Guild Wars 2

Hello there my fellow archers players. At the moment, I am having here some thoughts on my mind and I would love some opinions on this.

I am a player that plays this game for 10 weeks now and I am slowing working my way for ascended armor (boots done, have enough to do +2 pieces but since my fractal level is only 21 haven’t seen the need too do more armor ascended armor atm, since I am sitting at 30 AR atm).

I definately prefer pve over pvp, doing at least 5 dungeon paths daily and one fractal run daily as minimal game play. I have a ranger with “zerker” stats. Soo I was thinking in starting buying runes and put them in my ascended boots… And that’s when I hit a wall:

I could use either Rune of the Ranger on the boots and work for the 6 rune set (+7% with pet active, which is pretty much a lot of times, since I use jungle pet for party might / bear for debuff) or I could go for the one that a lot of people seem too find good, Rune of the Scholar. My only doubt about going for rune of the scholar straight away its because of the condition: more damage when one have 90% total life or higher is not something that usually happens a lot for me, playing as a meele ranged zerker.

Can I get any opinions on this? what do you guys think about this 2 runes choose?

Apreciate in advance for all opinions

The thing with runes of the ranger is you may get too much precision, I use runes of the ranger because I use some zerker/valk asc trinkets so my precision is in a good range, make sure that you have about 90% crit rate with fury + spotter.

I also don’t really like the scholar runes, I would go for strength runes, specially if you have 3 in NM, that way your pet will have a good amount of might.

I use runes of the ranger with ascended zeker gear, they’re viable. And cheap. Mostly cheap. I kid. 7% damage increase is nice and I’ve been told that increase is constant even if your pet is “dead.” I can’t confirm that though as I haven’t tested it personally. Alternatives I’ve heard thrown about are ogres runes and ruby orbs. Scholars I believe still give the best dps although strength runes seem to be all the rage these days.

Difference between scholar and ranger with 100% uptime is around ~3.56%. Main advantage that Ranger Runes have is that they can be maintained indefinitely.

You end up with too much precision if your unbuffed crit chance is over 65%, since spotter, fury and banner give you ~35% crit chance. This means you should not use more than 1 of the following with ranger runes: precision food, maintenance oil, Sigil of Accuracy. My full ascended zerker with Curry Butternut Squash Soup, Spotter, Fury and Banner of Discipline puts me right at 100% crit chance.

Mr Pin.6728:

I’ve been told that increase is constant even if your pet is “dead.” I can’t confirm that though as I haven’t tested it personally.

It does not, but it will work with mini pets out.

strength runes seem to be all the rage these days.

Only for certain classes. The reasons to use strength runes are

1. Your build provides a substantial amount of might to you or your allies
2. You want an easier modifier to maintain

Rangers (or any other class) has a convenient alternative to #2 with Ranger Runes. Rangers also do not get much use out of Strength Runes because they do not effect might given to other people from their pets. The only real use for it is if you want to give a lot of might to your pet for some reason, but builds like phalanx strength make it obsolete (along with the might to pet trait). Strength runes are quite decent on Eles, Warriors and Engineers, everything else is meh imo.

I apreciate all and every single opinion on this, I have also +1 all the 3 comments here.

Really apreciate

You want to stack and sustain might.

So, first look at your weapons. If you are using sigils of strength and/or battle and can afford runes of strength, go for those. The cheaper alternative are runes of Hoelbrak. These are what I use…

If your only source of might is from your pet, then forget runes of strength. If you don’t like runes of the scholar, try ruby orbs. They are surprisingly good for what they cost, particularly if you cannot keep your health above 90% for scholar bonus.

bri.2359:

You want to stack and sustain might.

So, first look at your weapons. If you are using sigils of strength and/or battle and can afford runes of strength, go for those. The cheaper alternative are runes of Hoelbrak. These are what I use…

If your only source of might is from your pet, then forget runes of strength. If you don’t like runes of the scholar, try ruby orbs. They are surprisingly good for what they cost, particularly if you cannot keep your health above 90% for scholar bonus.

Ruby orbs aren’t good anymore and should not be recommended post ferocity patch.

You should be relying on your team to provide you might, since you won’t get 25 might stacks by yourself as a ranger. Sigil of strength and battle have high opportunity costs, as they replace a 5% or 10% damage modifier in order to maintain a bonus from a runeset that was already inferrior to both scholar and ranger.

TurtleDragon.3108:

bri.2359:

You want to stack and sustain might.

So, first look at your weapons. If you are using sigils of strength and/or battle and can afford runes of strength, go for those. The cheaper alternative are runes of Hoelbrak. These are what I use…

If your only source of might is from your pet, then forget runes of strength. If you don’t like runes of the scholar, try ruby orbs. They are surprisingly good for what they cost, particularly if you cannot keep your health above 90% for scholar bonus.

Ruby orbs aren’t good anymore and should not be recommended post ferocity patch.

You should be relying on your team to provide you might, since you won’t get 25 might stacks by yourself as a ranger. Sigil of strength and battle have high opportunity costs, as they replace a 5% or 10% damage modifier in order to maintain a bonus from a runeset that was already inferrior to both scholar and ranger.

Yeah, I agree the ruby orbs are not that great anymore, but still a cheap option until one cam afford something better..

However, you are wrong about sigils of strength. I mainly solo open-world PvE,
running sword/xxx and axe/axe with MH sigils of strength and OH sigils of force.

I can easily, and very quickly, generate 25 stacks of might by myself, and sustain a good portion of this through fights of any length on both myself and my pet.

Regarding relying on teams for might ..

How many pugs do you know that understand what might is, let alone able to stack it?
Unless you constantly play with the exact same 5 players for all the game content, then forget about relying on a team for might.

If you want might, then you need a build that can generate and sustain enough of it yourself. I have no need of a team to stack might …

bri.2359:

Yeah, I agree the ruby orbs are not that great anymore, but still a cheap option until one cam afford something better..

However, you are wrong about sigils of strength. I mainly solo open-world PvE,
running sword/xxx and axe/axe with MH sigils of strength and OH sigils of force.

I can easily, and very quickly, generate 25 stacks of might by myself, and sustain a good portion of this through fights of any length on both myself and my pet.

Regarding relying on teams for might ..

How many pugs do you know that understand what might is, let alone able to stack it?
Unless you constantly play with the exact same 5 players for all the game content, then forget about relying on a team for might.

If you want might, then you need a build that can generate and sustain enough of it yourself. I have no need of a team to stack might …

And how many important damage sources are you giving up for that might?

Might sigils and rune of strength suck dps wise and you can only get to 25 might stacks if you are using weird stuff like torch+warhorn and blastdrake + jungle stalker and might from signets. Or when using rampage. But with RaO every ranger can get 25 stacks might so thats nothing special.
I prefer to have actual base damage AND 25 might stacks from classes who are made for it and dont require to sell their soul to do so. I would even prefer good dps and only 5 stacks from the stalker over 25 stacks with crap dps

bri.2359:

TurtleDragon.3108:

bri.2359:

You want to stack and sustain might.

So, first look at your weapons. If you are using sigils of strength and/or battle and can afford runes of strength, go for those. The cheaper alternative are runes of Hoelbrak. These are what I use…

If your only source of might is from your pet, then forget runes of strength. If you don’t like runes of the scholar, try ruby orbs. They are surprisingly good for what they cost, particularly if you cannot keep your health above 90% for scholar bonus.

Ruby orbs aren’t good anymore and should not be recommended post ferocity patch.

You should be relying on your team to provide you might, since you won’t get 25 might stacks by yourself as a ranger. Sigil of strength and battle have high opportunity costs, as they replace a 5% or 10% damage modifier in order to maintain a bonus from a runeset that was already inferrior to both scholar and ranger.

Yeah, I agree the ruby orbs are not that great anymore, but still a cheap option until one cam afford something better..

However, you are wrong about sigils of strength. I mainly solo open-world PvE,
running sword/xxx and axe/axe with MH sigils of strength and OH sigils of force.

I can easily, and very quickly, generate 25 stacks of might by myself, and sustain a good portion of this through fights of any length on both myself and my pet.

Regarding relying on teams for might ..

How many pugs do you know that understand what might is, let alone able to stack it?
Unless you constantly play with the exact same 5 players for all the game content, then forget about relying on a team for might.

If you want might, then you need a build that can generate and sustain enough of it yourself. I have no need of a team to stack might …

Yeah, how silly of me for relying on my team in a group environment.

Your builds fine for solo/open world, but the runes/sigils are weaker in any decent team. Might stacking isn’t hard, and it only takes one competent ele or a warrior running phalanx strength. Losing 17.7% in modifiers is a big deal in dungeons/fractals.

Good discussion here. I’m leaning toward ranger runes for my first exotic set, but was wondering what people think of the ‘of the Pack’ runes?

I’ve acquired a few of them from salvaging and seem like they could be a good option.

Condutas.3580:

Hello there my fellow archers players.[…]I definately prefer pve over pvp,[…] I use jungle pet for party might / bear for debuff)

>.>

On topic: Both are viable.

djsarcher.9263:

[…]was wondering what people think of the ‘of the Pack’ runes?

No, no damage modifier.

I’ve had really good success with Ranger runes, so I recommend those. Scholar runes only make sence in situations where you won’t be taking damage, and most interesting content requires you to take damage. (if you like pets and want a cheap set, try pirates for fun :-))

Make sure to pair your runeset with a sigil for your playstyle. Damage, precision, fraility, and strength are all good choices for dungeons. If you are using might stacking or fraility sigils run 15 in NM and use your pet! Otherwise, stick with damage/precision sigils. Simple and strong. Whatever you do, have fun!