Aura... the queen of 1v1

(ochrePretzel) #1

Just gotta say, I took a Rhino… walked directly up to an Aura standing in her health station, went full Minigun on her chest and head… I was dead while she still had half health… that is sad… Her station needs a nerf…

(GregHouseMD) #2

Or you could’ve taken the .2 seconds it’d take to kill the station. Minigun does on the order of 600DPS, so Aura and the station would both have been dead in something like .5 seconds. Which is not nearly enough time for Aura to kill Rhino.

(bontsa) #3

Kill-order punchrule; Station > Medic > Med’s lil’ pet puppet. Obviously not always way to go but often that’ll do piggie, that’ll do. New revive mechanics allow more easily to high-five Aura’s companion gently in the face with high-velocity lead first and then deal with the sorrowful widow, but on 1on1’s 80 hp after the station is gone is more squishy than a jellyfish.

(Vexed) #4

Yeah, there’s really a few ways around this.

Option 1: improve your aim - Aura’s 80hp will melt fast if you can focus even a regular automatic on her, regardless of her healing station. Bonus points if you score headshots. With a minigun you should be able to buzz her exceptionally quickly at anything short of Dreiss range. With a shotgun (also available to Rhino) at close range, you can literally kill her with a single bodyshot. Healing shmealing.

Option 2: blow the station up as suggested above - it doesn’t move around or regenerate health, so it’s a much easier target if you aren’t confident in your ability to consistently execute option 1.

Option 3: walk away - her healing radius is static, so you can neutralise it by simply choosing to fight somewhere else. Obviously this won’t always be your best option - for example if she sets up on the objective - but at least 50% of the time when I see an Aura dance around her station and kill a stronger merc there was literally no reason for them to stick around and fight it out beyond pure berserker rage.

(Conqelson) #5

Walking away isn’t much of an option, that Remburg has ridiculous range.

Aura is overpowered at the moment but it’s no one thing, just a lucky combination. As other threads have pointed out shotguns suffer no penalty while jumping giving light characters an incredible (albeit silly looking) advantage.

Second is the health station, as OP pointed out, the effect is far too powerful and clever players can easily position them in safety.

Third, she is simply too combative for a medic, especially for what arguably the best medic. Giving the fastest character a one/two shot kill weapon and the ability to heal itself was a mistake.

The solution imo, is to drop the health regeneration speed by about 20% and reduce shotgun accuracy while jumping. That’s not much but it should be enough.

EDIT: And I speak from experience as and against Aura. I’m always a medic, and I don’t much care for Sparks style. Both Sawbones and Aura are more front of the line and I like that, I try to use Sawbones more because few do and I like his personality but when the going gets tough I always pull Aura out, she is a beast.

(Hadouken) #6

Aura is overpowered.

Well, I guess that’s why she’s such a prominent mercenary in dirtycups.

Had you been here a couple of months ago, I would agree, yes, Aura was overpowered.
But that’s the keyword. She was ; in the past.

She’s already been nerfed, the healing station has already been balanced, and thus is okay at best, very far from overpowered.

By that logic, we would say that Proxy is a broken killing machine.

A couple of headshots is all it takes.

(Conqelson) #7

Proxy can’t heal herself or offer group support. It’s fine for her, for Aura not so much, she is (still) over powered. The evidence is in the game now, she is clearly next on the chopping block after Phantom.

(Kaori1) #8

But Phantom is Aura’s counter…oh…right. Too soon?

(Vexed) #9

I was not talking about just putting distance between you. I was suggesting you use one of this game’s many corners to break line of sight, forcing Aura to either leave the relative safety of her healing aura or stand around looking embarrassed and twiddling her thumbs.

(Indefinite) #10

Aura really, really isn’t overpowered.

Being willing to decide not to engage or actively disengage (as in, after a shot or two are exchanged, make the decision to quickly back off) an Aura when you can detect hints of her station being present is the key to beating her every time.

If she drops it the moment you engage her, and you have better than garbage aim, you can normally incap Aura before it heals more than 10 hp on her. Differently, if you actually destroy the station shortly after it’s placed, it makes Aura an 80hp shotgun or blishlok user with no upfront utility for ~10 seconds.

For those few weeks where aimpunch was strong, I regularly LOL’d when Auras would try to stand on top of their stations - hosing their faces with an SMG was a guaranteed win, and they’d futilely try to get a shot or three off which wouldn’t net more than half health at close-medium range. Now it’s a bit tougher than that, but just choosing to put damage on the station instead of her (or the person being healed) is still a clear route to victory.

Conqelson, you should also know that most competitive clans run at least one Sawbonez and one Fragger in their teams — Aura’s only brought into the equation if the game being played requires one-merc-per-team-max (so no double Sawbonez), or if the team is running a Rhino or defensive routine. Sawbonez is far from rare, you just might not notice him as often in pub games with lvl1-15’s. Oh, and shotguns are almost never used, because they’re so ineffective against pro/competitive players.

(CCP115) #11

I’m going to derail this thread just to say:

This is beautiful.

(avidCow) #12

…and missed.

(MTLMortis) #13

That is quite impossible, healthstation or not.

Also, what in the hell were you doing walking up to a target? Stay at your post fatty.

(watsyurdeal) #14

Aura is just annoying as fuck is what she is

Her and Sparks are honestly the most frustrating things to deal with. The Healing Station allows players to tank damage constantly, so if you miss your headshots you’re pretty much boned. And the station itself is actually about as hard to kill as Aura is with bullets, but no headshots, so it takes at least half a second or so.

Then there’s Sparks, who is obnoxious as fuck because she can sit at the back away from danger and constantly Revive people, to full health no less, the Revivr can bring a Rhino back to full, and heaven forbid a Fragger, who is arguably the most lethal class in skilled hands.

So, yea, nerf Phantom but he was FAR from the most annoying merc for me personally. I understand the place of Medics but God, it’s so frustrating to kill an enemy 3 or more times before they FINALLY go down.

(umberInlet) #15

A single heavy knife attack will one hit kill an Aura. I used to do that to them pre-melee nerf. Pretty easy if they’re just camping a corner.

(Conqelson) #16

Aura should be a class, not a major game mechanic and requirement to win. Healing stations are simply too powerful, lower the regeneration or delay healing when damage is taken to make it more tactical in use and placement.

Spars[quote=“Watsyurdeal;55454”]Then there’s Sparks, who is obnoxious as fuck because she can sit at the back away from danger and constantly Revive people, to full health no less, the Revivr can bring a Rhino back to full, and heaven forbid a Fragger, who is arguably the most lethal class in skilled hands.[/quote]

Fair point, the revir should have to be charged much longer to pull up a Rhino or Fragger at full health and/or go on automatic cool down.

(Crash) #17

I can share some sentiment with you about how shes nasty 1v1 but on the flip side you should consider yourself lucky you got to fight her 1v1. I mean, Ill say what everyone has eluded to, you are absolute garbage if you couldnt kill her as a Rhino.

She is undeniably squishy and outside of the healing station (and not surrounded by bodies waiting to be revived), shes poop. Not like solid poop though more like I ate too much McDonalds kind of poop. Also when I say youre lucky what I mean is that obviously this particular person was a dip because she was alone, in her station, while her team was…? Aura follows team. She provides station for team in a good spot that offers max CoF and mobility thus creating a hasty choke point. Aura that is alone in station either A.) Doesnt understand how the defib works or B.) Thinks shes Rhino and can take on hordes of enemy scum. Both of which should result in her prompt death. You should count your blessings that station wasnt providing healing love to a fragger/nader combo.

(RecurveZ) #18

“went full Minigun on her chest and head” heh i doubt it

(ebonyMountain) #19

[quote=“Conqelson;55470”]Aura should be a class, not a major game mechanic and requirement to win. Healing stations are simply too powerful, lower the regeneration or delay healing when damage is taken to make it more tactical in use and placement.
[/quote]

lol, aura is part of the medic class and medics are needed to win the objective based game. The same with nearly every class beside recon. Aura is the worst medic on attack. The game should be balanced around the one true game mode: Stopwatch. Both other medics do the the job better.

Only bad players have a problem with the healing station. They can aim for their life and lose it or they think everything is a Mortal Kombat and don’t retreat, when they will lose.