Are Auras considered 'unhealthy'?

Diostukos·1/9/2015, 6:45:29 AM·10 votes·3,271 views

So with talks of Taric's rework being in the works, I'm wondering if they will remove his W passive (gives armor to his allies) because it's considered 'invisible power'. Sona's aura's were removed because she gave a lot of power that people didn't notice.

Now unless the stats were too good I don't really see a problem; I feel like a simple clarity fix would have been better in Sona's case (give her other skins similar icons that Arcade used to have pre-rework) rather than rework them entirely.

What are you guys' opinions?

31 Comments

Pika3101/9/2015, 9:01:48 AM8 votes

Auras are just fine, they aren't "hard to balance" or "toxic." These are excuses people use to justify dis-logic. Aegis/Locket/Frozen Heart/etcetera are perfectly acceptable items that serve specific niches. As long as we don't have a staple like Runic Bulwark was, they remain perfectly healthy.

In regards to champions, a much larger margin of leeway is available. As opposed to being universally available like items are, they're unique to that champion as their own niche. Hence why we can have powerful 1000-range auras like Janna's. Not allowing Sona to keep hers, despite being integral to her identity is a complete double-standard. If clarity is an issue, simple visual effects updates are more than sufficient. Intentionally destroying champions just angers players and hurts the game's health overall.

The Stoic Hero1/9/2015, 7:10:23 PM5 votes

I find it odd they keep removing a team based ability from a team based game.

SmokingPuffin1/9/2015, 6:05:24 PM3 votes

Auras are not a game health issue. They're really easy to keep balanced; basically they're math.

The problem with auras is that they are always more impactful than they feel. This leads to a balanced aura champion being incredibly boring.

Old Sona did not lack for clarity. She had very little skill cap -- most of her power budget involved her existing vaguely nearby her teammates -- and playing her outside of lane phase was basically limited to "did I land a good ult?" She was only so popular because she was incredibly strong. Honestly, New Sona still has some problems with lacking gameplay in the teamfight phase, but it's much better than it used to be.

Diostukos1/10/2015, 5:00:07 AM3 votes

Just so there's no more confusion on who can do more damage I crunched both Nami and Sona's total damage; both level 18 and basically just the math. No "well one of them might miss their ult" or "well Nami's Q usually doesn't land so why include it".

Sona-

Q Bolts+On-hit (300+.7ap) + Powerchord-Staccato (319.5+.3ap) + Crescendo (350+.5)= 969.5(1.5ap)

Nami-

Aqua Prsion (295+.5ap) + Ebb and Flow (230+.5ap) + Tidecaller's Blessing x3 (255+.6ap) + Tidal Wave (350+.6ap)= 1130(2.2ap)

Diostukos1/9/2015, 4:48:57 PM3 votes

Thanks everyone for your input :)

[{quoted}](name=Dr Clueless PhD,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=et8WJOeY,comment-id=000100000000,timestamp=2015-01-09T14:41:22.123+0000)

I still stand by:

If terrible players don't realize what's going on, let them continue being terrible. If you don't read tooltips, and don't watch your buff bar, you can't expect to know exactly what's going on, and it's your own fault. I understand Riot's war on "invisible power", but I heavily dislike it.

I agree that a lot of people don't bother to look stuff up; one time in a normals I had someone not know how Leblanc's ult worked ._.

TehNACHO1/9/2015, 6:51:33 AM2 votes

Non interactive Auras are stupid imo.

Like, just happening to sit in a crowd to passively make everyone on your team stronger or everyone on the enemy team weaker is: a) hard to balance for every situation and thus you're near guaranteed to have a grievously overtuned ability if the ability is balanced for only a few people at a time or a dismally under tuned ability if the ability is tuned towards as many people as possible. b) just plain boring. Statstick abilities are literally the most boring thing ever imo. I came to play an interactive competitive game, not crunch numbers (okay as a mathematician who calculates for games, yes I did come to crunch numbers, but I still want to actually play an interactive competitive game).

Rebonack1/9/2015, 5:45:07 PM1 votes

Auras can be really strong without it being obvious that they're really strong.

That's... all there is to it, really.

I like aura effects, on Tanks especially, since it creates a reason to focus them because they're buffing their team via existing. Aura-tanking is one means of generating threat to make you a more important target, though it's without question the most passive one. That doesn't make it any less effective, though.

OverpoweredSoap1/9/2015, 2:36:00 PM1 votes

I only think aura's are a problem with tanky champions because they can't be taken out so easily.

On squisher champions auras are fine because killing them is easy and that way you have a way to deal with auras more easily.

Dingding1231/9/2015, 8:23:28 PM1 votes

Taric is an awesome Aura Bro. He's not bad at all, and I hope they don't rework him.

Outside of Sona's heal she definitely doesn't deserve what Riot's given her.

Kingsgrave1/9/2015, 2:33:47 PM1 votes

They will probably remove his R, but I think his W will stay mostly what it is.