I want to start this off as open-ended as possible. Who does the global aura benefit? Do the champions that benefit from each of its individual bonuses (armor penetration, magic penetration, and mana regeneration) need these bonuses? If we removed the aura--either wholesale, or specific portions--what would happen to the map? If we gave different champion classes different bonuses (mana regeneration for mages, damage for bruisers, movement and attack speed for AD, etc.), would this be preferable to a single one-size-fit-all aura?

If you did the whole class thing, then youd be indirectly nerfing things like AP trist, unless the aura somehow magically figured out what class you were.. Yeah I dont really see how.

I am of the opinion that the dominion aura could stand to be removed almost completely, excepting the mana regen part.

I honestly think the only thing that's necessary in Dominion is the mana regen aura. AD bruisers could stand to lose power through the loss of the % pen, especially since flat + % pen is getting stronger in S3 and defense is becoming more expensive overall. The same goes for AP damage - as i understand it, the auras were implemented to make stacking defense and whatnot not a foolproof strat. That's already getting shaken up on both types of damage.

I am also not liking the class thing - there are some champs which do have multiple build paths, and I feel like it's a tall order to sort through different builds and even worse to shoehorn people into singular build types. Would a class-enhancing aura actually add to gameplay? I feel like caution is warranted here - we should play through the impact of the s3 itemization changes (which are already gamechanging enough -- just look at BFT) before throwing in experimentation with the aura into the vile mix that's brewing.

P.S. What are the secrets of your darck majykks? I know you are collecting BFT tears for a nefarious purpose. I'm on to you, Nome.

One of the things I like about dominion is that you have a 15mins mini game where you reach lvl 18 and always get almost full build.
Don't remove the exp+gold aura D:
It is a nice place to test champions right after you purchase them, in an everybody-is-buffed background. Giving specific buffs to each champions might be a little tricky for these purposes. I'm not sure how it would affect the 'competitive' scene, as it is mostly a play-for-fun map

I don't agree with this because it will affect hybrids that may go one or the other
I enjoy the current aura and see no need for it to change further

I dig the mana aura for sure, and I'd say I'm also for the penetration bonuses. Helps prevent people building straight beef and stalemating, and helps agaist counterbuilding botlanes. I bet it makes more of a difference than I usually realize.

Not a fan of the varied auras. . . unless maybe a person could choose which, but that would be very difficult to balance, and probably always make you feel bad about what you arent taking.

ps do one of these about end of game spawn timers

It was my understanding that the %penetration was put in specifically because it was so easy to buy loads and loads of defenses. Changes since then, like the removal of Warmog's and ESPECIALLY all the S3 changes dealing with making Resistances less powerful (less total resistances per item/increased price of resists/many many improvements to penetration availability and mechanics) make the %pen on the Global Aura either superfluous or damaging to the game's balance.

The mana regeneration really should stay in one form or another. Anyone who was already mana-efficient enough to last through long fights doesn't get a huge benefit from it, while people who eat through mana like hate through Teemo get that little boost to make them at least *somewhat* useful. The mana regen really helps keep mana-users usable.

The -healing is the only thing keeping AP Soraka from being a rampaging god. Not sure how I feel about that, but it's probably safer to keep it. Health is an extremely valuable resource in Dominion, and it really should stay that way.

Definitely don't do champion-based buffs. That goes beyond just nudging the meta in one direction or another, it makes people feel even worse than they already do for trying unusual builds/combinations.

I'd be curious to see how the passive would work out if it were actually a start of game option.
Maybe a new page in the shop that has one time free purchases for some portion of the current passive or even some new mixes.

My opinions on the Crystal Scar aura, that I have been going over with a game designer friend:

The penetrations are probably a little high. It should have to be a conscious choice to itemize into doing true damage to enemies, even through their defenses, but I see brutalizer/lw and haunting guise/sorcboots/abyssal scepter becoming core build items on everyone. A possible fix would be to reduce the percent values.

Armor pen and Magic pen have separate problems, which are due to the value of using runes to spec into flat pen (25 for armor, 15 for mr, marks and quints) and the itemizability of the stats. There are only a few choices for armor pen, so ghostblade/last whisper is seen very frequently, and sometimes is rushed. There are similarly few choices in flat magic pen, and only one choice in percent magic pen. Mages tend to have high base damages that scale better in the early to mid game with penetration than they do with AP, which means rushing haunting guise/sorc boots is usually the best option.

The mana regeneration does not appear to be benefiting anyone that I can identify. Spammy champions or those with high mana costs still run out of mana, while low mana cost bruisers and fighters don't. Building mana regeneration always feels like it is less useful than building max mana, as there are plenty of excellent choices for building max mana (sheen, frozen heart, catalyst and upgrades) no matter what class or champion you are playing. Problematic use of mana seems to come from champions that only have to lightly itemize into mana to be essentially 'manaless', typically fighters who build sheen or triforce. I think that a better solution would be to have the global aura increase regeneration significantly, but reduce maximum mana so that it's not trivial to itemize into infinite mana.

One thing I would like to see in the crystal scar aura is an interaction between the Crystal Scar and alternative resource champions. Champions utilizing Rage or Energy typically have a hard time, due to difficulty building up full Rage, or by using Energy on burst too fast.

I think that class specific bonuses sounds dangerous to implement, because it discourages alternative builds, some of which are stronger/more popular than the 'cannonical' bulid (look at AD Malzahar). However, percentage increases on bonus stats might accomplish the same thing, while still being technically 'flat'. If you provide a percentage bonus on bonus AS, AP, AD, etc from items, then only the champions that wanted to build those stats would take advantage of the bonus, but would still leave all champions to take advantage of it in principle.

I hardly ever notice I have bonus penetration form the aura. It's about as noticeable as health regen auras.