"Auras" are already in the current party system. Small or large parties get an AC/HP bonus.
So why not get rid of those party aura's and get actual class aura's ?

I think the Aura's idea is great and think that every class should have one as I said in the other thread, it would add a sense of diversity amongst classes and encourage us to create balanced party set ups.

Of course I would simply be happy with instant cast on protect and shell (or is that being lazy as well?), its just one click of each spell then, keep recast timers to a minute and increase the AoE range so nobody in the party misses the buff unless they are ridiculously out of range, then and only then would I agree that 5 minute buffs are OK.

I can almost guarantee though that SE will increase the timers to 30 mins.