Chosen Auras

[Axerker]

What three Auras does everyone run on their Chosen?

I've seen a lot of people recommend some that I wouldn't consider too great at end game, but people swear by them (and others consider them laughable).

Personally, I like percentage-based auras over flat amounts for the most part.

In Priority of use (not taking into account specific situations, just overall):

1. 25% Heal Reduction Debuff
2. 25% Slower Cast Speed Debuff
3. (118) All Resist Debuff and (236) Buff
4. (75) Toughness Debuff and (75) Buff
5. (20) AP per 5 seconds drain and (20) Buff
6. (75) Strength Debuff and (75) Buff
7. Reflect 46 Spirit Damage on spell cast
8. (99) Spirit Damage every 3 seconds
9. Heal for 24 over 3 seconds after defending an attack (is this block/parry/disrupt only?)

I just feel that the flat amounts are wasted at end game compared to the benefit of percentage auras. As your gear gets better, the flat stat auras get worse in terms of percentage of benefit. The Strength aura only benefits physical DPS classes (and sorta Tanks), but does debuff enemy physical DPS - but not casters. Toughness is luckily pretty universal and can be pretty good to help out your squishies while also increasing the damage on enemies for your group. I place All Resist over Toughness only because its easier to get Toughness than Resists, and the Resist buff is doubled.

25% Slower cast is essentially 25% less damage on any spells that require casting times, and the Heal Reduction is pretty universally great - but everyone seems to hate it. It essentially makes all enemy heals cost 25% more AP, since they will need to cast a 5th spell instead of 4 to heal for the same amount. A lot of tactics apply a 50% healing debuff, which may or may not stack. If it does, that's pretty great in my book. If it doesn't, those skills are only ever single target anyways (except maybe a few skills, I'm not sure), and a lot of PvP healing is AoE.

Personally, I have no idea how the Heal on defend works. If it is just anytime you take damage, that can be pretty decent, I guess. But if it only triggers on blocks, parries, or disrupts, its pretty crap. Especially at such a low heal amount. I could see maybe 24 instantly, but over 3 seconds is just garbage. Just plain garbage. That's only 8 per second. Does it stack? If you get hit 10 times in 1 second, does it heal you for 240 over 3 seconds? Even if it does, that's still crap in my opinion.

Just wanted to get other people's thoughts on what they run, or what has been really effective against them.

[GodlessCrom]

Heal debuff is only on incoming heals, and does not stack with other incoming heal debuffs. In other words, its useless if you have any mdps (or squigs) at all near you, as they almost all will be specced for incoming hdebuff. Single-target pressure is what gets kills, assuming you're talking about small-group/scs, so aoe matters less. For WBs it is different, not sure if any Chosen run it there (though I still suspect not).

[KikkL]

Arnt auras kotb/chosen, getting some kind of change in next patch?

Any hints?

[gke96]

toughness-resist absolutely neccesary in all setups for chosen
for 6man just run AP-resist-toughness
for warband it depends there are many options, but still all groups have toughness-resist must
for warband at least 1 chosen will open healdebuff and buildtime increase in warband

[Jerkling]

it all depends on what you are doing. if you're doing solo pve Dreadful Agony, Corrupting Retribution [Block/Parry/Dodge/Disrupt] and Discordant Instability are key to mass pulls and your own survivablity as you dish out decent dmg (overall) and get a nice self heal. orvr wise it depends on the overall strategy - Dreadful Terror, Corrupting Horror and Discordant Turbulence are great for shutting down enemy healers but if you don't have the much needed support to pull that off you'll just die in a blaze of notsomuchglory. the basic aura loadout Dreadful Fear, Corrupting Wrath and (again) Discordant Instability will help you in any orvr/sc situation as it ups the overall survivability of your group. and i guess there is also other loadouts for all kinds of situtation...

[Axerker]

Heal debuff is only on incoming heals, and does not stack with other incoming heal debuffs. In other words, its useless if you have any mdps (or squigs) at all near you, as they almost all will be specced for incoming hdebuff. Single-target pressure is what gets kills, assuming you're talking about small-group/scs, so aoe matters less. For WBs it is different, not sure if any Chosen run it there (though I still suspect not).

Ah, figured they didn't stack. Even still, they are typically only single target. You're correct in that most fights are focusing on killing a single target then moving to the next, other than a WB. I would probably run the Heal debuff in a WB, just because the usefulness increases a lot since healers in WBs almost explicitly spam AoE heals because its so wide-spread and most of your group goes out of range anyways. Healers can't be chasing people around just to put a HoT on them.

I made the list for an "overall efficacy" because each situation would need its own list, and I didn't want to put 3-4 lists, lol. The build time debuff is pretty meh in a lot of scenarios, because oRvR is mainly built around DoT'ing everyone, rather than spamming a 2s cast on a single target. SCs are a bit less DoT heavy than oRvR, and tend to sit stationary and try to snipe people with cast times. DoTs are the highest damage and AP efficient, so a lot of casters will forgo cast times and nuking down a single target to build damage better overall. Depends on the player/setting.

With that, I'd probably drop the 25% cast time for Toughness in a WB for sure. Especially because its only within 30 feet. Not many casters are using cast-time spells at under 30 feet from the tank.

[Skullgrin]

Something else you may want to take into account when choosing which auras to run are the points you have spent in each skill tree.
If i'm running with full Path of Dread skills then I make sure to I use Dreadful Fear (you get 120 str with 15 points vs. 75 str with nothing in the tree). The bonuses added from skill point allocation increase the viability of the base stat aura past those of the percentage auras.

I also make sure to run a Discord aura (usually Discordant Instability) when I plan on using Blast Wave, as it adds a 75 point wound debuff with the aura activated. Combined with The Quickened Discord tactic this gives you the ability to debuff your opponents health by 750 pretty much at will.

[Tesq]

mah there is a talk regarding go with all base aura due that being the bast way in small scale to reduces inc dmg for group since melee train have an edge vs rdps; in sc run also str aura help lower the enemy melee dmg which you should worry about especially slayer (with shitons of multiplers), is not mandatory you spec in mastery because any value tough and str aura may have they add vs melee , so dosent matter what the 2 you boost vs melee; of course tough provide better defense vs other classes as well.

but auras debuff only what is inside range so.

ap/heal debuff wont work on rdps anyway.

even when you get close ap are not the main problem of a rdps /healer in that moment and even if they where an ap pot for the few second they may die or save themself is enough and anyway is only 4 ap every 5 sec definetly not somehitn life treatening for the time tehy stay inside your aura range.

the heal debuff is only a debuff aura so every second you stay away from the enemy is a wasted slot. also when you are near other dps may have 50% heal debuff(which invalidate yours)

chosen is outgoing
kobs is incoming

remember the difference, anyway they dont stack with debuff of same kind and usually they are used in rvr when you play in wb because they are aoe effect.

Usually all mastery points auras are all worth to be spec in rvr same goes for cast time increase; you need to be near the healers or caster and even that the radious is few and wont matter vs other classes. Hold the line alredy provide enough defense vs caster so again is the same talk about how in small scale melee are more treatening and even if you go in melee vs rdps then you aredy have an huge advantage.

basically due redundancy with mara /bg for wounds debuff and his high cost if there no sm/bw you may opt to drop resistences aura and get heal aura (heal+ap for kobs) because you have no need resistences and wounds debuff.

This basically lead chosen to spec anti melee (tough +str+ heal/resistences/ap/healdebuff

this anyway dont remove the fact that whaever you pick you loose 6 skill becuase you can only use 3 at time which mean due small scalee build is better use mastery points elsewhere rather than buy auras /while is doable in rvr build because you build more def and so you need to jump less around masterys.

aoe dmg is a reserve aura if you go 2x chosen, and magic dmg return is an rvr aura for big scale fights.

Atm i run like tough+str+ either resisetnce or heal regen or aoe dmg due have a CS build.

[Axerker]

Something else you may want to take into account when choosing which auras to run are the points you have spent in each skill tree.
If i'm running with full Path of Dread skills then I make sure to I use Dreadful Fear (you get 120 str with 15 points vs. 75 str with nothing in the tree). The bonuses added from skill point allocation increase the viability of the base stat aura past those of the percentage auras.

I also make sure to run a Discord aura (usually Discordant Instability) when I plan on using Blast Wave, as it adds a 75 point wound debuff with the aura activated. Combined with The Quickened Discord tactic this gives you the ability to debuff your opponents health by 750 pretty much at will.

Do you know if the skill tree bonus effects increase the percentages? I can't find any details on how putting points in a tree increase skill effects, except by putting points into the skill. If 15 makes 75 -> 120 STR/Toughness (a 60% increase), does it also give the 25% Heal Debuff a 60% increase (40% passive heal debuff)? I would imagine the points should effect all skills in the tree, not just a given few. I noticed it even effects the tactics (like the heal from disrupt in Discord tree) as you increase points in the tree. Assuming it does, by a linear amount, a 40% permanent passive heal debuff is worth using in my opinion, even in SCs - if your DPS groupees are aware of it, they can maybe spend the point elsewhere, since its not really worth a 10% higher debuff, in my opinion.

I agree with the Discord aura + Blastwave. Luckily, most everyone runs Resist aura, due to it being so monumentally necessary. The free 750 "damage" (Wound reduction) on a Tank is a pretty big boon.

Thanks for your feedback

[GodlessCrom]

No, the percentages are flat and do not scale with points spent in tree.