Inquisitioner Aura.

[frdnwsm]

My Purifier recently picked up 5 ranks of Aura of Censure. At this strength, it gives a bit under 500 base damage from each of fire and burn. Now, he's invested fairly heavily into fire damage. Current modifier is +1300% for fire amd +900% for burn.

My question is whether this bonus to fire and burn carries over to the effects of the aura. Judging by the effects on target dummies, it doesn't. The base damage seems to stay in the 500 range. However, there are also frequent heavy crit damages, in the 3-7000 range, especially when Deadly Aim procs. All this is without weapon attacks thrown in. (If I use a weapon, all kinds of crazy numbers fly by, making it impossible to keep track of the Censure damage.)

So, is my Censure bugged, or is this the way it's supposed to work? Mind you, I can see the Devs making a deliberate choice to keep the effects of the Aura skill constant. 500 x 1300% would be a fair amount of damage ... although still relatively minor when affecting a target with health values in the millions.

[RhodosGuard]

The displayed damage already is the damage after all +% damages.

[frdnwsm]

It is possible I am misinterpreting the effect of the % buffs; that wouldn't be unusual. This is the description of the current effects of the Aura.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1324975118
Activating things like Flame Touched doesn't affect the base damage; it's still showing numbers in the upper 400s and lower 500s coming off the taget dummies. However, when I do activate all buffs, there is a large increase in the frequency of critical hit effects, with significant increases in damage.

When I see numbers like 1300% increase to fire damage, I'm imagining base damage multiplied by 13. However, I am aware that things in GD don't always follow that sort of logic, and I'm not good with esoteric math calculations. So perhaps someone better versed in the machanics could explain what is going on.

[RhodosGuard]

Grimtools says the base damage for Aura of Censure at 5 points is 33
The only way yours could show 500+ is if all %Damage effects are calculated into the tooltip.

You can even trace it.
It shows 487 damage. You have about 1300% Fire damage. thats 13 times base damage.
Now 487 divided by 13 is 37.46
Which checks about out what grimtools says the base damage should be.

[RhodosGuard]

Problem solved or?

[frdnwsm]

Yes, but I must say then that if that's the case, the base damage of 33 () is disappointingly low for a 5 skill point investment. I'm wondering now if the investment is worth it. I could pump up bursting rounds or something defensive instead. This is even more the case since my guy is a rifle user who tries to stay out of melee range.

Mind you, with rifle fire thrown in and Deadly Aim proccing, the dmage gets a lot better. I guess I'll just have to experiment a bit and see what gives best results.

[RhodosGuard]

Originally posted by frdnwsm:

Yes, but I must say then that if that's the case, the base damage of 33 () is disappointingly low for a 5 skill point investment. I'm wondering now if the investment is worth it. I could pump up bursting rounds or something defensive instead. This is even more the case since my guy is a rifle user who tries to stay out of melee range.

Aura of Censure shouldnt be the picked because of its damage. It's other stats are way more valuable:
Reduced Targets Damage
Reduced Elemental Res (33% at max investment)
Chance to disrupt skills

Also the damage is not that horrible for a passive aura.
In comparison:
Bursting rounds base damage at 5 points is:
31 phys and 44 fire and 10% additional Weapon damage.

[LezDole]

Originally posted by frdnwsm:

Yes, but I must say then that if that's the case, the base damage of 33 () is disappointingly low for a 5 skill point investment. I'm wondering now if the investment is worth it. I could pump up bursting rounds or something defensive instead. This is even more the case since my guy is a rifle user who tries to stay out of melee range.

You are forgetting that you also reduce enemy elemental resistance which also increases your damage overall. I would probly actually max this skill if I go heavy for fire damage. From my experience flat damage on auras tend to pump up my dps significantly tbh. Plus its aura, you dont have to use it actively. Damage is there on every attack you do, steady and constant, thats why its good.

[RhodosGuard]

Even though it actually is quite weird that there is no Mastery that has an exclusive for main Fire damage users. the one that exists turns physical into aether which makes it kinda bad.

[frdnwsm]

It might be that I am misinterpreting the mechanics here. I am aware of, and certainly like, the reduction in elemental resistance, but I assumed that this effect was limited to enemy units within the 5.6 meter range of the aura. Does it instead reduce the resistance of any enemy I fire at, regardless of range?

[Legion]

Originally posted by frdnwsm:

It might be that I am misinterpreting the mechanics here. I am aware of, and certainly like, the reduction in elemental resistance, but I assumed that this effect was limited to enemy units within the 5.6 meter range of the aura. Does it instead reduce the resistance of any enemy I fire at, regardless of range?

Within the aura's range.

[DarkestLight]

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

It shows 487 damage. You have about 1300% Fire damage. thats 13 times base damage.

One minor correction, +1300% fire damage would deal 14x base damage. Remember that you already do 100% damage with out any bonuses. 100% is your base damage.

+0% bonus damage on 10 damage would deal 10 damage or 1x
+100% bonus damage on 10 damage would deal 20 damage or 2x
+1300% bonus damage on 10 damage would deal 140 damage or 14x

Anyways, everything else is spot on. Like I said, a minor correction to help people calculate dps (also don't forget about spirit/cunning bonuses for DPS calculations, they seem to not be included in the damage tab).

[frdnwsm]

>"Within the aura's range"<

The problem is that I am trying to keep the enemy as far away as possible. I start engaging them at max rifle range. Hopefully, few if any will close to within 5.6 meters. Now, it isn't always possible to do this, and sometimes, for whatever reason, foes do manage to get that close.

But for most combats, then, the Aura won't come into play at all. Seems to be basically an "Oh crap, they're gonna get close enough to swing at me!" emergency mechanism. It would be immemsely more useful on a melee build.

[NixBoxDone]

Afaik that's better than it sounds, no? Usually in a hack and slash anything you can kill from max range wouldn't have needed the debuff of your aura anyways. Conversely, anything that DOES reach you is either strong or quick enough to get in range before you can kill it and much more dangerous in that it can survive to reach you and damage you.

That's exactly when you'd want the 33 % debuff to fire resistance to make it easier for you to kill whatever it is before it does (more) harm.

... Of course it could be argued that the enemies would never have reached you if the aura was having a bigger radius or that the same points invested elsewhere might have allowed you to kill them sooner, but that's hard to quantify without a stable test environment and with such things as dodges, blocks and critical hits thrown in for good measure.

[DarkestLight]

Originally posted by frdnwsm:

>"Within the aura's range"<

The problem is that I am trying to keep the enemy as far away as possible. I start engaging them at max rifle range. Hopefully, few if any will close to within 5.6 meters. Now, it isn't always possible to do this, and sometimes, for whatever reason, foes do manage to get that close.

But for most combats, then, the Aura won't come into play at all. Seems to be basically an "Oh crap, they're gonna get close enough to swing at me!" emergency mechanism. It would be immemsely more useful on a melee build.

Strong targets like Nemesis bosses will close the gap easily before you kill them (You can pump that range up to 7+M). Its those strong targets that you needs Aura of Censure's resist reduction for, and Aura of Censure also reduces the damage of opponents in its range to help you survive those tough engagements. On top of that Aura of Censure provides free AoE that among other things can help you deal with charging mobs. It's DPS isn't exactly top of the line, but its enough (Plus it will proc things).

All and all Aura of Censure is a worthwhile investment with a potent mixture of AoE, utility and survivability.

[Befuddled Honey Badger]

Originally posted by DarkestLight:

All and all Aura of Censure is a worthwhile investment with a potent mixture of AoE, utility and survivability.

I have a 100 Purifier DW Dagallon's set and I've messed around with both Aura of Censure and Conviction and found the 15% Physical resist on Conviction to be more useful as I started using Oleron's Blood on one of my weapons. The granted skill, Oleron's Might, reduces target damage by 25% though admittedly the -% RR is really nice. Most of the non-physical damage the majority of AoM enemies do is in the forms of auras, ground based aoe or spells which can, for the most part, be dodged but things like the Colossi charges that deal high physical damage can't be avoided sometimes in the close quarters of Malmouth. On the other hand, if you are using a sword and board build then Censure is way better as you will probably have decently high Phys resist from gear/devotions that having the -RR and - Target damage would be more beneficial. Saying that Aura of Censure is still a good skill just all comes down to your playstyle.

Edit: I should also say that with Flashbang's Searing Light I kill most non-boss/nemses enemies before they even get a chance to hit me most of the time and with Mythical Runeguard Greaves I have a 10,000 Phys/Aether damage absorption shield on top of that 15% Phys resist. I just use Oleron's Might vs Bosses and Nemeses.