Guild Wars 2

What Superior Rune should we use for Armor? my weapon is staff and sword/focus. My armor’s epic includes vitality conditon damage and power. Advise?

Depends entirely on how you play. I like Superior Rune of Stamina, because I love the trait Deceptive Evasion. Every time an enemy dies, I get full stamina, so I have three clones out seconds after I change targets.

Your build might not include that triat, or you might not be using clones, so give us some more information to better know what works for you.

Runes are completely up to you, whatever fits you, but I use Superior Rune of the Undead. I have the same stats on armor and weapons that you do.

im more on PVE type. and condition damage build, so its up to me? any suggestion for condition damage build? also if you were to choose for condition damage build, would you prefer a power vitality condition damage armor set or power precision condition damage armor? is there something better that that?

I also like to use Superior Rune of the Undead, as I use staff/scepter with focus on condition damage and since I trait into staff that I like that synergy with toughness and the runeset (albeit its not a super bonus, but nice).

I would also look into orbs. You might find the outright stat bonuses of orbs to outweigh the perks runes offer when considering your particular playstyle.

Edit:

It sounds like youre talking about Carrion Stats (Pow, Vit, Con) vs Rampager (Pow, Pre, Con). Personally when I focus on condition damage — I go all out as much as I can. In that regard, I like to go wtih Carrion because the condition bonus with Carrion is greater than Rampager if I recall correctly. The vitality bonus is also nice (although personally I like toughness more over vit).

If you use the staff or scepter, I think you can sacrifice precision. Greatsword is a different matter imo — unless youre goin’ for a hybrid build/playstyle, I would go power, prec, and %crit damage (berserker). Con damage just doesnt synergize as well with GS alone like it does with staff, unless you want to shatter for confusion and use scepter in offhand.

Right, Rune, Sigil, what’s the difference . . .

For Runes, decide if you want to keep stacking what your traits and armor give, or fill in for something that’s lacking.

what i would want to is to focus on damage to mobs. any suggestion?

i want to deal more damage.. which superior rune is best for mesmer for that aspect?

It also depends on the traits that you’re using, Superior Rune of the Undead offers a kitten ton of Condition Damage and Toughness, with a bonus of adding 5% Toughness to more Condition Damage, I got 30 into my Chaos trait, so the Undead rune was good for me.

You can look at the different runes here. http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

Pick the class then go to the armor, look for what goes with your weapon and traits.

Krelkain.5418:

I also like to use Superior Rune of the Undead, as I use staff/scepter with focus on condition damage and since I trait into staff that I like that synergy with toughness and the runeset (albeit its not a super bonus, but nice).

I would also look into orbs. You might find the outright stat bonuses of orbs to outweigh the perks runes offer when considering your particular playstyle.

Edit:

It sounds like youre talking about Carrion Stats (Pow, Vit, Con) vs Rampager (Pow, Pre, Con). Personally when I focus on condition damage — I go all out as much as I can. In that regard, I like to go wtih Carrion because the condition bonus with Carrion is greater than Rampager if I recall correctly. The vitality bonus is also nice (although personally I like toughness more over vit).

If you use the staff or scepter, I think you can sacrifice precision. Greatsword is a different matter imo — unless youre goin’ for a hybrid build/playstyle, I would go power, prec, and %crit damage (berserker). Con damage just doesnt synergize as well with GS alone like it does with staff, unless you want to shatter for confusion and use scepter in offhand.

thanks a lot for this one.. ill choose carrion set then since i would prefer to use a staff.. thanks

keytoeverything.1765:

It also depends on the traits that you’re using, Superior Rune of the Undead offers a kitten ton of Condition Damage and Toughness, with a bonus of adding 5% Toughness to more Condition Damage, I got 30 into my Chaos trait, so the Undead rune was good for me.

You can look at the different runes here. http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

Pick the class then go to the armor, look for what goes with your weapon and traits.

ill check this out.. thanks a lot

No problem. And I’m adding more words for no reason cuz apparently “No Problem” was too short.

If you have sharper images in your condition build you will want precision over vitality, ie Rabid I think it is (Condition, Power, Prec)

I don’t use runes on my power mesmer I put beryl orbs on all pieces

Runes of the Scholar.

For damage:
5x Superior Rune of Thief
1x Seal of Rabid

Why would you want to run 5x Runes of the Thief and 1x Crest of Rabid instead of just running 6 Coral Orbs?

179 precision + 77 condition + 14 toughness vs 120 precision + 84 condition + 84 power

As for Runes of the Scholar, if you have the gold, that 6pc bonus is very nice but if gold is an issue then think about running 6x Ruby Orbs instead.

120 power + 12% crit damage + 84 precision vs 165 power + 8% crit damage + 10% damage when health is above 90%

OP, if you are running a carrion themed build, power/vitality/condition, then you might as well continue that trend and just load chrysocola orbs into your upgrade slots. Either that or maybe go with the undead runes as they are normally pretty cheap and they are loaded down with condition damage.

As for Runes of the Scholar, if you have the gold, that 6pc bonus is very nice but if gold is an issue then think about running 6x Ruby Orbs instead.
120 power + 12% crit damage + 84 precision vs 165 power + 8% crit damage + 10% damage when health is above 90%

I bought the materials for Scholar back when they were basically ~65s to make.

Yes, the 10% total damage is rather nice. I’m running a Mantra build currently, which has basically the highest sustained heal throughput of Mesmers builds by a large margin, so the 10% buff isn’t too difficult to maintain during many/most/depends WvW encounters.

Stacking orbs are generally a good low-price/discount option for almost every setup. Rune sets are stronger though across the board.

I put Ruby Orbs in everything. They fit my particular playstyle nicely. I use GS + Sword/Pistol and focus on keeping up heavy damage-dealing phantasms. From what I understand, special bonuses such as the Sigil of Force (5% damage) or Rune of the Scholar (10% when health is above 90%) , DO NOT get applied to phantasms. This is a deal breaker for me! Don’t forget orbs are hella cheap.

But honestly, I’ve not done any testing myself. I really need to go into the mists and do some number crunching, at least before I decide to go full Exquisite Ruby Jewels in my upgrade slots.

Sir Blazin.9365:

I put Ruby Orbs in everything. They fit my particular playstyle nicely. I use GS + Sword/Pistol and focus on keeping up heavy damage-dealing phantasms. From what I understand, special bonuses such as the Sigil of Force (5% damage) or Rune of the Scholar (10% when health is above 90%) , DO NOT get applied to phantasms. This is a deal breaker for me! Don’t forget orbs are hella cheap.

But honestly, I’ve not done any testing myself. I really need to go into the mists and do some number crunching, at least before I decide to go full Exquisite Ruby Jewels in my upgrade slots.

Exquisite Ruby Jewels won’t fit in armor upgrade slots, only jewelry and back slot items. Did a dungeon run with a guildie who thought they would. Seemed like a great idea so I made one and ended up having to buy the mats for 4 more to make an exotic amulet instead when it wouldn’t fit into any of my armor pieces.

Yeah, make sure you are looking at Orbs, not Exquisite Jewels.

I use Superior Rune of the Inflitrator.

Stuff dies brutally fast. Especially when life goes below 50% my damage ramps up phenominally

Rouncer.7569:

Why would you want to run 5x Runes of the Thief and 1x Crest of Rabid instead of just running 6 Coral Orbs?

179 precision + 77 condition + 14 toughness vs 120 precision + 84 condition + 84 power

I’m a bleed build and 59 Precision equals almost +3% crit rate. The difference in condition damage is negligible.

So it’d make
59 Precision + 14 Toughness <> 84 Power

I’d get (and got) the precision. 73% Crit chance + Shaper images + GS is kitten on non-environment targets. I can get 8+ bleeding stacks on a single target within 2s.

Woohoo, 8 bleed stacks >.>

EasymodeX.4062:

Runes of the Scholar.

This. It is, without question, regardless of build, the most powerful DPS rune any ranged DPS can have. 10% more damage for having 6/6 while above 90% health (which is usually the case on my mesmer) is way more than you can get from ANY other rune set, by a large margin.

Depends. In WvWvW I use Centaur. This gives power, swiftness duration and gives 10sec Swiftness on heal to you and those around you (So ultimately 12 secs of swiftness every 15-20 seconds depending on heal and it stacks with others swiftness).

My reason here is this solves our lack of speed when travelling the map and allows me to drop focus for either staff, sword or scepter with pistol or torch. Focus is good for the pull (and I can switch to it in situations that merit it) but useless for speed as it doesn’t stack with anything else. The iWarden is rubbish in WvWvW so that is also a wasted skill with focus.

In WvWvW i’m mainly using the GS with a power/precision build so, for me, the loss of a little in 2 stats is more than made up for in utility and flexibility.

In WvWvW, there is little to no doubt in my mind that you should be using 6/6 Superior Rune of the Centaur. Iconoclast explained why above, and did it well. Frankly, I’m stunned it took so long for someone to even recommend the rune in this thread.

The gains you obtain, primarily one that negates our biggest weakness (mobility), far exceed the value of extra DPS. It also doesn’t hurt any that Centaur adds respectable Power, and also works well with Sharper Image builds.

If you slot Mantra of Recovery, you can proc the Centaur’s runspeed buff 3 times without the Mantra-trait. Simply preparing the Mantra procs the buff. Consuming the 2 heal-charges also proc the buff.

Centaur is a fantastic rune for this class.

It’s good if you find yourself running around the map a whole bunch for roaming or in a blitz group.

Otherwise, I prefer to kitten out damage and down people before they know what hit them.

When I craft a new set of gear for glamour/confusion trolling, it will be a tossup between Centaur and Nightmare runes for me. Nightmare will be pretty tight for its raw potency, but I sense I will be doing a lot of scouting / roaming with that build, and NM is not a necessity.

Or maybe I’ll get NM runes and then make a third set for roaming.

Surprised to see you advocating for Confusion-builds

I’m not happy with our ability to meaningfully stack Confusion. Maybe if/when I get bored of my current build, I’ll revisit the Glamour-focused Confusion-build I was running for some time in WvWvW.

Oh I love confusion builds. I just don’t run them in WvW currently because I don’t do much PvE farming, and the entry fee for that build is somewhere around “a kittenon Of Gossamer and 70 Ectos” (I already have the Ancient bones because I bought a stack of 50 back when they were around 55 copper per). Oh, and iBerserker > siege.

The interesting part is that confusion does more damage than in sPvP. Kind of like how PvE Berserker gear has absurd crit damage compared to sPvP.

It’s particularly on my mind atm because JQ may start actually organizing “real” dynamic portal and scouting efforts, and this would be the type of build suited for it (although juggling utilities would be odd, since you’d have Decoy/Blink while running around instead of raw Glamours … or maybe you’d ditch Decoy for Glamourwin, dunno).

Edit:

Specifically, you can run all 3 of the following builds with the same point allocation, so you can swap out when you switch up what you’re doing:

Full-on Glamour condition damage large group traits (Carrion):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQBYk4kCm3cUPuu1rOJFlG1A

Skirmish IP power shatter (GS/x, Berserker):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQBYk4kikvcUPwe2/OJFtO1A

Skirmish hybrid power/cdmg shatter (staff//scepter/torch, Carrion):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQBYk4kikLdUPuOA+OJFtG1A

Edit: To clarify, the 1st and 3rd builds both use a lot of raw condition damage (e.g. not Sharper Images) and it seems easy enough to swap a few traits and utilities (or weapons) when you switch from keep / siege / zerging to and from scouting / roaming.

Also, the first and third builds use Torch effectively, which should probably excite just about anyone. You can even get the Torch trait if you want to..

Not a fan of build 2 for its purpose, though given that you’ve got the flexibility of the other two builds, I suppose it’s good.

Confusion damage just doesn’t impress me at all currently, certainly not in WvWvW. You’re not applying a high amount of Confusion to anyone outside of a few combos (often involving Confusing Images). Even then, you’re looking at 1.5k-2k per Confusion activation.

From a damage/ease-of-use standpoint, I found myself very underwhelmed with it. I’d rather just play “easymode” and slap down Duelists/Berserkers/Mind-Wracks and use attacks that do equivalent or better damage without gimmicks and can’t be eradicated with the myriad Condition-removal abilities all classes have.

Maybe once theorycrafters start churning out the numbers and show me I’m a kitten, I may change my tune, but my experience with the build had me holding Confusion in low-esteem.

On the other hand, it’s not just about damage in WvWvW. When it comes to area-denial, ground-control, and sowing chaos, Glamour/Confusion is very fun and potent. It’s always good for a laugh too. Still, I guess I just like killing regularly and effectively a wee bit too much.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand! Sorry.

Well right, it’s not the most drastically effective 1v1 build (sidenote: the third build is an adaptation of an actual 1v1 shatter/confusion build I made for sPvP, so it is relatively close to being very strong for 1v1, although still poor chasedown for WvW because staff is bad for chasedown, period).

The trick is that the same point spread supports multiple builds for multiple roles.

In terms of Glamours in particular, they do not provide gigantic Confusion damage to a single target (unless you troll a melee with Portals). The trick is that they provide ridiculous quantities of confusion to a large number of players — absurdly good for siege/zerg. The extra PvE damage over sPvP applies as well. I mean, I’ve seen 4k Confusion hits from Feedback from rofl newbs spamming their abilities (edit: back when I had trash for gear). And that’s just the combo field aspect of it. Imagine a bonus 2 stacks for that and Null Field, on top of Ethereal combos … on a wide field of players. That’s where the effectiveness comes into play — say you get 3-4k of damage (modest) across … 30 players. That’s 90-120k spread damage. Sure, they will heal a decent spread of that, but that is healing that they cannot use for other damage. And, if they are unable to heal, that’s 20-30% of most players’ health pool. It’s very rough suppression when you consider that the base abilities (Feedback, Null Field) are also providing potent effects like stripping Regen (lol), or simply more troll (Feedback).

And on top of all of the above, the first build includes the point spread for Warden’s Feedback, giving you glamour stack and 3 ways to reflect projectiles in one build. It’s about the most obscene zone control and AOE suppression build in the entire game.

The second build is a “huge utility power build” spec that basically crutches on Feedback+Warden’s Feedback for large scale utility, while maintaining very strong siege busting and solid damage overall with a power-backed GS.

I guess I just like killing regularly and effectively a wee bit too much.

Which is why I’m currently running GS Berserker + 30/30 Mantra, kekeke, and have been so lazy to get a second gear set.

I play the skirmisher style pretty elusively in WvW, with the following build with a mix of Rabid and Carrion stats:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-P3SZ;1VPk-197wUV71;9;5JJ-T;119-39;246AKoG6;2jwmAjwmA2Fc

I’ve gone with the Glamour blind/confusion traits, and the Glamour confusion on exit/enter traits, and just found them not to be all that reliable, especially enough to drop IP, dodge roll, or the Staff/toughness.

Shatters, Chaos Armor, the scepter, and combo fields provide enough confusion in this build.

Hmmm … maybe I wasn’t clear: Glamour stacking is definitely not for generic skirmishing, but the point spread I cited can adapt to multiple options pretty fluidly, although the Pistol (bugged) trait + Ethereal is going to be more effective for skirmish for sure.

Thanks for posting the glamour builds. Very interested in seeing how it works out for you. It’s what I want to run. I’m just terrified of giving up clone on dodge roll. I don’t care about smashing people 1v1 but I don’t always want to be the weak one getting picked off. I want to be able to kill dolyaks or the vet guarding the flag or a few krait to tag the events while solo.

My gear is compleatly wrong atm but I’m 400 tailor / jewelry so that can be fixed with some farming.

Love sup rune of the undead the most for mes. Its the best for condtion damage and toughness/condtion damage mes ftw.

Depending on how many points you have in Power/Condition duration trait line, I’d recommend using 2 Lyssa runes (there’s one other similar rune with toughness instead of precision I think). You have to test this however, because the 10% condition duration does not always add another tick of damage (I removed mine again after realizing that 20p into power + 2 Lyssa bonus = no increased bleeding duration from the rune)

For PvE you want 5x Traveller + 1x Pirate, granting you +35% Magic Find (on top of some defensive stats).

If you’re very buff-heavy, you might instead go for 5x Pirate + 1x Traveller, same 35% Magic Find, but +10% Might duration (this can be really powerful if you’re using, say, Staff + GS).

In any case, 35% MF is too much to opt for a combat rune, really.
If you’re heading out to WvW, then it gets tricky. The Undead-rune is difficult to optimize for (as there is no Power/Toughness/Malice gear), Lyssa is rarely useful since you’ll use Time Warp in WvW, and Krait while really powerful is not something many players like.
Just go through the list and check what appeals to you, here. If you want to retain some Magic Find, 6x Traveller is an extremely good option, +25% MF and +5% Runspeed.

For sPvP, if you’re using MI then consider Lyssa. Given the 90s CD on MI, it’s very very powerful. It can also be great for WvW if you run MI and use Mirror as your WvW heal of choice.

For sPvP, you should also consider Adventurer runes for unlimited clone works builds, even though they nerfed it.

And Nightmare. Note that last I heard, SI bleeds weren’t extended by runes. I haven’t checked personally though. Nightmare more applicable for mixed conditions, not just bleeds (e.g. extending Burn, Poison, Chill, Confusion).

i used the superior rune of undead and omg i can deal damage but i am so slow. any suggestions on how we can speed up like thiefs and elemen? any runes for that without sacrificing damage?

Carighan.6758:

The Undead-rune is difficult to optimize for (as there is no Power/Toughness/Malice gear)

You can actually get four pieces of Condition Damage / Toughness / Precision gear. You have to cobble it out of the karma vendors out in Orr but with some effort you can do it. You want to buy…

Helms: Dwayna OR Balthazar OR Lyssa
Shoulders: Grenth OR Balthazar
Gloves: Grenth OR Melandru
Legs: Infiltration OR Grenth OR Dwayna OR Balthazar

Unfortunately there is no chest piece or shoes to complete the set. Nor do I think there are any accessories or weapons to match. So… yeah. But hey, it’s a start.

TA, HoM, and I think CM all give cond/tough/prec.

For me it has to be Rune of the Centaur, combined with traits and rune bonuses, I can cast mirror heal and run with swiftness for 13 seconds… 2 seconds later i can cast it again for another 13 seconds of swiftness… speed is invaluable for pve and wvwvw.

I can also drop focus and use pistol without worrying about sacrificing speed with temporal curtain. That said, I do swap to focus again when I am in a group and I want to pull people off ledges.

I’m using Rune of Air (only 5) for the Crit damage, swiftness increases and swiftness on heal. The sixth rune is a divinity. I’m doing this so I still get the crit damage (which is om nom nom) and I can plug a small limitation in our class; the lack of a swiftness!

Some people won’t like this as it’s situational, but ultimately in PvP everything is situational.

Is it just me, or are people trying to recommend Rabid gear when Carighan was looking for Condition + Tough + POWER?

Well, I know. I mean I get the point, it’s not thaaaat different for many specs, but ofc if you are trying to use both direct and indirect damage then using Precision together with Malice is just wasting damage potential in many (ofc not all) cases.

Ah well.

I think I can also confuse people with calling the stat “Malice”. :P
Curse you ANet for leaving some lore names for stats in (like Precision or Vitality), bu removing others (like Compassion or Malice or Guile)!

I think Malice is easier to refer to since it’s 1 word rather than 2.

Yeah.
I mean sure, for the class specific stats Willpower, Brawn, Ingenuity, Empathy, Cunning, Intelligence, Guile and Hunger I can understand why they were renamed (even though they no longer appear on items). That was just highly confusing if you didn’t know the class in question, although I would have solved it by displaying a small class icon in front of the name in the tooltip, and colour it class-based.

For the secondary stats Concentration, Expertise, Malice, Prowess and Compassion, I’d have left the lore names in, however. They are shared over all classes, and there’s no real reason to even split in the “Primary” and “Secondary” stats in the first place. Depending on spec, Prowess is more important to you than Malice for example, or Precision is rubbish while Concentration is important.

Ah well…

Actually, just adding the icons (including class icons for the class attributes) to the tooltip line might be a pretty big help. :o

I wonder why no one ever mention about rune of the pack? Its cheap, it gives a massive boost to power/precision, it has a nice little chance for might, fury and swiftness. Yeah scholar is cool but there are still times u will be under 90% hp, while the precision crit bonus stays regardless of your health

I can’t play Mesmer without centaur runes, just can’t.