Guild Wars 2

I’ve noticed that the runes I have don’t seem to actually work. I looked at the wiki, and they supposedly activate their their abilities when there are more runes of the same tier on, and there are 3 tiers, Minor, Major, and Superior. I have 3 Major-tier runes and 1 Superior rune equipped, but only the first ability for each of them works. So, do they have to be the exact same tier and type to stack? If so, that makes these runes not very useful at all.

they have to be exact same tier and type.

Suddenflame.2601:

they have to be exact same tier and type.

Yep.

To expand on this, to get the 6 piece bonus from the Superior Rune of the Monk you need to slot 6 Superior Runes of the Monk into your gear. Major Runes of the Monk will give you the Major Rune of the Monk bonus, Superior Runes of the Soldier will grant the Superior Rune of the Soldier bonus, and so on. They’re very specific that way.

As for how useful they are, they can be very useful. It’s just that you’re not likely to get a full set of Major or Superior runes from drops alone, you’re going to have to buy the rest.

Not useful then. Most of my Major and Superior Runes are all different types, some coming from the Personal Story, and others when my luck decides to work. And most are already in armor I’d like to keep, and there’s no way to separate them without losing one. Yet another interesting idea badly executed.

Runes are a great idea for creating good builds. They can allow you to use all Berserker gear and add some Toughness or Vitality if you want. But you have to be smart about it and actually plan it out. As mentioned, the easiest way is just to buy the runes you want from the TP.

Not sure if it’s completely relevant here, but I recently discovered that Ruby Orbs are pretty much the best thing the put in your armor upgrade slots from a pure damage output perspective. The one exception are Runes of the Scholar if you can consistently keep your health above 90%. It makes me wonder how useful the other orbs are compared to other Rune options. Might be obvious to many, but I had previously just over looked the orbs and figured they were meant to be a poor-man’s alternative to Rune’s, not viable competition.

The more you know.

Just gonna say that runes and upgrades are fine (so long as their tooltip matches their function)

My current favorites are Runes of the Soldier for party wide condition removal and ruby orbs.

Keep in mind you can also take pairs of 3 runes to get the first two benefits of all 3. This is particularly useful for certain condition builds, especially bleed builds.

Nilkemia.8507:

Not useful then. Most of my Major and Superior Runes are all different types, some coming from the Personal Story, and others when my luck decides to work. And most are already in armor I’d like to keep, and there’s no way to separate them without losing one. Yet another interesting idea badly executed.

You realise you can just put another rune on the piece of armour and it will overwrite the previous rune right?

The rune system allows further character customisation and is no way badly executed.

Overwriting a rune destroys it. And as I’ve stated, most of the runes I have are of different types, and already attached to rare armor I would like to keep. Unless there is a way to separate a rune from armor without destroying/salvaging one of them, I have to look around for that rune again and get spares for the characters that I want to have them for, or hope they’re around on the Trading Post and don’t drain too much of the little gold that I have. It would be at least a bit neat if certain groups of runes worked together (the runes of the Six Gods, for example), but if I want to use those Superior Runes to their fullest, I have to hope there are five of them. Superior Rune of Grenth was one I got from the Personal Story, and I only got one. I doubt many will just sell that off. Badly executed.

There are over 3,000 Superior Rune of Grenth on the TP right now, but it’s not a very good one. Only 3s ea.

But if you decide to skip out on runes you are really gimping yourself. Try going into the Heart of the Mists where you get free access to all the upgrades and try them out on a target dummy or a hot join match.

Runes on the TP are pretty cheap, and the TP is not just per server I think it’s every server in the region so anything that’s not extremely rare is available by the hundreds or thousands.

You can set up with a couple sets of major runes for a handful of silver, the superior runes might set you back a bit for a six-pack but if you choose well you can extract the runes or transmute if you upgrade your armor and keep the runes for a long time.

You can even discover crafting recipes for runes if you play with the discovery section.

There’s nothing wrong with this system, take a look around and learn more about it before dismissing it.

Tips:

For new/low lvl chars when using Minor runes I suggest deciding what stat you want such as power for example and finding the 6 DIFFERENT NAMED runes that give a boost to that stat in the first perk. In the long run you will get more power than if you went with 3 dif sets and also got the second benefit. Also if you MUST have that second benefit then I suggest simply getting 3 of THAT rune as well as 3 of the POWER (in this example) and again you will have more Power and more of the second stat. Really what were Anet thinking? The second benefit (perk) is REDUNDANT if you look at it on paper (wiki).

For major runes I think I go with 3 sets of twos or possibly the same as above, don’t recall.

For superior runes which can be dang COSTLY for the ones you really want (yes I am speaking of you Dolyak) it’s best to go with 2 sets of different stats to max the stat/stats you want until you can afford that full set of whatever (again Dolyak’s as an example). Some cases it’s best to go with just 5 of a set and have the 6th as an extra to the stat you want. Example for magic find gear you might decide the pirate runes look good. Well let me tell you most cases you DON’T want that 6th perk kicking in giving you that bird follower as it will attack everything in sight slowing you down. So I would go 5 pirate and a 6th rune that also gives more magic find such as explorers I think.

Oh and as another said gems is also a viable option depending on what stats you want boosted. Hope that helps.

PS I finally have my full set of Superior Dolyaks on my Engi, that with a Bloodlust (or is it blood? Don’t recall but the one that gives 30% chance to heal with a crit) Sigil on his weapon and hp regen trait when using Kits gives me a constant 60-ish hp regen every split second in lvl 80 zones with the odd healing kicking in from the sigil. I am pretty much invincible in most cases thanks to those 6 dolyaks – hoorah!