Auras should be supportable

Reduced Mana
It's beyond time to make this no longer a mandatory support for Auras, as well as making it useful for things which are not Auras. The mana cost multiplier should be further reduced, making it even stronger than it was before in terms of cost reduction... however, it should also gain something along the lines of "Supported Auras have 20% less Effect." So, yes, you get your Aura cheaper, but now it's watered-down compared to its normal strength.

Increased Area of Effect
Seems like it could potentially be a very fun support for Auras — and for other skills as well, although virtually no one uses it. This support should be changed to have its mana cost multiplier reduced significantly, or perhaps not have a mana cost multiplier at all.

Concentrated Effect
This skill gem should apply to Auras; the supported Aura reserves 60% more than it did before, but has up to 69% more Effect. This would give players interesting decisions; for example, "do I want three auras, or two auras with more effect each?"

Enhance
Currently, the quality bonus on Auras is a very dull "% increased Area of Effect." Auras would be a lot more interesting if they had more interesting quality bonuses, allowing GCPs and the Enhance support to do different things to them. For example, imagine if Discipline's quality bonus granted increased Energy Shield Cooldown Recovery to those under its umbrella — the idea of having minions regenerate their ES faster might appeal to some, allowing them to get a use out of the aura they normally wouldn't. Anger's quality might give allies a x% increase to Fire Damage, allowing fire-based casters to get some benefit out of it while also strengthening the attack-damage bonus which it provides. With other Auras, such as Haste, it might be best to remove one buff from the main effect of the Aura, such as Movement Speed, and instead make it a quality-related thing; in exchange, the remaining Aura buffs would be increased.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

Reduced Mana
It's beyond time to make this no longer a mandatory support for Auras, as well as making it useful for things which are not Auras. The mana cost multiplier should be further reduced, making it even stronger than it was before in terms of cost reduction... however, it should also gain something along the lines of "Supported Auras have 20% less Effect." So, yes, you get your Aura cheaper, but now it's watered-down compared to its normal strength.

Well... last aura change did the exact opposite.

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Reduced Mana
It's beyond time to make this no longer a mandatory support for Auras, as well as making it useful for things which are not Auras.

Agreed, Scrotie. GGG should increase aura-support gem diversity.

A clever way to phase out Reduced Mana without actually removing it:
Change some auras, or all auras, or add a keystone, or add a unique item, that correlates the effect produced, to some function of mana reserved (as a percentage, not flat value).

Of course, it'd mean another aura overhaul, but it'd have a much more interesting effect than the last one, I think.

I don't think you need to overhaul everything for Reduced Mana, just giving the gem "x% less Effect of supported Auras" while boosting the current benefits (such that Reduced Mana + aura is about as strong as it is now, but without RM it's stronger) would suffice.

I think the only one of the four in the OP which would require an overhaul is making Enhance do something.

Ideas for Aura Quality Bonuses (for Enhance)
Anger/Wrath/Hatred: % increased [element] Damage (works on spells)
Clarity: % Physical Damage Leeched as Mana
Vitality: % Physical Damage Leeched as Life
Haste: % Move Speed (removed from leveling effect; Attack/Cast speeds boosted to compensate)
Discipline: Energy Shield Cooldown Recovery
Determination: Increased Block Chance (does not allow blocking where there was not before)
Grace: Chance to Dodge Spells (not Attacks)
Purity of [element]: % increased maximum [element] resistance (removed from leveling effect)
Purity of Elements: removed from the game, replaced with Purity of Chaos

As a side note, Hatred and Determination are both stupid OP and should probably be changed to flat values rather than percentages. (Determination is mostly stupid OP in tandem Grace and Iron Reflexes, rather than by itself, but that's irrelevant.) Vitality should probably be made flat just to fit in.

SCrotie. There is almost no skills (there are a few) where people would want a RM gem in it. Why? Because its a dea gem. It is like mana leech but not as effective. It means that you are using a skill gem slot (expensive) to just reduce the cost of a skill so its easier to use. But why? You could just improve your mana so you can use it, then use the skill gem slot for life leech (survival)/damage

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Real_Wolf wrote:

It is like mana leech but not as effective.

I understand that, and I'm not bothered that Mana Leech reigns supreme within its own little niche. What bothers me are the skills which cost lots of mana but for which Mana Leech fundamentally is not an option — totems, traps, minions, curses, etc. RM should find some kind of viability in there somewhere.

Whole heartedly agree.

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CanHasPants wrote:

A clever way to phase out Reduced Mana without actually removing it...

Contrary to what many seem to think, Reduced Mana is useful for a number of high-cost skills, not just for making auras affordable. GGG should simply lower the 60% auras to 45% mana reservation, the 40% auras to 30%, and revise Reduced Mana to have no effect on auras.

What I'd like to see is a 'spread' gem, which makes your aura affect allies at reduced effectivity. As it is, they're simply too effective in parties and on summons.

Something like that has already been done in Sacred 2, and it was a much more significant decision than here, it was a permanent modification, you would decide in advance if you're making a solo or a party char.