Pause

[SN0W37]

Pause

1	Introduction
2	Interactions
3	Other Effects
4	Abilities that Pause Units

Introduction

Pause is a unit state for that can be set for any unit. While paused a unit cannot move, attack, or cast spells. In addition while paused some unique effects happen.

When a unit is paused it can only be unpaused when it dies or by the functions

PauseUnit(unit, false)
PauseUnitBJ(false, unit)

These effects include:

• Disabling hardcoded passives
• Disabling the unit from being issued any new order
• Reducing damage from hardcoded damage over time spells
• Pausing the duration of hardcoded spells
• Changes the units priority

Interactions

Disabled Passives

All of these passives are disabled while a unit is paused:

• Bash
• Critical Strike
• Evasion
• True Sight
• Permanent Invisibility
• Permanent Immolation
• Building Damage Aura (Radiance Burn Aura)
• Hardened Skin (kraken shell, vanguard, stout shield, etc.)

Disabled Orders

While paused a unit cannot be given any new orders. However any order previously given will still be followed out once the unit is unpaused. For example, if a unit is walking to a location and is paused, it will even continue walking to that location after being unpaused even if it was given a new order while paused.

Hardcoded Duration Damage

While paused, a unit will take no duration damage from hardcoded spells. However if that spell has both an initial damage value and a duration damage value the target unit will still take the initial damage.

Paused Duration

Any buff that is placed on a paused unit will have it expiration timer paused while that unit is paused. This means that if a unit is stunned for 2 seconds and is paused when there is only 0.5 seconds of stun time left, that unit will remain stunned while it is paused and then be stunned for the remaining 0.5 seconds once it is unpaused.

Changed Priority

While a unit is paused its priority is decreased so that it will never be autoattacked unless it is the only valid target unit for the attacker. The paused unit can still be singled out by giving the attack specific order to attack ther paused unit.

Other Effects

While most spells act according to the above mentioned effects, some spells have some strange interactions with paused units.

These spells include:

• Soul Burn, deals full damage
• Life Drain, deals full damage
• Cluster Rocket, deals full damage
• Aerial Shackles, duration is not paused
• Bladestorm, is stopped by pause
• Immolation, is stopped by pause
• Chemical Rage, unpausable during backtransformation

Soul Burn
Unlike other hardcoded spells that deal duration damage, soulburn still deals full damage to paused units. However the duration of soul drain will be paused, like other hardcoded spells.

Life Drain
Life Drain is completely unaffected by pause will deal damage and end its duration exactly as if the target was not paused.

Cluster Rockets
Just like Life Drain, Cluster Rockets will deal full damage to paused units.

Aerial Shackles
When Aerial Shackles is cast on a paused unit, that unit will take no damage from the spell. In addition the expiration timer of shackles is not paused, like other duration spells.

Bladestorm
When a unit is paused while performing bladestorm, bladestorm will be cancelled and will not resume once the unit is unpaused again.
Note - The damage and part of the magic immunity for Juggernauts Blade Fury is not provided by bladestorm, and will not be affected in anyway by pause.

Immolation
Similiar to Bladestorm, Immolation is deactivated if a unit is paused and will not resume once the unit is unpaused.

Chemical Rage
While a unit is transforming back from chemical rage to its normal form, it cannot be paused.

If a unit dodges a disable with the transformation time of Chemical Rage, and is then paused while it has the buff from that disable that unit won't be paused.
Instead it will gain a "fake pause". If a unit is fake paused it can act as if it wasn't paused, however it will not be affected by any type of disable or any other pause. This fake pause will last until the unit is unpaused.

Abilities that Pause Units

These are abilities that base units longer than 0.00 seconds.

• Skill Name (Paused Duration)
• Torrent (1.6 seconds)
• Toss (1 second)
• Any Impale Based Skill (burrowstrike, impale, ravage) (0.52 seconds)
• Chronosphere (4/4.5/5 seconds, 4/5/6 seconds with sceptor, applied every 0.1 seconds)
• Astral Imprisonment (1/2/3/4 seconds)
• Disruption (2.5 seconds)
• Unstuck (60 seconds)
• Snowball (depends on the distance, maximum of 3 seconds)
• Supernova (6 seconds)
• Hookshot (depends on the distance)
• Infest (undefined)
• Freeze Hero (undefined)

These skills pause units for a very short amount time. While the duration increase on buffs is negligible this does effect gameplay as it will cause autoattacking unit to aquire a new target, unless the paused unit is the only valid target in range.

• Ball Lightning (Not enough mana)
• Demonic Conversion, Devour (Target is too high a level)
• Sprout, Recall, Astral Imprisonent (Target has -disablehelp enabled)
• Toss (No nearby valid units)
• Spirit Bear (Already Summoned)
• Nether Swap (Casting on Unpathable Terrian)
• Apothic Shield (Targeted on a Doomed unit)
• Vacuum (Invalid Target Point)
• Dark Rift, Charge of Darkness, Infest (Invalid Target)
• Freeze Hero (Hero still ingame)
• Haunt (No Image found)

31/05/2010
- Posted Guide
- added bladefury and unstuck

01/06/2010
- Added more detail, fixed some typos

02/06/2010
- Fixed rules to include all DoT not just AoE

22/06/2010
- Removed attacking targets from list that pause units

27/07/2011
- Updated list of spells that pause, added info about immolation and about fake pauses :Odont tell shinjo ( `-')

27/11/2011
- Added a minor note to Bladestorm.

[BorisPeace-]

Nice job Lemons (;

Edit: Doesn't Meat Hook pause Pudgie?

[DracoLich]

for .3 sec afaik

[SN0W37]

Meat hook is based on channel that disables other abilities and has a 0.4 follow through time. While the casting unit cannot be issued any new orders during this time, it will not pause the duration of any buffs placed on the unit so its not the same as pause.

[Robzor]

-unstuck pauses the hero of the player who activated the command.

Bladefury is interrupted by pause.

Can't think of anything more right now.

[Cáno]

Your anchors fail.

I think Pause is a pretty cool guide.

[SN0W37]

Lol anchors fail cause I just copy pastes phthola guide and changed his siznit.

Thanks for the complement

@Robby the zor:Thanks I forgot about unstuck.

@Everyone: Should I also include the 0.00 second pause that occurs when units do something bad like attack an ally, try to cast a spell in a blocked place etc. or just ignore it cause it has pretty much no effect?

[antiweltteilchen]

@Everyone: Should I also include the 0.00 second pause that occurs when units do something bad like attack an ally,

that's only a stop

try to cast a spell in a block place etc. or just ignore it cause it has pretty much no effect?

imo ignore it.

any idea about the transformation time stuff? i saw this youtube video with alche walking while torrented. as before i can't reproduce the chemical rage of dota in WE so i can't really test it out.

e: backtransform of chemical rage ignores pause. alchi so awesome.

[Black Isle]

SituationsPauseUnit(); Storm, Earth and Fire; Mirror Image; Unsummon Building; Freezing Breath of Wyrm's; Target unit of Town Portal, Channel Based Abilities when "Disable Other Abilities" field set to True that disable passive abilities in Warcraft 3 follow the same rules, that I explained in the Hex article. Maybe you should link to it :/

Pause grants immunity to most hardcoded damage over time abilties including Shackles, Tornado Damage Aura, Immolation, Flame Strike, Bladestorm and all others. Exceptions would be Life Drain and Cluster Rockets. You can also add a note about Spawn Spiderlings because people don't consider it as a damage over time spell, but you know the base ability.

Blade Dance What D: Bladestorm or Blade Fury :/

Some Pause sources:

Chronosphere
Torrent
Impales
Toss
Hookshot
Freeze Leaver Hero
Astral Imprisonment
Unstuck

Negligible ones, If you want to mention them don't bother to search (:

Item Attack Protection
X Marks the Spot
Ball Lightning ( Not enough mana )
Demonic Conversion, Devour ( Target level limit )
Black Hole ( per 0.05 second )
Sprout, Recall, Astral Imprisonent ( Target has -disablehelp on )
Spirit Bear ( Already Summoned )
Toss ( Cannot Toss to your units )
Nether Swap ( Unpathable )
Apothic Shield ( Targeted on a Doomed unit )
Vacuum ( Unpathable )
Dark Rift, Charge of Darkness, Infest ( Invalid Target )
Freeze Hero ( Hero still ingame )
Haunt ( No Image found )

Healing Salve and such will continue to work while unit is paused, thus increasing their efficiency with prolonged duration.

Paused units won't be attacked by enemies ( I am referring to AI of course ) as long as there are other valid targets. It's like attacking unit have higher priority than standing unit and standing unit have higher priority than a paused unit.

[SN0W37]

Originally Posted by nyu

SituationsPauseUnit(); Storm, Earth and Fire; Mirror Image; Unsummon Building; Freezing Breath of Wyrm's; Target unit of Town Portal, Channel Based Abilities when "Disable Other Abilities" field set to True that disable passive abilities in Warcraft 3 follow the same rules, that I explained in the Hex article. Maybe you should link to it :/

I didn't include these because thay aren't really pause. While they have similiar effects none of these effects pause the expiration timer of buffs which is one of the key feature of pause.

However after checking you hex guide I see that I missed some of the thing pause disables. I'll add them in rather than linking your guide, as it easier for the reader that way.

Originally Posted by nyu

Pause grants immunity to most hardcoded damage over time abilties including Shackles, Tornado Damage Aura, Immolation, Flame Strike, Bladestorm and all others. Exceptions would be Life Drain and Cluster Rockets. You can also add a note about Spawn Spiderlings because people don't consider it as a damage over time spell, but you know the base ability.

Pause only grants immunity to AoE duration damage, not all hardcoded duration damage skills. Thats why I included cluster rockets and shadow strike in the other effects section and not life. Also its not complete immunity as paused units will still take the 1 damage instance from the spells, as long as that damage is over 0.00.

For healing effects like salve and urn, I don't think I should mention since they act like any regular spell which has its duration timer paused.

For the abilities that pause units, I'm only going to include ones that pause for longer than 0.00 seconds. Also black hole doesn't pause the units, the disable is because of the SetUnitPosition() which order the target unit to stop.

[DeathSeeker]

Originally Posted by SN0W37

@Everyone: Should I also include the 0.00 second pause that occurs when units do something bad like attack an ally, try to cast a spell in a blocked place etc. or just ignore it cause it has pretty much no effect?

Yes you should. It has a useful effect that I finally know how to explain. As you said it yourself, when you get paused your priority gets minimal. That is useful against towers when they attack you with your creeps in range. Just give an attack order on your creep (undeniable) and the tower will change it's target. Similar can be done with range creeps (not as useful)

[SN0W37]

Agreed, added in the spells that only pause units for a single frame and added in the pause duration to the other list.

[Black Isle]

Originally Posted by SN0W37

I didn't include these because thay aren't really pause. While they have similiar effects none of these effects pause the expiration timer of buffs which is one of the key feature of pause.

I didn't said you should include them, just wanted to imply that Pause disables exactly same abilities as Hex. Well, no problem here.

Originally Posted by SN0W37

Pause only grants immunity to AoE duration damage, not all hardcoded duration damage skills. Thats why I included cluster rockets and shadow strike in the other effects section and not life. Also its not complete immunity as paused units will still take the 1 damage instance from the spells, as long as that damage is over 0.00.

1 damage? 0 damage instances still apply though, of course.

Picture: Shadow Strike > Pause > Heal > Others ( 4th buff is Parasite )

Exceptions are Life Drain and Cluster Rockets.

[SirWeedlington]

reading this has made me gain knowledge of absolutely everything about dota thanks

[mDREAMm]

Thank you,very useful guide.

[SN0W37]

thanks for input everyone

I updated to fix some errors and whatnot.

[antiweltteilchen]

actually pause is dodged for any transformation spell which uses unstoppable option, nto relevant to forward or backward transformation

[SN0W37]

Well I tested with metamorphosis with the uninteruptable set to to true and the unit still got paused. \:3/

I'll test to again.

edit: anti you should really stop testing with just chemical rage :P

[DracoLich]

snow37, cuz you dont gave me answer in Tower's AI topic, I want ask here.
Due to 0.00 sec pausing of unit, which try to attack ally, does it mean, that tower will ignore such "paused" unit if there are exist other valid targets?

[Cáno]

function Func0888 takes nothing returns nothing
  if not((Func0883(10)and IsUnitType(GetTriggerUnit(),UNIT_TYPE_STRUCTURE)==true and GetUnitTypeId(GetTriggerUnit())!='etol' and GetUnitTypeId(GetTriggerUnit())!='unpl')or(Func0883(25)and(GetUnitAbilityLevel(GetTriggerUnit(),'BNdo')>0 or GetUnitAbilityLevel(GetTriggerUnit(),'BEsh')>0 or GetUnitAbilityLevel(GetTriggerUnit(),'B0AQ')>0 or GetUnitAbilityLevel(GetTriggerUnit(),'B0AP')>0 or GetUnitAbilityLevel(GetTriggerUnit(),'B05D')>0 or GetUnitAbilityLevel(GetTriggerUnit(),'B05M')>0 or GetUnitAbilityLevel(GetTriggerUnit(),'B05N')>0 or GetUnitAbilityLevel(GetTriggerUnit(),'B05O')>0))or(Func0883(50)and IsUnitType(GetTriggerUnit(),UNIT_TYPE_HERO)==false and(IsUnitType(GetTriggerUnit(),UNIT_TYPE_STRUCTURE)==false or GetUnitTypeId(GetTriggerUnit())=='ebal' or GetUnitTypeId(GetTriggerUnit())=='e026' or GetUnitTypeId(GetTriggerUnit())=='umtw' or GetUnitTypeId(GetTriggerUnit())=='u00R'))or(GetUnitTypeId(GetTriggerUnit())=='u00S'))then
    call IssueImmediateOrder(GetAttacker(),"stop")
  endif
endfunction

Where's the pause here?
Correct it. It's weird because I also was convinced that it involved pause.