Multiple auras?

[ElSmisko]

Hi all.

I am somewhat confused of how auras work for paladins, mercs and equipment.

Lets say I am in a party of eight paladins with differend auras, act2 mercs with many different auras and theese are are all equipped with runewords giving auras. Theoretically I think we could get this up to around 72 auras on screen if we are to take it to the extreme. (8 paladins with 1 selected skill aura and 4 auras from gear plus 8 act 2 mercs with 3 auras from gear = 8*(1+4)+8*(1+3)=72 )

As I have understood this, and I might be wrong, is that a maximum of two auras can only be active on a character at one time. What decides what two auras are active?

For example, if I have a paladin with conviction aura as a skill and fanaticism and thorns auras from gear. If the claim above is that only two auras can be active at once, is the conviction aura that the paladin has as a skill always active or will one of the other two override it?

Do theese three auras take turns on being the active two or are two selected depending on what order I put on the gear and activate skills?

Lets say I have two active auras on my character, if I walk close to another player with two active auras that I might find less useful to myself, do theese new auras override my auras or are my own auras always active and the other new auras are added on top of those I have from the beginning?

I have heard different ideas of how auras are selected when activated, how many can be active at once, how they are prioritized by the game and whether they stack or are replacing each other. I can simply say that I am very confused... please help this feeble mind...

[krischan]

The maximum of active auras being effective on a character is higher than two. I'm not entirely sure about the number, however. However, there is a maximum of 2 auras which a merc can contribute AFAIK.

If there are two auras of the same type in a party which have a beneficial effect on the party (fanaticism) or a direct malevolent effect on the enemy (conviction), the higher level one will usually dominate where they overlap, even if the other aura is better because of synergies. There are a few special cases to consider, e.g. the countering of -res from enemy conviction by the paladin's own conviction aura (which only applies to the originator of the aura) or redemption (which can work individually, like all aura effects which benefit only the originator).

Either prayer or meditation auras actually add up (the effects, not the aura levels), I always forget which one - or is it a completely different one ?

[ElSmisko]

Aha, so even if I have 2 auras on my character, for example, 1 from skills and 1 from gear, those two would not become inactive if my mercenary also has two auras (unless the mercenary has the same aura with a higher level)? I hope I understood this correctly.

Thanks krischan! =)

Follow-up questions:
1. Does anyone know how many auras that can be effective on a character at once?
2. When playing player vs monsters, how many offensive auras can effect the monsters at once?

[lumpor]

Is there a limit to the amount of auras you can have? I thought it was only limited to one of each aura, but you could have all 20 different auras on, as well as shout, battle orders and battle command, at the same time.

The only time an aura overrides the other one is if it's a higher level than the other one, and they come from different sources. For example, if a paladin has a lvl 10 might aura on, from his own skill, and has a merc with a lvl 15 might aura, the mercs aura will be dominant, and the paladins aura won't do a thing. However, if two auras come from the same source (like, from item on character), they will stack. If you equp a bramble runeword and an edge runeword, the auras will stack, and the thorns aura level will be the same as the auras from the items combined. This is because they are from the same source, "from item on your character". If you have a lower level thorns aura yourself, it will be overridden by the thorns aura from the bramble and edge runewords, since the aura from your skill and the auras from items come from different sources. If you have an edge runeword and the merc has a bramble runeword, they will come from different sources, since they are different characters, so the higher level aura will become dominant. Since the only way to get multiple auras from the same source is from items, the only way to stack auras is equipping multiple pieces of equipment with the same aura type.
Also, since auras like holy shock affects the monsters, you can have multiple holy shock auras from different sources and they will all damage the monster. They won't attack together though. They will send multiple weak pulses instead.

Conviction is a state though, and not damage, so the higher level conviction will be dominant.