Do auras stack? If I equip an Insight weapon on an Act2 merc., will the meditation aura of the weapon stack with natural merc. aura (and the same apply for any aura of the various runeword)?
Will it? I beleive they don't. If you put two sources of the aura from equipment together (like those double dreams on bnet. Dream helm - lvl 15 HS, dream shield - lvl 15 HS) then they stack (15+15=30). However if you have a dream helm, equip it on a paladin and turn on your own HS aura it alternates. At least I think it alternates, nowadays it also picks the highest aura when partied to someone with the same one right? Maybe it's different for mercs. I need to read up on that. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Wait, I get your question. You're wondering if the meditation works alongside the prayer and if prayer synergises the meditation. Yep and yep.
*: reffering to auras from party members or by your own skillpoints. *: And note that different auras never "cancel out" eachother, only auras of the same kind may override eachother. Aura Priority Laws - for auras of the same level and same type (example: two fanatism auras)
one of the only subjects i no anything about but was beat to it auradins are one of the reasons I no longer play ladder. there is an interesting build one ssog built around just this question.
Since I'm slow, let me ask about a specific situation: If my Merc has a Thorns aura of lvl 10 and my Pally uses a Thorns aura of level 5, then what is the effective Thorns aura level: 10? or 15? If my merc has a Thorns aura, and my necro uses Iron Maiden the reflected damage effects do "stack" because IM is a curse on monsters, not an aura. Is that correct?
Yes, you will receive the benefit from both the Merc's original aura, as well as the Meditation aura on Insight. The Replenish Life is a different issue entirely. If you equip Insight on a Prayer Merc, then you get a double bonus. The merc has Prayer active, giving you replenish life. Meditation (from Insight) has Prayer as a synergy, and when active will give you the replenish life from Prayer, too. This means that a Prayer Merc with Insight will offer DOUBLE the replenish of a Prayer merc alone. If you equip Insight on a Defiance merc, you still get both auras, but you do not get the replenish life. In the first scenario, the effective Thorns level will be 10- the higher level aura takes precedence. In the second, you are correct, IM and Thorns do, in fact, stack. Spirit of Barbs will actually stack as well, meaning if you have sources of all three, you will receive the benefit from all three. One thing worth noting- even though they stack, Amplify Damage is a better curse to use with Thorns than IM is, since Amp will at least double the Thorns damage, and if the monster has more than 0% physical resistance, Amp will do a lot more than that even.