Guild Wars 2

I’m currently using Pack runes and running a Cele Rifle build for WVW with nades and tool kit. Should I dump those runes for another set if I am mostly running with the zerg?

Also, should I stick with Power food or run condi food instead?

Thanks.

Post the build.

Generally power food is better for Cele rifle.
Pack should be replaced with Hoelbrak.

Novuake.2691:

Pack should be replaced with Hoelbrak.

Why should it be replaced by Hoelbrak? Pack is a very solid rune choice and it also gives great group support. The fury and precision gain helps really well with the otherwise decently low crit chance. I would not say he ‘should’ replace it with Hoelbrak. Both Pack and Hoelbrak are excellent options. Even the Strength runes are still a valid choice.

Also, I am guessing with power food you mean the newly introduced one with +power and +condition duration? Because condition duration is rather a must on Cele. It’s a huge boost to your utility with longer immobilizes and longer chills.

To OP, the Cele Build is not really designed for zerg play. You are much better off with a more power focussed build in my opinion. Something with Valkyrie and Knight for example. The Cele build is better for Roaming.

Hoelbrak would be a good option because of the abundance of condition roamers that you’ll find.

If you’re actually going to roam alone- you’ll want the extra power, might up time and -condi duration that you’ll be afforded by hoelbrak runes.

If you’re going to roam with one or two others, then Pack runes will be best.

Precisely what hamster said, you have very littel condi clear as an Engi and Hoelbrak is essential to keep condis off.

Thanks for the replies so far.

I am currently running 60044.

The ascended rifle is zerker, full celestial exotic armor, 2 celestial ascended rings, rest of accessories/amulet/back I have can be either ascended dire or zerker.

if you want to orient to condi, dont run any cele gear. run full condi. mixing cele and dire just means youll hit like a wet noodle and your condis will suck cuz a lot of your gear has condi damage as a tertiary stat when condi already struggles dps wise as a primary stat. the multiplicative nature of power damage sources stops that from being a huge issue with full cele and cele/power mixes, because the giant survivability increases are worth sacrificing up to ~50% of possible damage.

Hmmm bit of a weird stat choice for wvw. You don’t want to mix dire and zerk. Pure zerk with rifle, toolkit, nades. Although you will be squishy as a beast.

Use a rune that gives toughness. Trying to think of one with toughness and condi duration reduction or removal.

Hoelbrak always good choice – very flexible runes, more self-oriented than Pack. If you run full hybrid damage with balance between condi and direct – go Hoelbrak and mightstacking, if you prefer good power damage with some condi (burning ofc) – pack very cool, because its +125 precision and more than 50% fury uptime.

Personally I would run Either strength or hoelbrak runes as might stacking is the main source of your damage.
Run Lemongrass food or if you can’t Saffron bread is a cheaper alternative as it also offers damage reduction on heavy control builds.
Tbh it’s up to you how you play. Celestial offers the most stats in the game. So any stat conversion really helps.
It’s also less about how you set yourself up, but whether you can play that build effectively, If you are struggling with certain classes (Condi heavy necros bleurgh) just run away. It may not be the best option but if it’s something you can’t fight you will just get frustrated.

My final tip for this even though you only asked for runes (long post time).
If you want to be the best at roaming, be ready to switch it up. You will find out that certain professions are weaker to certain build/utilities, use them. There is no shame in realising that one guy can outburst you in X build for you to break combat, change a couple of traits then come back and blow them up with Elixir U nade burst. XD

Just my 2 cents from playing celestial in WvW. Your runes are fine unless you want hoelbrak but i’ve used both and enjoy pack more for roaming/small group but i’d say hoelbrak would be better for zerg cause of the more access to fury up time and more condi’s coming your way. Celestial is hard to play zerging, if you are then you want to hover between your backline and front and spam nades or Pull someone out of position. I would advice perhaps changing to knights or some other armor if your exclusively zerging. Also, I personally run all zerk accessories/backpiece with celestial rings/amulet and a zerk rifle to go along with my celestial armor with pact runes. Sigils are battle/cleansing. Hope this helped?

Has anyone tried Rune of Defender on Cele-Rifle Engie? Or do you guys think the damage would take too big of a hit.

With those runes you get a free 133 hps if you keep proccing the #6 (~4k heal when you block), plus every block gives you 2s of regen (no CD), and every healing turret use would get you a free 5s Aegis.

personally think that Rune of Defender would take too much away from your power and you wouldn’t really be able to kill anything. I do however think that this rune would make you a bunker.

If you wanna run with the zerg. Check this out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tmjljwuijg&sns=em
I am running a celestial build and most of these fights we are outnumbered.
The more people around the better this gets