• Can regenerate up to 300% of a unit's max health and 360% of a unit's max mana in one minute.

• Can fully regenerate a unit's health within 20 seconds and mana within 16.67 seconds.

• The aura also causes Bottles to refill and provides the team's courier invulnerability.

• Due to the aura lingering for 3 seconds, Bottles keep on refilling even when already outside of its range, until the buff is gone.

• Affects invulnerable, but not hidden units.

Shrine

Radiant and Dire shrines

Shrines are small supportive buildings outside the bases on the map. Each team has 1 shrine between the two camps in the secondary jungle, and 1 shrine at the center of the main jungle. The shrines are invulnerable until any of the team's tier 3 tower is destroyed.

Shrines have no vision and no True Sight. This means the shrines do not serve as free wards. However, since they are regular buildings, they can be teleported to with Town Portal Scrolls and Boots of Travel, although with a lower teleport radius.

Building	Health	Deny Health	HP Regen	Armor	Backdoor Protection
Shrine	1750	175	5	17	N

Shrines grant no gold to whoever makes the last hit, but do grant a team bounty to the entire team. Denying Shrines does not reduce the team bounty.

Building	Team Bounty	Deny Bounty	Team Total	Denied Total
Shrine	125	125	625	625

Shrine ability

Sanctuary

▶️▶️

Ability
Passive / Aura

Affects
Allies

Generates an aura that provides increased health and mana regeneration to nearby allies when activated.

Activation Distance: 150

Aura Radius: 500

Base Health Regen Bonus: 90

Max Health as Health Regen Bonus: 2%

Base Mana Regen Bonus: 50

Max Mana as Mana Regen Bonus: 2%

Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

Duration: 5

 300

Modifiers [?]

Filler Heal Aura

Undispellable

Filler Heal

Undispellable

• Whenever this ability is off cooldown, the shrine emits particle effects and a looping sound. Its minimap icon also starts glowing.

• While ready, pressing the ALT key highlights the aura's radius with a blue circle. This circle disappears when on cooldown after the aura expired.

• A shrine can be activated by ordering the hero to follow it. A follow order is given by right-clicking, or by pressing the move hotkey and selecting the shrine as a target.
  • Once the hero is within the activation range, the shrine gets activated, if the follow command is still active.
  • Can only be activated by allied heroes and clones. No other unit can activate it.
  • Since a hero executing a move order is required to activate it, it cannot be activated while stunned, taunted, slept, cycloned and hidden.

• Once activated, the shrine emits an aura which applies the restoring effects. The aura's buff lingers for 0.5 seconds.

• The aura affects all allied units which are not wards or buildings. However, it does not affect invulnerable or hidden allies.

• Can regenerate up to 495 + 11% of a unit's max health and up to 275 + 11% of a unit's max mana over its full duration.

• All shrines are on cooldown until the 5 minute mark of the game.

Effigy buildings

Radiant and Dire effigy buildings

In addition to the above buildings, there are other buildings that act as buffers within a base, called Effigy Buildings, or Filler Buildings (although they are just named Building in-game). These buildings exist only to occupy enemy creeps before reaching the tier 4 towers or the Ancient, and therefore give the defending players more time to act. There are 7 such buildings in each base, spread evenly around the Ancient.

Five of the seven Effigy buildings (the 5 forming a half-circle around the Ancient) are customizable with Effigy Blocks, giving them a different look and making them display a text notification when destroyed. This has purely cosmetical values and does not alter them in other ways. Each player can customize one of the five Effigy Buildings in their base.

All effigy buildings have a vision range of 900 during the day and 600 during the night. They cannot attack, have no special abilities and have no True Sight.

Radiant's buildings have two different models, while the Dire have one model for all.

Building	Health	Deny Health	HP Regen	Armor	Last Hit Bounty	Backdoor Protection
Effigy Building	1000	100	0	10	68	Y

Backdoor Protection

Backdoor Protection areas.

Backdoor Protection visual effect on towers.

Backdoor Protection is a passive ability almost all buildings have. Tier 1 towers, Shrines and Fountains are the only buildings without this ability. While active, Backdoor Protection grants high damage resistance to the building, and causes it to heal back any damage it takes from enemy units, making them difficult to destroy. This protection deactivates when an enemy lane creep moves within range of the building (if it is a tower outside the base), or gets close to the team's base (if it is a building within the base). The creep must not be dominated by a player, only AI-controlled lane creeps can deactivate the protection. Once deactivated, it takes some time for the protection to activate again.

There are 4 separate disable areas of Backdoor protection. Each tier 2 tower has its own circular area centered on them, providing protection to themselves, and the ancient has a gigantic circular area centered on it, providing protection to all buildings inside the base (except the fountain). This means each of the tier 2 towers have independent protections, meaning when one is disabled, the others are not disabled. They are also independent from the base protection. Meanwhile, all buildings inside the base share one protection and lose it simultaneously when disabled. The radius of the Ancient's disable area is so huge that it goes beyond the elevated base area. On the Dire side, it reaches up until the ramp behind the top tier 2 tower, up to the mid tier 2 tower and up until the ramp behind the bottom tier 2 tower. On the Radiant side, it reaches beyond the ramp behind the top tier 2 tower, beyond the mid tier 2 tier and halfway through to the ramp behind the bottom tier 2 tower.

Backdoor protection is not responsible for the invulnerability buildings have, so the buildings still stay invulnerable if their corresponding towers are not destroyed first.

Backdoor Protection

▶️

Ability
Passive / Aura

Affects
Self

Structure takes reduced damage, and quickly regenerates any damage taken while no enemy creeps are nearby.

Search Radius (Tier 2 Tower): 900

Search Radius (Ancient): 4000

Heal per Second: 90

Damage Reduction: 40%

Protected Illusion Damage Reduction: 75%

Unprotected Illusion Attack Damage Reduction: 60%

Reactivation Delay: 15

Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

Modifiers [?]

Backdoor Protection Active

Undispellable

• All buildings, except for tier 1 towers and shrines have this ability.

• Tier 2 towers have a search radius of 900 centered on them, each of them independent from each other.

• The base buildings depend on the Ancient's search radius of 4000 centered on it. This means they all lose the protection together.

• The unit detection is aura-based. If an enemy lane creep gets within the search radius of the tower/ancient the protection is lost.
  • The aura's effect lingers for 0.5 seconds, so the total reactivation delay is effectively 15.5 seconds.

• While protected, the building takes 40% less damage from any source, and 75% less damage from illusions.
  • This includes spell damage, not only attacks, including spells cast by illusions.
  • While unprotected, the building only takes 60% less damage from illusion attacks (excluding their spells).

• If a backdoor-protected building is damaged by an enemy, it immediately starts healing back.

• Heals 9 health in 0.1 second intervals, which translates to 90 health per second.
  • This means, it is possible to destroy protected buildings by dealing more than 90 damage per second (after reductions).

• Only heals back damage dealt by enemy units. Damaged dealt by allies is not healed back.

True Sight

Main Article: True Sight

Towers, Ancients and fountains, all have True Sight, the abiltiy to detect nearby invisible enemy units. The radii are different for between them.

True Sight

Ability
Aura

Affects
Enemies

Adds the ability to see invisible units and wards to any allied vision within the structure's range.

Radius (Fountain): 1200

Radius (Ancient): 900

Radius (Tower): 700

Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

Modifiers [?]

Truesight

Undispellable

• The True Sight is provided within the whole area, regardless of the buildings actual vision. It is fully unobstructed.

• The True Sight is provided by an aura which affects enemies. Its debuff lingers for 0.5 seconds.

• Cannot detect units under the effect of Shadow Dance, Smoke of Deceit, and Techies' traps and mines within the aura of Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Minefield Sign.

Glyph of Fortification

A Glyphed tower.

The Glyph of Fortification (or Glyph in short) is an ability usable by any player that causes all friendly buildings and lane creeps to become impervious to damage for a short duration, while also granting tier 2 and higher towers a multishot attack, allowing them to attack multiple enemies at the same time. The effect has a rather low duration and very high cooldown, making the timing of usage very important. The Glyph is used strategically to stop enemy pushes or slow them down long enough to organize a defense. It may also be used offensively to secure a push by granting the creep waves damage immunity at the right time, or even for finishing enemies off by using the multishot attacks.

The Glyph of Fortification can be activated by any player with a button at the right of the minimap or the shortcut they defined in the settings. The Glyph's cooldown is shared by the entire team, meaning if one player uses it, it goes on cooldown for all players of the team. However, whenever a tier 1 tower falls, the Glyph's cooldown gets refreshed 1 second later.

Glyph of Fortification

Ability
No Target

Affects
Allies

Grant your structures and lane creeps invincibility for 100% seconds. Refreshed if a first-tier tower falls.

Bonus Attack Targets (Tier 2/3/4): 2

Duration: 6

 300

Modifiers [?]

Fountain Glyph

Undispellable

• Grants all allied buildings and lane creeps 100% incoming damage reduction, so they take absolutely no damage from anything.

• Does not grant invulnerability, as this would prevent targeting spells or attacks on them, which is not the case.

• This means that instantly killing effects can still kill glyphed units.

• Tier 2 and higher towers gain a multishot attack from the Glyph, allowing them to attack multiple targets at once.
  • Causes the towers to perform instant attacks on the closest 0/5/5/5 enemies within attack range whenever they launch an attack projectile.
  • This means all projectiles are released at the same time together with the main attack.
  • Therefore, it does not matter whether the primary attack misses or not, the extra projectiles are still released.
  • Does not target wards, buildings, invisible units, attack immune units, or units inside the Fog of War, but does target couriers.
  • However, attacking wards or buildings still causes secondary arrows to hit valid targets within the radius.

• The cooldown gets refreshed one second after a tier 1 tower falls.

• The Glyph goes on cooldown upon match begin, so that it is ready 3 minutes after the first creeps spawn.

Glyph Trivia

• In DotA, Glyph grants friendly buildings spell immunity and +9999 armor, instead of 100% damage resistance like in Dota 2.
  • This means physical attacks still did 1 damage to them, since 100% physical damage resistance cannot be achieved with just armor, and the game rounds damage numbers to full numbers.
  • This also means that fortified buildings cannot be targeted by some spells which otherwise could target them.
• In earlier versions of DotA, Glyph did not grant spell immunity, and skills such as Pugna's Nether Blast could deal damage through it.

Abilities affecting buildings

The following abilities can target or damage buildings.

Most hero abilities that deal physical damage are considered hero damage and are reduced by 50% against structure armor as well as standard armor value reductions.

• Abaddon - Curse of Avernus
  
  Fully affects buildings.
• Arc Warden - Magnetic Field
  
  Fully affects allied buildings.
• Assault Cuirass - Assault Aura
  
  Negative and positive effects fully affect buildings.
• Blight Stone - Lesser Corruption
  
  Fully affects buildings.
• Boots of Travel - [[Boots of Travel#|]]
  
  Can teleport to building. Prioritizes building when targeting within a certain range of them.
• Centaur Warrunner - Retaliate
  
  Affects enemy buildings. Allied buildings are not affected. Damage is reduced by armor value only.
• Clinkz - [[Clinkz#|]]
  64px|text-top|link=Clinkz#
  Damage is reduced by armor value and type.
• Crimson Guard - Guard
  
  Fully affects buildings.
• Death Prophet - Exorcism
  
  Damage is reduced by armor value and type.
• Desolator - Corruption
  
  Fully affects buildings.
• Dragon Knight - Elder Dragon Form
  
  Corrosive Breath deals full damage to buildings.
• Earth - Demolish
  
  Causes Earth's attacks to deal 90/170/250 more damage to buildings.
• Faceless Void - Chronosphere
  
  Fully affects buildings.
• Jakiro - Liquid Fire
  
  Fully affects buildings.
• Leshrac - Diabolic Edict
  
  Damage is reduced by armor value only.
• Lich - Frost Shield
  
  Can be cast on allied buildings, fully affecting them. Cannot slow enemy buildings.
• Meteor Hammer - Meteor Hammer
  
  Fully affects buildings. Uses different damage values as against other units.
• Naga Siren - Song of the Siren
  
  Fully affects enemy buildings. Does not affect allied buildings.
• Ogre Magi - Bloodlust
  
  Fully affects buildings.
• Omniknight - Guardian Angel
  
  Fully affects allied buildings when upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter.
• Pipe of Insight - Barrier
  
  Fully affects buildings.
• Pugna - Nether Blast
  
  Deals 0.65 damage to buildings.
• Razor - Eye of the Storm
  
  Can strike buildings when upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter.Does not reduce armor of struck buildings. Damage is reduced by armor value only.
• Shadow Fiend - Presence of the Dark Lord
  
  Requires a talent to be chosen.
• Spirit Bear - Demolish
  
  Causes Spirit Bear's attacks to deal 10%/20%/30%/40% more damage to buildings.
• Techies - Proximity Mines
  
  Deals 1 damage to buildings.
• Tiny - Tree Grab
  
  Causes Tiny's attacks to deal 40%/55%/70%/85% more damage to buildings while wielding a tree.
• Tiny - Toss
  
  Deals 1.4 damage against buildings within the damage radius. Cannot toss or directly target buildings.
• Town Portal Scroll - Teleport
  
  Can teleport to building only.
• Treant Protector - Living Armor
  
  Fully affects buildings.
• Viper - Poison Attack
  
  Requires a talent to be chosen. Deals damage and slows buildings.
• Windranger - Focus Fire
  
  Able to target buildings.

See also

• Pushing

Mechanics Main Heroes Unit Type (Heroes / Clones / Illusions) Complexity Attributes Table Buyback Level Roles Gold Experience Animations Stats Armor Attributes ( Strength / Agility / Intelligence) / Universal) Health & Mana (HP Regen & MP Regen) Magic Resistance Movement Speed / Slow Resistance Status Resistance Turn Rate Misc Creep Controling Death / Denying Vision Unit Size (Collision Size / Bound Radius / Selection Box / Model Size) Gib Type / Shades Adjectives Buildings Towers / Barracks / Ancient / Fountain Effigy Neutral Buildings (Outposts / Watchers / Twin Gates / Lotus Pools) Abilities Type Active / Passive / Autocast Aura Accuracy / Evasion Channeling Damage Barrier Damage Block Damage Manipulation Damage Over Time Talents Teleport Targeting Area No Target Point Unit Vector Combinations Casting Cast Range / Motion Buffer Cast Animation (Cast Point + Backswing) Cooldown Reduction (Flat / Current Flat / Percentage) Reset Charge-based Runes Bounty Rune Water Rune Wisdom Rune Power Runes ( Amplify Damage Rune / Arcane Rune / Haste Rune / Illusion Rune / Invisibility Rune / Regeneration Rune / Shield Rune) Misc Random Distribution Transformation Attack Damage Attack Damage Instant Attack Heroes Attack Classes Attack Range (Acquisition Range) Attack Speed (BAT / Interval) Damage Types (Physical / Magical / Pure / Instant Kill) Flags (HP Removal / No-reflection / No-Spell-Lifesteal / No-Spell-Amplification) Projectile Speed Spell Damage (Outgoing / Incoming) Modifiers Bash Cleave / Splash Corruption Critical Strike Lifesteal / Spell Lifesteal Mana Break On-hit Effects Misc Damage Instance Animation / Orb Walking Status Effects Disables Cyclone Disabling Orders Forced Movement (Knockback) / Upward Movement Fear (Hypnosis) Hide Hex Root Leash Stun Sleep Taunt Movement Move Speed Slow Flying Movement Phased / Tree Walk / Unobstructed Movement Other Attack Immune / Non-targetable Attack Speed Slow Debuff Immunity Spell Immunity Invulnerability Invisibility Blind Break Disarm Ethereal Silence Mute Trap Dispels Basic Strong Death Items Mechanics Courier Sharing / Selling Disassemble Recipes Neutral Item Drop