i do know this was discussed before, and TECHNICALLY you cant change the type, but you can get veery close by applying new images with the ability, and to have the ability cause specific buffs/debuffs that are permanent (or millions of minutes long, which in all practicality is permanent)

If you were using particle effects... You could create an alpha mesh that blanks out the previous mesh.

Unfortunately, it creates peculiar abnormalities, and it would look quite odd as it would cancel ALL meshes near the effect, not to mention the lag that might be created.