Return of Reckoning

I want to make it clear that I by no means consider myself a "Pro-Chosen" or consider anyone who does the opposite of what I posted or disagrees with as a terribad or anything (except Valnak). I figured this could be a helpful bit of information for Chosens who are just starting out or are confused by which auras they should run or what they do exactly and the significant impact they can have.

Auras
Strength, Resistance, Toughness are the best to run for any given situation hands down. The auras you can spec into are nice and can be helpful, but ultimately Strength, Resistance, and Toughness are your best choices. Why do you ask? Let’s do the math

Strength Aura

At level 35 the base value of your Strength is 66.

Without running Strength aura, my base DMG stats are

- Ability DMG: 129.4
- Auto Attack DMG: 64.7

With the minimum value Strength aura (66) my base DMG stats are

- Ability DMG: 142.6
- Auto Attack DMG: 71.3
- Also increased the base DMG value for nearly all of my abilities by 20 additional points

That is an increased value of 13.2 for my ability DMG and auto attack DMG plus my abilities having their base DMG increased by 20 points.

So what does this mean? It means that my enemies Strength are also reduced by the exact same quantity. Meaning their ability DMG and auto attack DMG is reduced by 13.2 and their base ability DMG is reduced by 20 points. This means they will hit my group and I for less overall DMG.

Toughness Aura

My Toughness aura runs for 93 (11 points in Corruption @ rank 35).

With running Toughness aura at a value of 93

- Reduces DMG received by 18.6

Therefore it,

- Increases the DMG my opponent receives by 18.6

This means that with my Strength and Toughness aura running together, you hit an opponent for 31.8 MORE DMG and your opponent will hit you and your group for 31.8 LESS DMG. Now let’s say you have roughly the same Strength and Toughness aura values of 93 (meaning you spent 10-11 in both Dread and Corruption).

The more points you put into your Strength tree the harder you and your melee group-mates will hit and the DMG your melee enemies do will hit for less.

Resistance Aura

The base value for Resistance aura at rank 35 is roughly around 200 (292 increase and 146 decrease @ rank 35 with 10 points in Discord). By running your Resistance aura it is safe to say you are protecting your group ranged DPS and casters. Why?

BW = Elemental DMG
SW = Corporeal and Elemental DMG
Engi = Corporeal DMG

This is just keeping your group more survivable in general, which is a good thing. So this means not only are you making your group more survivable you are also reducing the resistance of your enemies helping your ranged DPS and casters burn through the enemy. Not to mention that as a Chosen nearly ALL of your DMG abilities are SPIRITUAL. This means that your Ravage spam or whatever else you use is not only going to hit harder because your Strength has increased its base value, your Toughness aura has decreased their DMG mitigation, but your Resistance aura is going to FURTHER making your DMG hit even HARDER.

If people want the math behind exactly how much Resistance aura amplifies your Spirit DMG abilities I will do it, just let me know.

Conclusion

It is a no brainer. Running Strength, Toughness, and Resistance aura is the way to go as a Chosen. Not to knock any of the aura’s you can spec into, they are great and serve a purpose and can be very useful. Corrupting Retribution (healing aura) is nice but isn’t really going to help win any wars or save any lives, unless you are grinding mobs.

DMG aura (Dreadful Agony) has 0 purposes on the battlefield unless you are looking to soak up renown, want some nice fluffy DMG numbers to make it look like you pumped out more DMG than you actually did, or if you are farming mobs/aggro management.

Obviously if you go high enough in Dread for Rending Blades, your DMG aura is going to tick for more. However, that still means you are sacrificing either your Strength, Toughness, or Resistance aura. Regardless of how much your DMG aura produces, it will not equal the amount of DMG you could produce with your Ravage spam or Rending Blade and you only hinder your groups overall success.

The only reason you should run DMG aura is if the Strength, Toughness, or Resistance aura you can run is less effective than any of the Chosens in your group. And even then, if you have specced for an aura in any of the trees those will be more useful than your DMG aura. If you happen to be in a group with another Chosen (which is common) and you aren't specced into any other auras and one of the auras your fellow Chosen surpasses you in its stat increase value, by all means throw that DMG aura on if you so choose. But a lone Chosen in a group running DMG aura makes me cry lol.

Here are some screenshots to support my claims that Chosens should run Strength, Toughness, and Resistance aura. DMG aura was not used once during those SC's, just the aforementioned trio I recommend. And no, that final tactic is not Backlash it is Tzeentch's Warding (which I will swap out from time to time for certain situations)

add that with the same value and if you have only one spot tough > str please, since most tank lack commons sense...

Tesq wrote:add that with the same value and if you have only one spot tough > str please, since most tank lack commons sense...

Absolutely. Stay alive longer to kill more people.

"This means that your Ravage spam or whatever else you use is not only going to hit harder because your Strength has increased its base value, your Toughness aura has decreased their DMG mitigation"

Doesn't toughness have no impact on your spiritual based damages, like Ravage? Ravage is pure magical damage and thus toughness has no impact on it's damage mitigation, if I recall. That's purely spirit resistance.

Also every chosen running the same 3 auras is a waste. They don't stack so having every chosen in a melee ball running the same 3 is just lost and wasted potential. If they were smart they would all be coordinated and running different auras for maximum utility.

Toughness is for DMG of all sources, resistances are specialized, armor is physical.

I never said all chosen should run the same three auras. I touched on that topic slightly at the beginning and end of the post explaining that the auras you can spec into are great to use and that if your aura(s) isn't as powerful as another chosen in the group then you should run another aura in its place. I agree with your statement that they should coordinate but they don't always unfortunately :[.

Yea with the lack of coordination you have to take it upon yourself to run other auras. It's a very safe bet the at least 1 of the other chosen has the main 3. So you should be able to do it with a calm mind. Just do a check.

Enter SC/ORVR
>Do I see another Chosen?
Yes
>Click him.
>Is he running the 3? If no; run the 3.
Yes.
>Run a different 3

It's pretty simple to take upon yourself.

unowien wrote:Yea with the lack of coordination you have to take it upon yourself to run other auras. It's a very safe bet the at least 1 of the other chosen has the main 3. So you should be able to do it with a calm mind. Just do a check.

Enter SC/ORVR
>Do I see another Chosen?
Yes
>Click him.
>Is he running the 3? If no; run the 3.
Yes.
>Run a different 3

It's pretty simple to take upon yourself.

That.

I agree i did run chosen on live server and its not really hard to do or even to figure out this