Why are auras so necessary?

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jsuslak313 wrote:

To be honest, I would never play a game that has no aura or aura-like skills.

But you played D1 and D2 I assume? Only Paladins had Auras. Barbs used shouts. Similar but technically a better mechanic if not just because you didn't turn on and forget.

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jsuslak313 wrote:

The whole "blessing" mechanic was DoA for me.

Blessings were in no way DOA. They were actually busted. They then killed them by making them cost too much mana. Only a few builds can get away with using them.

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jsuslak313 wrote:

Perhaps developers feel the same as me....it would be interesting to have a legit poll of player opinions on auras.

I doubt a lot of Devs enjoy Auras. I'm a dev and dislike anything that's click and forget.
GGG has just developed themselves into a corner on the issue catering to power fantasy.

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jsuslak313 wrote:

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feike wrote:

I feel its quite clear they are both balanced towards the time when flasks were temporary buffs you activated when things got intense and auras are balanced for old times when reservation was rare and most players only had 3 at most and had to choose between offensive and defensive auras. Devs plain didnt updated their power for the current reality of players having 100% uptime on flasks AND 6-ish auras(but instead, slowly, and maybe without noticing, balanced the whole game around perma flasks with 5 auras and now auras and flasks are near mandatory)

....except that GGG has nerfed both of these things HARD in the very recent past. They nerfed flask power over 50%. They nerfed reservation well over 50%. So it can't really be said that these things are from a "previous" balance time: they have been balanced and rebalanced multiple times in very recent history. GGG has recognized and shown that they KNOW its a problem.

The issue is that GGG can't balance things...

they did not nerf anything (maybe except granite in beta that gave 10k armour..)

they made them more expensive. flask effect, duration, charges - you CAN get the same power, but you need mageblood. your old flasks are there, you 'just' need to splurge 100+ divs

it is typical GGG 'solution' and a business strategy in one - do not nerf powerful things, just make them obscenely time consuming to get. 'want power? play for 4 weeks 8h a day. WORK for it..'

auras - the same thing. you can get more aura %effect than before. they only gutted alt qual auras and heralds. and in case of heralds - the only reason was that it was very cheap to build a 'harold' character, way cheaper than GGG wanted

same thing with minions - people cry all the time about minions getting gutted. true. but these people ran ubers on peanuts. the power is there, you 'just' have to craft obscene gear like everyone else

the only thing they nerf and dont give back is melee :) the shit they made SO BAD that nobody plays it anymore (and they go 'why?')


auras? grace and determination show just how shit are defences from items. you can go full banana with armour pieces and youll barely exceed 15k AR on non JUGG.

and true issue with auras is %aura effect

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sidtherat wrote:

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jsuslak313 wrote:

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feike wrote:

I feel its quite clear they are both balanced towards the time when flasks were temporary buffs you activated when things got intense and auras are balanced for old times when reservation was rare and most players only had 3 at most and had to choose between offensive and defensive auras. Devs plain didnt updated their power for the current reality of players having 100% uptime on flasks AND 6-ish auras(but instead, slowly, and maybe without noticing, balanced the whole game around perma flasks with 5 auras and now auras and flasks are near mandatory)

....except that GGG has nerfed both of these things HARD in the very recent past. They nerfed flask power over 50%. They nerfed reservation well over 50%. So it can't really be said that these things are from a "previous" balance time: they have been balanced and rebalanced multiple times in very recent history. GGG has recognized and shown that they KNOW its a problem.

The issue is that GGG can't balance things...

they did not nerf anything (maybe except granite in beta that gave 10k armour..)

they made them more expensive. flask effect, duration, charges - you CAN get the same power, but you need mageblood. your old flasks are there, you 'just' need to splurge 100+ divs

it is typical GGG 'solution' and a business strategy in one - do not nerf powerful things, just make them obscenely time consuming to get. 'want power? play for 4 weeks 8h a day. WORK for it..'

auras - the same thing. you can get more aura %effect than before. they only gutted alt qual auras and heralds. and in case of heralds - the only reason was that it was very cheap to build a 'harold' character, way cheaper than GGG wanted

same thing with minions - people cry all the time about minions getting gutted. true. but these people ran ubers on peanuts. the power is there, you 'just' have to craft obscene gear like everyone else

the only thing they nerf and dont give back is melee :) the shit they made SO BAD that nobody plays it anymore (and they go 'why?')


auras? grace and determination show just how shit are defences from items. you can go full banana with armour pieces and youll barely exceed 15k AR on non JUGG.

and true issue with auras is %aura effect

being able to push aura effect and reduced reservation at the same time was a mistake, It should be one or the other but never both.

thinking out loud but best approach i can think of would be to remove % increased aura effect from the tree and items and instead make auras have increased effect based on mana/life reserved say:

auras gain 1% increased effect every "x" flat amount of mana or life they reserve

nodes that granted increased effect of auras could be replaced with auras reserve an aditional 1% of mana

this should work for all auras including auras with flat reservation and auras from items/skills.

as an example using 10 nodes (+10%):

50% aura will have a base reservation of 60%

flat reservation aura will reserve 10% + the flat value

0 reservation (non blessing auras from items or skills) will now have a base reservation of 10% while active.

I think you all misunderstood my point....

I was merely pointing to the FACT that the devs DID address flask power AND aura power. I was responding to the comment that the devs NEVER addressed them, which is false. They have demonstrated that they KNOW these things are problems.

My next comment was that they failed...I am well aware that the flask nerf was made moot by the orbs and Mageblood, it was almost comical. I'm also aware that the maan reservation rework didn't REALLY change much functionally except the uber extreme aurastackers. This is pretty much true of every single nerf (rebalance...) that GGG has put into the game: within 2 leagues they have walked it completely back.

And yes, I played D1 and D2 and I am aware that only the paladin in D2 had permanent auras. My point was that, no matter what the OTHER characters had going for them, I personally always came back to the aura characters (Paladin for D2). I hated hated hated HATED shouts on Barbarian. It was actually my first experience with a timed buff and right from the beginning I absolutely loathed it. I would seek out D2 mods that made those time limits essentially disappear. Any Barb I made would not use shouts and I'd get by. At a certain point you don't REALLY need them....

Good vs Bad design is irrelevant to my own, PERSONAL, opinion. I simply don't like games that do not have permanent auras or permanent buffs (no matter how great or small). I'm not trying to pass this opinion onto others, I'm just stating that if GGG made blessings the default and removed regular auras...I would probably immediately stop playing and never look back. I am not looking to play a WoW clone where I need to micro 10/20 different timers and skills and crap just to make sure I'm dealing the most damage I can. As such, blessings were DoA TO ME.

The flask orbs that made it so you never had to piano was one of the best things ever introduced in this game. Trigger skills are my absolute favorite games. Lmb defensive skills are in every single one of my builds. If the build isn't 3 or max 4 buttons, you can bet I'm not playing it.

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slayerfum wrote:

I still to this day of playing this game still don't understand why auras are so embedded into this game and the balance of it.

What would be so wrong to nerf them and spread their power around the passive tree and onto equipment?

Or make them just single target buffs but limit them to like 3 per character so everybody can use them and have special exceptions on chase items to give an extra buff? Call them prayers or something and don't make them as broken as they are.

PS I love the ruthless change that determination lost its inherent armor # buff. I think this should go into base game and just spread it across the passive tree.

So what you are saying is to dig melee up from its grave and grind its bones into dust?