What does Brilliance actually do?

[HungarianRhapsody]

I just reselected my enhancements at level 12 now that I can get Tier 5 enhancements. One of the enhancements that I selected was Brilliance (ES tier 4). It doesn't seem to do anything.

I get the same number of temp HP from False Life that I used to get. I get the same number of temp HP from Stanch that I used to get.

Is it supposed to do something that I'm just not noticing? It certainly isn't giving me temp HP every time my aura ticks (which is what I originally read it as - and which seemed ridiculous).

[Krelar]

It does give hit points when your aura ticks.

The problem, if I recall, is that other sources of temporary hit points get removed first. So if you have more temp hp currently then what it gives it won't refresh.

So it's really only useful for a small buff to nearby party members, and to possibly save you if you burn through all your other temporary hit points and those abilities are still on timer.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Thank you. I couldn't figure out why I wasn't seeing anything different, but I was tossing on other temp housing first.

[Sebastrd]

The temp HP from Brilliance may seem negligible, but I can't tell you how many lethal lag spikes I've survived thanks to my aura.

[Vooduspyce]

Brilliance is awesome and easily and often overlooked. It is a very important party of an Enlightened Spirit's survivability. The temp hp doesn't tick in public areas but works in dungeons. I believe this change was done last fall to stop auralocks from standing around in the graveyard to farm kills during Night Revels.

The temp hp from Brilliance function as a kind of maintenance healing. On my con-based warlock it ticks for 144 temp hp every 2 seconds at level cap, creating a constant buffer to incoming damage. Even on a charisma-based warlock it could easily tick for over 100.

The temp hp from Brilliance functions independently and does not conflict with other sources of temp hp because they are different types. Brilliance is a determination bonus to temp hp, for example. Shining Through is a sacred bonus. Stanch and Feigned Health don't list a type for their temp hp but I use them all and they all stack.

Hope that helps

[btolson]

Just FYI: Brilliance doesn't tick in public areas (anymore). Only in dungeons/wilderness.

[Vish]

What I've found is that it'll keep u alive when your shining through is used up and you're down to just hp bar. Then it acts like mini shining through and grants temp hp buff. Useful for tough fights.

[Zretch]

What I've found is that it'll keep u alive when your shining through is used up and you're down to just hp bar. Then it acts like mini shining through and grants temp hp buff. Useful for tough fights.

I think it changes depending on the difficulty of content, your level, and the cores you have in ES.

Think of Brilliance and Shining Through as two mutually exclusive ways to provide proactive healing. Shining Through gives 8x your Con every 30 seconds in one big hit. Brilliance gives your Con every 5, 4, 3, or 2 seconds in Heroic levels, but gives 2x your Con in Epic levels.

This means that Shining Through is far more "powerful" at lower levels before you have your Celestial Spirit core and before its effectiveness doubles at 20.

Given an arbitrary Constitution score (let's use 50 for easy numbers), you receive the following "Temp Hitpoints per Second (THpS)":

Shining Through = 400 THps / 30 Seconds = 13.3 THpS
Brilliance with just Shape Vestments in Heroic = 50 THps / 4 Seconds = 12.5 THpS
Brilliance with just Aura of Menace in Heroic = 50 THps / 3 seconds = 16.7 THpS
Brilliance with Celestial Spirit in Heroic = 50 THps / 2 seconds = 25 THpS
Brilliance with Celestial Spirit in Epic = 100 THpS / 2 seconds = 50 THpS

So in order for something to get into your "real" hitpoints, their DPS has to exceed the THpS of either Brilliance or Shining Through. As you can see, Brilliance scales MUCH better than Shining Through, especially into Epic content. In Heroic content, often things aren't hitting you for more than 13 DPS, so you don't need anything more than Shining Through, but in Epic Elite and above, Brilliance is actually your workhorse healing ability. In Epics, use Shining Through to absorb spike damage like traps, and let Brilliance take care of the bulk of the damage mitigation while using Rejuv Cocoon and/or Consecration to spot heal what little gets through between the 2 second ticks.

Don't underestimate it, in my opinion, Brilliance is the "star" of the Enlightened Spirit tree and the primary reason ES feels so survivable as you get into higher level content.