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VantageDocumentation

04 · Stats, Buffs and Auras

A Warden with six buff abilities, a set of targets that react differently, allies that share an aura and an enemy statue whose aura slows you.

The Warden with Battle Shout and Frenzy running, poison stacked three times on a punching bag and the stat sheet open.

Scene Scenes/04_StatsBuffsAuras. Assets Content/04_StatsBuffsAuras and Content/Shared.

What it teaches

  • Attributes feed stats through an Attribute Formula and a VtAttributeDerivedStatsBinding.
  • A buff changes stats or attributes for a while, or ticks damage or healing. Its stacking policy decides what happens when it is applied again.
  • Crowd control is a buff with a category and trait overrides. A unit immune to the category refuses it.
  • An aura keeps a buff on every eligible unit within a radius.

Assets

Warden, the player’s Unit Definition:

Field Value
Id unit.warden
Faction Player
Pools HP: Base Max 400, Starting Current 220, Regen Mode None. MP: Base Max 300, Starting Current 300, Regen Mode Passive, 20 per second.
Min Damage / Max Damage 14 / 18
Move Speed 5.5
Base Attributes Strength 20, Intelligence 10, Agility 10
Granted Abilities The six abilities below in key order.
Passive Auras DevotionAura

The abilities, all with Resource Kind MP:

Key Ability Icon Id Targeting Mode Range Resource Cost Cooldown Triggers GCD Effects
1 Battle Shout megaphone Self 0 20 10 on Apply Buff: Battle Shout
2 Poison Dart flask-conical Single Target 15 5 0.5 off Apply Buff: Poison
3 Rejuvenate sprout Self 0 25 3 on Apply Buff: Rejuvenation
4 Stun Bolt zap Single Target 15 20 5 on StunBoltDamage, a Damage effect of 8 to 12 Arcane with Channel Magic, then Apply Buff: Stunned
5 Frenzy trending-up Self 0 0 1 off Apply Buff: Frenzy
6 Sunder shield-off Single Target 3 15 2 on Apply Buff: Sundered

None has a cast time. Their ids are ability.battle_shout, ability.poison_dart, ability.rejuvenate, ability.stun_bolt, ability.frenzy and ability.sunder.

The buffs:

Buff Id Default Duration Stacking Policy What it does
Battle Shout buff.battle_shout 15 Refresh Attribute Grants: Strength 10.
Poison buff.poison 6 Stack Independent Tick Effect: 6 Poison damage, Channel Magic, every 1 second.
Rejuvenation buff.rejuvenation 8 Refresh Tick Effect: heals 12 every 1 second, Is Heal on.
Stunned buff.stunned 3 Refresh CC Category Stun. Trait Overrides at priority 100: Can Act, Can Move and Can Cast all false.
Frenzy buff.frenzy 5 Stack Add Duration Max Duration 20. Modifiers: Attack Speed 0.3, Is Percentage on.
Sundered buff.sundered 10 Refresh Modifiers: Armor -80.
Devotion buff.devotion 1 Refresh Modifiers: Armor 50.
Hex buff.hex 1 Refresh CC Category Slow. Modifiers: Move Speed -0.4 and Attack Speed -0.2, both with Is Percentage on.

The auras:

Aura Id Buff To Apply Radius Target Filter
DevotionAura aura.devotion Devotion 8 Allies
HexAura aura.hex Hex 7 Enemies

The other units:

Asset Settings
DummyPunchingBag Faction Enemy, HP 800, no basic attack, Move Speed 0.
DummyUnstoppable As the punching bag, plus CC Immunities: Stun.
DummyArmored As the punching bag, plus Innate Modifiers: Armor 120.
Brawler Id unit.brawler, Faction Enemy, HP 700, Min / Max Damage 3 / 5, Move Speed 4, Use Hostile AI on, Aggro Range 4.
Ally Id unit.ally, Faction Player, HP 200, Min / Max Damage 5 / 6, Move Speed 5.
DummyHexer Faction Enemy, HP 1000, no basic attack, Move Speed 0, Passive Auras: HexAura.

Scene

Ground 40 × 40.

Object Setup
Player Player prefab at (0, 0, 0). Definition Warden. VtAttributeDerivedStatsBinding with Formula Content/Shared/AttributeFormula. VtAbilityHotkeys with six slots and Action left empty, so they cast on keys 1 to 6. VtDemoReviveAfterDeath 3 seconds, Return To Start on.
Punching bag Unit prefab at (-6, 0, 9). Revives after 2 seconds where it stands.
Unstoppable Unit prefab at (0, 0, 9). Revives after 2 seconds where it stands.
Armored Unit prefab at (6, 0, 9). Revives after 2 seconds where it stands.
Brawler Unit prefab at (-3, 0, 12.5), outside its Aggro Range of 4. Revives after 3 seconds at its start.
Two allies Unit prefabs with Ally at (-9, 0, -2) and (-11, 0, 0), just outside the Devotion aura’s radius of 8. VtDemoFactionTint Override Color on, green. Revive after 3 seconds at their start.
Hexer Unit prefab at (10, 0, -4), outside the Hex aura’s radius of 7. VtDemoInvulnerable. VtDemoFactionTint Override Color on, purple. Revives after 2 seconds where it stands.
Main Camera VtTopDownCamera, Default Height 16, so the dummies, the brawler, both allies and the Hexer are all on screen with their nameplates at the start.
Demo UI Lesson card, two VtUnitFrame with Unit Player and Region Top Left, one with Source Unit and one with Source Target Of Unit. VtBuffBar with Unit Player and Region Top Left. VtResourceBar with Unit Player, Bar Source Cast and Region Top Left. VtActionBar with the player’s VtAbilityHotkeys, Region Bottom Center and Slot Size Large, and VtStatList titled Warden with Region Bottom Left and rows Strength, Intelligence, Agility, Physical power, Spell power, Crit chance, Attack speed, Armor and Move speed.

Build it yourself

  1. Build the Unit and Player prefabs as in Build the prefabs.
  2. Create the attributes and the formula as in Shared content, or use the shared ones.
  3. Create the buffs, then an Apply Buff effect for each ability, then the abilities.
  4. Create both auras with Create → Vantage → Auras → Aura Definition.
  5. Create Warden with its base attributes, abilities and Devotion aura, and the other definitions.
  6. Build the scene as in Build the shared layout with a 40 × 40 Level.
  7. Place the player, Add Component → Vantage → Units → VtAttributeDerivedStatsBinding with the formula, and fill six hotkey slots.
  8. Place the other units at the positions above and set the camera’s Default Height to 16.

Try

  • 1 Battle Shout: Strength rises by 10, and physical power follows by 20% in the stats card.
  • 2 Poison Dart the punching bag several times: each dart adds its own Poison.
  • 3 Rejuvenate heals you over time; you start at 220 health.
  • 4 Stun Bolt the brawler and it stops swinging. Stun Bolt the unstoppable dummy: Immune.
  • 5 Frenzy again and again: the duration grows up to 20 seconds.
  • 6 Sunder the armored dummy and compare your hits before and after.
  • Walk to the allies: Devotion shows on them. Walk past the Hexer and you slow down.
  • A buff an aura keeps up reads “Devotion · aura” on the buff bar and on the nameplate, with no countdown, because the aura re-applies it every second.
  • F10 hides every panel, R resets the scene.

In your own game

Talents, set bonuses and equipment use the same modifier and attribute rows as these buffs, so a stat sheet like this one reads them all.