Buildings

From Liquipedia Dota 2 Wiki

Buildings are a type of unit that are not controlled by any player. At the beginning of a match, a set of buildings spawn at set locations in both teams' bases. Both factions have the same set of buildings, with only their appearance differing from each other. Buildings take mostly defensive roles and are the main objective of the game.

Besides the bases, there are several neutral buildings scattered throughout the map that can be conquered, or be otherwised used by both teams.

Neutral Buildings[edit]

Main Article: Neutral Buildings

Neutral Buildings are buildings that do not directly belong to any faction, but can be captured by, or be used by either faction. They are permanently invulnerable, so they can never be destroyed and are immune to any ability.

There are 2 types of neutral buildings

  • Capturable buildings, which can be conquered by the players for their faction. Note that the opposing faction can re-capture these buildings.
  • True neutral buildings, which never belong to any faction, but can be used by both factions.

Neutral buildings are always visible through the Fog of War to both teams all times.

Faction Buildings[edit]

All faction buildings have the same base properties. They are immune to most abilities and can be only affected by a few abilities.

When destroyed, some buildings grant a team Gold Gold bounty, and some grant bounty to the player who made the last hit. A building with less than 10% of its max health can be denied, to reduce or prevent the enemy team from obtaining gold bounties. However, the Ancients cannot be denied.

Buildings do not grant experience. Once destroyed, a building is permanently lost and does not respawn.

There are a total of 26 buildings for each faction.

General Information[edit]

Main Article: Attack Classes
Locations of all faction buildings.

All buildings are Reinforced.


Reinforced
This ability can be bestowed by Illusions. Neither affected nor disabled by Break.
Passive
Affects
Self
Units of this attack classification take less damage from heroes, illusions, and summoned units.
Hero Factor: 0.5
Illusion Factor: 0.6
Summoned Unit Factor: 0.9
Units of this attack classification take less damage from Runty attacks.
Runty Factor: 0.7
Units of this attack classification take less damage from Piercing attacks.
Piercing Factor: 0.35
Units of this attack classification deal greatly increased damage to Reinforced units.
Unit Factor: 2.5

Backdoor Protection[edit]

Backdoor Protection areas.

Backdoor Protection is a passive ability most destroyable buildings have. This protection makes it difficult for players to destroy or even damage buildings without the presence of lane creeps. While active, Backdoor Protection reduces the incoming damage received while healing the building based on the damage dealt by enemy units, making them difficult to destroy. The ability deactivates itself when an enemy lane creep moves within the deactivation radius, Dominated creeps do not deactivate this ability. Once deactivated, Backdoor Protection takes some time for the ability to activate again.

There are currently four areas that deactivate Backdoor Protection, and each of them functions independently of the other.

Although the backdoor protection ability is visible on each building within the base, they are all controlled by the Ancient's Backdoor protection. If enemy creeps are within its huge detection radius, all buildings within the base lose their protection.

Each Tower (Tier 2) has its deactivation radius. When one of them is disabled, the others are not. The Tier 2 Towers' Backdoor Protection is also independent of the Ancients' Backdoor Protection.

Backdoor protection is not responsible for the invulnerability buildings have, so the buildings still stay invulnerable if their corresponding towers are not destroyed first.

Backdoor Protection visual effect on Towers.
Backdoor Protection
Passive / Aura
Affects
Allied Buildings
Affected structures take less damage when there are no enemy lane creeps nearby. Any damage they take gets quickly healed back.
Incoming Damage Reduction: Affects the incoming ability value positively of the affected unit. 50%
Heal per Second: 180
Backdoor Disable Duration: 15
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5
All buildings within the allevated base area are affected. The detection radius originates from the Ancient and exceeds beyond the base.
All buildings within the base gain and lose their protection in unison.
Detection Radius: 4000
All tier 2 towers have their own, independent Backdoor Protection. Their detection area is centerd around them and is limited to their close surroundings.

Tier 1 towers are unprotected at all times.
Detection Radius: 900
Illusions and all other summoned units deal even less damage to protected buildings.
Incoming Damage Reduction: Affects the incoming ability value positively of the affected unit. 75%

Glyph of Fortification[edit]

A Glyphed tower.
Glyph button, located on the right of the minimap.
The button is split for spectators, showing both team's cooldowns at the same time.

Glyph of Fortification (or Glyph in short) is an ability usable by any player that causes all friendly buildings and lane creeps to become impervious to damage for a short duration, while also granting Towers above Tower (Tier 2) a multishot attack, allowing them to attack multiple enemies at the same time.

The effect has a rather low duration and very high cooldown, making the timing of usage very important. The Glyph is used strategically to stop enemy pushes or slow them down long enough to organize a defense. It may also be used offensively to secure a push by granting the creep waves damage immunity at the right time, or even for finishing enemies off by using the multishot attacks.

The Glyph of Fortification can be activated by any player with a button at the right of the minimap or a Hotkey defined in the settings. The Glyph's cooldown is shared by the entire team, meaning if one player uses it, it goes on cooldown for all players of the team.


J
J
Glyph of Fortification
Affects
Allied Buildings
Instant Attack,Physical
Turns all allied buildings imprevious to all damage for some time.
Incoming Damage Reduction: Affects the incoming ability value positively of the affected unit. 100%
Duration: 7
Turns all allied lane creeps imprevious to damage as well, but for a shorter duration.
Duration: 4
Towers of tier 2 and higher also attack multiple targets at once while affected.
Tier 1 towers do not gain this effect.
Bonus Attack Targets: 5
Upon losing the first tier 1 tower, the first tier 2 tower, and the first barracks, the Glyph's cooldown gets reset after a short delay.
Cooldown Reset Delay: 1
Has an initial cooldown upon match begin, only being available after a few minutes into the match.
Downtime: 180
300

Towers[edit]

Radiant and Dire towers

Towers are the main line of defense for both factions, attacking any non-neutral enemy unit that gets within their range. Both factions have all three lanes guarded by three towers each.

Additionally, each faction's Ancient has two towers as well, resulting in a total of 11 towers per faction. Towers come in 4 different tiers:

All Towers have an innate invulnerability before the lower tier tower preceding it in its lane is destroyed. Towers (Tier 1) are invulnerable before the game begins. Barracks do not have to be destroyed to make Towers (Tier 4) vulnerable. Both Tier 4 Towers must be destroyed to remove the Ancient's invulnerability.

Tier Difference (Towers)[edit]

The different attributes per Tier are listed as below:

Building Health
(Deny Health) [?]
Armor Attack Damage Backdoor Protection Vision Range
Tower (Tier 1) 1800
(180)
12 AttackAttack 88‒92
(100 DPS)
1900 600
Tower (Tier 2) 2500
(250)
16 AttackAttack 170‒174
(191.11 DPS)
1900 1100
Tower (Tier 3) 2500
(250)
16 AttackAttack 170‒174
(191.11 DPS)
1900 1100
Tower (Tier 4) 2600
(260)
21 AttackAttack 170‒174
(191.11 DPS)
1900 1100

Attack Priority[edit]

Range indicator, appears when a player approachse a tower.
If the tower is already attacking, the indicator is yellow.
Targeting indicator, appears when the tower just ▶️ targeted the player.
If the tower switches away, the effect plays on the new target in yellow.

Towers have multiple criteria for the selecting their next attack target. If multiple heroes are within its attack range and the tower wants to choose a new target, these are the conditions it is looking for.


Condition 1 - Unit type

The unit type of all enemies within attack range is being checked continuously. If the tower is currently attacking a unit of a lower priority, and a unit of higher priority comes within attack range, the tower immediately switches to that unit.


Condition 2 - Threat level
  • Towers check for the target's current threat:
    1. Units that directly attack the tower
    2. Units that attack an ally of the tower
    3. Units that are idle or are casting abilities

Unlike the unit-type check, the threat check only applies to units within 700 range of the tower, and only happens once upon choosing the next attack target. If the target's action changes after it has already been chosen, the tower sticks to the target regardless.


Condition 3 - Distance
  • If multiple units meet the same previous criteria, they are chosen based on proximity; the closest unit is chosen.


Special behavior 1 - Manual de-aggro
  • If a unit is being attacked by a tower, issuing an attack order on another allied unit causes the tower to immediately choose a new target.
    • This only works if there is another allied hero that is closer to the tower than the unit.
    • The order alone is enough to trigger this, the attack does not have to be initiated.
    • Even if the order gets canceled immediately, the de-aggro is still triggered.
    • Note that the unit-type priority condition still applies. A unit with a higher priority cannot switch aggro to a unit with lower priority.
    • A tower can only be de-aggroed once every 2.5 seconds this way.
    • This behavior also applies to the Fountains and to lane creeps.


Special behavior 2 - Protective towers
  • Towers are coded to protect heroes from other heroes.
    • If a hero is within 500 range of a tower, and is attacking another hero, the tower immedaitely switches to the attacking hero.
    • Only triggers on regular attacks, manual attacks and auto-attacks alike. Instant Attack Instant attacks do not trigger this.
      • Does not trigger when manually casting an This unit's attack now apply certain effects. active attack modifier on an hero, but does trigger if auto-cast is used.
    • Only protects heroes, including Illusion Properties. illusions, Clones are identical to the main hero, with certain exceptions. clones, and the Spirit Bear.
    • Only protects against heroes, including illusions, clones, and creep-heroes.
    • Note that the factions of the attacking and attacked heroes do not matter!
      • An enemy tower can be aggroed by actively denying an allied hero, or when being forced to attack allies through a Units affected by Taunt sources cannot cast abilities and are forced to only attack and chase after the taunt sources. taunt.
      • This counteracts the previous manual de-aggro special behavior.
      • While the manual de-aggro triggers upon attack order, the protective behavior triggers upon order and attack begin.
      • Therefore, when denying an ally, the tower initially de-aggros upn giving the attack order, and re-aggros upon beginning an attack.
    • This behavior also applies to lane creeps, but not to Fountains.

Visual Indicators[edit]

When approaching a tower, a section of the tower's attack range slowly becomes visible, starting to fade in when about 600 range away from it. The closer the player gets, the more it becomes visible. When standing in front of it, the effect appears like a bending wall. If the tower is already attacking, the effect appears yellow instead.

Upon crossing the wall, the entire attack range circle becomes visible. If the target starts attacking the player, a red line appears, pointing from the tower to the player, along with an ▶️ audio cue, warning the player that the tower is targeting them. If the tower switches away from the player, the effects turn yellow, and the targeting effect plays again, on the new target.

These effects are all client-sided, each player sees them differently.

Tower Bounty[edit]

All 3 types of Tower Bounty grant unreliable gold. Turbo Mode has a building Gold Gold bounty multiplier of 2.

Gold Gold Bounty Type Definition
Last Hit Bounty
  • Granted to the player who made the last hit on the Tower.
Team Bounty
  • Granted to the team when a Tower is destroyed.
  • Grants the Team Bounty if there is no one to credit the last hit to (e.g. Tower being destroyed by lane creeps).
Denied Bounty
  • Grants
    EXPR
    0.5 × TeamBounty to both factions get when a Tower is denied.

Grants the following amount of Gold Gold bounty in certain conditions:

Tower Ability[edit]

Tower Protection[edit]

Tower Protection
This ability can be bestowed by Illusions.
Passive / Aura
Affects
Allied Heroes
Grants additional armor and health regeneration to nearby allies.
Radius: Affected by AoE Radius increasing sources. 900
Armor Bonus: 3/5/5/5
Health Regen Bonus: 1/3/3/3
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

True Sight[edit]

True Sight
Passive / Aura
Affects
Enemies
Reveals nearby invisible enemy units and wards, rendering them visible to allies.
Reveal Radius: 700
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

Barracks[edit]

Faction Radiant and Faction Dire Ranged and Melee Barracks.

Barracks (commonly shortened to Rax or Racks) are buildings, defended by and located behind Towers (Tier 3) in each respective lanes. Barracks do not have to be destroyed to make Towers (Tier 4) vulnerable.

There are two types of Barracks on each lane per faction, with a total of 6 Barracks per faction, 3 each of type — the MeleeMelee Melee Barracks for Melee Creeps and Flagbearer Creeps and the Ranged Barracks for RangedRanged Ranged Creeps and Siege Creeps. The Ranged Barracks are always located to the left of the Melee Barracks on each lane for both factions.

Barracks have the following attributes:

Lane Creep Upgrades[edit]

See also: Lane Creeps

Barracks are invulnerable until their respective Tower (Tier 3) defending them is destroyed. The loss of Barracks does not prevent lane creeps from spawning but upgrades them instead. Destroying either of the enemy team's melee or ranged barracks causes the destroying team's respective lane to begin spawning super creeps instead of regular creeps. Super creeps are stronger versions of regular lane creeps that give less gold and experience to the enemy when killed. When all enemy barracks are destroyed, mega creeps begin to spawn from all lanes and siege creeps gain additional damage. Flagbearer creeps do not get upgraded.

Barracks Bounty[edit]

All 3 types of Barracks Bounty grant unreliable gold. Turbo Mode has a building Gold Gold bounty multiplier of 2.

Gold Gold Bounty Type Definition
Last Hit Bounty
  • Granted to the player who made the last hit on the Barracks.
  • The player who made the last hit is not granted the Team Bounty and vice versa.
Team Bounty
  • Granted to the team when a Barracks is destroyed.
  • Grants the Team Bounty if there is no one to credit the last hit to (e.g. Barracks being destroyed by lane creeps).
Denied Bounty
  • Does not reduce the Team Bounty. Grants the same amount as Team Bounty.

Grants the following amount of Gold Gold bounty in certain conditions:

Ancients[edit]

Radiant's and Dire's Ancient.

Ancients (also commonly referred to as Thrones, or Tree for Faction Radiant's ancient and Throne for Faction Dire's ancient, as legacy names from DotA) are massive structures found inside each faction's base and are the game's main objective. In order to win, the enemy team's Ancient must be destroyed, while the team's own Ancient must be kept alive.

Ancients are guarded by two Towers (Tier 4) and both of them must be destroyed to remove the Ancient's invulnerability.

The Ancients have the following attributes:

Ancients Ability[edit]

True Sight
Passive / Aura
Affects
Enemies
Reveals nearby invisible enemy units and wards, rendering them visible to allies.
Reveal Radius: 900
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

Fountains[edit]

Faction Radiant and Faction Dire Fountain.

Fountains are located in the respawn areas of both factions' base. They provide max health and mana regeneration to all allied units affected by Rejuvenation Aura.

The Fountains have the following attributes

  • Permanently invulnerable.
  • A daytime and nighttime vision range of 1800 and 1800.
  • Ranged attacks with a range of RangedRanged 1200 and projectile speed of 1400.
    • They deal AttackAttack 290‒310 damage per attack, with 6.67 attacks per second (2000 DPS).
    • 25% of the damage dealt to a target is splashed to other units in a 250 radius.
    • Fountain Damage are considered player-based damage and dispels consumables, and other abilities that are normally disabled by player-based damage.
    • Uses the same attack priority as Towers, except that they cannot be aggroed immediately by attacking an enemy hero.

Fountain Ability[edit]

Primal Beast is invulnerable upon respawning.
Rejuvenation Aura
This ability can be bestowed by Illusions.
Passive / Aura
Affects
Allied Units
Grants additional health and mana regeneration to allied units within range, based on their max health and mana respectively.
Radius: 1200
Max Health as Health Regen Bonus: 5%
Max Mana as Mana Regen Bonus: 6%
Aura Linger Duration: 3
The teams' heroes respawn at the fountain. Upon respawning they are invulnerable and untargetable, until they are given an order.
Fully refills all bottles within range. This is not bound to the aura's buff, the hero must be within range to get their bottle refilled.
Refill Interval: 1
Turns couriers invulnerable while affected by the buff.


Fountain Damage
Passive
Affects
Enemies
With each attack against the same target, the fountain deals more and more damage.
Max Stacks: IndefiniteIndefinite
Attack Damage Bonus per Stack: 3
Debuff Duration: 12
Each attack splashes upon impact, dealing a portion of the damage within an area around the primary target.
Splash Radius: 250
Splash Damage: 25%
The Fountain passively has increased accuracy, occasionally ignoring evasion.
Accuracy: 25%


True Sight
Passive / Aura
Affects
Enemies
Reveals nearby invisible enemy units and wards, rendering them visible to allies.
Reveal Radius: 1200
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5

Effigy Buildings[edit]

Faction Radiant and Faction Dire Effigy Buildings.

Effigy Buildings, or Filler Buildings are the other buildings within a faction's base that act as buffers to delay the lane creeps from damaging the Towers (Tier 4). As of 7.38c, there are 7 Effigy Buildings in the base spread around the Ancient.

Five of the seven Effigy Buildings form a half-circle around the Ancient and are customizable with Effigy Blocks, giving them a different look and making them display a text notification when destroyed. This has only cosmetical purposes, each player can customize one of the five Effigy Buildings in their base.

The Faction Radiant has two different types of effigy building models, while the Faction Dire has one model for all.

The Effigy Buildings have the following attributes:

Defender's Gate[edit]

Faction Radiant and Faction Dire Defender's Gates.

Defender's Gates are forced fields placed at the walls of the main bases of each faction. These force fields only allow allies to path through them, blocking enemies off completely. Both factions have 1 Defender's Gate, located at the furthest edge of the base walls behind the safe Towers (Tier 3), which is on the west for Faction Radiant, and east for Faction Dire. The gates connect to a path that directly leads towards the Tormentors, and are divided from the main lane with a cliff.

Defender's Gate[edit]

Defender's Gate
Passive
Affects
Enemies
A permanent force field that allows allies to path through freely, but fully blocks enemies.
Segments: 15
Pathing Block Radius: 24
Details
  • Defender's Gate can neither interact with any abilities nor be selected.
  • The Defender's Gate consist of 15 segments that are lined up very tightly.
    • The segments have a collision size of 24 and are placed every 12 distance from the previous segment, overlapping the segments to create a tight line.
    • The gate has a width of 24 and a length of 192.
  • A non-selectable unit (npc_dota_base_blocker) is placed in the center of the Defender's Gate.

Abilities Affecting Buildings[edit]

The following abilities can target or damage buildings. Hero abilities that deal physical attack damage are reduced by Reinforced as well as standard armor value reductions. More information can be found in the abilities' respective notes.

Bonus damage vs Enemy buildings


1 Requires TalentsTalents talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.
3 Requires selecting the corresponding facet.


Affects Buildings Conditionally

Trivia[edit]

  • In DotA, Glyph of Fortification grants allied buildings magic immunity and 9999 armor, instead of 100% incoming damage reduction.
    • Due to how the game rounds up damage values, this resulted in all attacks still dealing 1 damage to the building.
    • The magic immunity also prevented spells that usually affect buildings from affecting them.
    • In earlier versions of DotA, Glyph did not grant spell immunity, and spells such as Nether Blast could deal damage through it.

Recent Changes[edit]

Main Article: Buildings/Changelogs
Description
7.38
(2025-02-19)
  • Removed the Outposts at behind the safe lanes.
  • Moved the Twin Gates from near the end of the safe lanes to the the corners of the map, close to the Tormentor spawn locations.
  • Lotus Pools
    • Are no longer targetable buildings, and are now part of the map.
    • The structure is now a hollow ring, with a fountain at the center.
    • The ring has 3 openings where units can walk in.
    • No longer provide 500 radius ground vision to both teams at all times.
    • CHANGED the way Healing Lotuses spawn within the pools.
      • At 35:00 game time, the pools start spawning Great Healing Lotuses . [?]
      • All already existing regular Healing Lotuses get rounded up and combined to Great Healing Lotuses.
      • At 60:00 game time, the pools start spawning Greater Healing Lotuses . [?]
      • All already existing Great Healing Lotuses get rounded up and combined to Greater Healing Lotuses.
    • CHANGED the way Pluck Lotus works.
      • Heroes now automatically gather Healing Lotuses while standing within the ring, which has a radius of 350.
      • The gathering is paused if there is an enemy hero within the area.
      • First Healing Lotus takes 1.5 seconds, subsequent Lotuses in a row take 30% less than the previous one. [?]
      • If multiple heroes of the team are within the area, the Lotus is given to one of them at random.
  • REPLACED Wisdom Rune with Shrine of Wisdom , a new building at the same locations as the Wisdom Runes used to be.
    • The shrines start dormant, and activate every 7 minutes of game time. [?]
    • Once active, heroes have to stand within 300 range of the shrine for 3 seconds to gather the experience.
    • The gathering is paused if there is an enemy hero within the area.
    • If multiple heroes of the team are within the area, the experience is granted to one of them at random, as well as to the allied hero with the lowest experience in the team. [?]
    • Grants 280 ExperienceExperience by default to both, plus an additional 280 ExperienceExperience for every 7 minutes of passed game time. [?]
7.36
(2024-05-22)
7.35
(2023-12-14)
  • Fountain now deals 25% splash damage in a 250 radius around the target.
  • ADDED 2 more Watchers to the Mines and Well areas of the map.
  • Teleport times to Outposts in the Faction Radiant and Faction Dire jungles decreased from 6s to 4s.
  • Twin Gate
    • Warp
      • Now costs 25 mana.
      • Units without mana can use Twin Gates for free.

Gallery[edit]