magical damage vs physical damage

Hello everyone,
I have absolutely stupid question ...

but whats the difference? Which type of attack is increased by magic damage, what is increased by physical damage?

is it just ...

physical damage = mouse attack or mouse attacks buffed by some skills
magical damage = all abilities?

I love theory crafting etc ... but I simply cant found formulas etc which will help me to "count" best possible builds for some situation... I simply dont know whats behind and I can find anything where will be interesting information

ps. I dont play dota and game like this ... I am coming from MMORPG, FPS, Diablo like games ...

Each God is either physical or magical. Items compliment those as well.

yeah but for example basic attack on mouse probably dont benefit from magical damage at all ... (maybe only for freya thanks to her passive)

so its probably like ...
basic attacks = physical
other abilities and attacks = based on skill description?

maybe one last thing ... how can I cound damage of basic attack?

It depends on the God. Ranged Gods that are magical will also have magical basic attacks. Melee Gods that are magical will have physical basic attacks, which makes them hybrids (Freya, Guan Yu etc.). Ranged Gods that are physical will have physical basic attacks. Melee Gods that are physical will have physical basic attacks.

Interesting, I've always thought all basic attacks were physical except those who have passives which buff basic attacks with magic damage.
I thought the items you bought then scaled to the skills you used, like if it says ranged, magic it would be magic power which scales etc.

I could be wrong, but like for instance Hades who is a magical God. When he uses a basic attack he shoots out a purple orb thing. If you look at what type of attack each God has, it seems self explanatory of what damage type they are for basic attacks.

Like for example...

Neith - Shoots arrows, seems physical.
Hades - Shoots the purple orb thing, seems magical to me.
Guan Yu - hits people with his horse sword, physical. but has magical abilities.
Ares - hits people with his sword, seems physical. but has magical abilities.

All basic attacks and some skills are dependant upon physical power. Only skills with a magical power modifier inflict magic damage, unless otherwise stated.

If you mouse over your skill icons in-game, you can see the damage values on your skills, and often, there will be a colored number in parantheses next to the base value. This is the contribution value, and it will be a different color based on whether it gains power from stacking physical or magical power.

There are some weird exceptions out there. Freya and Poseidon, for example, have buffs which add magical damage to their basic attacks. The item, Polynomicon, adds bonus magical damage to your basic attack after you've used a skill.

What? Horse Blade? （；￣ェ￣）

Thanks for the info Sunfall! +Rep!

And yes a horse sword/blade thingy.



"The Chinese Pudao, originally an infantry weapon, has been adopted into the martial arts and its use in the hands of a skilled practitioner is spectacular. This weapon is also known as a horse-cutter sword, since it was used to slice the legs out from under a horse during battle."

Gah, you should've said Pudao lol! I don't understand horse cutting sword.