What attributes give
Every hero has three attributes that grow with levels and items. Each governs its own set of stats, and understanding that helps you read which items actually strengthen a given hero — and smart builds directly help you climb MMR.
- Strength (STR). Health and its regen — survivability.
- Agility (AGI). Armor and attack speed — damage per second and physical defense.
- Intelligence (INT). Mana, mana regen and a little magic resist — fuel for spells.
Strength keeps you alive, agility hits faster and defends against physical, intelligence powers your abilities. The primary attribute additionally gives auto-attack damage.
Strength: health
Strength governs how much damage a hero can survive:
- +22 HP per point. Each point of strength adds 22 to max health — the most direct way to get tankier.
- +0.1 HP regen per second. Strength also speeds health recovery out of combat, helping you hold a lane longer.
- Damage on strength heroes. If strength is the hero's primary attribute, each point also gives +1 auto-attack damage.
- Tanks and initiators. That's why strength heroes are usually the frontline: they enter fights first and soak control.
Strength doesn't directly save you from magic, but a big HP pool buys time to wait for help — the combo with magic resist and armor is covered in the guide on damage types and armor.
Agility: armor and attack
Agility is the main stat for damage per second and physical defense:
- ≈0.167 armor per point. Roughly 1 armor for every 6 points — gradually you get tougher against auto-attacks.
- +1 attack speed per point. More agility means more attacks per second — key to a carry's late-game damage.
- Damage on agility heroes. If agility is primary, each point adds +1 auto-attack damage on top of the attack speed.
- Scaling. Agility is exactly what turns a carry into a machine in the late game, once it stacks a lot of stats.
So agility items boost both attack and survivability against physical at once — double value for classic core heroes. Agility also directly feeds illusions, since they inherit the original's stats and attack faster the higher its attack speed.
Intelligence: mana
Intelligence is the size and speed of your spell economy:
- +12 mana per point. Each point of intelligence widens the mana pool — more casts before a trip to base.
- +0.05 mana regen per second. Intelligence speeds mana recovery, critical for supports and casters.
- +0.1% magic resist per point. A small but welcome bonus to magic resistance.
- Damage on intelligence heroes. If intelligence is primary, each point gives +1 auto-attack damage.
For intelligence heroes mana matters more than auto-attack damage: their power is in spells, not the right click — including stuns, silences and other disables that decide team fights.
Primary attribute and Universal
One of the three attributes is a hero's primary, and that's the one that turns into auto-attack damage:
- Primary = +1 damage per point. On a classic hero only the primary attribute feeds auto-attack damage.
- Universal — the fourth type (7.33). Universals gain 0.45 damage per point of each of the three attributes. The multiplier has been retuned more than once: 0.6 at launch, 0.7 from patch 7.33c and 0.45 from patch 7.38.
- All-stat value. Items that give all attributes at once are especially efficient for Universals.
- Build flexibility. A Universal isn't tied to one stat and can build items around its abilities.
Worked example: an item with +10 to all attributes gives a regular hero +10 damage (10×1 from primary), but a Universal (10×0.45)×3 = 13.5 damage, because all three attributes count. The flip side: an item on an off-primary stat gives a regular hero no damage at all, while a Universal still banks 4.5.
