Stackable armor reduction / attack

[bumbaclo]

So, as stated in the title, I would like to have a spell (preferably auto-cast or passive), that reduces the armor of the target by a certain amount each time it is attacked by a unit with this ability, up to a certain limit. A perfect example is the dota spell of Invoker's Fire Spawns.

Now I have tried searching around and there were a few similar topics, but the solutions don't really work. One was to use orb of slow and change the effect to acid bomb (doesn't stack), another was to store the # of attacks in a custom value and use it for a dummy unit to cast faerie fire (doesn't scale). So...while I know its definitely possible I was wondering if anyone knows the answer to this. +rep to anyone to gets a working answer =)

 

[Shura]

Try creating a faerie fire with multiple levels, with level 1 with 2 armor reduction, level 2 with 4 armor reduction, something like that. Then when the dummy casts faerie fire, set the level of faerie fire accordingly.

 

[bumbaclo]

@Shura: that does work in decreasing armor, but not in a step-wise fashion. So basically I want each armor reduction to last, say 10 seconds. If the unit with the ability attacks once, and then 5 sec later attacks again, I want to see the armor reduction gradually fade - e.g. 5 sec later 1 level of buff removed, then 5 sec after that the second level buff removed.

Using that method, after the last attack, it will go 10 sec later, everything gets removed, since each successive level of faerie fire completely overwrites the old buff. Is that correct, or no?

 

[Shura]

So then would the ability apply multiple buffs that each decrease a set amount of armor, or just one buff that is subtracting the total armor?

 

[bumbaclo]

I think just one buff. The idea of increasing levels of faerie fire is that each buff overwrites the last buff but since the armor reduction is larger each level, it gives the impression of a stepwise effect, at least when being applied. But since it is actually just 1 non-stackable buff, it gets removed all at once.

 

[Bogrim]

Use different abilities and buffs, identical looking. Use the Editor Suffix to mark their order. You should have something looking like this:

Armor Reduction (1)
Armor Reduction (2)
Armor Reduction (3)

Then when the unit casts the ability, check for the buff (1), if it has no buff then apply buff (1), else remove it and cast a new buff (2) on the target.