Guild Wars 2

Can some one help me out here to understand whats the new hawtness behind scholar runes.
Scholar rune break down as follows

(1): +25 Power
(2): +3% Critical Damage
(3): +50 Power
(4): +5% Critical Damage
(5): +90 Power
(6): +10% damage while health is above 90%.

Ruby orb break down as follows

20 power, 2% critical damage, 14 precision – per one

here comes some math, base power on any character at level 80 is 916 so we will work with that assuming nothing else is equipped taking the absolute value of the rune versus orb.

Orb math Very simple

(20 power, 2% critical damage, 14 precision) x 6 =
120 power 12% critical damage, 84 precision), where as 84 precision becomes 4% critical strike chance at level 80 since:

the formula for amount of precision required per 1% critical strike chance. (if you are too lazy to do the math its rounded down to 21 points of precision from 21.16 result in formula)

(0.0024 × Level2) + (0.06 × Level) + 1

Scholar runes math

25+50+90 = 165 power
3+5= 8% critical damage
10% damage increase while over 90% hit points.

a grand total of 4% critical damage loss and 4% critical chance loss to gain 45 power and 10% damage increase for first 2 swings in combat? Some one explain this to me please and thank you i would appreciate it

Firstly, damage modifiers are multiplicative. So basically, the 10%+ from scholar runes is multiplied from all of the other previous modifiers you have, so a greatsword warrior would be 1 * 1.1 * 1.15 * 1.03 * 1.1 * 1.1 < scholar rune 10%. That means it’s going to be adding more than a 10%+ base damage, it’s 10% on top of all of your other modifiers.

That’s slashing power, berserker’s power, stick and move, attack of opportunity and then scholar runes.

Secondly, critical damage scales on your base damage, so if you stack damage modifiers (in this case, a whopping 10%+) it makes your crits deadlier. Crit chance shouldn’t be much of an issue geared properly, with banner of discipline, fury and even spotter.

And finally, you should be dodging or mitigating damage through other ways to keep yourself above 90% for the damage bonus. Depending on the boss, that can be quite easy to quite hard, but if you keep up scholar runes for about ~20% of a fight you’ve surpassed ruby orb DPS.

still not sold. basically what you are saying is its 10% more dmg on everything for first 2 hits?

Kargath.6598:

still not sold. basically what you are saying is its 10% more dmg on everything for first 2 hits?

I’m not sure if you’re misunderstanding something here, but the 10% bonus is for when your own health is over 10%, not the monster’s.

yes how long will you be at 90% in frac 38? or any other dungeon for that matter

Kargath.6598:

yes how long will you be at 90% in frac 38? or any other dungeon for that matter

Pretty long, actually, if you employ active defenses and damage mitigation. It’ll promote better play and make you a better player.

I have to chime in, I can usually stay above 90% with scholar runes/berserker gear around 70-80% of the time in my fractal 49/50 runs ( the other 20-30% being lower where I screw up ), unless its just a bunch of trash mobs where avoidance of damage is a kitten pain and doesn’t matter as much.

Theres no ‘new hawtness’ with scholars I dunno what u mean but its been this way for months. The argument is that as long as you can stay above 90% health ~25% of the time, scholars is better than ruby. Even when you’re not getting that 10% bonus from scholars, ruby is only slightly better. Thus generally scholars>ruby and u dont even need to do any math

Ruby > Scholar. Cheaper and less conditional dmg (health >90%). Anyone who says otherwise is a fool. Anyone who says they always stay above 90% is also a fool.

Enjoy paying more for losing damage output, plebs.

Kahrgan.7401:

Ruby > Scholar. Cheaper and less conditional dmg (health >90%). Anyone who says otherwise is a fool. Anyone who says they always stay above 90% is also a fool.

Enjoy paying more for losing damage output, plebs.

Did you do your math properly?

Kahrgan.7401:

Ruby > Scholar. Cheaper and less conditional dmg (health >90%). Anyone who says otherwise is a fool. Anyone who says they always stay above 90% is also a fool.

Enjoy paying more for losing damage output, plebs.

You know you can actually dodge in this game right?

No, dodging is too hard. Therefore because I’m bad, scholar runes are bad and you better players are all plebs.

Being able to dodge twice in a row makes you good? i thought that was a requirement in this game.
It takes 2.3 seconds to dodge twice after that you endurance is consumed( unless you use some sort of utility or a trait) so after 2.3 seconds in combat you WILL get hit atleast once and your scholar rune becomes useless. Still not sold…

For people who can dodge
1. Read mahariel’s first post
2. Press V
3. Press 6
4. Press 1
5. Repeat from 2

For people who can’t dodge
1. Press V
2. Learn

For plebs
1. Hold Alt and press F4

Kargath.6598:

Being able to dodge twice in a row makes you good? i thought that was a requirement in this game.
It takes 2.3 seconds to dodge twice after that you endurance is consumed( unless you use some sort of utility or a trait) so after 2.3 seconds in combat you WILL get hit atleast once and your scholar rune becomes useless. Still not sold…

I guess people in this thread never run content that’s harder than COF or COE, and ask for heavies only and experienced only, when they themselves are not.

Kahrgan.7401:

I guess people in this thread never run content that’s harder than COF or COE, and ask for heavies only and experienced only, when they themselves are not only my opinions matter, I don’t run scholar runes so everyone else is a pleb, hurr durr.

Kahrgan.7401:

Kargath.6598:

Being able to dodge twice in a row makes you good? i thought that was a requirement in this game.
It takes 2.3 seconds to dodge twice after that you endurance is consumed( unless you use some sort of utility or a trait) so after 2.3 seconds in combat you WILL get hit atleast once and your scholar rune becomes useless. Still not sold…

I guess people in this thread never run content that’s harder than COF or COE, and ask for heavies only and experienced only, when they themselves are not.

You can kill pretty much every Arah p2 boss and stay above 90%.

If you can only manage to stay above 90% HP long enough for 2 attacks, you’re doing it wrong.
Dodge button says hello.

Dodge, evade, block, reflect, absorb, blind, regen health and become invulnerable… Pick your choices.

mahariel: lies! :P

Hello yes, my Guard leads engagements by hitting F1 for an AoE blind. That virtue recharges every time something dies, so i’m usually spamming that button.

Then if anything obvious is coming I dodge. You get Vigor from critting so endurance is never usually a problem. (dodging is also a strong passive form of aoe healing, so if I ever end up being knocked below 90% that helps get me back up without even thinking about it)

I use sword 2 for another AoE blind.

I use Greatsword 3 for another AoE blind

I use Greatsword 5 for an easy interrupt.

I use Focus 4 for a bouncing blind.

If I can’t do that I use Focus 5 for 3 easy blocks.

If something more is coming then I have “Retreat” or if I don’t have that I use the virtue. For Aegis.

Then if it’s a particularly bad boss mob, for instance, sometimes I will slot shelter as my heal, just to use it for blocking.

Also there’s the Renewed Focus.

Lots of classes have their own ways of mitigating damage as well, and most of the time those are AoE effects so everyone’s helping each other.

Really it’s not very difficult to go without being hit at all in most dungeons.

And it’s ridiculously easy to just choose to reserve your skills for any attacks that would take you below 90% health.

It’s not about evading twice, it’s about having proper positioning and correctly evaluate when to dodge and when to simply sidestep. Not to mention that there are several abilities that can grant you an extra evade, which also gives your endurance bar more time to regenerate and allow you to dodge once more.

I’m not saying that staying at >90% HP is hard or easy, but if someone’s abilities allow him to remain in that threshold, then that person should buy Scholar Runes rather than Ruby Orbs.

Kargath and Kahrgan are best friends, they both convinced each other that orbs were better. Now they’re upset.