Armor is an all-encompassing term replacing the Vulnerable/Resistant system that previously existed in the game. If an ability or talent previously referred to Resistant or Vulnerable effects, it now states that it grants an addition or reduction of Armor instead.
How Armor works
Armor is split into three types: Armor, Physical Armor, and Spell Armor.
- Armor by itself means that the hero gains mitigation from both Physical and Spell damage.
- Physical and Spell Armor mitigate damage from their respective key words.
- All abilities deal Spell Damage; floating damage text will display Spell Damage as purple numbers above the target’s head
- All Basic Attacks deal Physical Damage; floating damage text will display Physical Damage as orange
Abilities and talents that grant Armor stack additively. Each point of Armor directly relate into 1% resistance. Technically, this means that each additional point of armor is slightly more valuable than the last, and in order to keep that in check there are lower and upper Armor Caps of -25 and +75, respectively.
Exceptions and interactions
There are a couple of talents that can raise or lower Armor past their respective caps. Things such as Nazeebo’s Superstition (-30 Physical Armor) or Arthas’ Anti-Magic Shell (+100 Spell Armor) are specifically flagged to ignore the caps, but function identically to the rest of the system. Abilities that ignore Armor Cap are rare.
- In the case that two different effects are both ignoring the Armor Cap, the larger one will take priority.
- Example 1: playing as Nazeebo, the player picked up Superstition (-30 Physical Armor, +50 Spell Armor) and then receives a Pixie Dust (2 stacks of +75 Physical Armor) from Brightwing. Nazeebo would now currently have 45 Physical Armor (-30 + 75 = 45) against the next two Physical damage sources.
- Example 2: Nazeebo, with Superstition, is hit by Tyrande’s Hunter's Mark (-25 Armor). He would now have -30 Physical Armor (already at/past Armor Cap) and 25 Spell Armor (50 – 25 = 25).
Percentage-based damage is flagged to ignore the Armor system entirely. This means that Giant Killer (+1.5% Max health damage per attack) will do full damage to the target regardless of their current Armor state.