Silence

▶️ Silence!

“

▶️ This will shut you up.

— Silencer

”

Silence is a status effect that prevents those affected from using active hero abilities for the duration of the silence. It can be useful when ganking a hero with a blink or invisibility spell, as silences tend to have longer duration than other disables giving more time to kill the enemy. Silences in teamfights can also be very effective even for a short period of time, as they prevent the enemy from using their spells in combination with one another. Silencing an opponent also stops any channeling spells that they are currently using.

Definition[edit]

Ability and Item Disables	Disabled Aspect / Definition	Examples
Silence	Fully prevent any active abilities order, except item casts. Autocast abilities that are currently set to `Autocast` have their functionality disabled. Toggled abilities are stuck in their current `On` / `Off` state for the duration, but their functionality is not disabled.	Global Silence
Break	Fully disable passive abilities, does not disable any item passives and Talents (with some exceptions). On-death passives (e.g. Reincarnation) and direct-synergy passives ( Caustic Finale with Burrowstrike) are generally not disabled.	Viper Strike
Mute	Fully prevent item cast orders, except ability casts.	Doom

Mechanics[edit]

Abilities Castable When Silenced[edit]

Few abilities with DOTA_ABILITY_BEHAVIOR_IGNORE_SILENCE flag are still castable when silenced. Silence also can not prevent them channeling and starting the ability's cast point.

Abilities Castable When Silenced

¹ Ignores silence only during

Duel.

Silence[edit]

Among them, all sources fear and hex will provide silence status.

Silence Sources

Bloodseeker – Blood Rite
Bloodthorn – Soul Rend
Book of Shadows – Shadows
Brewmaster – Cinder Brew¹
Brewmaster – Primal Companion³
Clockwerk – Hookshot⁴
Dark Willow – Terrorize
Dawnbreaker – Solar Guardian⁴
Dazzle – Poison Touch^2b
Death Prophet – Silence
Disruptor – Static Storm
Doom – Doom
Drow Ranger – Gust
Earth Spirit – Geomagnetic Grip
Enigma – Black Hole
Fell Spirit – Vex
Grimstroke – Phantom's Embrace
Hoodwink – Decoy⁵
Legion Commander – Duel⁶
Lich – Sinister Gaze
Lion – Hex
Lone Druid – Savage Roar
Marci – Unleash¹
Mask of Madness – Berserk
Mind Breaker – Silence Strike
Muerta – Dead Shot
Muerta – The Calling
Night Stalker – Crippling Fear
Orchid Malevolence – Soul Burn
Outworld Destroyer – Astral Imprisonment^{2b 7}
Pig Pole – Pig, Out!
Psionic Trap – Trap^2b
Puck – Waning Rift
Queen of Pain – Blink^2b
Riki – Smoke Screen
Scythe of Vyse – Hex
Shadow Fiend – Requiem of Souls
Shadow Shaman – Hex
Silencer – Glaives of Wisdom^2b
Silencer – Global Silence
Skywrath Mage – Ancient Seal
Snapfire – Gobble Up
Spirit Bear – Savage Roar
Templar Assassin – Psionic Projection^2b
Templar Assassin – Psionic Trap^2b
Terrorblade – Terror Wave^2a
Void Spirit – Aether Remnant
Void Spirit – Dissimilate
Void Spirit – Resonant Pulse^2b
Wind Waker – Cyclone⁸

¹ Requires a

Talent.

^2a Requires

Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires

Aghanim's Shard.

³ Silences the brewling when far away from caster.

⁴ Silences caster when moving.

⁵ Only silences the illusion.

⁶ Both the

Dueled target and caster are silenced.

⁷ Only silences allies.

⁸ Silences when cast on yourself.

Can be cast while silenced[edit]

Bane – Nightmare End
Ancient Apparition – Release

Mute[edit]

Tusk attempting to cast an item while muted.

As a counterpart to silence, a Mute disables the affected unit's active items in the same fashion as silence disables active abilities. As with silence, it does not affect passives at all. It does not stop already ongoing effects of items, but does cancel channeled items. Does not prevent disassembling in any way.

Mute also prevents the unit from toggling their items On / Off.

Besides the listed abilities below, non-sharable items are always muted when picked up by a different unit than the owner.

All sources fear and hex will provide mute status.

Mute Sources