15 minute read
You know those teamfights where you manage to coordinate well with your team, combo all your spells together properly, give your carry the space to start laying in the damage... only to see that the enemy team's health is still above 50% after you've dropped everything you got. Naturally, they notice that as well and then proceed to run you over while you're left scratching your head and wondering, "how are they so tanky?"
"Where is our damage?"
Damage is one of the most basic things in the game that obviously every hero offers. Very few spells deal no damage; the majority of slows, stuns, debuffs, and even heals and shields, deal some damage along with their effects. And yet, many people fail to realize where their team's damage truly comes from, and what it is on the enemy team that prevents them from dealing this damage. This usually leads to wrong itemization and bad decision making that turns into losses. This article will break things down and clarify some unfortunately common misconceptions such as:
Armor reduction is good versus high armor (wrong)
Daedalus is good on most carries (wrong)
Pipe of Insight falls off in the late game (wrong)
If you jump someone and you don't manage to burst them within a disable, that means you need more damage (wrong)
Damage has several characteristics, each of which can either be its strength or weakness. We're going to break down the different variations and types of damage and list them out with two parts for each.
The first part will be theoretical, explaining the mechanics behind this variation of damage, while the second part will be practical, giving specific examples of what this variation of damage counters and what it gets countered by.
Table of Contents:
Speed (Burst vs DoT) & Continuity (Long CD vs Short CD)
Amount (Flat vs Percentage-based)
Area of Effect (Single-target vs Large AoE / Global)
Damage Type (Physical vs Magical vs Pure)
1. Speed (Burst vs DoT) & Continuity (Long CD vs Short CD)
Theory:
Generally, damage over time tends to be a higher total amount than burst damage, but by its nature of kicking in over time it gives the enemy plenty of time to regenerate, heal, use barriers or defensive items, or otherwise protect themselves from the damage.
This is why Venomancer's Gale never feels like a threatening damage spell (you're scared of its slowing effect instead), even though it deals a total of 600 damage over its full 15 second duration when maxed. On the other hand, Lion's level 1 Finger of Death instantly dealing 600 damage is definitely something to beware in the early game, because it's instant, a.k.a. burst damage, and you may not even have time to pop your Magic Wand before dying to it.
Practice:
So burst damage is pretty much always better, right? Nope, because it's often balanced by having other drawbacks such as a long cooldown (heavy nukes), or requiring a huge commitment and vulnerability (standing still near the enemy so you can land your 2k+ damage crits).
This brings us to the four-way rock-paper-scissors-esque diagram below:
Basically, if the enemy has hard saves like Shadow Demon or Vengeful Spirit for example, it doesn't matter that your Enigma Sven Aghs Daedalus combo can do one bajillion damage - with good timing they can dodge it and save your target, leaving you all out of gas, aimlessly pacing around as you realize you won't get a second shot at this for another two minutes, during which the enemy is unthreatened and can do whatever they want.
Now, if you have a steady supply of less intense but constant damage that doesn't require a huge commitment, like Ember Spirit spamming SoF and poking 10-20% of your health every 6 seconds, or Medusa whittling your entire team and towers down simultaneously while she is too tanky to commit on... That's when those hard saves are gonna feel exceedingly useless, since you can just wait them out and keep chipping away after they're used.
How would you counter such consistent low-commitment damage? That's where the heals and sustain come in instead - if your carry is getting tethered by a Holy Locket Io and your offlane Dark Seer is backing you guys up with his Greaves & Pipe & Crimson, then that low-commitment damage is barely going to tickle you and you can just run at the Ember and Medusa with nothing to fear.
"Jeez, that sounds strong, how do you counter all these heals and auras?"
Here's where we come full circle - if you get that Enigma Sven Aghs Daedalus combo from the first paragraph, it doesn't really matter how many heals the enemy team has - a couple of big crits will wipe them out before they can say "Mek!"
Disclaimer: you'll have a hard time fully relying on Enigma in the current meta of strong aura stacking ever since the Linken's + BKB nerf, but the concept remains valid. Other examples of strong high burst damage include core heroes like Tiny, Snapfire, CK, TA, Lina, and supports like Hoodwink, Nyx, SD, AA, etc.
2. Amount (Flat vs Percentage-based)
Theory:
Old man: "Back in the day, reaching 2000 HP happened only in the late game, and was often not achievable at all for supports! Getting to 3000 HP was very rare and only possible for the tankiest of heroes with tons of farm!"
Nowadays, things are quite different with 3000 and even 4000 HP pools not being too difficult to reach even for non-strength heroes and supports. In fact, it's now rare to find a hero with an HP pool lower than 2000 by minute 25 or so, and the new threshold for "unusually high amount of HP" would have to be about twice as much at 6000 or so, which only a handful of heroes can realistically achieve (Centaur, Pudge, Undying, etc.)
All this means that the distinction between flat and percentage-based damage is more important than ever. A standard 300 damage nuke may take away about 20% of someone's health at minute 10, but by minute 30 that turns into less than 10% of their health.
Practice:
Having at least one source of percentage-based damage on your team is a good idea, because you may have damage issues otherwise.
Keep in mind the difference between % of current and % of max HP!
Here are two examples in a hypothetical situation where you're facing a 4000 HP Centaur (he'll have magic resistance items as well as his base magic resistance, of course, but we won't be calculating them for the sake of simplicity - so we're talking about damage dealt, not damage taken.)
Winter Wyvern's Arctic Burn deals 10% of the enemy's current HP as damage per second. If she hits Centaur when he's at full hp, it will deal a whopping 400(!) damage per second, which is absolutely massive. Of course, the damage will gradually decrease as Centaur current HP goes down and can never actually kill him, but it's still quite effective.
Phoenix' Sun Ray can deal 70% of the enemy's max HP as damage (with the talent), which in the case of this Centaur would be a massive 2800 damage! Of course, this requires Phoenix to stand still and channel this spell for the full 6 seconds, which is a lot harder than simply hitting once as the Winter Wyvern, so they each have their upsides and downsides.
(Fun fact: with the Hotspot Facet, Talent, Aether Lens and Seer Stone, a fully channeled Sun Ray actually starts dealing well over 100% of the enemy's Max HP - combine this with some spell amplification and you can 100 to 0 targets even if they have some magic resistance)
Lastly, note that Spirit Vessel is the only item in the game that deals percentage-based damage to heroes. Even though it's mostly bought for its regen reduction effects and considered less valuable in the late game once multiple dispels become more accessible, it's still worth keeping this item in mind as a large damage source when used on a beefy enemy.
3. Area of Effect (Single-target vs Large AoE / Global)
Theory:
This one is perhaps the most straightforward. AoE damage obviously also hits single targets while the opposite isn't true, but that is why it's also generally lower in amount / has a higher CD / shorter range, etc. Too much single-target damage is easily punished by illusion heroes, zoo strats and even well-timed saves. On the other hand, too much AoE damage could mean that you lack the heavy single-target damage required to take down specific beefy cores such as Medusa, Tiny, Bristleback, etc.
Practice:
The main thing to keep in mind here is that
There are only 4 AoE damage items in the game that you can buy to deal with illusion heroes if you find that your lineup lacks AoE damage
Mjollnir
Gleipnir
Radiance
Shiva's Guard
(The reason Battlefury doesn't make the list is that it's highly conditional as it requires melee attacks to land, splashes only in the shape of a narrow cone, and depends on your direction relative to your target, making it highly unreliable unlike the rest.)
So if you find yourself playing TA / Night Stalker / Slark versus a PL / CK / Naga Siren with nobody else on your team able to deal with the illusions, you basically have two options:
Go for your usual build and hope you can snowball and finish the game before the illusion hero comes online and gets very tanky.
Adapt and build 1 or 2 of the four items above, even though they don't typically fit your build. Mjollnir is not bad on any of them since it gives plenty of attack speed, but they do typically need several other items first. Radiance can be all right on Night Stalker and Slark, but once again, you probably won't be able to rush it.
Lastly, remember that even if there is no threat of your team lacking AoE damage, as a single-target heavy core you will often want to pick up an item that helps you shove waves at a reasonable speed (not to be confused with farming). Shiva's Guard is not part of the list of viable choices for this purpose and Battlefury enters as an option here for melee heroes, although many of them might still prefer one of the others for various reasons. Check out the detailed full article on shoving waves here
4. Damage Type (Physical vs Magical vs Pure)
Theory:
We'll start off with the definitions of each damage type:
Physical: reduced by armor, physical and universal barriers, as well as any general damage reduction effects (Bristleback, Dispersion, etc.)
Magical: reduced by magic resistance, magical and universal barriers, as well as anny general damage reduction
Pure: reduced only by universal barriers and general damage reduction
As you can see, the damage types are mostly defined by which resistances (mainly armor and magic resistance) affect them, and which resistances do not affect them.
Of course, there's also the reduction of damage resistance or in other words simply minus armor like Slardar's Corrosive Haze and Alchemist's Acid Spray, or magic resistance reduction like Pugna's Decrepify and Skywrath's Ancient Seal.
Now, keep in mind that it's not quite as simple as "spell = magic, auto attack = physical", because there are tons of cases where this isn't true. A couple of notable examples:
Primal Beast's Onslaught is a flat 360 physical damage nuke, while Trample (which ironically is based on his attack damage) is magical damage. Pulverize is also magical damage.
Death Prophet's Crypt Swarm and Spirit Siphons are both magical, but her Exorcism is physical - in fact, it's the spell with the highest physical damage potential in the game.
The bonus damage on Faceless Void's Time Lock (bash) is magical damage - it's not a huge amount, but when you consider that he also builds Mjollnir almost every game (as well as MKB or Bloodthorn fairly often), which all deal a lot of magical damage as well, then you'll find that a significant part of this simple right-clicker's damage output is actually magical.
Apart from all that, there are a couple of general rules you must follow to ensure you are able to deal enough damage.
If the rest of your team deals mostly physical damage, that means the enemy will stack armor, evasion, ghost scepters, etc. - in this case, leaning into magical damage will be more effective for you.
Having Shadow Fiend and Venge on your team and then building Deso for a million -armor sounds awesome in theory, but in practice it all gets countered by the same stuff.
Even if you're a right clicker, building Mjollnir, Bloodthorn or MKB will probably be more effective if the enemy has tons of armor. Revenant's Brooch is meant to be the other option here, but it's extremely one-dimensional compared to the rest and you can't realistically pick it up before you have at least 4 other items.
Likewise, if the rest of your team deals mostly magical damage, you should go for physical.
It's usually harder to achieve this since you can't just start buying right-click damage on Zeus or Pugna, but it's something to keep in mind - this fact is a significant advantage for heroes who can comfortably build for either type of damage, like Shadow Fiend, Ember Spirit, Lina, Pangolier, Gyrocopter, etc.
Now, dealing damage is great and all, but of course you must also ensure you are not taking too much damage. Most standard builds work versus standard lineups, but when you see the enemy is all-in on physical or magical damage, you must adapt or your standard build will usually fall flat. Let's get to some practical examples below.
Practice:
Let's start with a physical survivability example:
Playing core Ember vs a lineup like TA, Venge, PA, Slardar and Weaver?
If you're on autopilot and go for typical Ember items like Mageslayer, Gleipnir, BKB - you will be dying to a couple of right clicks within a single stun until you get Shiva's, which is not exactly an item you want to be rushing first.
This is where you'll need to adapt, and while you may still get a Maelstrom first to speed up your farm, you'll have to also consider items like Manta Style for the dispel & disjoint of TA's hits, Heaven's Halberd for the evasion & disarm, Lotus Orb for the dispel & armor, Radiance for the evasion, etc.
A magical survivability example:
You're a support Lion facing a lineup of Necro, Jakiro, Zeus, Phoenix and Sand King. You can go for your typical Blink Dagger > Aether Lens > Force staff build, die to the overwhelming AoE magical damage every single fight without even getting specifically targeted, and then just blame the meta or your team for not protecting you...
OR you can adapt and go Glimmer Cape (despite Zeus' true sight) into Pipe of Insight so that you can survive the nukes, get multiple rounds of your spells off and help your team out with the magic resistance aura, because you know your offlane LC certainly isn't going to buy Pipe and you want to win.
And now a damage output example:
Playing core Windranger versus Ursa & Oracle and struggling to get kills in fights even after Gleipnir? Just buying more damage like Daedalus is not going to change that, because lack of damage isn't the issue - your enemies simply have defensive spells that are too powerful (damage reduction on Ursa's Enrage, damage delay on Oracle's False Promise, disarm on Oracle's Fate's Edict). In this case, an Orchid will be far more effective than just damage because it prevents Ursa from using his Earthshock and Enrage (even with Agh's), and it prevents Oracle from casting his defensive spells as well.
Now, here comes an important general rule that matters regardless of what you're usually playing: there's a habit you need to form for every time you finish a game, and I'm not talking about instantly rage re-queuing or frantically sending out blessings in the post-game chat.
What you need to do is open up the "BREAKDOWNS" tab (this alone makes Dotaplus worth it) and check out where the damage you dealt came from. Which one of your spells did the most? Which spell did the least? Which enemies took the most damage from what?
Now do the same for every other hero in that match. I don't care if you're playing in Guardian or Immortal, I guarantee that if you've never done this, your estimates of damage distribution are way off. Do this check every game, and within 20-30 games you'll find yourself having a much clearer picture of how to play around every allied and enemy hero's damage. 
To finish up, let's go over the 4 common fallacies mentioned in the intro:
Armor reduction is good versus high armor (WRONG!)
Most armor reduction sources are tied to hero choices, meaning that once you're in the game the only 2 items you can get to reduce enemy armor are Desolator and Assault Cuirass, for a grand total of -11 armor. While this is very effective versus enemy structures, it's not so useful versus heroes because itemizing to reach 30+ armor is not difficult, especially with the availability of neutral items. Reducing somebody's armor from 35 to 24 is not worth the gold investment if your goal is to increase your damage output - you should simply build for magical right-click damage instead, by getting Gleipnir / Mjollnir / Bloodthorn / MKB / Revenant's Brooch (the last one is admittedly very situational right now).
Daedalus is good on most carries (WRONG!)
Daedalus only truly synergizes with heroes that already get a flat damage boost from their spells and reduce armor (Shadow Fiend's Necromastery and aura, TA's Refraction and Meld, Weaver's Swarm and Geminate Attack, etc.), because the critical strike further amplifies that flat damage boost. However, even on those heroes it is not always the best choice, because it is an extremely one-dimensional item that doesn't work on buildings and doesn't give any attack speed, survivability or utility.
If you're playing Faceless Void / Lifestealer / Monkey King / Phantom Lancer and just want more DPS but you're not sure what to buy, Bloodthorn is often a much better choice because it not only gives you a lot of DPS - it also gives you mana regen, true strike and a silence that can be used both offensively and defensively.
If you're playing Medusa or Sniper and just want more DPS, Mjollnir is generally a much higher damage item than Daedalus, because these heroes don't have a flat damage increasing spell that boosts the critical strikes.
Pipe of Insight falls off in the late game (WRONG!)
Apart from the 10% magic resistance aura which stays relevant all game, the 400 magical barrier only blocks magic damage after your resistances. In the late game, between Eternal Shrouds, magic resistance from neutral items, talents, natural intelligence growth, etc., your magic resistance can reach 50% or 60%. That means that the enemy needs to deal 800 or 1000 magical damage to get through your 400 magical barrier!
If you jump someone and you don't manage to burst them within a disable, that means you need more damage (WRONG!)
This last one can be true, but it is almost always not. First of all, it is much easier for the enemy team to buy defensive items or items that will prevent you from dealing any damage at all, than it is for you to significantly increase the damage you can do within 1 or 2 stun. If you're playing TA and you're no longer able to kill enemies within 3 or 4 seconds, going for Daedalus is unlikely to change that. Why? Because by the time you have it, your enemies can buy tons of cheaper items that will allow them to survive (as mentioned above in the physical damage section)
In many cases, buying an item with specific utility may give you better results, such as Nullifier to prevent defensive buffs, MKB / Bloodthorn to prevent evasion, or even Aghanim's Scepter to be able to pressure lanes harder and force the enemy to split up, so that you're not fighting into 5 heroes at once.
What's next?
Do Nyx and Viper still have Break mechanics? Do Necrophos and Venomancer still have their Regen Reduction mechanics? Were they built-in, or did they need an Agh's Shard? Or was it a talent? Didn't it become an Agh's Scepter upgrade a few patches ago? Or maybe it's now a facet since the latest patc-
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Thanks for getting this far, and remember:
Always make the enemy react to you, instead of you reacting to the enemy!