Variable/trigger question (dont think its possible)

Heyas

I made an ability for my hero which basically does this, when the hero uses the ability flame thrower he will get phoenix fire for 30 seconds..how i made them level/use it was

hero learns an ability
ability equal to flame thrower
set variable flame thrower +1

and when the hero used it
hero uses ability
ability equal to flame thrower
and whatever the variable was set to , was the level of phoenix fire he was going to get, so i had ot make 3 seperate phoenix fire

here's the question thats quite frustrating, how am i going to make this ability multiplayer for an 8 player game, without making 8 different set of triggers using 8 variables, one for each player? the way i see it(correct me if im wrong, in which i usually am :P), is cause everyone is sharing the variable and if a marine gets level 3 flame thrower, another player who also picked the marine who gets a level 1 flame thrower will still get level 3 phoenix fire, help!

Use an array... variable[owner of (player number of (casting unit))]

Doesn't work well if the spell lasts over time, though.

how exactly am i to add the array? i mean like, am i supposed to set it to something at map initialization?

EDIT: nm i just got it, thanks :)