Burst damage

Items that answer this

• Extra Health vitality · T1 · 800 Strong evidence

  Flat bonus health — the cheapest way to survive one more ability.

  Buy when: Buy early against burst lanes when you are getting one-shot out of trades.

• Grit vitality · T1 · 800 Strong evidence

  Converts a portion of incoming damage into a temporary barrier, blunting burst spikes.

  Buy when: Cheap early answer to a burst-heavy lane; also the component for several key defensive items.

• Guardian Ward vitality · T2 · 1,600 Verified

  Targeted barrier and move speed you can throw on yourself or an ally at range.

  Buy when: Buy on supports to save a focused ally from a burst window; it is the path to Divine Barrier.

• Reactive Barrier vitality · T2 · 1,600 Verified

  Automatically grants a barrier the moment you are stunned, chained, immobilised, slept or silenced — it turns a CC chain into a survivable one.

  Buy when: Buy when enemy crowd control is followed by burst damage — it buys you the seconds you need to live through the combo.

  Gotcha: Triggers only on Stun, Chain, Immobilize, Sleep or Silence — not on plain damage

• Return Fire vitality · T2 · 1,600 Verified

  For a few seconds, anyone who damages you automatically takes a share of that damage back, and you gain bullet resist permanently.

  Buy when: Buy against divers and sustained gun carries who commit to shooting you at close range.

  Gotcha: Returns pre-mitigation damage, so it works off the attacker's raw output

• Spirit Sap spirit · T2 · 1,600 Verified

  Targets an enemy to strip both their spirit resist and their spirit power — it weakens an enemy caster while making them easier to burst.

  Buy when: Buy against an enemy spellcaster: it lowers their damage and raises yours against them at the same time.

• Spirit Shielding vitality · T2 · 1,600 Verified

  Automatically shields you and grants temporary spirit resist after you take a burst of spirit damage in a short window.

  Buy when: Buy against spellcaster burst combos — it absorbs the opening spike and hardens you for the follow-up.

  Gotcha: Self-only; cannot be cast on allies

• Weapon Shielding vitality · T2 · 1,600 Verified

  The gun-damage mirror of Spirit Shielding: a barrier and temporary bullet resist after you take a burst of weapon damage.

  Buy when: Buy against a gun carry whose opening burst kills you before you can respond.

  Gotcha: Melee damage also counts toward the trigger threshold

• Bullet Resilience vitality · T3 · 3,200 Verified

  Large flat bullet resist that grows further once you drop below half health — the core anti-gun stat item.

  Buy when: Buy when the enemy team's damage is predominantly gun-based; it is the standard tier-3 bullet answer.

  Gotcha: Low-health threshold raised 40% -> 50% and the bonus lowered 22% -> 15% on 6 Mar 2026

• Counterspell vitality · T3 · 3,200 Verified

  Charges your parry so that the next one blocks the damage and effects of an enemy ability or item outright, healing and buffing you when it lands.

  Buy when: Buy against telegraphed single-target ultimates and hex-style point-and-click abilities you can read and parry.

  Gotcha: Multiple abilities can be parried in the window, but the heal and buffs only apply from the first

• Fortitude vitality · T3 · 3,200 Verified

  A big flat health pool plus strong regeneration once you have been out of damage for a short while.

  Buy when: Buy when enemy poke keeps forcing you off the map and you want to reset in the field.

• Metal Skin vitality · T3 · 3,200 Verified

  Makes you flatly immune to bullets for several seconds, at the cost of reduced movement while it runs. Against a gun carry's damage window it is an absolute wall; against spellcasters it does nothing.

  Buy when: Buy to blank an enemy gun carry's ultimate or burst window entirely.

  Gotcha: Blocks weapon damage from players and NPCs, but on-bullet-hit effects and build-ups still apply

• Silence Wave spirit · T3 · 3,200 Verified

  Fires an expanding projectile that silences every enemy it passes through and deals impact damage. It is the only area silence available before tier 4.

  Buy when: Buy to cut off enemy ability combos or to interrupt a channelled ultimate from range — it is the go-to counter to ability-reliant teams.

  Gotcha: Damage spirit scaling raised 0.6 -> 1.0 and cooldown cut 35s -> 30s on 6 Mar 2026; the wiki currently lists 42s base cooldown

• Spirit Resilience vitality · T3 · 3,200 Verified

  The spirit-damage counterpart to Bullet Resilience: large flat spirit resist that increases below half health.

  Buy when: Buy when enemy ability damage is the main thing killing you.

• Cheat Death vitality · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  When you would die, you instead survive with temporary invulnerability and all non-stun debuffs cleared — at the cost of heavily reduced damage and healing during the window.

  Buy when: Buy when you are being assassinated in every fight — it converts one death per 90 seconds into an escape window.

  Gotcha: Clears all non-stun debuffs when it triggers

• Colossus vitality · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  You grow larger and gain heavy bullet and spirit resist while slowing every enemy around you — a frontline engage and survive button.

  Buy when: Buy on frontliners who need to absorb a full team's damage while holding enemies in place.

  Gotcha: The bonus base health applies only to starting base health and boon health, not health from abilities or other items

• Cursed Relic spirit · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  Curses a single enemy: it interrupts them, silences them, disarms them, blocks item use and strips all their non-ultimate buffs. Nothing else in the game removes an enemy from a fight so completely — but holding it costs you damage.

  Buy when: Buy to shut down one enemy carry or to cancel a game-deciding ultimate outright.

  Gotcha: Since 30 Jan 2026 it no longer grants weapon damage and instead applies an 8% total damage penalty while held; it also lost its spirit resist and health bonuses

• Divine Barrier vitality · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  Strips all non-stun debuffs from an ally (or yourself) at range and gives them a large barrier and move speed. It is the only ranged cleanse in the game.

  Buy when: Buy on supports to cleanse a focused ally's debuffs and shield them through a burst window from across the fight.

  Gotcha: Removes non-stun debuffs only — stuns are not cleansed

• Diviner's Kevlar vitality · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  Casting your ultimate gives you a very large barrier and a spirit power boost, so committing to your ult stops being a death sentence.

  Buy when: Buy on heroes with a channelled or commitment-heavy ultimate that the enemy tries to burst you out of.

• Echo Shard spirit · T4 · 6,400 Strong evidence

  Instantly resets the cooldown of one non-ultimate ability so you can cast it twice back-to-back.

  Buy when: Buy on heroes with a single high-impact non-ultimate ability, such as a stun or a big nuke, to double it in a fight.

• Ethereal Shift spirit · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  Sends you into a void state where you are untargetable and invincible for several seconds, then leaves you with spirit resist and move speed. It is the cleanest way to blank an enemy burst combo.

  Buy when: Buy to survive a telegraphed assassination combo or ultimate — you simply cease to be a target for four seconds.

  Gotcha: Interrupts your own channelled abilities on activation

• Focus Lens spirit · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  Silences a single enemy at range and banks a share of all damage dealt to them during the silence, dumping it on them when the silence ends. It is the hardest single-target lockout in the game.

  Buy when: Buy to delete one enemy caster from the fight entirely — it stops every ability and item they have for four and a half seconds.

• Frenzy weapon · T4 · 6,400 Strong evidence

  Large weapon damage, fire rate and lifesteal surge when you drop below a health threshold — a comeback item for brawlers.

  Buy when: Buy on durable carries who regularly fight at low health and can survive the window.

• Indomitable vitality · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  The next hard crowd-control effect that hits you is automatically cleansed, and you get a barrier and a big cooldown refund for free. Unlike Unstoppable it needs no reaction.

  Buy when: Buy when enemy CC lands faster than you can react — it is the automatic, no-timing-required anti-lockdown item.

• Refresher spirit · T4 · 6,400 Strong evidence

  Instantly resets all of your ability and item cooldowns, including your ultimate.

  Buy when: Buy on heroes with a fight-winning ultimate so you can use it twice in one engagement.

• Scourge spirit · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  Buffs a friendly target (including yourself) with heavy spirit resist and debuff resist plus a damaging aura, and reduces debuffs already on them. It is a team-wide defensive save.

  Buy when: Buy on supports to harden a focused ally against a caster team while adding pressure damage.

• Silencer weapon · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  Bullets build toward a silence and, in the meantime, cut the target's outgoing spirit damage. It is the single most reliable gun-based answer to an ability carry.

  Buy when: Buy when an enemy spellcaster is the main damage threat and you can land sustained bullets on them.

  Gotcha: Silence does not apply to a target with Unstoppable active

• Spellbreaker vitality · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  Combines strong spirit resist and debuff resist with a passive that heavily blunts the next large hit of spirit damage you take.

  Buy when: The go-to answer to a spellcaster who deletes you with one big ability — it caps the spike and shortens their stuns at the same time.

  Gotcha: Now builds from Debuff Reducer as of 30 Jan 2026

• Witchmail vitality · T4 · 6,400 Verified

  Strong spirit resist, and every heavy hit of enemy spirit damage refunds one of your ability cooldowns — it turns being focused by a caster into extra uptime.

  Buy when: Buy on an ability-reliant hero who is being targeted by enemy casters — the more they hit you, the more you cast.

  Gotcha: Only selects from abilities currently on cooldown

Heroes that cause this

• Apollo
• Bebop
• Calico
• Drifter
• Vindicta
• Yamato

Get this answered for your actual game

Which of these is worth a slot depends on how many of the six enemies really press this. The tool works that out from the lineup.