Active

Accessed 1,812 times | Last modified 14:34, 30 May 2008 by Wyvernoid.

From DotA Allstars Wiki

Overview

An Active skill is an ability that can be manually cast or activated by the player. Active skills make up the vast majority of Hero skills in DotA. As opposed to Passive skills, which are always functioning and rarely have a cooldown or Mana cost, Active skills almost always have a cooldown and require Mana to use.

Whereas Passive skills almost always affect either the hero alone or else take the form of an Aura, Active skills have a myriad of different targeting and casting options. As seen in the Ability Type of a skill, there are a wide diversity of targeting types, ranging from activating instantly, targeting any unit, targeting an area, affecting only enemies, and so on. Active skills may also have a Casting Time, which can be interrupted without penalty to Mana or cooldown, a Casting Delay, which appropriately delays the effect of the spell for a period of time without affecting the hero, or a Channeling time, which will cancel the skill and trigger mana loss and cooldown if interrupted. In all three cases, the spell's effect only occurs after the delay or time has passed successfully.

Although most skills are either Active or Passive, some skills contain components of both. Autocast orbs and spells in particular may either be actively cast, or left on Auto and allowed to occur passively. The fact that Autocastable Orb Effects can be manually cast is the basis for Orbwalking. Other cases of abilities being both Passive and Active include Abaddon's Borrowed Time and Morphling's Morph.

See Also

• Passive