Status Effects - Buffs and Ailments
In the table on the first post, I have included a column with the icons that will overwrite said status effect. Everything else stacks with that status effect.
Read this post to learn about:
- buffs vs ailments
- dispelling vs cleansing vs removing
Primer: Buffs vs Ailments
Buffs
A buff is an effect that the game considers to be positive. Typically these are good effects, such as an attack boost to increase damage.
However, some are more complex and come with negative effects. Examples include Wu Kong’s “Gambler’s Stance,” which comes with a massive attack buff at the expense of an accuracy drop, or Aemonna’s “Ghost” which prevents her from getting damaged at the expense of not gaining mana while it’s active.
Buffs are usually casted and given to the hero or their allies. Gunnar (costumed) and Wilbur are unique exceptions; their skills give enemies the Shared Damage buff, but pair it with a defense drop in order to spread more damage to the enemy team.
Ailments
An ailment is a negative effect that the game considers to be detrimental. These effects are always bad to have, such as lingering damage that is automatically inflicted each turn.
Note that some ailments will prevent other status effects from working. Examples include Hel’s Crush, which will prevent other mana effects on that target (such as Onatel’s drain and Alberich’s mana recovery) from being effective.
Primer: “Dispels” vs “Cleanses” vs “Removes”
Hero skill cards are always very specific when it comes to describing what exactly they dispel.
Dispelling
Skills that get rid of any buffs the enemy has active are referred to as dispels.
A buff can only be dispelled if it is not listed as undispellable under the description of the buff casted.
Melendor and Sabina have the “Fog of the Fallen” skill, which dispels buffs from all enemies. But element links are undispellable, so they will not be dispelled.
Dispels can miss! They are affected by status effects that decrease accuracy.
As of Version 25, Reflect buffs now block dispells from heroes of the protected color.
Although Frida’s “Polar Bash” skill dispels buffs, she cannot dispel Mitsuko’s “Mirror of Flames” because her reflect buff blocks negative effects
Cleansing
A cleanse is the act of dispelling any ailments that an ally or allies have active.
Ailments listed as uncleansable under the description of the ailment can not be cleansed.
Rigard has the “Purification” skill, which dispels any ailments from his allies. But it will not dispel Jack O’ Hare’s uncleansable defense drop if he used his “Reckless Slash” skill first.
Cleanses can’t miss: they are not affected by any accuracy drops from status effects.
Removing
Skills that specifically say they remove will wipe all status effects, including undispellable and uncleansable ones.
Note that this covers both buffs and ailments.
If the hero Ameonna has a burn ailment, an attack buff, and a dark element link, her skill “Ghost” will remove all of them, including the undispellable element link.
Patch Notes -- terminology clarifications
Primer: Overwriting Buffs and Ailments
Some buffs and ailments can be overwritten by other buffs or ailments. The skill that casts the buff or ailment will not say that this is possible.
Typically, the same status effect will overwrite itself if it’s casted again. For e.g.: Attack up, casted on an ally who already has Attack up. This also acts as a way to reset the turn duration. Note that the last casted buff or ailment will persist:
Using Kiril’s “Blessed Brew” and Boldtusk’s “War Cry” in that order, will grant a 48% attack boost to all allies. Using them in reverse order will grant a 30% attack boost to all allies.
However, there are some exceptions to buffs and ailments that get overwritten. Typically these are opposites to each other:
Brienne’s “Berserker Fury” skill grants the berserk buff which increases attack. But Gill-Ra’s “Lament of Regression” skill lowers attack, and will overwrite the buff with her ailment. The opposite is true if it occurs in reverse order: the attack down will be overwritten by the berserk buff.
Note that buffs listed as “undispellable” and ailments listed as “uncleansable” cannot be overwritten by their opposites or by the same ailment – unless it is the exact same undispellable status effect that is casted again!
Squire Wabbit casts a -20% defense ailment on himself after his “Reckless Stab” skill. Gill-Ra can not overwrite his ailment with her -34% defense ailment, because Squire Wabbit’s ailment is uncleansable and hers is not. But Squire Wabbit using his skill again will overwrite his ailment (resetting the turn count).
Note that this has to be the exact same caster! In other words, you can’t overwrite Hisan’s deep wound with Arman’s deep wound.
Finally, there are some 5* heroes that have native resistances to certain ailments. This will prevent overwriting a buff with that ailment if they resist it.
Anzogh has a resistance to ailments that decrease mana generation. That means if he has a mana generation up buff, Alasie cannot overwrite it with her “Spirit Arrow” skill. However, the buff can still be dispelled by skills that do so.
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