Which is the best and the safest way to place buffs?

[Trithilon-V2]

Ok...the map i am making will be my first release....and i am not experienced
enough to know what common problems people face while placing a buff.
I wanted to know whether there is a safe way to add buffs to units without overriding them?
I know the aura thing, but it wont blink when the spell is about to end.
What thumb rule do you guys (Experienced map-makers) use to decide which ability to base off the buff from?

 

[Cheddar]

Well, the obvious choice most of us use for attack/movement speed bonuses is Bloodlust. Sometimes, however, I use Slow too, in case there's a chance the unit will be afflicted with both spells at once. Unholy Frenzy, Acid Bomb, etc.

I know the aura thing, but it wont blink when the spell is about to end.

?

 

[Flare]

I've always used Slow Aura (Tornado) since
(1) it stacks if you use different buffs,
(2) you can't overwrite the buff (if you had a unit under the effect of 60% Slow, and a dummy unit applied a 0% Slow, just for the sake of adding a buff icon, you lose the 60% which isn't ideal),
(3) you can use Ability Level checks rather than buff checks (say you want to do 10x Abil Level to a unit - buffs won't work since their 'level' is always 1, but the Slow Aura (Tornado) can have multiple levels),
(4) the icon is always hidden, so there's no need for spellbooks and
(5) it allows you to better decide when it should be removed (if you had a spell that lasts X seconds, where X is your hero's agility, and a normal spell just can't support that properly

Only problems are the lack of flashing when duration is about to expire, but I'm sure you'd get over that, and it's slightly more difficult to get rid of it if you want MUI

 

[vypur85]

Hmm.. To me, all targetted or AOE activated spells can override each other. Only those abilities with AOE passive buff can stack (only if their buff is different and are not of the same ability).

So you decide . Placing hidden passive buffed ability might not provide the best result and is hard to make it MUI. (Reminds me of Axe in DotA).

Edit:
In my opinion, if you have too many abilities of similar effect, just let them override... Makes life easier... Triggering them would be tedious.

 

[Trithilon-V2]

So....you mean...the easiest way for me to do it is have a buff system which manages the MUI'ness of the buffs?
Cuz....i started making the map and abilities since my skill was of the level "How do i deal damage to a unit?"
So....only if i had organized and predecided every thing i could have dealt with this problem.
But now its too late....or will be a tedious task.