Consolidate Aura related skills into a single trait line

[Kyon.9735]

Warrior's Hammer and Mace traits are being consolidated into a single trait next patch (Merciless Hammer). For Elementalist, the aura related traits are scattered among different trait lines. What are the general thoughts about consolidating them into a single trait line (not a single trait), Arcane maybe? Then replace the old traits being moved to Arcane with new ones that synergize more with the Element.

 

It kind of makes sense that there is a specific trait line that specializes in Auras. However, one issue I see is that some people might raise is that we'll be going back to 2012-2014(?) Elementalist diversity issue again wherein 1 trait line (Water) was so good that it became mandatory to take if you want to survive. Another issue is that the design for both Tempest and Catalyst (on a lesser note) revolve around auras, which again would make the new trait line "Mandatory" for most of the builds for these 2 specs.

 

Thoughts?

 

P.S - I myself am not sure if it would be a good change overall.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Kyon.9735

[the krytan assassin.9235]

It definitely would be a good change (and quite some people have already mentioned it over the years) arcane traitline definitely is the way to go since its the class specific traitline (and aura's have become pretty much ele specific). Besides that some of the current traits severely lack in flavor atm. 

 

I personally would like to see powerful aura being added to the Grandmaster traitline instead of elemental surge (it lacks flavor and its effect is pretty bad). 

Smothering aura's should become a master trait instead of final shielding (since the trait is designed for PvP and they nerfed it to oblivion over there). (Increase of Fire aura duration can either be removed or applied to other aura's aswell)

New adept arcane trait instead of arcane precision since the current effect is very minimal, doesn't provide any flavor and arcane traitline doesn't offer any condi synergy atm: elemental aura's now grant an extra boon: resistance on earth, Fury on air, might on fire and resolution on water (some Fury in arcane line is definitely needed for support Tempest). Zephyr's boon (air adept) should provide superspeed instead of Fury&swiftness. 

 

Also for arcane traitline: swap arcane resurrection with soothing disruption. It makes so much more sense to put a resurrection trait in the water traitline while putting reduced cd on cantrips+vigor makes more sense in arcane traitline. 

 

This way the arcane traitline serves multiple purposes/synergies:

Aura synergy, benefits for swapping attunements, 

Promote mobility and cantrips usage,

personal/party wide boon support/boon synergy. 

 

p.s. little off-topic but "eye of the storm" definitely deserves its own air aura aswell. 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by the krytan assassin.9235

[The Boz.2038]

Axe their number to two at most. Have one in core, and one in one elite spec. Focus especs better.

[Sahne.6950]

So you are proposing.... to put every aura trait...... into a single traitline..... 

so by picking arcane i will get:

-Protection on auras

-Cleanse on auras

-(longer auras)?

-(aurashare aswell!??)

 

okey..... ontop i also get shorter switches, boons on attunement swaps.... hummmm quite alot of value in a single traitline, dont you think?

 

well..... this idea is bad bad.

Currently you have to decide what you want and need.... Cleanse? take fire! Protection? Take earth! offensive boons) take air! Want to share the auras? Take water!

Every element grants the auras effects, that make sense considering the theme of the specific element. It also means you have to think about tradeoffs, because you cant slot them all together....

.....being able to have ALL OF THAT simultaneously.... IS BONKERS. Now we add Catalyst ontop so we also get stabi for every aura..... and we officially created a monster.  BIG NOPE.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Sahne.6950

[Bast.7253]

1 hour ago, Sahne.6950 said:

So you are proposing.... to put every aura trait...... into a single traitline..... 

so by picking arcane i will get:

-Protection on auras

-Cleanse on auras

-(longer auras)?

-(aurashare aswell!??)

 

okey..... ontop i also get shorter switches, boons on attunement swaps.... hummmm quite alot of value in a single traitline, dont you think?

 

well..... this idea is bad bad.

Currently you have to decide what you want and need.... Cleanse? take fire! Protection? Take earth! offensive boons) take air! Want to share the auras? Take water!

Every element grants the auras effects, that make sense considering the theme of the specific element. It also means you have to think about tradeoffs, because you cant slot them all together....

.....being able to have ALL OF THAT simultaneously.... IS BONKERS. Now we add Catalyst ontop so we also get stabi for every aura..... and we officially created a monster.  BIG NOPE.

 

 

Moving them all to one would make it the go to for all elementalist specs. 
 

I do think they could be consolidated a bit though. Protection on gaining an aura seems a bit dumb anyway considering how many other sources of protection there are baseline. 
 

The frost aura on receiving a crit is kind of meh too as frost aura, outside or chill application, isn’t even that great. 
 

Aura share being widely available would be really fun, but would also be extremely op in team fights as it already can be. 

[Downstate.4697]

Considering all viable ele builds rely on aura traits in some way I dont think moving them into one spot is the way to go. Outside of magnetic and shocking auras, they arent even a problem.

[the krytan assassin.9235]

Lets not pretend there's an amazing build diversity when it comes to aurashare builds. I'd say atleast 95% of all aurashare builds are running the same traits: Tempest/cata combined with water and fire. This is especially painful in wvw/pvp where Tempest is basically forced to pick fire with almost no further usage then smothering auras

Combining powerful aura and smothering auras into the same traitline would allow for alot more build diversity since it opens up a traitline. 

Just tune down some of the aura traits if necessary, but people are dmn tired of running the same traitlines in WvW 

 

[Sahne.6950]

9 hours ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

Tempest is basically forced to pick fire with almost no further usage then smothering auras

huh!?

and here i am, using Conjurer trait, to gain 2 extra fireauras when picking up the shield and to reduce the cooldowns.... Also i take blinding ashes to blind everyone every 8 seconds.... 

You better appreciate those two traits my man... your missing out! 

Blinding ashes is SOOO GOOD! if you have fireaura, every persons opener will miss, because they get burned for hitting you and therefore get blinded. This means that every persons first attack towards you is always a miss, and then every 8 seconds they miss another skill. This alone makes you pretty slippery.

Conjurer paired with elemental bastion means you also get 1,7k hp extra from your Earthshield... There is so much unappreciated value! Conjurer overall is pretty bonkers! 20% more Earthshield skills..... I TAKE IT!

Saying that only smothering auras is great is a understatement to say the least 😄

Edited September 27, 2022 by Sahne.6950

[crosknight.3041]

personally i like each trait line adding some kind of flavor to auras, though i do think the traits themselves should be moved around or changed.
-fire, should be an offensive trait as well as might generation. probably make the trait also automatically detonate auras 1s before they expire,
-water, CONTROVERSIAL OPINION but i think elemental bastion heal auras should be moved here
-Earth, change from protection to barrier on aura gain.
-air, fine as is. maybe a little more offensive potential
-arcane, used to further increase auras effect, such as increasing their duration, detonation strength and effect strength (including from other aura traits, thinking around 20%-25%. possibly add new effects to existing auras)
-Tempest, as stated with water, move heal auras to water. make aura grandmaster trait ALACRITY
-Catalyst, you got 2% damage reduction trait on aura gain (5 stacks), 2% damage increase on aura gain (5 stacks), and stability on aura gain traits. a selfish auramancer compared to tempests. personally would prefer to change the aura traits to something working with their sphere. like something when your aura is detonated/expires you gain energy or sphere duration increased by 2s (doubled if same elemental aura)

Powerful auras should be removed, and all aura granting weapon skills should have an ally target count of 5.

[Kyon.9735]

I thought it would be obvious that there should be other trait changes after consolidating the aura traits into a single trait line. 

1. Consolidating traits doesn't mean that traits would be simply slapped together and combined. 

2. Not all Aura traits will be moved, and those traits not moved will be reworked. 

3. Some E-Spec specific Aura traits will stay or will need to be reworked.

Some examples:

Staunch Auras for Catalyst - You don't include this in the consolidated traits. Let's say we want the consistent stability access in Catalyst only. Instead of triggering stability from auras, change the effect to proc Stability when doing combo finishers (ICD per attunement will remain). The meta PvP build which is hammer only has Immutable Stone (Earth 4) as an aura generating weapon skill. All of Hammer Catalyst stability procs come from auras generated by doing combo finishers which generate the auras (Elemental Epitome) anyway. After that, rework Immutable Stone. Make it a combo finisher upon getting hit. This would look like a straight up nerf for Immutable Stone but I think Catalyst design should be based on combo finishers instead of Auras anyway. 

Hardened Auras for Catalyst - Change trait (and name) to gain damage reduction stacks when doing a combo finisher. Else, can also fully rework this trait. 

Empowering Auras for Catalyst - Change trait (and name) to gain increased outgoing damage stacks when doing a combo finisher. 

Invigorating Torrents for Tempest. This can probably stay in Tempest as the E-Spec is designed to have the ability to further strengthen Auras if you choose to anyway. There are existing Tempest builds that doesn't focus on Auras too. 

I know there are a lot of even better ideas out there. 

And yes, I fully agree that this is a big fail if nothing else is adjusted and we blindy consolidated aura traits. Which is why I'd like to see what people think about this but it seems I was not clear enough since people thought we'd be simply moving and combining traits. Yes, that would definitelt create a monster if done that way.