[JASS] Changing ability tooltip and extended tooltip does not work for passive abilities

[Barade]

Hi,
it seems that changing ability tooltips during the game does not work for abilities which are passive like Phoenix Fire, Drunken Brawler etc.

call BlzSetAbilityStringLevelField(a, ABILITY_SLF_TOOLTIP_NORMAL, 0, "Test 1")
call BlzSetAbilityStringLevelField(a, ABILITY_SLF_TOOLTIP_NORMAL_EXTENDED, 0, "Test 2")

For non-passive abilities it seems to work just fine. How can I fix this?

 

[watterly]

Hi,

I’m experiencing the same issue when working with an ability based on Evasion. I’ve reported it to Blizzard here: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/warcraft3/t/blzsetabilitystringlevelfield-bug/36653.

I’ve tried several workarounds that unfortunately didn’t help (removing and re-adding the passive ability, switching the ability’s level to another and then back to the original). From what I can tell, the issue seems to be purely interface-related: when I call BlzGetAbilityStringLevelField, it correctly returns the modified tooltip with ABILITY_SLF_TOOLTIP_NORMAL_EXTENDED.

For now, the best workaround seems to be creating a “fake” passive ability (based on an active ability with no effect) and assigning it a passive icon. This requires excluding the corresponding ability ID from any SPELL_CAST/EFFECT events, and accepting that the icon may appear disabled if the unit is affected by Silence.

Warm regards,

Edit: I just managed to successfully change the tooltip of an aura ability (tested with Thorns Aura and Brilliance Aura) using BlzSetAbilityStringLevelField. This approach might actually be simpler than the one I suggested earlier.

By setting all bonuses to 0, regardless of the aura used, and making sure the “targets allowed” field is set to none, you can create a fake aura that exists purely to display cosmetic changes via BlzSetAbilityStringLevelField.

If you also need to modify the values of a genuine passive ability (like Evasion, Critical Strike, or Drunken Brawler), you could place that real passive inside a disabled spellbook. That way, the fake aura handles the tooltip display, while the true passive ability still functions in the background. A workable workaround .

 

[Barade]

Yes, I have seen that Auras work but other passive abilities do not. I am not sure if I want to use fake auras since the hero/unit still might have these auras as well. Thanks for reporting it. I hope they fix this some time in the future.

 

[Elprede]

Did you increase and decrease the level of ability to update the UI?

 

[Barade]

I think so.