Paladin auras

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The paladin auras are paladin area of effect buffs which boosts the abilities of party and raid members within a certain radius.

Information

The paladin's auras, blessings, hands and seals are the four buffs that combine to give the class its flexibility. The auras are area of effect buffs; they affect all party and raid members within 40 yards of the paladin. A paladin may only have one aura active at one time. They are free to cast, with the only cost being the global cooldown. As such, it is wise to always have one aura or another running. Auras do not persist through death.^[1]

Limitations

You may not change auras while silenced or incapacitated; however, they are not counted as magic, and cannot be dispelled. The only exception to this is the druid's Cyclone spell, which causes the aura to have no effect for the duration of the debuff.
Auras do not stack. If two paladins in a party are using the same aura, only the greater of the two will be in effect, the other is effectively wasted. As with blessings, it is essential that the paladins coordinate to have two different auras running, rather than overlapping with the same one.
Resistance auras do not stack with most resistance buffs; for example the priest's Prayer of Shadow Protection will render a Shadow Resistance Aura obsolete.

Available auras

There are many different auras available to paladins. Only the Devotion Aura is available to a newly-created paladin character; additional auras become available through training. The various auras are as follows:

Aura	Description	Acquired at	School	Ranks
Devotion Aura	Gives 55/160/275/390/505/620/735/861/1015/1205 additional armor to party or raid members within 40 yards.	Level 1	Protection	10
Retribution Aura	Causes 10/18/27/37/48/62/112 Holy damage to any enemy that strikes a party or raid member within 40 yards.	Level 16	Retribution	7
Concentration Aura	All party or raid members within 40 yards lose 35% casting or channeling time when damaged.	Level 22	Protection	1
Shadow Resistance Aura	Gives 30/45/60/70/130 additional Shadow resistance to all party and raid members within 40 yards.	Level 28	Protection	5
Frost Resistance Aura	Gives 30/45/60/70/130 additional Frost resistance to all party and raid members within 40 yards.	Level 32	Protection	5
Fire Resistance Aura	Gives 30/45/60/70/130 additional Fire resistance to all party and raid members within 40 yards.	Level 36	Protection	5
Crusader Aura	Increases the mounted speed by 20% for all party and raid members within 40 yards. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.	Level 62	Holy	1

More details about individual Auras can be found at the top of Thottbot's Paladin skills chart.

Usage

As with all paladin buffs, usage of Auras is highly situational, and it is unwise to always rely on a single aura for all situations. Indeed, switching auras in combat is frequently beneficial. However, one thing that may not be immediately obvious is that most auras (in fact, all except Crusader) only benefit a player that is actively under attack (usually your tank). To clarify, the added armor from Devotion Aura is only useful to your combat classes, if your tank is doing their job, the casters will not be under attack and will have no need for it. The same is true for Concentration Aura; if your casters are never attacked, the question of spell interruption will never arise.

If you are soloing, you of course have free choice over your aura. Popular choices are Devotion or Retribution, mostly depending on the enemy at the time. Concentration Aura is also useful; especially given that for a paladin specced with Spiritual Focus (Tier 2 Holy talent), Concentration Aura makes healing completely uninterruptable in normal combat (stuns, knockdowns, kicks, etc will all still work against you).

Improving auras with talents

The auras can be improved through the following talents:

	Improved Devotion Aura Protection Tier 4	Increases the armor bonus of Devotion Aura by 17/34/50% and increases the amount healed on any target affected by any of your Auras by 2/4/6%.
	Sanctified Retribution Retribution Tier 5	Increases the damage caused by Retribution Aura by 50% and all damage caused by friendly targets affected by any of your Auras is increased by 3%.
	Improved Concentration Aura Holy Tier 4	Increases the effect of Concentration Aura by and additional 5/10/15% and while any Aura is active reduces the duration of any Silence or Interrupt effect used against an affected group member by 10/20/30%. The duration reduction does not stack with any other effects.
	Swift Retribution Retribution Tier 9	Your auras also increase casting, ranged and melee attack speeds by 1/2/3%.
	Aura Mastery Holy Tier 3	Now grants anyone affected by Concentration Aura immunity from Interrupt and Silence mechanics, and increases the effectiveness of all other auras by 100%. Lasts 10 seconds. 2-minute cooldown.