GaDaHo
commented
5 years ago Great Amethyst: Include an invisible wave or waves from after level 25 that is if you decide to add more waves than 50 so that may be an Aura of the Tower can detect the invisible units. But leaving Invisible units out of it an "Aura" AOE can be to further decrease armour if so not by much but the addition of -1 armour can do a lot or how much you decide to place if this idea is good.
Great Ruby: Currently does splash damage and combines into Towers that do Splash damage so an "Aura" can be to increase range on all towers if so but the range maths is all yours m8.
nvs
In the current balance of the game, which is essentially identical to the Bryvx era of the map, only Opals (and Great Aquamarine and Great Amethyst) provide auras. As such, the only gem type anyone really keeps (beyond the Greats, due to their damage, and perhaps Perfect Aquamarine) without planning to use in a combination is Opals, for the speed aura.
However, if all base gems had an aura of some sorts, that would add new choices to the game. People would have to decide if their strategy would benefit from these auras. And let's face it, more choices translates into more potential strategies. And that is something Gem sorely needs.
Adding auras, in my opinion, has a distinct advantage of not complicating things too much. It also allows the opportunity to really give a more distinct feel to each base gem type.
Some ideas for auras:
The idea for Topaz is that some rounds, or perhaps all rounds, have some form of evasion that may need countering. Taking this one step further, enemies can have their own auras. So, for example, on a Yellow armor round they may buff themselves with higher evasion, matching up against Topaz evasion debuff. On a Blazed round (Aquamarine and Opal, as they do Water damage), the aura would be reduced attack speed and mana regeneration.
Need to look at Ruby and Amethyst lore for inspiration.