Guild Wars 2

This is the rune setup and i like it for the most part besides the 6th bonus. Being stunned and invulnerable is not good for any situation I can think of. Compared to the mistform from vampire runes this one does more harm than help. And if you have conditions you will certainly die inside of a ice cube with no way of counteracting. I feel like i’m the only person in game who considers this rune over others.

(1): +25 Toughness
(2): +10% chill Duration
(3): +50 Toughness
(4): -50% Incoming Chill Duration
(5): +100 Toughness
(6): +20% chill duration; when you’re struck below 20% health become a block of ice for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 90s)

I do love the -50% incoming chill duration its great and unique to this rune only. Also the idea of having some of jormag’ corruption imbued into your armor is really cool but the 6th bonus just doesnt reflect that… maybe if it froze your foes instead of yourself.

Some ideas:
(6): +20% chill duration; when you’re struck below 50% or 80% health you gain frost aura for 5 secs. (Cooldown: 90s) – Good but typical and boring.

(6): +20% chill duration; when you use your heal skill convert all conditions into chill on yourself(1s per condi removed) (Cooldown: 30s) – This will synergize with the -50% inc chill to only inflict .5s of chill per condi removed.

(6): +20% chill duration; when you’re struck below 25% health you gain protection, regeneration and retaliation for 6 seconds. (Cooldown: 60s) Similar to the skill the Svanir champ uses in Honor of Waves.

I could make a million suggestions but you get the point anything but a self harming ice prison! Thanks for reading and very excited for HoT!

Well i’m just going to buy 1000 of these rune then. Hopefully Anet will listen and change it so it will drive the price up. Oops i just spilled the beans.

What about adding “freeze foes in a block of ice for 5sec when struck” to the current bonus? That sounds like a fun idea :P

EDIT: that is, freeze foes if they strike you while you’re frozen.

Leo G.4501:

What about adding “freeze foes in a block of ice for 5sec when struck” to the current bonus? That sounds like a fun idea :P

EDIT: that is, freeze foes if they strike you while you’re frozen.

Sure fun idea. Also broken but who cares.

The 6th piece bonus has always been gimmicky and mostly useless, but don’t go acting like vampire runes are actually good. That mist form screws you as much as it helps you.

I think the 6th piece bonus should still have something to do with ice or the chill condition though, so I’m not a fan of your third suggestion. I think the second could perhaps be a bit too powerful on some setups (i.e. essentially full condi removal on low cooldown heals).

But I do like the first suggestion. Frost armour is quite powerful, and the ele is the only one with access to it outside of using combo finishers in ice fields, which are sparse to begin with. Having frost armour available on a rune set opens up new unique options for classes without introducing any new mechanics, and could provide additional synergy for builds that work based on auras or chill (i.e. auramancer eles, reapers with damaging chills, &c.). It would also preserve the defensive nature of the rune set.

I do think they could maybe improve the 4-piece bonus too. While -50% chill duration is, on paper, quite strong, it’s generally unnecessary. If you look at something like a warrior, they can opt to take something like dogged march to already reduce it by 33%, and then runes of Melandru to lower all condition duration. Sure, an additional 25% off chill is nice, but there’s so many other conditions that you’ll be having to deal with in general that I question as to whether or not it’ll be useful. The only time the -50% chill duration shines is if you’re dealing with enemies who deal in virtually nothing but chill (i.e. svanir fractal, that one guild bounty that has the frost armour, &c.). They could perhaps tack something else onto there to make the rune set more attractive as well, such as gaining some kind of boon (i.e. regen, retal, protection) when you get chilled, with an ICD. Or maybe something more interesting than that, I dunno.

Leo G.4501:

What about adding “freeze foes in a block of ice for 5sec when struck” to the current bonus? That sounds like a fun idea :P

EDIT: that is, freeze foes if they strike you while you’re frozen.

It sounds interesting, but there’d have to be some kind of limit on it. Otherwise, you’d get some decoy to run into an enemy zerg in WvW, pop the block, have them all get frozen, and then run your zerg in there. Although maybe everyone would just run those runes so everyone would be frozen all the time, I dunno. Could get pretty weird.

Because becoming invulnerable for 5 seconds and giving you time to figure out a strategy including the ability to break out of it with SB+Stab is useless.

Sure, its niche, but its one of those things that is OP if used right. But you have to make a build designed specifically to take advantage of it. Its a “survival” rune, just like the mist form one. and these runes are not for PvE gameplay.

They’re for escaping battles that would have killed you in PvP/WvW.

Hannelore.8153:

Because becoming invulnerable for 5 seconds and giving you time to figure out a strategy including the ability to break out of it with SB+Stab is useless.

Invulnerable is great. Being stunned and immobilized is not. Mistform>Ice Block. You’re correct about having that safe zone to strategize but guess what your opponents will to! Not to mention it makes perfect sense for me to stun myself and waste my own SB to get out of it.

Hannelore.8153:

Sure, its niche, but its one of those things that is OP if used right. But you have to make a build designed specifically to take advantage of it. Its a “survival” rune, just like the mist form one. and these runes are not for PvE gameplay.

They’re for escaping battles that would have killed you in PvP/WvW.

There is no pvp runes or pve runes theres just runes that serve the purpose of extending customization. NOBODY uses this set except to try it out and I wish that would change.

There are a lot of sets nobody uses. This one is not special.

Fix them all IMO.

Rhyse.8179:

There are a lot of sets nobody uses. This one is not special.

Fix them all IMO.

+1

Just add a +5% damage to chilled foes effect on it. Everybody will love it.

Rhyse.8179:

There are a lot of sets nobody uses. This one is not special.

Fix them all IMO.

They will do another pass in 2 years.