Guild Wars 2

This board has been really helpful for mesmers on what armor and equipment to get. Currently I have an all ascended berserker (yes I didn’t go assassin) mesmer which is in need of the right runes. I started out with scholar thinking that would be the best for damage, than after reading on this board it turned out that precision was needed more than power so ranger turned out to be better. However, now I have come across a mix between Ranger and Scholar which sacrifices on ferocity.

Superior rune of the Pack seems to be a better rune option for the mesmer which adds to both power and precision and as an added bonus has a 30% swiftness duration, and mesmer is one class that is in need of swiftness. I would like any opinions and number crunches as to if the Pack rune is a better more viable option in damage for the mesmer?

Please add thoughts and feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

You get runes mostly for the 6th bonus. Mixing and matching runes is never a good idea. If you only consider the direct damage then you would have to be 90%+ hp at least 70% of the time for scholars to be better than rangers. If you have trouble doing that then just get Rangers and pop a mini-pet for permanent 7% dmg multiplier. If you stayed at 90%+ hp at all times then scholars are 1.65% better than rangers.

If you still want runes of the pack then you will be doing 2.45% less dps than with ranger runes. And finally, if you start considering reflect damage than it becomes clear why they are a pretty horrible option…

It depends on what you want to do.

For max-everything dungeon speedruns Scholar will still deliver the highest total damage output, especially since you can hit the crit chance cap (depending on your traits, food, perception stacking etc.) without any bonus from runes.

The point of Ranger runes is to maximise reflect damage since your power doesn’t affect it at all. The damage bonus can also be maintained permanently in a PUG, so these will probably be better if you don’t have a coordinated speedrun group.

Pack runes are certainly best if you still have some exploration to do, or run around a lot for other reasons. With no ferocity or +%dmg these won’t be that good for speedruns though. One other thing to consider is structures: if you still have a lot of renown hearts to do, fight tequatl/wurm with that armor set or run other content with many crit-immune enemies the crit stats go to waste.

Overall Pack is an all-rounder/“lazy” choice: of some use in most situations, but rarely, if ever, the best. (for raw damage against crit-immune targets Strength is better)

Thanks for the quick response frifox, I trust your judgement and will stick with superior rune of the ranger.

Photoloss.4817:

especially since you can hit the crit chance cap (depending on your traits, food, perception stacking etc.) without any bonus from runes.

With assassins armor/weapons and zerk trinkets (all ascended), running 6/4/0/0/4, with ranger runes, disc banner, and 100 power & 70 precision food, you will be at 98% crit. It’s actually not THAT easy to hit the 100% crit cap, especially once you start swapping assassins for zerk gear.

Me personally, out of the three I would go for Pack runes.

I’m almost never just hanging out at full health, so the scholar’s runes wouldn’t be ideal.

i play almost 100% WvW, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Blend of svanir and dolyak atm. Fairly wvw oriented though – built with the anticipation heavies will be hitting me on the head. Good luck!

@boo

Im curious about the blend… Why?

StickerHappy.8052:

@boo

Im curious about the blend… Why?

i often blend my ruins to try to maximize a particular stat especially if the final stat for the whole set isn’t something i’m finding lacking when i look at my overall composit. but its just my approach, i’m sure there are better. Sometimes I just don’t find the final stat boost to be worth it. Also that final stat often has weird effects (I am recalling one set, don’t remember the name, that actually turns you into an ice block – can work fine for PvE but I find that type of lack of response/mobility difficult to deal with in WvW).

Svanir. The Ice Block can be very detrimental because you still take condition damage, so unless you have Stability or a Stunbreak prepared, you’re not going to be in for a nice ride. Also, you can bypass the Invuln phase and go straight to downed state even though the Ice Block appears and it goes on cooldown.

Same thing happens with Vampire and Mist Form, although Mist Form can’t be “bypassed” with Stab/Stunbreak.

Rune of the pack:
175 power + 125 precision and you may get fury and might and stuff when it….

Rune of the scholar:
175 power + 100 ferocity + 3% damage when 90% HP for a Phantasm build since you don’t pass the 10% to phantasms.

I’d say it depends from the build.
If you have a berserker set, and a phantasm build, rune of the pack are not so bad for mesmers only.

LordByron.8369:

If you have a berserker set, and a phantasm build, rune of the pack are not so bad for mesmers only.

Comparing Ranger vs Pack runes with zerk gear and a 2/3/0/5/4 full-phantasm build.

• Rangers give 5.7% more personal dps than Pack
• Rangers give 0.7% less phantasm dps than Pack
• Rangers give 2.0% more combined dps than Pack
• Rangers give 11.6% more Feedback reflect dmg than Pack
• Rangers give 4.3% more Warden reflect dmg than Pack

I still don’t see a single reason to run Pack over Rangers.

Also, if you’re wondering about Scholars (assuming always 90%+ hp),

• Scholars give 8.8% more personal dps than Pack
• Scholars give 1.9% less phantasm dps than Pack
• Scholars give 2.6% more combined dps than Pack
• Scholars give 8.8% more Feedback reflect dmg than Pack
• Scholars give 1.1% less Warden reflect dmg than Pack

Esplen.3940:

Svanir. The Ice Block can be very detrimental because you still take condition damage, so unless you have Stability or a Stunbreak prepared, you’re not going to be in for a nice ride. Also, you can bypass the Invuln phase and go straight to downed state even though the Ice Block appears and it goes on cooldown.

Same thing happens with Vampire and Mist Form, although Mist Form can’t be “bypassed” with Stab/Stunbreak.

thx for the tip! I’ve actually been playing with those vamp ruines this week (not on my mes) and enjoying them.