Guild Wars 2

I was doing CoE one of these days and someone linked all their gear and everything he had he put a ruby orb in it. Weapons, armor, trinkets. I said to him it would probably benefit more if he switched to a rune or something and noted Scholar in particular.

What is the general consensus about this? I have read around a little bit and seen that some people say Ruby is better than Scholar even though the base numbers don’t really add up.

Scholar is definitely the superior option as long as you can stay above 90 a solid portion of the time. A base 10% damage multiplier is exceptionally better than crit damage since crit damage scales so poorly.

As far as I know scholar will always beat ruby if you can keep your health above 90% for the majority of the fight, if your are struggling hard to keep it above 90% then ruby is the way to go.

Scholar, especially for coe.

Pretty sure someone calculated that you don’t even need to be 90% for the majority, like for 30 percent of the time or something?

Ruby cuz its cheap and im cheap . But i remember getting kicked out of
Cof p1 for having ruby instead of scholarr . I guess scholar
Is better to look pro or something …

Then I guess my next question:

Are ruby orbs ever worth using?

I am a zerker war with full ascended/exotic, I run scholars. I used to run ruby for 2 months when I was starting out, but I was kind of a noob then and ignorant of the rune comparisons ,etc. (well I still kinda am, but the dude I take my zerk warr advice from recommends scholars, and I trust him. his vid is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlZNjDDL42s, and plus my friend I run dungs with uses scholars and he’s prty experienced lol.)

According to the dude whose build I’m running, it seems ruby is only slightly better than scholars even when you’re not above 90%. Thus a chance of a 10% dmg increase with scholars would clearly tip the favor towards it.

I never worried too much about actual numbers and stuff, it’ll make your head hurt, but the one thing I do know doesn’t really help: what I do know (or care to know) in terms of specific numbers is this: as long as your have 90%+ health about 25% or more of the time, scholars is better than ruby. OK so even that’s probably kinda confusing, and I don’t even know how to explain that because I for one never really keep an actual count of what % my health is at usually so..lol. As long as you’re not downed like most of the time I’d say stick with scholars :P

So basically unless you’re a terrible player that expects to be carried and/or runs into mobs constantly and gets downed, i’d say go scholars.

I use ruby orbs cause… my ele’s squishy xD I’m never above 90% I never go down, but when doing tougher content with environmental effects, like the new TA for instance, I just never see myself above 90% health.

viciouspike.8624:

Then I guess my next question:

Are ruby orbs ever worth using?

if you cant afford scholars

Read my post btw, it is actual numbers. You can just google your question and get them, but as long as your above 90% health about quarter or more of the time, go scholars. There’;s actual calculations for this sort of stuff but I’d rather not know. So let’s say your fighting alpha COE P2 (only have to worry about the huge aoe circles) and you manage to dodge every one. your health would be above 90% defnitely most of the time in that fight. so scholars is better. but lets say you screw up your timing, get downed and rally with like 20% health. and then get downed again awhile later (and maybe die). in that case rubys would be better. I realize this is kind of a terrible example but I don’t know how to explain it better.

Scholar encourages better gameplay. Same with taking stacking sigils.

nagr.1593:

Read my post btw, it is actual numbers. You can just google your question and get them, but as long as your above 90% health about quarter or more of the time, go scholars. There’;s actual calculations for this sort of stuff but I’d rather not know. So let’s say your fighting alpha COE P2 (only have to worry about the huge aoe circles) and you manage to dodge every one. your health would be above 90% defnitely most of the time in that fight. so scholars is better. but lets say you screw up your timing, get downed and rally with like 20% health. and then get downed again awhile later (and maybe die). in that case rubys would be better. I realize this is kind of a terrible example but I don’t know how to explain it better.

Yeah I read your posts and I understand your example. I was using Golemancer stuff for the longest and only just decided to swap to Scholar because I got sick of the golem and since I use an asura people would see it and think I had that for an elite and switch to it…

Thanks for your input.

Dolan.3071:

Scholar encourages better gameplay. Same with taking stacking sigils.

“kitten stacking sigils I keep dying anyway”

Ruby orbs are better on a phantasm mesmer. Justification: Phantasams do not benefit from the scholar rune 10% damage increase. Since more than 50% of your dps is coming from the phantasms ruby orbs will give higher overall dps.

The real question is,

Ogre or Ruby Orbs?!!

CLERICS IS THE ANSWER.

don’t forget the boon duration runes. need to keep them might stacks up cos the fight’s gonna drag on from our bad dps

a t s e.9614:

Ruby cuz its cheap and im cheap . But i remember getting kicked out of
Cof p1 for having ruby instead of scholarr . I guess scholar
Is better to look pro or something …

Elitism in CoF runs? Oh lord.

I would say 80%+ of the people use ruby for cof speed run. I actually seen alot less scholar. Almost everyone is using ruby.

Im’ not sure if people are too cheap, or they are not very confident they can stay high health most of the time. I’m both of that. So I use ruby.

there was a thread a while ago about some guy who got kicked from cof p1 because he was wearing scholar instead of ruby orbs

Haven’t looked at it lately, but iirc phantasm mesmers use ruby orbs since their primary source of damage doesn’t benefit from the scholar runes. I do use scholar runes on mine in assassin’s set for lupi, but everywhere else ruby orbs. Just for mesmer though, chrysocola orbs erewhere else.

Ruby orbs are probably better in cof p1 because you dont dodge in that dungeon. But yeah scholar is better.

Ranger and Eagle are (always) better than Ruby Orbs anyway.

Scholar Runes give 165 Power and Ruby Orbs give 120 Power. I don’t think it’s worth using Ruby Orbs in any situation.

I use ruby orbs for my ele because he’s so squishy and can barely keep up 90% hp, it just takes a fart to get him to below 90%, willing to take any suggestion for my ele that is better than ruby orbs but doesn’t require >90% hp.
I use scholar runes for my warrior though.

Even without the 10% damage bonus Scholar Runes should still be better.

Dub.1273:

Ranger and Eagle are (always) better than Ruby Orbs anyway.

What do you use to get the ranger runes bonus?

TheMaskedParadigm.3629:

Even without the 10% damage bonus Scholar Runes should still be better.

No.

spoj.9672:

What do you use to get the ranger runes bonus?

My imaginary moa pet.

Dub.1273:

TheMaskedParadigm.3629:

Even without the 10% damage bonus Scholar Runes should still be better.

No.

It has higher Power and the Precision isn’t really worth it since you can get to 100% without it.

But you’re sacrificing other stats than precision for that, too.
Like taking Signet of Fury instead of Might on a warrior or using subpar 100prec/10%critdmg food.

IMO the only time you should use Ruby Orbs is in a phantasm based mesmer build, and even then in Arah you should use Scholars.

I tried some phantasm damage tests with and without scholar armor for a long time. I summoned some phantasms on the dummies in LA, changed one piece of berserker/scholar armor to to another set to remove the 6th rune set piece, checked damage: The low/high/average damage was 10% lower! Then i put it back on after about 10 minutes of watching numbers and put it back on. Damage went up by ~10% again. The same phantasms have been used for the entire duration and i tried summoning with and without scholar as well. It seems to work for rune bonuses, but the mantra +4 %X(n) bonus and the +3 %X(n)phantasm still don’t work.

I haven’t ran any tests on actual mobs/enemies/players yet, but i can say it definitely works on the dummies in LA.

Scholar runes have come down dramatically in price. I recently 400’d tailor on an alt and realized I could make my own entire runes for less than 2g each. I’m still upgrading my alts but so far its a very noticeable boost, its rare to save up gold for something non-cosmetic so it feels justified to me. I think people just wrote them off back when charged lodestones were ~4g each as an unattainable luxury.

TheMaskedParadigm.3629:

Scholar Runes give 165 Power and Ruby Orbs give 120 Power. I don’t think it’s worth using Ruby Orbs in any situation.

This is why I thought Ruby wasn’t even really worth it. I looked around at a few guides and pretty much blindly followed them. I never had the time or care to do any calculations myself.

I stated earlier that I was using Golemancer before and only recently switched to 5 Scholar and 1 Baelfire. I went from hitting 9k with backstabs to 11 – 12k.

How useful is precision and what is it really for?

Ruby orbs have more crit damage though. Thats why they arent that bad.

viciouspike.8624:

TheMaskedParadigm.3629:

Scholar Runes give 165 Power and Ruby Orbs give 120 Power. I don’t think it’s worth using Ruby Orbs in any situation.

This is why I thought Ruby wasn’t even really worth it. I looked around at a few guides and pretty much blindly followed them. I never had the time or care to do any calculations myself.

I stated earlier that I was using Golemancer before and only recently switched to 5 Scholar and 1 Baelfire. I went from hitting 9k with backstabs to 11 – 12k.

How useful is precision and what is it really for?

pumping precision is only really good if your sole aim is to maximise reflect damage, because power doesn’t scale reflect damage whereas reflected damage does use your base crit%.

and because most organised teams already hit 100% crit chance with buffs up, the boosted precision is mainly for solo play.

spoj.9672:

What do you use to get the ranger runes bonus?

Apparently party members are considered as a companion.

I RUN WITH 4 SLAVES, I’M THE REAL SLAVE DRIVER

guanlongwucaii.3162:

pumping precision is only really good if your sole aim is to maximise reflect damage, because power doesn’t scale reflect damage whereas reflected damage does use your base crit%.

and because most organised teams already hit 100% crit chance with buffs up, the boosted precision is mainly for solo play.

So what you are saying is precision is pretty much useless more or less?

Young Somalia.1706:

spoj.9672:

What do you use to get the ranger runes bonus?

Apparently party members are considered as a companion.

I RUN WITH 4 SLAVES, I’M THE REAL SLAVE DRIVER

Lol…

I Rage on my Warrior (gasp)

guanlongwucaii.3162:

pumping precision is only really good if your sole aim is to maximise reflect damage, because power doesn’t scale reflect damage whereas reflected damage does use your base crit%.

and because most organised teams already hit 100% crit chance with buffs up, the boosted precision is mainly for solo play.

In many cases 100% crit is achieved by choosing between precision over power, be it food, stacks or signets. 30 in precision trait line + banner with as much ascended pieces as one can have at the moment, scholar runes and fury gives 81% crit chance (I wouldn’t count on having ranger). I don’t think there is a single profession that can bump that to 100% without choosing the precision alternative from either signets, food or stacks, guardian probably being the closest while using sword.

In cases of food and stacks your options are exactly similar, while with signets I feel precision ones offer better actives making them the preferred choice.

I’m in no way saying 100% or close to it would not be achieved if one so wants without losing efficiency, but I feel you can’t rule out runes just because they offer a maximum of 155 precision over their power alternative, you would aim for that precision in some way at a “later” point of your build.

You really can’t go wrong with ranger runes, but never use eagle. The 5% damage bonus on rangers is unconditional on all professions so eagles couldn’t possibly do anything but lose dps.

guanlongwucaii.3162:

Dolan.3071:

Scholar encourages better gameplay. Same with taking stacking sigils.

“kitten stacking sigils I keep dying anyway”

Hey that was in Arah! I’m bloody terrible in there.
“Let’s get stacks on the trash at the start”
“Why I’m just gonna get downed at least once within the next series of bosses that I don’t know and skips I’ve never done before”
xD

Linguistically Inept.6583:

viciouspike.8624:

Then I guess my next question:

Are ruby orbs ever worth using?

if you cant afford scholars

Phantasm mesmers (which I am) would benefit from ruby. The 10% damage (afaik) does not apply to phantasms.

Ethics.4519:

Linguistically Inept.6583:

viciouspike.8624:

Then I guess my next question:

Are ruby orbs ever worth using?

if you cant afford scholars

Phantasm mesmers (which I am) would benefit from ruby. The 10% damage (afaik) does not apply to phantasms.

Refer to my post above.

Emanuel.9781:

Ethics.4519:

Linguistically Inept.6583:

viciouspike.8624:

Then I guess my next question:

Are ruby orbs ever worth using?

if you cant afford scholars

Phantasm mesmers (which I am) would benefit from ruby. The 10% damage (afaik) does not apply to phantasms.

Refer to my post above.

Thanks for pointing that out. I skimmed through and didn’t see anything.

I guess since I have two conflicting sources, I’ll have to test it out for myself.

So since we started talking about Power VS Crit Damage….

Celestial Draconic: 140 Power, 140 Precision, 19 Crit Damage
Crit Chance: 6.7
Base Effective Power: 142

Berserker’s Draconic: 314 Power, 224 Precision, 16 Crit Damage
Crit Chance: 10.4
Base Effective Power: 319

Assassin’s Draconic: 224 Power, 314 Precision, 16 Crit Damage
Crit Chance: 14.95
Base Effective Power: 229

Ruby Orbs: 120 Power, 84 Precision, 12 Crit Damage
Crit Chance: 4
Effective Power: 121

Scholar Runes: 165 Power, 0 Precision, 8 Crit Damage, No 10% bonus
Crit Chance: 0
Effective Power: 165

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Draconic_Boots
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Draconic_Legs
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Draconic_Gauntlets
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Draconic_Pauldrons
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Draconic_Helm
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Celestial_Draconic_Coat
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_Scholar
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ruby_Orb

Sorry to tell you brazil but that’s really bullkitten.