BM and Auras - one of GGG's better jokes

"Blood Magic is very strong because the auras are so powerful and the mana reservation can be mitigated very heavily using passives, items and the support gem.", Chris Wilson, October 2013.

I respectfully disagree, Chris. I'm near the end of Merciless and can't afford to run a single aura. And I'm feeling the effects of it, so far I managed through some experience and small amount of skill, and also some good twinked gear, but even that is not enough to carry me further.

I've invested heavily in reduced reservation skill points, and let me tell you, that is not cheap, as they are all over the place, and I still can't run one aura efficiently.

Just take a look at my passive tree, Chris. What else can I do, I traveled all over the damned tree to end up with 33% reduced mana reserved and 30% less reservation.

At best I could spend 6 more passives for additional 10% reduced, but what am I going to do then - we are talking about 16 skill points invested so I could run one aura. And at what cost?



Current build:

- 60 * (1-0,33)*0,7 * 0,71 (lvl 20 RM gem) = 19,9% life reserved for one aura!

Take it step further, and invest additional 6 points into additonal 10% reduced reservation:

- 60 * (1-0,43)*0,7 * 0,71 (lvl 20 RM gem) = 16,9% life reduced. Probably acceptable, but at what cost?

What character can afford to go all over the passive tree like this, to spend so many skill points in mana reservations, just to end up with one aura and 17% less health? And be better for going BM?

Chris, I hope that was a good hearthed joke. This is probably my first and last BM build in 1.0.

The new notable should be 60% less. This would give you 11, 4% aura reservation with a build that has 33% reduced reservation from other passives and lvl 20 reduced mana. I feel this would be a fair value for BM users.

After all, with BM you are giving up on one valueable resource so your life is more important to you then is the mana to non BM user. BM builds should get more for a single point of their resource and would be able to run two auras for a price of almost quarter of their healths. And this certainly wouldn't be overpowered as you already have non BM builds running two auras by simply using BM gems. Actually, I'm starting to regret building a BM build and not simply using a BM gem.

I think power of BM comes in the form of being able to not use the BM/ML support gem to support attacks. Most players will never get a 6L, but a 5L is doable, and with 1 socket for ths skill and another socket for the resource-gain support, it doesnt' leave much options.

BM-keystones are able to stack more DPS than otherwise possible, but the problem comes in with defense. BM-keystone favors high-AS builds like DW builds or high-mana cost skills like EA builds. Otherwise, the normal reserve 2 auras on mana is better.

Problem with the current form of BM is that it still costs way too much life to reserve a single aura for either Grace or Determination. With my passives and a lvl 19 RM, I can reduce the 60% Grace aura down to 26% (rounded up from 25.XX). 26% of life is nowhere near acceptable, and to put it into perspective, my DW cycloner has around 5k life, and with Grace enabled, I have 3.8k life left. That's really preposterous, and I had to spec out of Elemetal Adapation to get more life nodes by the Scion tree. Build here:



The fact that I have to spend a lot of points to get the Sovereignty notable is not really acceptable to make a single aura work.

The notable behind BM should either be strengthened or grant an additional bonus like +300 flat life or 20% more life or something.

you can run clarity just fine. end troll mode.


On a more seious note. I won't argue your math about the final life% reserved, but maybe they thought you're not allowed or it is not needed to run more than 1 aura on BM. Seeing that you took most of the reserve passives though, that doesn't leave you with many points for life% nodes.

Lets just say that an auraca costs you 20% of HP then to do content somewhat with ease you wouldn't need about 4k hp left? that would men you need a total of 5k HP before you run that 1 aura.

Yeah i don't think 1k hp is equal to 1 aura, even though that aura effectivenss would be buffed by some percentage.

But maybe BM is fine and you don't need any auras yourself, i nwhich case you are forced to party? Is that the intention of BM now?

My plan was to go for aura 's and minions, I'm kinda tanky now, act 1 merc but I do little damage and my minions are weak. I can run two aura's and have 20% life left and still be tanky but I doubt I'll make it through a2.

Iron grip is just temporary, till my minions improv.e

Well, BM was indeed overpowered and should be nerfed. Also, aura based builds have been targeted to get nerfed since the end of malachai's/covenant/alpha's howl exploit.

I run a mana based char and I cant run 2 auras either. BM spend a precious resource to work: life. So true. But I get killed if my mana runs out and I cant use my skills. I also have to invest in both, life regen/amount and mana regen/amount. How is that easier?

People seem to think that going BM is like "OMG I spend life instead of mana, poor me, I must get a big reward because of it!". Its not like that. Its a convenience of investing on life regen/amount only, which used to be far too much powerfull and exploited.

I agree, however, that became way too hard to run a single aura with BM and that should be changed. However, if it becomes easily feasible to run 2 auras with BM, make it so mana based chars also are able to do it.


Edit: or make more Soul Taker-like weapons available.

Hmm, I wouldn't agree with that. By going BM, you are sacrificing one type of resource, that you could otherwise use either as additional life (through Mana shield) or for running Auras (take for example nugi's build who is running two auras and still has enough mana to spam ST).

By going BM, you only have one type of resource, and this resources is used for defenses, for casting skills and for aura reservation. You SHOULD be getting more for 1 point of life then the non BM guy gets for 1 point of mana.

I agree that malachai exploit was op, but it was just that - exploit. The problem wasn't in the power of BM, but in bugs/exploits that allowed it to be so powerful.

I am convinced that 12,5% life reserved for one aura would be a fair value. You could run 2 auras for 1/4 of your health, which is not insignificant. I'm also of opinion that BM build should always be able to run more auras than non BM builds. If non BM can run 2 auras with heavy passive investement, BM should be able to run 3 with the same investement.

As it is now, even with heavy investement in reduced reservation nodes, you will need min 20% to run an aura. We are talking about 1000 health on a 5k health character. You are better of using the points you would otherwise spend in reduced reservation nodes, and invest them in additional life. 5500-6000 life without auras or 4000 life with grace? What would you choose?

I actually have a feedback thread about it.

my main conclusion is the auras need to change.
some auras should keep being 60%, others can be 30-40%, and some can have a fixed cost just like in Open Beta.

that node behind Blood Magic though, sure does need one hell of a buff.

I think nobody here and in similar topics don't expect to run 3auras with BM like before. But having almost no possibility to run even ONE aura with BM is joke. It's even problematic for mana builds without taking eldritch battery.

Anyway, I think it limited build possibilities by a lot. I'm tired of seeing those spectral throw eldritch battery builds (probably 80% of players are playing it). Why? With blood magic "nerf" (read Auras rebalancing), a BM fans run for most powerfull skill - a spectral throw. I'm fine with it, people play builds that they are "forced" to play by narrowing the pool of other solid and viable builds.

I think that aura rebalancing thing was done terribly wrong.. It almost didn't fix the problem (builds with 4-6 auras) because and now there can be difference of 3auras between particular builds.

Let be honest, 3auras vs 6auras and 0auras vs 3buffed auras it's even worse than before.

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Odoakar wrote:

Hmm, I wouldn't agree with that. By going BM, you are sacrificing one type of resource, that you could otherwise use either as additional life (through Mana shield) or for running Auras

Two things: first, as is mana shield sucks big time because, unless you have an insane pool of mana (with eldritch battery for instance), almost any hit on a non-armor based char will remove all your mana, leaving you without any skills to use and that's deadly. No mana is often as deadly as low life. No advantage there.

Second, you DO have to invest in life AND mana to make your char running properly in a mana based char (non eldritch battery, ofc) and run auras. In BM builds its a win-win situation: you can invest in life to get more life AND more auras.

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Odoakar wrote:

I'm also of opinion that BM build should always be able to run more auras than non BM builds. If non BM can run 2 auras with heavy passive investement, BM should be able to run 3 with the same investement.

I disagree. As the closed beta showed, BM users are usually much stronger than others. Why? Because if you can add an extra purity aura, you save passive points from investing in ele resist, if you can run an extra haste, you do not nedd so much investment in increase attack speed... and so on. Hence these points can be invested in more life/dmg/whatever.