Guide to Damage Block (Vanguard, PMS, Stout Shield, etc.)

Guide to Damage Block (Vanguard, PMS, Stout Shield, etc.)

Posted on Fri Nov 13, 2009 8:55 am

Guide to Damage Block
This guide was originally made for the PlayDota forums which you can find here in the original format. I'm not very accustomed to BBCode of dotastrategy.com so if any mod can improve this guide's look please feel free to do so.
This is a Mechanics Guide. I'll hate to see long strategy discussions in this thread. Also, I expect this guide to move into the Library Section.

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Table of Contents

1. What is Damage Block?
2. Ways of Damage Block
   • Stout Shield
   • Poor Man's Shield
   • Vanguard
   • Kraken Shell (Tidehunter)
3. Mechanics of Damage Block
   • What type of damage is reduced?
   • Interaction of Damage block with Armor
   • Stacking Damage Block
   • Actual chance of Damage Block
4. FAQs
   • Krobelus' spirits vs Damage Block
   • Illusion damage vs Damage Block
   • Mana Shield with Damage Block
5. Credits
   

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I. What is Damage Block?

The reduction of the damage you receive when you get hit by anything with damage type physical. This means it will reduce damage from normal attacks and from spells with damage type 'physical' or 'mixed'. All Damage Blocks are based on Hardened Skin Skill.

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II. Ways of Damage Block

Currently, physical damage can be blocked by 4 ways in DotA:-

1. Stout Shield
Gives a 60% chance to block 20 damage if the wielder is melee, or a 60% chance to block 10 damage if the wielder is ranged.

2. Poor Man's Shield
Gives a 100% chance to block 20 hero damage and a 60% chance to block 20 non-hero damage if wielder is melee.
Gives a 100% chance to block 10 hero damage and a 60% chance to block 10 non-hero damage if wielder is ranged.

3. Vanguard
Gives a 70% chance to block 40 attack damage.

4. Tidehunter's Kraken Shell
Gives 100% chance to reduce 7/14/21/28 damage.

Only the details of damage block are written above. Other effects of the items/skill will not be discussed here.

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III. Damage Block Mechanics

1. Damage Block reduces physical damage type. This may be due to normal attack or by spells with physical damage (like Slardar's Slithereen Crush) or by spells with mixed damage type (like Beastmaster's Wild Axes).
Refer to this for more information on spell damage type.

2. Damage Block occurs before any armor reductions.

Example: Let us suppose your hero has 5 net armor (23% damage reduction approx). You've made a Vanguard and you get hit by 100 damage, then your hero will have:

1. a 70% chance to take 46 final damage. [Damage Block from Vanguard triggers. Damage Received = (100 - 40) x 0.77]
2. a 30% chance to take 77 final damage. [Vanguard did not proc. Damage Received = 100 x 0.77]

Refer to this for more information on Order of Damage Calculations.

3. Stacking Damage Block - When our hero has more than one damage block source...

Only one Damage Block can proc/trigger at a time. The last acquired damage block is checked first of all, if it doesn't proc only then the next one is checked.

Items counts as acquired when they are picked up and abilities counts as acquired when you learn the first level of the ability (any subsequent leveling will not make the ability count as re-acquired).
The chance that any of the sources you have which provides damage block will trigger follows a diminishing stacking pattern as can be seen by the generic damage block formula.
The following formula is used to calculate the chance that any source you have will trigger:

Chance to block = 1 - [(1-X)*(1-Y) ...]

{X, Y, ... } are replaced with the percentual chance that the source will trigger described as a decimal value.
Examples:
A. If you buy a Vanguard first and then level Kraken Shell , the damage block from Vanguard will never trigger coz Kraken Shell (with 100% chance to proc) was the last acquired Hardened Skin Skill. But you can drop and repick the Vanguard so it becomes the last acquired damage block item and would be checked first for damage block.

B. Let us suppose you complete a Vanguard and then buy (an additional) stout shield. The last acquired Hardened Skin here is Stout Shield so it will be checked first for damage block. Your hero will have:
-> a 60% chance to block 20/10 damage if the wielder is melee/ranged.
-> a 28% (70% of remaining 40%) chance to block 40 attack damage.
[So, basically you're at a loss here. Drop the Vanguard and pick it up again to make it the last acquired item.]

C. How will 2 Vanguards stack with each other?

If your hero has 2 vanguards, your chance to block 40 damage is 91% = 70% (last acquired Vanguard procs) + 21% (70% of remaining 30% if the last acquired Vanguard does not proc but the other one does)

Note that in NO case 80 damage will be blocked (a common misconception).

4. Actual chance of Damage Block

The chance to trigger Hardened Skin is based on Pseudo Random Distribution. This makes the actual chance to block a bit lower than the stated value.

Skill/Item | Stated Chance | Actual Chance
Stout Shield | 60%| 53%
Poor Man's Shield | 100%(hero damage) | 100%(on/off not based on PRD)
Poor Man's Shield | 60%(non-hero damage) | 53%
Vanguard | 70% | 60%
Kraken Shell | 100% | 100%

For more information on Pseudo Random Distribution read this .

---------------------------------

IV. FAQs

1. Krobelus' spirits/ghosts vs damage block.

Q. Will a Vanguard help me reduce damage from Krob's ulti?

No

Krobelus' spirits have the ability [Locust] and damage block does not reduce damage from units having Locust ability.
Besides Krobelus spirits, dummy unit summoned by Corrosive Skin (Viper) has the locust ability that always deals 1 damage.

2. Images vs Damage block

Q. Assuming a PL has 100 base damage then his images would do 25 damage when they hit a target. But if it gets blocked by a vanguard would the damage be (100-40) * .25 = 15 damage or (100 * .25) -40 =0 damage?

0 damage

The illusion damage reduction is applied before damage block.

3. Mana Shield with Damage Block

Q. Will the damage reduction happen before mana shield absorbs the damage ? or will mana shield absorb the damage and then damage reduction works?

This has two possibilities:

A. If you acquire damage block first and then activate mana shield - In this case both work together with the mana shield reducing the incoming damage first of all.

B. If you acquire damage block after activating mana shield -In this case mana shield activates only if damage block does not trigger.

Here are the results by a test done by Cáno

Damage dealt by Centaur when:
Mana Shield off, no Stout Shield - 30-31 damage,
Mana Shield on, no Stout Shield - 15-16 damage,
Mana Shield off, with Stout Shield - 30-31 or 26 damage,
Mana Shield (turned on first), with Stout Shield - 15-16 or 26 damage.
Mana Shield on, Stout Shield (acquired before turning Mana Shield on) - 15-16 or 9 damage
Pro-tip: Always deactivate and then reactivate mana shield after making a damage block item.
---------------------------------

V. Credits

- e00E
- Antiweltteilchen
- All mech fags of playdota.com forum.
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Posted on Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:15 am

thanks for clearing that up
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short guide for sven. get 3 bfury and hyper and boots k.
theres 2 guys next to each other. its sniper and.. umm.. rooftrellen

this is them XO
sniper is X. tree is O.
you wana kill sniper so attack tree.

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Posted on Fri Nov 13, 2009 9:41 am

kinda useful FAQ, thanks
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:D

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Posted on Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:33 am

ever thought about adding the info about dispersion into this guide since it's a block too

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Posted on Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:41 am

Very useful. But gave me a headache..

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Posted on Fri Nov 13, 2009 11:45 am

@^and visages cloak....

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Posted on Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:32 pm


Dispersion and Gravekeeper's Cloak are both triggered heals not damage block. Only the 3 aforementioned items and kraken shell have the damage block in DotA at the moment.

My Ultimate aim achieved... Victory!
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Posted on Fri Nov 13, 2009 12:40 pm

Ok I am going to request a move to Library.. Hopefully no more "Will 2 SHIELD STAKZ LOL"
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Pedo Bear does not discriminate!

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Posted on Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:51 pm

Actually, the problem is that I made this guide for another forum and now I see I'm not very good with forum conversions.
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Posted on Fri Nov 13, 2009 10:34 pm

hehe still beats my mind..... i kinda get the whole thing but just some small details i don't understand like the image vs damage block.. but i think this is great! cheer mate
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Shen Diao Xia Lü FTW!

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Posted on Sat Nov 14, 2009 2:55 am

Very nice, one thing i would like to see answered: Damage Block on illusions, for example a TB with a PMS. I'm guessing that it would follow the same pattern as damage from an illusion, where incoming damage is amplified before damage block, but it's only a guess.
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24/09/09 02:18 <Vins> your superman omg

Thanks Parkguy

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Posted on Fri Nov 20, 2009 7:30 am

Pretty useful
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Thanks C_T for teh new sig XD

My dragons

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Posted on Fri Nov 20, 2009 7:52 am

Wow, what a useful thread...
I kinda needed this on some occasions...
IDK...
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There is a fine line between coincidence and fate, my friend.

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