Guild Wars 2

So my warrior build as follows
I have a full exotic gear with power primary and secondary vit/toughness. These pieces have superior rune of the fighter (power/toughness). My trinkets are all beserker’s with beserker jewels in them too (power/crit/crit dmg). Yet I still have only 20k hp and 2.8k armor with 3.4k attack and 34% crit (running 30/20/20/) and I feel squishy in dungeons.

This other warrior has;
24k health//3.2k armor//40% crit chance//3.3k attack
Armor: All “Soldier” type (Power + Vit + Toughness) with crests of the soldier.
Weapons: All Knight (Prec + Power + Toughness) with various sigils.
Trinkets: All Emerald with Emerald Jewels (Prec + Power +Toughness)
Spec: 20/20/0/10/20

He’s using crests, I never even thought of those and they’re much cheaper. So how can I get tankier and do more damage? Do I need to use runes or crests or a combination and what’s the difference? Thanks!

Runes give special bonuses that are impossible to find elsewhere. Depending on build setup they can easily give large benefits. For example, a baelfire rune that increases your burn duration by 15%. For some players this would be useless. But if you put than on an elementalist with a trait that gives him 5% damage while things are on fire, that 15% burn duration may be all he needs to keep a constant 5% damage boost going.

Orbs and crests function more similarly in that they only give stats. The crests however give stat combinations that IIRC Anet considers to be “better” or at least “more desired” which is why the Power/Tough/Vitality is found on a crest than on an orb (the closest orb approximate is beryl with its Power/Vit/Crit damage)

so will 6 emerald orbs give more power/toughness/vit than 6 runes of the soldier which only gives power/toughness and 1 effect?

sorry, meant 6 crests of the soldier, not emerald orbs

Crests give 20/14/14 stats each. Most runes give 165 to their primary stat if I remember correctly and either nothing or something like 50 to another stat.

So 165/50/+special trait or 120/84/84 of 3 stats.

thanks i think i’ll switch to crests then