Best Armor Items in Dota 2

In Dota 2, armor plays a huge role in fortifying a hero’s HP against physical damage at a rate of around 6% per point. This means that for each point you gain in armor, your effective HP against physical damage increases by 6% of your raw HP.

If you do the math, you will find out that for every 17 points of armor you get approximately another HP bar on top of your existing one. So if your HP is 1000 and you have 17 armor, you actually have more than 2000 effective HP. If you have 34 armor, you have more than 3000 effective HP.

Most heroes aim to have somewhere between 20 and 30 armor by the time they’re level 20. Of course, you can have more than that. But it all depends on what your strategy and objectives are. If you’re a tank, you’re supposed to be as durable as possible in relation to physical and magical damage.

In most games, most of the damage that comes your way will be physical damage. Because of that, some armor can be quite useful. You can get it either from armor items or agility items. You gain around 1 point of armor for every 6 points of agility. This means that if you build 30 agility, you will gain 5 points of armor.

Here are some of the best armor items in Dota 2.

Pavise

Pavise is an incredibly powerful item if you seek to gain protection against physical damage. It costs just 1400 gold and gives you +150 HP, +250 mana, and +2 armor. More importantly, it gives you a damage barrier that absorbs 300 physical damage. The barrier lasts for 8s and can be activated every 16s.

This item can be upgraded to a Solar Crest.

Solar Crest

Solar Crest offers 200 HP, 300 mana, +4 to all attributes, 25 movement speed, and 4 armor. When cast on an ally, that ally gains excellent buffs, including 7 armor, 70 attack speed, 15% movement speed, and a 400 damage barrier.

This item costs 2700 gold and it’s more than worth it considering everything it provides. However, you should never buy it on a core hero because most of its great bonuses come from Shine, which works as described only when used on an ally.

Lotus Orb

Lotus Orb offers 10 armor in addition to lots of other benefits. For 3850 gold, this is a veritable replacement for Black King Bar, especially now that it’s been nerfed again.

Lotus Orb tends to be bought by support heroes and offlaners because it can be applied to an ally. Its active, Echo Shell, will dispel negative buffs and apply a buff that recasts all targeted abilities back at their source. This means that if you are under the Echo Shell buff and Terrorblade or Juggernaut casts his ultimate on you, your hero will take no damage.

Shiva’s Guard

Shiva’s Guard is one of the most powerful armor items in Dota 2. It provides 15 armor, +5 to all attributes, 5 HP regen, a powerful aura called Freezing Aura, which slows attack speed by 45 and reduces heals by 25%, and it also has an active ability, called Arctic Blast, which amplifies spell damage by 15% for 16s, deals 200 damage, and slows movement speed by 40% for 4s.

All of these benefits can be gained for 5175 gold. If you don’t feel like spending so much gold on an armor item, you can buy something cheaper. One of its component pieces, for instance, is Platemail. For 1400 gold, you can gain +10 armor.

Assault Cuirass

Assault Cuirass is another big upgrade for Platemail but it’s better suited for heroes that want to deal physical damage or assist their team in dealing physical damage. This item creates a 20 armor difference between yourself and your opponents because it gives you 15 armor and reduces theirs by 5. You also gain 60 attack speed.

Your allies gain 5 armor and 30 attack speed from the item’s Assault Aura.

The cost of Assault Cuirass is 5125.

Blade Mail

Blade Mail is one of the best items in the game and a lot of heroes buy it, especially when they anticipate that the enemy team will deal a lot of AoE damage that cannot be controlled.

For example, a hero like Leshrac will want to activate his ultimate and just damage the entire enemy team as much as possible. But if you have a Blade Mail, he will quickly die because of the damage.

Blade Mail costs 2100 gold and provides excellent benefits: +18 damage, +7 armor, and a lot of damage return.

Armlet of Mordiggian

Armlet of Mordiggian is perfect for strength-based heroes that have a lot of HP regen. An example is Dragon Knight. This item provides enormous benefits at a low cost but will drain a lot of HP per second (45). It costs 2500 gold and when it’s activated, it gives your hero 5 HP regen, 50 damage, 25 attack speed, 10 armor, and 25 strength.

That’s a total of 75 damage for strength-based heroes. The amount of HP you gain from the 25 strength is 500.

Crimson Guard

Crimson Guard offers 8 armor as well as 250 HP and 12 HP regen. It blocks 75 damage if your hero is melee with a proc chance of 60%. Additionally, it can be activated to give your allies a lot of damage block for 8s. The cost of this item is 3725 and you will generally see it on offlaners.

Phase Boots

Phase Boots is one of the cheapest armor items that you can buy to gain a bit of armor as well as other benefits. These boots provide 4 armor, 50 movement speed, 18 / 12 damage, and an active ability called Phase. When activated, your hero gains 20% / 10% movement speed, a turn rate of 1, and the capacity to move through units. The cost is 1500 gold.

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