Aura Comparison: Wisdom vs Solitude vs Radiance

hirogarde · June 2017

I accidentally sidetracked a thread over in the general forums, and decided to run the tests again, and post results here.

The purpose of the test is to compare the efficiency of the three Auras in a solo situation, and without bonded pets. If you're already arguing that that's not a fair comparison, then you've just proven my point: AoS and AoR are not the useless Auras that many posts here imply.

The conditions:

naked self and companions
empty Earthen weapon set
all boon/insignia procs have been removed from the results to minimize RNG madness
all auras and powers used are rank 4 (except where noted in the AP build test)
each test was run for two minutes, using the same combat dummy in the SH
the second aura on each test was Aura of Courage
no companion or Augment was used during the tests, they were tested seperately
combat logs were parsed manually and compiled in Excel - I belive humans are better than computers... just slower.

The Results

(averaged between 2 seperate tests): I have the detailed breakdowns, but far too much info to post here.

Companions:

I don't have a wide array, but thse should be accesable to everyone. I left them naked because I don't have the "perfect" equipment for them, but they should all be able to be fitted with similar gear/stats with enough farming.

r25 Dwarven Battle Rager: 112,738 Damage, 106 hits (940 DPS)
r25 Neverember Guard Archer: 167,663 Damage, 52 hits (1,397 DPS)
r25 Jagged Sancing Blade: 162,471 Damage, 48 hits (1,353 DPS)
r35 Black Death Scorpion: 473,741 Damage, 128 hits (3,948 DPS)

DPS:

I used SS between encounters to stay in combat. Smite's Burn and TW hit three targets, AoR hit four. If the extra targets are removed, the results are within reasonable variance.

SS Only - AoR 11,672 - AoS 10,567 - AoW 8,710
CoP, SW, Vow rotation - AoR 22,034 - AoS 22,952 - AoW 19,950
SW, TW, Smite rotation - AoS 15,331 - AoW 12,949

note: I didn't test AoR with the SW, TW, Smite rotation. I think the results in the other two show it's only slightly less than AoS

AP Build:

again using SS between encounters to stay in combat. Here I started empty AP, used the in-game prayer countdown timer to find out how long it took to charge from empty to full.

Arua	Smite	SW	TW	SS	CoP	Vow	BL (click)	RA	Banish (r1)	DT (r3)	Vow/RA/BL	CoP/SW/Vow	CoP/SW/Vow (dif rotation)
AoW	1:04	1:05	1:03	1:17	0:54	0:53	0:54	0:32	0:52	1:01	0:23	0:38	0:40
AoS	1:04	1:06	1:03	1:19	0:56	0:56	0:58	0:37	0:53	1:04	0:27	0:38	0:43
Difference	0:00	0:01	0:00	0:02	0:02	0:03	0:04	0:05	0:01	0:03	0:04	0:00	0:03

For comparison with your set-up: Average Damage of my Divine Judgement during these tests was 32,551 for non-crits.

Summary:

I fully understand that there are some interactions and "synergy" with some compaions and powers that could shift these results a different direction. But I wasn't about to test every possibility seperately. I believe I've broken it down far enough to prove that AoW is not as helpful (while soloing) as everyone is making it out to be.
I also fully understand, and agree that a bonded companion who can maintain the bonding proc and deliver 80%+ (ish) stats will outperform an Augment.
What I think these test show:
The difference in DPS with AoS cleanly covered a Companion's DPS. Where it didn't, an offensive Augment should fill the gap.
The AP build gain with AoW was negligable for most fights. Admittedly, more gain would be seen over longer durations.
AoW is much less useful when using long animation powers, even moreso when those powers already have a short (<10sec) cooldown.

brewald · October 2017

Just to precise for you: AoS work only if you are alone or with an augment pet.

majorcharvenak · October 2017

Bingo @brewald! Which makes AoS's benefit more situational than AoW. 'Situational' being - I'm the only one in this instance, lair or dungeon and no one is going to come along and spoil it for me while I slot an aura that provides a somewhat modest improvement DPS-wise over one that has no such limitation and is beneficial to yourself and others, regardless of the composition. Not dismissing your testing though @hirogarde (hats off to that btw) its just that particular LIMFAC (limiting factor) is what limits (there's that word again) its usefulness when compared AoW even while soloing. You have to essentially isolate yourself which isn't necessarily pratical short running in lairs or in barely populated instances. I can see maybe the case being made for AoR but Solitude, I just don't see it. Anyways, that's my two coppers.

hirogarde · October 2017

Well, I run AoS a lot; it's in my "go-to" solo set-up. Being that (almost) all external maps are limited to 20 players, the stray on-looker doesn't come into play very often. When unable to get "alone" or when in a group I'll switch it to AoR until I figure out what's really needed (which can include AoW).

As for the "modest improvement" - Those few times someone does come into the area to "watch" instead of help/KS, it's very noticable. The numbers in the test are small because I tested this naked; and if you consider a 15-18% improvement "modest," I'd like to know what you think is "good".

I don't completely discount AoW either - but it should be known that it's not the "must-use" aura that so many on these forums believe it to be. Especially those of you in the Justice tree - where your encounters reset off of at-wills (kind-of) instead of timers. In reality, AoW can benefit other classes much more than paladins (not necessarily a bad thing), and at higher iLevels (with higher recovery) it's effects are diminished.

There is a time and a place for AoW... It's just not Always and Everywhere.

logandarkwater · October 2017

Whats wrong with Aura of Vengeance to increase dmg when soloing? AoS is annoying cause you have to swap out augment from Bonding pet, and AoR you are constantly getting atacked from adds when you necessarily dont want to be due to the size of the aura...i always use Vengeance and Courage when doing any solo content.

hirogarde · October 2017

One of the problems with Vengeance is that it requires you to take more than zero damage. If you're using Shielding Strike that won't happen as often; and if your companion pulls one off you, you're no longer damaging them. It's also a relatively small amount of damage (45% weapon at r4) and it's based on the mob's hit-rate - where typical mobs have slow swing times.

Most of the background I have with it is in my early 70s though, so I'll run it again and see if it's different/better with higher iLevel gear.

I've rarely run into instances where Radiance pulls an extra group (when I don't want it), but I'm also acutely aware of the possibility so I play the "positioning game" when soloing.

EDIT:
Tested at Stronghold - the two wolves near the spiders HE. Only thing I changed was swapping between AoV and AoR (both at r4) Proximity agroed the wolves and stood there letting them kill themselves; I never actively attacked them, but I do have other procs.

I double checked the "zero damage" part too, and that's still true. You MUST take non-zero damage for AoV to proc.

AoR killed the wolves about twice as fast (30sec vs 1min+ for AoV).
AoR hit ~10 times on each wolf, AoV hit 25-30 times on each (their attack rate).
I found similar "speed kill" difference with the spiders and some roaming mobs too.

AoR hit each for ~4k, AoV hit for ~680 (weapon damage 1774-2168 standing)
with a L5 weapon (52-63) - AoR hit for ~364, AoV for ~14
** This shows the "45%" listed in AoV's tooltip isn't based off displayed weapon damage, but some other base damage.

So on those mobs, AoR hits ~6x harder, but half as frequently. I don't think the shield class feature could even that out (10% chance to hit surrounding enemies).

logandarkwater · November 2017

Thanks for testing Vengeance, I never really analyzed it that much. My theory was that AoR only proc'd every 3 seconds while Vengeance is with every strike so naturally it would be better over time. And your right it wouldn't proc that much at all if I was using a lot of tanking encounters like BO and TW, which I use from time to time depending on the situation.

I am going to do some further testing of Vengeance on my own, remove all tanking encounters, and try it out in chult where you are more than likely going to take damage. I have a pretty high life steal, deflection, and almost 200k hp, so my surviveability will not be effected. Soloing easy to medium content I usually run SW, Smite and RA, to maximize dps.

ase · November 2017

hirogarde said:

I don't completely discount AoW either - but it should be known that it's not the "must-use" aura that so many on these forums believe it to be. Especially those of you in the Justice tree - where your encounters reset off of at-wills (kind-of) instead of timers. In reality, AoW can benefit other classes much more than paladins (not necessarily a bad thing), and at higher iLevels (with higher recovery) it's effects are diminished.

There is a time and a place for AoW... It's just not Always and Everywhere.

Well to be honest, I use it for the other players and they seem quite happy to be able to cast powers faster

armadeonx · November 2017

From my perspective, when soloing open world content everything dies in 1 or 2 hits so the only aura that benefits me is courage.

In dungeons, wisdom speeds up my cooldowns which speeds up everything else - it also improves everyone else's cooldowns and in places like T9G that counts for a lot.