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[Discussion] Auras

MrBuffington··3 votes·872 views

Hey Everyone,

So there has been a lot of discussion about Sona's rework recently (this thread isn't directly or solely going to talk about Sona), which got me wondering about the role of auras (especially persistent auras) in the game. Unless I'm mistaken, I think one of the major motivations Riot had in changing Sona was to offer openings in auras to make their play more interactive, and providing more clear indicators of how powerful or weak a character is. Why this conflicts with auras is that there is usually not a visual indicator showing that a champion is under the effects of an aura. The solution Riot is taking with Sona is to make these auras more visible and more temporary, which improves visibility (naturally) and gives the opponents clear windows to attack.

What I want to know is what this means for other auras? I think in order to maintain consistency, Riot would have to change every other aura in the game, especially persistent auras. For example, a change to Locket of the Iron Solari could be to remove the magic resist and health regen aura, and instead bundle that with the active shield, so that the enemy knows when the other team has increased magic resist and also who that is affecting (ie. is that champion too far away from their team to affect them?).

Basically what I'm asking is, if Riot isn't planning on reworking every aura in the game, why did they see persistent auras as such a problem for Sona in particular?

Thanks

18 Comments

SmokingPuffin3 votes

Basically what I'm asking is, if Riot isn't planning on reworking every aura in the game, why did they see persistent auras as such a problem for Sona in particular?

Riot would like to do this but they have limited resources.

Pretty much any champion they touch, passive power items are getting nerfed or reworked.

With Sona, auras are particularly problematic because she had so much power in the auras that her gameplay in the lategame was pretty much limited to ulting and standing there.

MrBuffington1 votes

Thank you for the response!

So do you predict that every aura is getting reworked in the future? Or would Riot rather just invest their resources in other projects?

SmokingPuffin1 votes

I think there will probably be some auras that stay. In particular, punchy short range auras like Sunfire Cape are probably going to be sticking around.

In general, though, any time Riot needs to trim power from a champion, I expect auras to be one of the first places they look. Any time there's a champion rework, I'd expect auras to either disappear or become punchier, more active, and shorter duration, like we saw with Sona's auras. For example, Warwick is going to get a rework soon (tm) and I expect his W aura to be disappearing when that happens.

Also, auras aren't the world's most pressing problem with League. They're more powerful than they are fun or noticeable, so that's not great design, but they do work and it's hard to make a broken aura. I would expect Riot to be spending more of their systems-level effort doing things like fixing bruiser play patterns and coming up with some story on how ranged and melee should interact in lane.

MrBuffington1 votes

I think sunfire cape makes a lot of sense; you take damage because you're standing near the champ that has it.

So would you say Sona had her auras reworked as a priority because her entire kit was too dependent on them?

SmokingPuffin2 votes

Riot seems to let people work on whatever they're passionate about. I don't think a Sona rework was the most important thing to do. Probably one of their designers really likes Sona and had an idea to make her feel more impactful.

Sona was definitely on the list of champions to rework. She's had a few big problems from Riot's perspective:

  • Lots of "invisible power" in passive effects
  • Not a lot of teamfight gameplay in QWE
  • Vanilla heal encourages spamming to top off; Riot doesn't want "sustain support" to be a thing as it encourages stalemate farming lanes to exist
MrBuffington1 votes

Thanks for your help!

Pushover2 votes

I think Riot's stance on Auras has to do with the intent. With Sona's abilities, you generally went "Oh, I want to shoot my Q for damage/use W for healing" more often than "oh, I want to give my allies AD and AP or armor and MR." The same thing happened with J4. You either went "Let me put this E down for damage and so I can Q to it" or "Let me put my E down so we can take this turret/dragon/baron faster," not "Let me put this E down so I can give my allies all this free armor."

Aegis by comparison you build because you WANT the MR aura. Locket you get for the shield.

With Sona it's a little more iffy, but at least they retained that 'press Q empowers my nearby allies, W to reduce the damage they take.'

The5lacker2 votes

Items can afford to be far simpler in the applications of their power than champion abilities. I mean, if an ability is a stat stick, that's abysmal design. If an item is a stat stick, that's kinda its job. Locket of the Iron Solari is a very well designed Aura item, as there is a far higher percentage of Magic Damage that's AoE over Physical Damage, so an investment to protect the whole team makes sense. Zeke's Herald currently doesn't work as there's no incentive for anyone to get it. It requires a large amount of AD champs to be a strong purchase on just about anyone, but its low slot efficiency completely gimps it, and the 20% CDR isn't really relevant on supports, who get an absurd amount of CDR already. Banner of Command is more or less entirely a Niche item, but that's fine. Items can be niche.

The problem with Sona's Kit was that it was 100% constant auras, which means her entire kit was hidden power. As they've explained time and time again, it was hard to nail down exactly why trades against Sona would fail by the enemy team, as the bonus AD was miniscule but still had a difference. But because they had to be so small, it wasn't satisfying to use.

Luner Hunter1 votes

"why trades failed vs sona" its cuz scrubs didnt know what sona did and just dove her and her ADC >.> like wai u no kill dat poppy.... cuz her passive is amazing? did you even know what it did? that shits part of learning to play league YOU LEARN WHAT ALL THE CHAMPS DO so you dont get owned cuz you werent smart enough to do your homework

MrBuffington1 votes

Thank you for the response

By the same logic, though, wouldn't Locket also provide hidden power? There's no real indication that a champion is under the aura, only the champion who bought the item. Sure, as you said, the purpose of the item is to do this, but old Sona's purpose was also to provide these hidden stats. You can say that Sona's old kit wasn't satisfying to use, but wouldn't that also make Locket not satisfying to buy? You're investing a lot of gold (of which you don't get much) for the benefit of your team, much like old Sona used her abilities for the benefit of her team. In a way, playing Sona (over another champion) was an investment for the benefit of your team, much like buying Locket is. I don't understand why you can say Locket is well designed when old Sona was not. I agree with you that Locket is an incredibly useful, but I don't see a distinction you're making between useful and well designed.

Jacze1 votes

I guess the distinction is that Locket gives a certain value of MR/HP5, while Sona's auras could have any value of boosts. I mean, going in on a team that you know has 20 extra MR is a lot less scary than a team that has a certain amount of MR/Armor, which could then become a different amount of AD/AP quickly. In the rework, it seems none of her auras give stat boosts, so I'm guessing Riot wants to keep those on items, not champs.

MrBuffington1 votes

That could be why, but in that case, why wouldn't they just rework her values to give flat stats, with some other benefits? Also wouldn't this apply to other champs that give varying stat boosts? I suppose it's not an aura, but it's still an unknown amount of stats.

Jacze1 votes

Most of the time, if a champion gets a boost from another champion, that boost is visible and timed. I'm speculating, but maybe Riot thought an aura with a deceptive range that gives unknown stats was pretty unfair. As for why they didn't just change the values and keep those long range auras, it's due to the passivity that those auras would bring. One MR aura doesn't suddenly allow Leona to play passive and win - she still needs to jump the adc to be effective.

MrBuffington1 votes

That's a good point, but wouldn't the deceptivity apply to auras on items as well?

The5lacker1 votes

All items are "hidden power" by that logic. Again, items are different from champions. Please stop thinking about item passives as champion abilities. There are some that are similar, but they are not the same thing, so stop bringing it up. I've already addressed this point. The core identity of Locket is protecting a team against AoE magic damage. It grants stats. Items grant stats. Champion abilities rarely grant stats, and it's a boring design when they do. Having a champion whos entire role was passively granting stats was terrible design. Sona's role was replicated by buying items, and that was bad design, because champions shouldn't be able to be replicated with item purchases.

Have I explained my point clearly enough yet?

MrBuffington1 votes

The 'hidden power' comes from the aura, not the innate stats of the item. The stats of the item holder are not hidden, just press Tab. What I was referring to is that there's no indication that a champion is under the effects of Locket's aura; you have to estimate based on their proximity to the champion who has that item, just like you would have to estimate with old Sona, or any aura, item or not.

My argument was more focused on the visibility of a champion's stats, not the difference in roles between items and champion abilities.

Sneak Dog1 votes

Locket is designed against magic damage. If you only give allies mr on activation, the mr value has to go up to feel good. Then it would counter specifically burst mages but poke mages get a free pass. You change the purpose of the locket.

MrBuffington1 votes

That's what I was thinking. Alternatively, you could have some sort of indicator showing which champions are under the effects of the aura. Either will improve clarity of when the character has the MR boost

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