Guild Wars 2

“Runes:
-Rune sets will receive a general balance pass to bring them in line with each other. This will increase the amount of viable rune options.
-The bulk of rune set bonuses will be pushed towards the 4th, 5th, and 6th piece bonuses to incentivize using a complete set.”

Does this mean it is likely the 2nd piece bonus (+15% Boon duration) on Superior Runes of the Water, Monk and Traveller will be moved to the 4th piece bonus? I really hope not, since having 75% boon duration on my HGH build is part of the reason why it is still viable. I think this same question applies to many D/D Elementalist builds too…

Based on ANets statement, I would assume the new bonus layout would be something like this:

Superior Rune of the Water
1) +25 Healing Power
2) +50 Healing Power
3) +90 Healing Power
4) +15% Boon Duration
5) 5% Chance to remove a condition when hit
6) Heal AoE on Healing skill use

I’m not entirely convinced that this is promoting build diversity…

In combination with moving the bonuses they’re probably also buffing them a bit. They want those bonuses to be enticing, after all.

That’s not to say you’ll necessarily be able to have the same exact build at +75% boon duration. I doubt that dropping some boon duration would remove the “viable” descriptor on your build anyways, but to each their own.

One thing they mentioned was giving bigger bonuses for having more but having larger bonuses for using combination sets such as boon duration so that it is still viable to either have a full set or mix a few.

edit: I know exactly what you mean I use boon duration too and in the livestream it seemed that they didn’t plan to nerf things like boon and might duration so I’m not even sure that will be touched on runesets.

Just because they didn’t mention something doesn’t mean it’s not changing. All runes are getting a balance pass.

That is a good point I hadn’t considered. Lets hope they provide something favourable in the boon duration department then.

I suppose “viable” is the wrong word.. “competitive” may fit better.
Losing 3-4 seconds off protection/vigor/regen might not mean the end of the world, but it all helps.
Currently the ability to have 7 seconds of stability helps a great deal against Necros and Warriors. I imagine that if you went onto the Warrior forum and told them that their Berserker Stance duration was going to change from 8 seconds to 6.. you’d get quite a response!

Thanks for your input

UntimelyM.7860:

That is a good point I hadn’t considered. Lets hope they provide something favourable in the boon duration department then.

I suppose “viable” is the wrong word.. “competitive” may fit better.
Losing 3-4 seconds off protection/vigor/regen might not mean the end of the world, but it all helps.
Currently the ability to have 7 seconds of stability helps a great deal against Necros and Warriors. I imagine that if you went onto the Warrior forum and told them that their Berserker Stance duration was going to change from 8 seconds to 6.. you’d get quite a response!

Thanks for your input

I agree it hurts to not be able to have the same exact build. It doesn’t really hurt me but I can respect how it would affect others. I’m always moving things around and don’t really get locked into any one thing. Heck I couldn’t even tell you what sigils I have on my weapons right now.

That will change once the rune/sigil balance pass comes though. I’m sort of holding off investing in anything until then, at which point we’ll have a ton more possibilities. Some that will likely make up for any perceived nerf to our base stats. For example being able to use Sigils of Battle and Energy together (even assuming their effects are toned down slightly) is pretty crazy. Another example is the ability to slap Sigil of Energy onto nearly any build now could eliminate the need for Swiftness/Vigor procs, freeing up quite a lot of trait points.

you should wait for rune rework in 2 mt.

@Adamantium – Yeah, one of the great things about the Engineer is the ability to ‘re-invent’ yourself every few weeks with a new exciting build. I’ve actually been a 3 kit Engi for the longest time (few videos in sig if anyones interested) but have recently been changing my builds almost on a weekly basis!

I really enjoy playing an HGH P/P style now and have been having a lot more success against previously very difficult opponents in WvW (Condi Necro/Condi PU Mesmer). The whole boon duration idea was at the front of my mind whilst I was reading the proposed changes, hence my thread

UntimelyM.7860:

Based on ANets statement, I would assume the new bonus layout would be something like this:

Superior Rune of the Water
1) +25 Healing Power
2) +50 Healing Power
3) +90 Healing Power
4) +15% Boon Duration
5) 5% Chance to remove a condition when hit
6) Heal AoE on Healing skill use

I’m not entirely convinced that this is promoting build diversity…

I don’t think that this is the case. They provided one example.

Runes of Strength (new)

1. +25 power
2. +10% might duration
3. +50 power
4. +15% might duration and 25% might proc on hit
5. +100 power
6. +20% might duration, +5% damage under might.

Runes of Strength (old)

1. +25 power
2. +20% might duration
3. +40 power
4. 3% might proc when hit
5. +90 power
6. +5% damage under might.

So I think Runes of Water should look more like this:

Runes of Water (new)

1. +25 healing power
2. +5% boon duration
3. +50 healing power
4. +10% boon duration and 25% chance to remove a condition when hit
5. +100 healing power
6. +20% boon duration, heal nearby allies when using a healing skill

But that is just an educated guess. You might indeed lose some boon duration. At least this is the case for the example with the Runes of Strength.

That actually looks really interesting Xaylin, I hadn’t realised that they’d given an example for their proposed changes. Certainly fills me with some hope, not just for this boon duration build too!

Ok, all we can do now then is sit back and see how they handle it I guess.
Thanks again for the input

it all depends on how much boon duration they plan to keep in each runeset, but even without boon duration runes the build should still work, you lose something, gain something else.

no real point debating it now, before we know anything else for sure.