WoW API: UnitBuff

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Retrieves info about a certain buff on a certain unit. This is essentially an alias of UnitAura with the "HELPFUL" filter.

name, rank, icon, count, debuffType, duration, expirationTime, unitCaster, isStealable, 
shouldConsolidate, spellId = UnitBuff("unit", [index] or ["name", "rank"][, "filter"]) 

Arguments

unitId

String - The unit to query information for

index or name

Number or string - The index or name of the buff to retrieve information for. Indices start at 1 and go up indefinitely until there are no more buffs on target.

filter

String - zero or more of "PLAYER", "RAID", "CANCELABLE", "NOT_CANCELABLE", separated by pipe ("|") or space characters.

Returns

name

String - The name of the spell or effect of the buff, or nil if no buff was found with the specified name or at the specified index. This is the name shown in yellow when you mouse over the icon.

rank

String - The rank line from the tooltip of the spell or effect that caused the buff, e.g. "Rank 2". Returns "" if there is no rank.

iconTexture

String - The identifier of (path and filename to) the indicated buff.

count

Number - The number of times the buff has been applied to the target.

debuffType

String - The magic type of the buff

duration

Number - The full duration of the buff in seconds

expirationTime

Number - Time the buff will expire in seconds

source

String - The unit that cast the buff

isStealable

Boolean - 1 if it is stealable otherwise nil

shouldConsolidate

Boolean - 1 if the buff should be placed in a buff consolidation box (usually long-term effects).

spellId

Number - spell ID of the aura.

Example

local buffs, i = { }, 1;
local buff = UnitBuff("player", i);
while buff do
  buffs[#buffs + 1] = buff;
  i = i + 1;
  buff = UnitBuff("player", i);
end;
if #buffs < 1 then
  buffs = "You have no buffs";
else
  buffs[1] = "You're buffed with: "..buffs[1];
  buffs = table.concat(buffs, ", ");
end;
DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(buffs);

Macro Options:

1. Prints the names of all buffs on the current target:

/run for i=1,40 do local B=UnitBuff("target",i); if B then print(i.."="..B) end end

2. Prints the name, icon texture, and time left for all buffs on the player.

/run for i=1,40 do local n,_,icon,_,_,dur,x,_,_=UnitBuff("player",i);if n then print(i.."="..n..", "..icon..", "..format("%.2f",-1*(GetTime()-x)/60).." minutes left.")end end

History

• Patch 1.9 added castable to the list of parameters.
• Patch 2.0 added name and rank return values.
• Patch 2.1 added duration and timeLeft return values.
• Patch 2.3.2 changed behaviour of castable parameter - spells cast by other players are no longer shown at all when castable is used. Bug or intented change?
• Patch 2.4 (PTR 8089-enGB) changed (again) behaviour of castable parameter - spells cast by other classes are no longer shown at all when castable is used. Tested with druid and priest spells, MacOSX client. Needs to be confirmed.
• Patch 2.4 (Live) has corrected the bug introduced in 2.3.2. The castable parameter correctly filters non-castable buffs once again.
• Patch 3.0 updated the return values.
• Patch 3.1 changed the boolean return value isMine to the string value source.

See also

UnitDebuff

HOWTO: Identify Buffs Using Textures

List of known buff and debuff effects that can be queried