Guild Wars 2

I recently saw Boots’ fun new “bad builds” video here:

And in his build, he talks about “Superior rune of the defender,” which gives:

(1): +25 Healing
(2): When you block a foe’s attack, gain 1 second of regeneration.
(3): +50 Healing
(4): When you use a heal skill, gain aegis for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 10s)
(5): +100 Healing
(6): When you block a foe’s attack, heal yourself. (Cooldown: 30s)

Now two things to note about this:

1. The 2-set bonus has no ICD, which has great synergy with cleansing water (remove condi on getting regen)
2. The 6-set bonus heals for 3920 + 0.6*Healing Power (with healing power of ~500, this is a heal of 4220.

Eles have access to 2 skills that give blocks:
1. Arcane shield (3x block)
2. Earth shield (block on the 2 skill with an 8s ICD)

One can also get an extra arcane shield from the arcana trait, but who is going to give up blasting staff or renewing stamina?

Has anyone tried this out in on a d/d or tanky s/x ele in wvw. In fact, this might be worth investigating for a staff ele as well. Before I invest in a set, I wanted to see if anyone had tried this out. What are your opinions?

The question you have to ask yourself is how often will you actually block anything other then when you trigger AEGIS.

So while this could work well with the earth shield, what part of the game could actually call for this combo.

All in all this rune works much better for a warrior or guardian.

Well with these runes, arcane shield becomes a 3x condi clear + 4.2k heal. However, I am not sure that is worth giving up strength, hoelbrak, or pack runes for the stats.

The healing would be really nice in wvw, perhaps in a staff support build.

Have you actually tested that cleansing waters can be activated from rune triggers? From what I remember, is does not work with Dwayna’s.

The regen activated from the rune triggers does not work with the condi removal trait.

However, defender runes are still pretty neat, you can use them in a signet build with Written in Stone to get an extra 4k heal off the active, or add oomph to the Glyph heal.

Yea, I looked at this the day it came out and found the rune set to fall into the “almost good for eles” catagory. Makes me sad tbh, arcane skills are so close to being a really good option.

roamzero.9486:

The regen activated from the rune triggers does not work with the condi removal trait.

However, defender runes are still pretty neat, you can use them in a signet build with Written in Stone to get an extra 4k heal off the active, or add oomph to the Glyph heal.

That is a very good idea! I may just make a set and try it out for fun. I also think this would be strong on a zerg-style staff ele. Getting an extra 4k heal when you need it can be huge.