Maintenance for the week of December 16:
• PC/Mac: No maintenance – December 16
• NA megaservers for patch maintenance – December 17, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• EU megaservers for patch maintenance – December 17, 9:00 UTC (4:00AM EST) - 17:00 UTC (12:00PM EST)
The issues on the North American megaservers have been resolved at this time. If you continue to experience difficulties at login, please restart your client. Thank you for your patience!
About that Spaulder of Ruin Aura
The red aura effect that the spaulder displays looks alot like an enemy AOE. It took my wife 3 or 4 dungeon runs before she realized it wasn't some enemy attack trying to kill her and started actually standing in it. I would bet that a decent percentage of people in pug groups are confused by it as a well, causing the group to miss out on some valuable buffs. It can also be a little difficult to see the boundaries on some terrain. (Particularly areas with alot of fire/lava)
Changing it from its current red aura to either a blue flame or frost effect seems like it wouldn't be difficult, while making it less ominous looking for allies. A green/poison cloud effect probably wouldn't be difficult either, but that too would probably send unaware allies dodge rolling for their lives.
I just think some change would be good, as trying to get people to stand in a red AOE just seems a little unnatural.