Guild Wars 2

In general which is better for upgrading armors ?
Do gems give more stats than runes ? Are runes better just for their bonuses ?
Which one do you use in most cases ?

i were just wondering the same thing. I had 6 superior rune of the fighter on my armour (Power and toughness stats). In the end i had 90 power and 35 toughness.

Then i saw the azurite orbs i believe they are called. They give 20 vitality, 14 toughness and 14 power. I figured out if i had 6 of them i would end up with 120 vitality, 84 power and 84 toughness. So i gained tons of vitality and toughness and lost 6 power by doing it.

The orbs were also cheaper, so IMO the orbs are alot better than runes

depends on whether you feel like the bonuses from the runes would be better for you or not

you can get a lot of boon duration, + and – condition duration, pets, buffs etc with different runes

Orbs have more raw stat increase, compared to runes.
This is balanced out by the runes N° 2, 4 and 6 bonuses that are usually more interesting than a simple stat boost.

For example, runes of air (crit dmg boost) do not offers nearly as much stats as ruby orbs (a mere 10% crit dmg vs. 120 power, 80 prec and 12% crit dmg). But 2nd buff extend swiftness, 4th make my heal proccing it and 6th is a quite hard hitting lighting strike.

Homonavn.6348:

i were just wondering the same thing. I had 6 superior rune of the fighter on my armour (Power and toughness stats). In the end i had 90 power and 35 toughness.

Then i saw the azurite orbs i believe they are called. They give 20 vitality, 14 toughness and 14 power. I figured out if i had 6 of them i would end up with 120 vitality, 84 power and 84 toughness. So i gained tons of vitality and toughness and lost 6 power by doing it.

The orbs were also cheaper, so IMO the orbs are alot better than runes

Six superior runes of the fighter give 165 power, 50 toughness and 20s of might on heal.
Six azurite orbs give 120 vitality, 84 toughness, 84 power.
Rune bonuses stack.

Generally, if you want to min-max, orbs are better. If you want to focus on your playstyle, runes are much better (not just for the stats, but the added bonus effects).

on my full clerics gear I used to run with exq. saph orbs. I had a lot more healing than I did with sup. runes. I also tried 6 sup. altruism runes for a while, and enjoyed the healing as well as the bonus effects, but it wasn’t min/max’d enough for me.

now Im using 2 sup. water, 2 minor water, and 2 sup. grove. I have the healing still, tho not as much, but the boon duration (and extra protection duration to boot) fits my build much better.

Its all about your playstyle, really.