Buff prevention debuffs Q&A

SunRice

Hey,
Gratz with the end of a war season y'all.
Talking about the AW season 40, there will be a lot of interaction with buffs and ways to deal with them. My question is the mechanics and application differences between Fateseal, Stagger and Neutralize.

Fateseal - debuff that expires as soon as the buff (active) would have been triggered or by its natural timer.
Neutralize = debuff that prevents any buffs (active) from being activated.
Stagger = Fateseal or Neutralize?

Thanks

Pikolu

Stagger = stagger. It is an effect that removes the next buff the enemy has. It isn't a neutralize nor is it a fate seal. It also isn't a nullify either because it works on Galan.

Furrymoosen

You’ve got fate seal confused with stagger.
Fate seal is an effect that removes all active buffs from the opponent and prevents any new buffs from being gained while fate seal is active.
Neutralize is also a bit different than how you have stated. Neutralize does not actually prevent buffs from being gained, rather it reduces the chance of them being gained by a certain percentage (commonly -100%), so an opponent with increased ability accuracy can get around neutralize.
As Pikolu said, stagger is an effect (debuff or passive) that removes the next buff gained after the stagger has been placed.

K00shMaan

Staggers are also consumed when triggered and subsequently are also stackable because of this.

Magrailothos

As above.

Also, none of these is intrinsically a "debuff". Stagger, Fate Seal and Neutralise all exist as both Passive and Active effects:

Most Champions who inflict Fate Seal (Ghost Rider, Dr Strange) inflict Fate Seal debuffs, but Hood (plus several nodes) inflicts a Passive Fate Seal.

Stagger is the opposite - most champions (Hood, Juggernaut, Doom, etc) inflict Passive versions of Stagger; whilst nodes like Staggering Beauty inflict Stagger debuffs.

Wiccan inflicts a Neutralise debuff if he gets Parried, or a Neutralise Passive on his MLLLL combo.