Which Abilities and Items Stack, 8/19/10

[[ZZD]Habile]

Well, I thought I'd throw together a small guide/FAQ on item and ability stacking, since I see quite a few pieces of incorrect information getting thrown around.

Be aware that there may be inconsistencies here, or perhaps some things may just be downright wrong. Most of this is from memory, though I never put something down if I'm not confident. Please, if you are aware of any errors, do speak up!

General feedback is greatly appreciated, too! Thank you.

Topics covered:

1. Exclusive Modifiers
2. Brutalizer and Bashing
3. Harkon's Blade
4. Deflection (Damage Block)
5. Criticals
6. Savage Mace and Halberd
7. Shared Cooldowns


1. Exclusive Modifiers:

Exclusive Modifiers work based on a "key" name, and any items or abilities that share keys do not stack.

Format: <key> (<item>, <ability>)
Items are listed in the order that they get overridden.

BehemothsHeartStrength (Behemoth's Heart)
BehemothsHeartAgility (Behemoth's Heart)
BehemothsHeartIntelligence (Behemoth's Heart)
hatchet_melee (Logger's Hatchet)
hatchet_ranged (Logger's Hatchet)
brutalizer_melee (Brutalizer)
brutalizer_ranged (Brutalizer)
great_sacrifice (Sacrificial Stone)
NomesWisdom (Nome's Wisdom)
chainlightningproc (Thunderclaw, Charged Hammer)
movespeed (Marchers, Steam Boots, Ghost Marchers, Plated Greaves, Post Haste)
speed_multiplier (Firebrand, Geometer's Bane, Frostburn)
manacombustion (Nullfire Blade, Mana Combustion)
ManaBattery (Mana Battery, Power Supply)
magic_armor (Mystic Vestments, Shaman's Headdress, Barrier Idol)
manaregen_aura (Ring of the Teacher, Abyssal Skull, Nome's Wisdom)
armor_aura (Ring of the Teacher, Nome's Wisdom, Abyssal Skull)

attack (Hungry Spirit, Whispering Helm, Elder Parasite, Symbol of Rage, Icebrand, Frostburn, Shieldbreaker, Frostwolf's Skull, Harkon's Blade, Volcanic Touch, Sear, Tangle Claw, Toxicity, Cripple)

The attack key is special, in that items and abilities in this category are not necessarily alike. Instead of the better effects automatically overriding the others, you may toggle through the effects via an icon that is normally displayed on the left side of the screen.

The effects contained by the attack key are often referred to as Attack Modifiers.

What does this mean?

Items within each of the following categories do not stack with each other if they are in the same category, but they do stack with other categories:

Attack
Chain Lightning
Mana Combustion
Movement Speed
Movement Speed Multipliers
Mana Battery
Magic Armor
Mana Regen Aura
Armor Aura


Attack:
It is possible to toggle through Exclusive Modifiers that you currently possess within this category. Only one will be active at a time.

Attack abilities will completely override attack modifiers when used. One way to think about it is if it's draining mana, then it's overriding the modifiers. E.g., Kraken's Splash will only override modifiers on the attack that does bonus damage.

Hungry Spirit
Whispering Helm
Elder Parasite
Symbol of Rage
Icebrand
Frostburn
Shieldbreaker
Frostwolf's Skull
Harkon's Blade[OFF]/[ON] - See 3. Harkon's Blade for further info.
Volcanic Touch (Magmus)
Sear (Accursed)
Tangle Claw (Wildsoul's Booboo)
Toxicity (Slither)
Cripple (Gauntlet)

--Attack Abilities--
Webbed Shot (Arachna)
Master's Incantation (Vindicator)
Splash (Kraken)

Chain Lightning:

Thunderclaw (20% for 150 damage)
Charged Hammer (20% for 200 damage)

Mana Combustion:
You do not use your most powerful Mana Burn. Magebane's Mana Combustion ALWAYS comes first. Furthermore, if you have multiple Nullfire Blades, they take precedence in your inventory from left to right, top to bottom.

Nullfire Blade (20, 36 burn)
Mana Combustion (16, 32, 48, 64 burn)

Movement Speed:
Stormspirit is not an Exclusive Modifier and has no stacking issues, including with itself.

Marchers (50 MS)
Steam Boots (60 MS)
Ghost Marchers (70 MS)
Plated Greaves (70 MS)
Post Haste (95 MS)

Movement Speed Multipliers:

Firebrand(10% MS)
Geometer's Bane (10% MS)
Frostburn (15% MS)

Mana Battery:
If you have both, then Mana Battery will not receive any charges. This is how it is Exclusive.

Mana Battery (10 charges)
Power Supply (15 charges)

Magic Armor:

Mystic Vestments (5 magic armor)
Shaman's Headdress (10 magic armor)
Barrier Idol (10 magic armor)

Mana Regen Aura:

Ring of the Teacher (0.65 manaregen aura)
Abyssal Skull (0.80 manaregen aura)
Nome's Wisdom (1.00 manaregen aura)

Armor Aura:

Ring of the Teacher (3 armor aura)
Nome's Wisdom (4 armor aura)
Abyssal Skull (5 armor aura)

2. Brutalizer and Bashing:

Brutalizer, as shown above, contains an Exclusive Modifier, and therefore does NOT stack with itself. This means that having multiple Brutalizers does not even improve your chance to bash in any way.

The bashing abilities do NOT contain Exclusive Modifiers. Therefore, they will work with Brutalizer in that they will increase the chance to bash.

However, all forms of bash use shared cooldowns. See 7. Shared Cooldowns for further details.

If 2+ bash sources process at the same time, then the Hero Skill bash source will take priority.

Savage Mace's mini-stun does not count as a bashing effect, and interferes in no way.



3. Harkon's Blade:

Unless otherwise noted, this section refers to Harkon's Blade[ON].

Harkon's Blade been changed to include the attack Exclusive Modifier. However, because of its toggled nature, this brings up some problems:

First and foremost, Harkon's Blade always counts as an Exclusive Modifer, toggled or not. For example, if you have lifesteal and Harkon's Blade[OFF], and you're currently set to use Harkon's Blade, then neither effect will take place. Secondly, Harkon's Blade will still drain mana even if it is not the active attack Exclusive Modifier.

Harkon's Blade gets overridden by both Arachna's Webbed Shot, and Vindicator's Master's Incantation. Single-casting or auto-casting with these skills will effectively disable Harkon's Blade for each and every attack you make, and Harkon's Blade will drain no extra mana.

Harkon's Blade does not work with Assassin's Shroud or Fayde's Reflection. Each attack counts as an item cast, and will therefore remove the stealth effect without applying the debuff from Reflection, or the bonus damage from Assassin's Shroud.

Harkon's Blade DOES work with both Forsaken Archer's Split Fire, and Moon Queen's Multi-Strike. In both cases each attack will only drain 75 mana, regardless of how many sub-attacks you make. Each attack gets converted to Magic damage.

Split Shot applies the debuff to every target.
Multi-Strike applies the debuff only to the main target. Each bounce will still do magic damage, however.

Because Harkon's Blade adds a projectile effect to attacks, Zepher's Windshield is capable of returning melee attacks while the attacker has Harkon's Blade active.

Harkon's Blade affects attack damage only. This includes damage from criticals, Backstab, and Righteous Strike (does not affect the splash).

Harkon's Blade does not affect bonus physical damage, such as from Savage Mace and Halberd.



4. Deflection (Damage Block):

Works with diminishing returns.

Each item works independently. When multiple sources of deflection process at the same time, then the one with the highest amount of deflection takes precedence.

For example, if you have a Plated Greaves buff, Helm of the Black Legion, and an Iron Shield on a MELEE hero, then you'll have the following chances to deflect:

100% chance -10 damage against all units. (Plated Greaves buff)
100% chance -20 damage against heroes. (Iron Shield)
60% chance -20 damage against all units. (Iron Shield)
70% chance -40 damage against all units. (Helm of the Black Legion)

Against heroes, you'll always block 20 damage, and have a 70% chance to block 40 damage.

When taking into account precedence (40 deflection overriding 20 deflection): 30% chance to block 20 damage, and 70% chance to block 40 damage.

Against other units, you'll always block 10 damage, have a 60% chance to block 20 damage, and 70% chance to block 40 damage.

And with precedence: 12% chance to block 10 damage, 18% chance to block 20 damage, and 70% chance to block 40 damage.

In either situation, the most you'll EVER block at once is the single highest amount of deflection that processes.

Deflection takes place before all other forms of armor.



5. Criticals:

Works with diminishing returns.

When multiple Criticals are made on the same attack, the source with the highest critical mulitplier takes precedence.

Criticals are capable of multiplying the damage from a couple of sources that don't directly affect your listed attack damage:

Righteous Strike (Jeraziah)
Backstab (Night Hound)
Pounce (Night Hound)
Assassin's Shroud



6. Savage Mace and Halberd:

Both work completely independently, with each other and themselves.

If you have six Savage Maces, it's possible for all six to process on the same attack, dealing 600 bonus physical damage total.

Each instance of damage is also separate. If Savage Mace and Halberd process on a single attack, you will deal your attack damage, 100 physical damage, and 40 physical damage all separately.

Against targets that require a certain number of hits, such as Arachna's Spiderling, Engineer's Steam Turret, Pharaoh's Wall of Mummies, and Demented Shaman's Arcane Hide, each instance of damage counts as a hit.



7. Shared Cooldowns:

When an ability or item is put on cooldown, other items and abilities that share its cooldown type are also put on cooldown for the same duration as the activated ability or item. E.g., activating Geometer's Bane will put ALL Geometer's Banes in your inventory on cooldown. Activating Post Haste (60 second cooldown) will put Homecoming Stone (65 second cooldown) on cooldown for 60 seconds.

Currently, the only activated items that do not have a type are the ones without cooldowns: Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Mana Potion, and the Monkey Courier. All other activated items typically have their own unique cooldown type.

There are a few cooldown types that are seen on multiple abilities and items. They are as follows along with their respective cooldowns:

bashing:
Curse of Ages does not apply charges while it is on cooldown. The application of charges will pause should Brutalizer process, and continue once the 2 seconds are over.

Brutalizer (2 seconds)
Gore (Pestilence) - (2 seconds)
Horned Strike (Rampage) - (1.5 seconds)
Curse of Ages (Chronos) - (1 seconds)

teleport:

Post Haste (60 seconds)
Homecoming Stone (65 seconds)

manabattery:

Mana Battery (17 seconds)
Power Supply (17 seconds)

shieldofthefive:

Shield of the Five (25 seconds)
Plated Greaves (30 seconds)

And just in case anyone wants it (or if I do in the future), a change log:

8/19/10, v0.2.2: Oh, right. Steam Turret is no more. Removed from Harkon's section.
8/19/10, v0.2.1: Extra probability details in Deflection. Added Attack Abilities to Attack Modifiers list.
6/02/10, v0.2.0: New section: Shared Cooldowns.
5/29/10, v0.1.10: Modified for Harkon's Blade changes. Added Windshield/Harkon's interaction.
4/22/10, v0.1.9: Added Reflection to Harkon's Blade info.
4/21/10, v0.1.8: Updated for Patch 0.3.4.1.
4/15/10, v0.1.7: Added some fine details into Critical Strike & Bashing.
12/30/09, v0.1.6: Added Shroud and Pounce to Critical info.
12/21/09, v0.1.5: Updated for version 0.1.62 item changes. Added manaregen_aura and armor_aura Exclusive Modifiers.
12/15/09, v0.1.4: Further formatting in Exclusive Modifiers. Hopefully more readable.
12/13/09, v0.1.3: Added Fenrir's Fang to the 'attack' Exclusive Modifiers, and added notes to the 'attack' category.
12/08/09, v0.1.2: Added damage info to Savage Mace and Halberd, updated Harkon's and Steam Turret info, and added info on Harkon's and what it affects.
11/28/09, v0.1.1: Edited formatting of the Exclusive Modifiers.
11/28/09, v0.1.0: Added new section: Brutalizer and Bashing.
11/28/09, v0.0.3: Fixed Enhanced Marchers --> Ghost Marchers.
11/28/09, v0.0.2: Added Steam Turret info to Harkon's Blade.

11/28/09, v0.0.1: First draft.

[Styles]

nice,
thanks for this

[[S2]ElementUser]

Going to add Bashes?

You forgot to mention that the movement speed of H&S do not stack with other Slashes or H&S's. Either way pretty well written, moving to Guides & Lists

[[ZZD]Habile]

Going to add Bashes?

You forgot to mention that the movement speed of H&S do not stack with other Slashes or H&S's. Either way pretty well written, moving to Guides & Lists

Ah, thank you very much.

I'll add bashes, as there are a few misconceptions abound.

The movement speed bonuses from HnS and Slash are listed under the Movement Speed Multipliers key in the Exclusive Modifiers section. Perhaps this section could use some improvement overall?

[[S2]ElementUser]

Oh I didn't see that at first lol. Yeah that section is perfectly fine.

I've edited a few spelling errors :P. Very well written article btw. Oh and added Damage Block in brackets next to Deflection because I don't hear that term used very often.

[[ZZD]Habile]

Oh I didn't see that at first lol. Yeah that section is perfectly fine.

I've edited a few spelling errors :P. Very well written article btw

*sigh* I guess I just like the archaic form of "therefore" more.

Heheh. Thanks ElementUser.

[DemonasGodz]

hackproc (HACK)

lol.. xD

lazy to check..but you mean + magic def items don't stack? lol never knew that >_<
means 2 magic vesment wont give 10 marmour?

[[ZZD]Habile]

lol.. xD

lazy to check..but you mean + magic def items don't stack? lol never knew that >_<
means 2 magic vesment wont give 10 marmour?

Correct. Currently, I'm not aware of any magic armor items that are capable of stacking.

If you hover over your armor in your stats panel along the bottom of the screen, you'll see a tooltip which also shows you your magic armor.

[DemonasGodz]

what bout arachna hide + magic def?

[[S2]ElementUser]

Only Magic Armor from items do not stack with other Magic Armor that's given by other items in your inventory - it will stack with any other skill/exterior source (ie, Hardened Carapace).

[[Sav2]Qwernakus]

Are you saying that i cannot (fx.) use both Frostwolf's Skull and Shield Breaker?

[[S2]ElementUser]

Are you saying that i cannot (fx.) use both Frostwolf's Skull and Shield Breaker?

Yes (well not at the same time - you can toggle between them though).

[[ASOT]Ice_Phoenix]

vamp_melee (Abyssal Skull)

<modifier key="vamp_melee" condition="melee" modpriority="100">

[Drasha]

didn't mention boots they don't stack

[[S2]ElementUser]

didn't mention boots they don't stack

Marchers (50 MS)
Steam Boots (60 MS)
Ghost Marchers (70 MS)
Plated Greaves (70 MS)
Post Haste (95 MS)

He mentioned them.

@Habile: How about a separate section for auras stacking? IIRC, Shield of the Five & Plated stack, but if you have both in your inventory they both get put on cooldown. Yeah I know most auras stack with different auras & don't stack with themselves, but perhaps it will be changed in the future.

[Drasha]

Marchers (50 MS)
Steam Boots (60 MS)
Ghost Marchers (70 MS)
Plated Greaves (70 MS)
Post Haste (95 MS)

He mentioned them.

@Habile: How about a separate section for auras stacking? IIRC, Shield of the Five & Plated stack, but if you have both in your inventory they both get put on cooldown. Yeah I know most auras stack with different auras & don't stack with themselves, but perhaps it will be changed in the future.

So much information its hard to pick things out of it.

[[ZZD]Habile]

Marchers (50 MS)
Steam Boots (60 MS)
Ghost Marchers (70 MS)
Plated Greaves (70 MS)
Post Haste (95 MS)

He mentioned them.

@Habile: How about a separate section for auras stacking? IIRC, Shield of the Five & Plated stack, but if you have both in your inventory they both get put on cooldown. Yeah I know most auras stack with different auras & don't stack with themselves, but perhaps it will be changed in the future.

I'll see what I can do for auras. They seem like they'll be a little tricky, because of the massive number, hidden auras (such as from Mana Battery based items, which don't stack), and aura-like items (Shield of the Five and Plated Greaves aren't actually auras, but AOE buffs).

Also, cleaned up the formatting. Hopefully the modifiers will be more readable.

[[S2]ElementUser]

I missed the % movespeed the first time as well...oh well. The formatting is good as it is though

[become_death]

Excellent guide. This should be Required Reading for all new players... and maybe some old players who still haven't figured it out yet. =)

Can we nominate this for a Premium Guide? It's well formatted and comprehensive.

[[ZZD]Habile]

Excellent guide. This should be Required Reading for all new players... and maybe some old players who still haven't figured it out yet. =)

Can we nominate this for a Premium Guide? It's well formatted and comprehensive.

Heh, as much as I'd like to see more players understand how these things actually work, ElementUser is right. This just gets into the mechanics, and although much strategy could be extracted from this, it doesn't actually tell a player what's viable as far as strategies go.