Warcraft III armor and attack types

This article contains lore taken from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the manuals, and/or official bonus maps.

In Warcraft III, Units have Armor and Attack types that modify the damage they deal/take against other units.

Attack types

Normal

Mainly used by melee or short ranged units. Effective against ground ranged units.

Examples: Knights, Huntresses

Piercing

Primarily used by ranged attackers, ground, air, or structure. Effective against aerial units and spellcasters.

Examples: Crypt Fiends, Hippogryph Riders

Magic

Primarily used by spellcasters, but also by certain heavy air units. Effective against heavy infantry and cavalry. Introduced in patch 1.06.

Examples: Druids of the Talon, Gryphon Riders

Siege

Used by siege units, to destroy fortifications and spellcasters.

Examples: Meat Wagons, Mortar Teams

Hero

Used by Heroes. Full damage to all units except those with Fortified armor.

Introduced in patch 1.06.

Chaos

Used by powerful creeps, generally level 7 and higher. The Black Citadel and Outland tile sets contain creeps below level 7 capable of using chaos attacks. Full damage to all armor types.

Used in the campaign by Chaos orcs, as well as high-ranking demons and demigods.

See also: Chaos

Armor types

Heavy

Primarily used by melee units, long-ranged siege weaponry, and summoned units.

Examples: Druids of the Claw, Demolishers

Medium

Primarily used by ground ranged units.

Examples: Riflemen, Spell Breakers

Light

Used by most air units, and Scout Towers for whatever reason.

Examples: Destroyers, Frost Wyrms

Unarmored

Mostly used by spellcasters, and certain air units. Equally vulnerable to all types of attack.

Examples: Necromancers, Gargoyles

Fortified

Used by most buildings.

Also used by Siege Engines.

Hero

Used by Heroes.

Resistant to most types of damage, except for Normal and Chaos. Takes 70% damage from Spells.

Divine

Used by powerful characters in the campaign, notably demigods.

Divine beings take only 5% damage from attack types other than Chaos, and only 50% damage from spells.

Damage calculation tables

The Frozen Throne

	100%	150%	100%	100%	70%	100%
	100%	75%	200%	150%	35%	50%
	200%	75%	125%	100%	35%	50%
	100%	50%	100%	150%	150%	50%
	100%	100%	100%	100%	50%	100%
	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

Reign of Chaos

In Reign of Chaos, Heavy, Medium, and Light armor have rotated. So Light takes extra from Normal, Medium takes extra from Magic, and Heavy takes extra from Piercing.

Also note basic melee units such as Grunts have Medium armor, but heavy melee such as Tauren have Heavy armor. Summons and Workers also have Medium armor.

	100%	100%	150%	100%	50%	100%
	150%	100%	75%	150%	35%	50%
	100%	200%	100%	75%	50%	50%
	100%	100%	50%	150%	150%	50%
	100%	100%	100%	100%	50%	100%
	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

Patch changes

Patch 1.03 (10/09/2002)
Creeps above level 6 now deal Chaos damage. Previously they did Normal for melee, Piercing for ranged.

Patch 1.06 (06/04/2003)
New Attack Type: Hero. Previously, Heroes used the Normal attack type. New Attack Type: Magic. Previously, Casters used the Piercing attack type. New Armor Type: Unarmored. Previously, Casters used the Light armor type.

Patch 1.15 (05/11/2004)
Spells do 30% less damage to Heroes, from 25%.