Spring's Bloom/Cruel Thesis

[Wooloo]

So, these two are arguable upgrades to the Nature Aura, but they lose out on most of the benefits of having nature aura.

Cruel Thesis gives 10% AP, which is basically moot given the ele power from Nature Aura, and you end up losing an additional 15 vit and 10 power.

Spring's Bloom admittedly gives 5% DR, but this is also kind of dampened by the loss of vit.

The actives on both have very, very long cooldowns, and while Cruel Thesis can do high damage at close range, it feels as gimmicky as Sandstorm. Spring's Bloom on the other hand, doesn't do much damage at all, as for some reason the Blooms it summons only attack once, and only last for 6 seconds (Also there's only 5, not 6).

The immortality of the vines doesn't play too heavily into them unless you're fighting some dood with a pure hotbar of AoE spells. Vines are currently very tanky and I do not find myself having to resummon them in an average fight.

Overall, I feel like these two auras could both use a slight buff. Not necessarily to damage, but perhaps cooldown? Spring's Bloom appears to only do about 1K damage on active, with a 60 second cooldown, and a one second slow. Cruel Thesis is RNG AF and not entirely reliable, especially against kitey opponents.

As these are basically the only two dev options to nature-oriented characters, it feels rather lackluster that the upgrade is almost a downgrade.

[Jumpy]

and to think your rep was getting closer to neutral...

[Wooloo]

and to think your rep was getting closer to neutral...

Blah blah blah, I know you and your little meme crew go and downvote basically everything I post, blah blah blah.

I don't give a fuck about the rep. Serious conversation. The loss of stats is very significant, especially with Spring's Bloom.

[Milly]

I'm not part of the meme crew.

anyway.
the only thing i can truly speak on is the thought process that spring bloom's E deadly blooms should last longer than they do. they last for approximately a single tick during a fight which is unfortunately sad and weak.

CT's E is actually VERY strong with the right builds and it can and will shred people easily.

[Wooloo]

I'm not part of the meme crew.

anyway.
the only thing i can truly speak on is the thought process that spring bloom's E deadly blooms should last longer than they do. they last for approximately a single tick during a fight which is unfortunately sad and weak.

CT's E is actually VERY strong with the right builds and it can and will shred people easily.

Have seen what CT's E can do. It's very akin to sandstorm/blizzard, in the fact that it's real gimmicky and 100-0's a person with the right setup or otherwise basically just floats around.

Spring's Bloom E is basically a hellstorm gem, in that it does about the same damage, but only slows for like 1 second.

Either way, the loss of 20% Ele power, 15 vit, and 10 MD is very significant. Like, I genuinely feel weaker with the 'upgrade'.

[Jumpy]

okay.

CT's E is like having a better blizzard without having to dedicate a slot to it. On top of granting you immortal vines and scaling, multiplicative power.

SB's E needs for the blooms to have normal deadly bloom tick speed (which has been addressed plenty of times when both Milly and Maddie had Spring's Bloom, and got the aura buffed) or alternatively it needs to have another effect. Someone (BFJ) suggested for the E to spawn little Yggdrasil saplings that would all give you a minor heal when you stand around them, effectively making them like melodic repose in function.


If you want to nitpick at hiddens being worse in certain situations compared to the base aura then the same argument can be made for both crystal and sound, which have great hidden auras but where the base one can also be better in certain situations.

10 AP, 5 DR, immortal vines and an E is, by no means, bad.

Hiddens are awarded because the person deserves it and it fits their IC.
Go lose a few fights before complaining.

[Detective100]

To start things of, the basic nature has gotten a buff in the past, while CT/SB remained the same. In the past it was only 20+ vit. Now it's 15+ pow, 10+ vit, and +power helps sustain builds even more so, since +%ap boosts don't increase how much points you health back with your healing's skills.

Now, for CT/SB?
CT having a long CD makes sense, considering how effective it can be both as an offensive move when done in close range, or as a defensive move to deter people from going in.
SB? I'll admit, I haven't seen it in action, so I can't make a call on it.

One of the major positives of getting CT/SB is the vine immunity, as they can be killed easily with ground AoEs without them. However, that seems like the type of ability upgrade one could possibly get as a toggle buff instead if the app is done well enough, and with how good nature aura can be for the right build (15 pow, 10 vit, and +10% ap for bio/earth skills)? It can be quite a boost, while still keeping the basic nature aura.

Luckily, the affinity, 10%+ ap armed stance hiddens don't alter your damage type to the respective element anymore, so you can't try stacking it all together to 20% ap by having your armed moves deal bio/earth damage

That said, one of nature's key themes is sustain. Going from the basic nature aura to CT/SB, you end up losing all the stats from the basic nature aura, which means you'll both heal and deal less damage with your nature/earth/bio abilities. It's actually non nature/earth/bio skills that get stronger with CT/SB, since generally at 200 RPL and with a power enchanted mythril staff (+53 power), you get a 25 increase in power with the %ap, roughly 10 more than with the basic nature aura.

With that in mind, I think that a nature hidden aura should better fit the magic tree itself, rather than be a better fit for skills/abilities outside of it, especially for an exalted.
I saw Jumpy mentioning the crystal aura hiddens, but that is actually an aura that fits into the tree itself, and encourages using it's main gimmick by alternating which crystal would spawn more often depending on the aura.

Now, CT/SB is good enough on it's own for non-nature/earth trees, so increasing the total stats it gives may be a bit too much.
So, I propose an alternative: Either a +%ap, or a static +power, just for earth/bio/nature skills. This way, the nature hidden auras become more compatible with their own magic trees, without being too powerful an aura in general.

[Milly]

i personally went from earth aura to SB. Because I was running a DR build. Forest Form was also buffed after I got SB, so I cannot speak for the difference.

[GrayHood]

Spring Bloom has lovely green falling leaves. That's enough for me.

[Chance]

I've increased the bloom attack's duration by a decent amount for the patch, that and the baseline of 10 AP / 5 DR should make it solidly master level I'd say.
I've also given CT 5 DR (10 AP / 5 DR total).