Guild Wars 2

One of the clunkiest aspects of gearing is committing to a Rune type that might not be your best fit, but provides a good ‘all-round’ foundation (e.g Strength/Hoelbrak, Traveler, Pack). Having to shell out gold 6x for more niche Runes and back again makes diversifying builds difficult and undesirable.

With the coming Legendary Armor (and to an extent Ascended Armor) what are the plans to alleviate the problem? From what the Raid posts suggest (needing multiple build types), we’ll also need various Runes.

In its current design, there are two likely outcomes. 1) People will continue to run Jack-of-all-trades Runes because they simply cannot afford multiple sets, leading to players with more money having a boost on others. At the very least a pre-requisite for raiding will be a f tonne of gold farming. 2) Players who simply cannot afford multiple Rune sets will have less fun, take more time, see less of the rest of the game, feel less satisfied and more likely to burn-out faster.

Whether or not you think the Rune gold sink in its current iteration is good for the game (I do understand we need a gold sink but surely skins are a better way to do it – and consistent with ANETs gameplay philosophy). Maybe it’d be a good idea to let players know that it will be a feature of Raiding.

Secondly, the only realistic way around the problem for most players is to have multiple sets of Exotic Armor to rotate Rune types. In which case, it would also be prudent to inform players at what stat lvl (gear quality) the raids are designed for? Have they been designed with Ascended in mind? Or are there new design factors to help alleviate the Rune problem, or a general consideration that Exotic quality gear is an ‘inclusive’ design baseline?

Share your thoughts below. Perhaps we can get some feedback on the issue. Personally, I am on the poorer side of gear (Crafting Ascended Weapons currently but not yet Armor). If I do need better gear or multiple sets for Runes, being able to plan would be a bonus.

I want to get enthusiastic about Raiding, but having to craft multiple gear sets just for Runes as well as baseline stats would be a bit of a downer.

*Is there any way, in future design, to craft some attachable component to armor (perhaps needing ascended materials) to add a second, third, fourth (etc)rune type to a piece of gear and then be able to select your Rune of choice from a list similar to how you ‘select stats’ on a current legendary? Surely its possible, but i’d really like to know if its likely?

Signed,

?Future raider?

thats the first mind when i read about it!

I’d even say its not a raid-only problem.
When ppl cant buy multiple sets, they just switch to lower level gear, which dont cost that much. Actually i got about 5 armor-sets for each armor class(light-mid-heavy). Some of cause for different stats, but some just for different runes.
It realy should not be, that ppl “need” to take so many gear with a armor, where you can change stats. This makes it from a usefull feature just back to a skin. And pretending the way to get will rly be legendary, ppl should be rewarded by this feature and not just by a new skin.

My suggestion would be
a) let the player select and change a stat and rune.

of cause this may shake the economy a bit, but maybe a worth reward for doing legendary stuff?!?

a2)

like a, but you need to “unlock” runes to a armor(-piece), by applying them once to the armor(piece)

to be consequent, weapons should have the same with sigils.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this got ignored, since it has been around since stat swapping got added to weapons. Rune/Sigil library is a good solution where runes/sigils you’ve used on a legendary get stored and can be equipped again at will.

Truth is unless you like the skin it will probably be much cheaper and more efficient to make multiple ascended sets and equip different sets of runes. And if you are planning to swap expensive runes frequently it will be so much cheaper that the legendary might as well just be a pricey skin.

Fingers crossed for the rune/sigil library, don’t count on it though.

hazenvirus.8154:

I wouldn’t be surprised if this got ignored, since it has been around since stat swapping got added to weapons. Rune/Sigil library is a good solution where runes/sigils you’ve used on a legendary get stored and can be equipped again at will.

Truth is unless you like the skin it will probably be much cheaper and more efficient to make multiple ascended sets and equip different sets of runes. And if you are planning to swap expensive runes frequently it will be so much cheaper that the legendary might as well just be a pricey skin.

Fingers crossed for the rune/sigil library, don’t count on it though.

Multiple ascended armor sets? That’s um….insane. No one aside from hardcore market flippers have that kind of gold to make sets with. Also, what are you basing cost on? Ascended is incredibly expensive by itself, especially light armor due to silk being so high demand, and frankly you have no idea how expensive the armor is. If its based on Raid farming as I suspect it will be, the only investment could be time in clearing Raid’s to get the pieces for all we know. Nothing is substantiated beyond we are getting them.

I agree on the difficulties related to rune/sigils. However I think it will end up being throw something generic on it for the leg up for most players.

Freedan.1769:

hazenvirus.8154:

I wouldn’t be surprised if this got ignored, since it has been around since stat swapping got added to weapons. Rune/Sigil library is a good solution where runes/sigils you’ve used on a legendary get stored and can be equipped again at will.

Truth is unless you like the skin it will probably be much cheaper and more efficient to make multiple ascended sets and equip different sets of runes. And if you are planning to swap expensive runes frequently it will be so much cheaper that the legendary might as well just be a pricey skin.

Fingers crossed for the rune/sigil library, don’t count on it though.

Multiple ascended armor sets? That’s um….insane. No one aside from hardcore market flippers have that kind of gold to make sets with. Also, what are you basing cost on? Ascended is incredibly expensive by itself, especially light armor due to silk being so high demand, and frankly you have no idea how expensive the armor is. If its based on Raid farming as I suspect it will be, the only investment could be time in clearing Raid’s to get the pieces for all we know. Nothing is substantiated beyond we are getting them.

I agree on the difficulties related to rune/sigils. However I think it will end up being throw something generic on it for the leg up for most players.

You don’t have to be a hardcore market player to afford it. Really, time is your biggest hurdle.

I have 4 ascended armor sets, 1 light and 3 heavy. Zerker, Soldier and Ventari(because banner warriors used to be kitten ed good). I also was contemplating the issue between runes as I run Scholar on my zerker, Strength on Soldier’s and Monk runes on Ventari. I love the idea of different builds but kitten Strength runes are now almost 10g a piece…

I will probably run Scholar if nothing changes and maybe switch between Zerker and Sinister stat setups(Meditation Guardian ya?)

But I would like something for us! Rune swapping and storage anyone?

if you think they are expensive, try out:
[&BH8HAAA=]
on playing lazy you get your armor within 40h, when you rly want it within 24h, sad but true.
It just rly get messy, when half of you inventory is full of armors and weapons, so never loose hope!
It’s like vs. all Potions. Some day they’ll come! (mb with new fractals?!?)

The only.problem I see with this is that.if they add such a thing, then Legendary armor will be the new must have of GTFO. And people complain about the zurker meta. People will end up locked out of the raid content because they where not there on day one. They didn’t add it to weapons. Armor will most likely be the same.

What do you need so many sets for exactly?

1 set for PvE, and possibly another for WvW.

You can just use exotics for WvW unless you’re really hardcore into roaming. You can easily get a full set of exotics through dungeons.

@BrotherBelial How about having a craftable component you can add to both Ascended and Legendary armor that lets you add a Rune type each time? i.e letting you add a 2nd, 3rd, 4th Rune type to an existing piece of armor.

That way you can get around the Legendary of GTFO by focusing on the Runes rather than the armor itself.

@Wasabi Kitty The whole OP is about needing multiple Armor sets for raiding if ANET delivers on their message – that raiding will require various types of gear etc.

On your second point (about Exotics), I also agree its fine for most levels of gameplay but I’m wondering therefore where raiding fits in with that philosophy.

What would help is if ANET explained what level of gear they have designed Raids for. The are obvious multiple issues at each of the levels that I’m really hoping they will address or release info about (Runes being just one).

Or maybe there should be Legendary runes.

Rune Precursor + gift of rune + gift of mastery + gift of fortune = Legendary runes which can change stats!

Byron.1902:

In its current design, there are two likely outcomes. 1) People will continue to run Jack-of-all-trades Runes because they simply cannot afford multiple sets, leading to players with more money having a boost on others. At the very least a pre-requisite for raiding will be a f tonne of gold farming. 2) Players who simply cannot afford multiple Rune sets will have less fun, take more time, see less of the rest of the game, feel less satisfied and more likely to burn-out faster.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

@Sorin, not sure if its a Slippery Slope, but I do think people without a lot of money and/or time will experience 1 or more examples from 2).

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

What do you need so many sets for exactly?

1 set for PvE, and possibly another for WvW.

You can just use exotics for WvW unless you’re really hardcore into roaming. You can easily get a full set of exotics through dungeons.

since u got an ele…i think u can understand that 1 set for pve and wvw is not enough one dagger burning set is cool..with balthasar runes…then one for dungeon and strengh rune…and then if someone wanna use all utility skills while haveing perma speed…the traveler rune. (but at least the first 2 r a must if someone wanna play all builds in a good way)

especially for wvw u have like 4 -5 different sets bcs of the need of different runes.

I have duo armor as well for my main. and several other armors tbh…

Mostly for stats, the builds are the same and the runes also, This would mean If I’d get legendary armor the 2 armor sets would become available to alts.

Of course you could get 2 or 3 legendary sets? per weight?

Just add legendary runes. Recipie requires one of every (non-event) type and an assortment of legendary goods (gift of X, gift of y, etc.)

i have only one question, are ascended armors going to be part of the legendary armor materials for crafting and such? couse believe me making and armor from scratch is going to be such a pain in the —-