Guild Wars 2

Let’s discuss a good rune for Revenant.
Maybe Scholar is an easy winner for many of you, but let’s see if we can find something more creative.

• Superior Rune of the Scholar
  +175 Power
  +100 Ferocity
  +10% damage while your health is above 90%

On paper the best one out there. 100 Ferocity can be a 6.7% damage boost, with 175 more power and 10% more damage when at max HP. Given Shiro’s healing skill, this can be pretty awesome, expecially in a group that can provide fury.

• Superior Rune of the Ogre
  +175 Power
  +35 Ferocity
  25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90s)
  +4% damage

Another nice option, usually the most common and cheap alternative to Scholar (that’s why I’m listing it) and the one used by Roy in the stream. Same Power and a 2.3% damage boost with Ferocity, plus 4% flat multiplier (no hp involved) and the rock dog as an extra target and also an extra source of damage.

• Superior Rune of Rage
  +175 Ferocity
  +30% Fury Duration
  25% chance when struck to gain Fury for 15 seconds. (Cooldown: 30s)
  +5% damage while under the effect of Fury.

This one can shine on Revenant.
Same Ferocity of the Scholar one, so 6.7% damage boost if Precision is high enough, but comes with 19,5 seconds of Fury every 30 seconds and a +5% flat damage under Fury (that is an average of +3.25% damage just from the Fury provided by the rune).
However since it gives no Power, it may seem the inferior one.

Well it’s not that simple.
Revenant at the moment has a trait called Ferocious Aggression that gives 7% increased damage while under the effects of Fury. This damage boos can be obtained by using Incensed Response or Fierce Infusion. The first one is not very reliable and gives fury on a stun break, the second one instead is pretty good and gives 8 seconds of Fury when using a healing skill. Unfortunately it’s not nearly enough for a good Fury uptime (it’s good to burst tho) and it shares the Adept slot with Cleansing Channel, that may be the best condition cleanse source that Revenants have.

If those Fury traits are used, they all benefit from the rune, and they cold mean 100% Fury uptime, allowing (with Roiling Mists) to stop before 70% critical chance and spec into Power. If they are not used, then the Rune of Rage is the only source of Fury, and the only way to access that 7% damage boost.

So given that Superior Rune of the Scholar is good only when HP are over 90%, it may not be that simple. Assuming 175 Power as a 6.3% damage boost:

• Scholar:
  13% under 90% hp, 23% over 90% hp.
  From 20 to 30% if Fury is constantly provided by a group member.
  Hands down the best one in an organized group.
• Ogre:
  12.6% flat boost, plus the rock dog.
  19.7% in an organized group.
  Maybe a little bit above the minimum that Scholar provides. Good if you’re constantly under 90% health (corruption builds).
• Rage:
  18.7% total, almost flat, including 7% from trait. Even alone.
  Same value in an organized group, since Fury uptime is self provided.
  This also allows to spec more Power and use Cleansing Channel for conditions.

My opinion is that it depends on what you play and on your group. If you always play with 2 Guardians that can rotate “Feel My Wrath!” then Scholar is the best option, going from a minimum of 20% to 30% depending on your HP. Damage peak with Shiro’s healing skill can be insane, also because it should be enough to stay over 90% health.

In pug groups or if your group has not so many Fury sources, Superior Rune of Rage wins all over. Almost 19% flat is way better then 13%, and even better then the 23% if the HP are over 90%, since you’ll get a lot of damage fighting in melee range.

Superior Rune of Strength is another common alternative to Scholar, but I don’t see it fitting well on Revenant, like Superior Rune of the Flame Legion fitting mainly Guardians.

What I also like is that Superior Rune of Rage is actually very cheap (only 20 silver coins), and also has a way cheaper (and, yeah, inferior) alternative in the Superior Rune of the Citadel (5 silver coins each), that is basically the same rune with a bomb every 15s instead of the +5% boost.

What’s your opinion on the matter?

Rage will be the go-to rune for Revenant i feel if you have access to permanent fury, which you should if you have a warrior in the group using FGJ on cooldown alongside the Revenants traits that proc fury and such.

Never been a fan of scholar runes, as soon as you dip below 90% hp (which happens quite often) the runes are just suddenly not being utilized at all, they’re effective in a premade group where you can coordinate better, but most people probably run in pugs, but thankfully (as you’ve stated yourself) Rage will pull ahead on damage over scholar runes for the Revenant (Hooray!)

Thanks for running the numbers on all of this. I was thinking about Runes of Rage the other day on revenant.

Remember that Runes of Rage increases Fury duration by 30% so instead of an 8 second Fury activation Fierce Infusion should give a 10.4 second Fury duration. When paired with the 19.5 second Fury activation from the Runes you get very close to 100% fury up-time.

For WvW, I’ll be using the Rune of Evasion with the Retribution Line and Orrian Truffle meat Stew for +40% endurance regen, Might, Stability, Retaliation, Swiftness and Fury on dodge. Along with the crippling strike. Looks pretty nice to me when combined with the life siphon traits. Something like; Assassin’s Presence, Ferocious Strikes, Assassin’s Annihilation, Close Quarters, Retaliatory Evasion, Rejuvenating Steadfast,
Cruel Repercussion, Invigorating Flow & Shrouding Mists, dual sword with Air/Blood sigils. Looking forward to testing that.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Rage will be the go-to rune for Revenant i feel if you have access to permanent fury, which you should if you have a warrior in the group using FGJ on cooldown alongside the Revenants traits that proc fury and such.

Never been a fan of scholar runes, as soon as you dip below 90% hp (which happens quite often) the runes are just suddenly not being utilized at all, they’re effective in a premade group where you can coordinate better, but most people probably run in pugs, but thankfully (as you’ve stated yourself) Rage will pull ahead on damage over scholar runes for the Revenant (Hooray!)

That’s also what I think

Manarain.7940:

Thanks for running the numbers on all of this. I was thinking about Runes of Rage the other day on revenant.

Remember that Runes of Rage increases Fury duration by 30% so instead of an 8 second Fury activation Fierce Infusion should give a 10.4 second Fury duration. When paired with the 19.5 second Fury activation from the Runes you get very close to 100% fury up-time.

Thank you for your comment, and yeah, Rune of Rage is great on Revenant because of all the benefits and synergy. Math also proves is better then scholar in the majority of circumstances. Scholar however is still the best if you seek the highest damage possible, and is pretty good on Revenant because of Shiro’s healing skill.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

For WvW, I’ll be using the Rune of Evasion with the Retribution Line and Orrian Truffle meat Stew for +40% endurance regen, Might, Stability, Retaliation, Swiftness and Fury on dodge. Along with the crippling strike. Looks pretty nice to me when combined with the life siphon traits. Something like; Assassin’s Presence, Ferocious Strikes, Assassin’s Annihilation, Close Quarters, Retaliatory Evasion, Rejuvenating Steadfast,
Cruel Repercussion, Invigorating Flow & Shrouding Mists, dual sword with Air/Blood sigils. Looking forward to testing that.

That’s a great idea. Not dps oriented but I’m sure I’ll give a try in wvw for survivability.
I can totally see 3s of Fury being useful with Sword fast attacks and/or quickness, and 3s of Swiftness are REALLY useful in WvW, since we only get 47% superspeed uptime.

Kidel.2057:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

For WvW, I’ll be using the Rune of Evasion with the Retribution Line and Orrian Truffle meat Stew for +40% endurance regen, Might, Stability, Retaliation, Swiftness and Fury on dodge. Along with the crippling strike. Looks pretty nice to me when combined with the life siphon traits. Something like; Assassin’s Presence, Ferocious Strikes, Assassin’s Annihilation, Close Quarters, Retaliatory Evasion, Rejuvenating Steadfast,
Cruel Repercussion, Invigorating Flow & Shrouding Mists, dual sword with Air/Blood sigils. Looking forward to testing that.

That’s a great idea. Not dps oriented but I’m sure I’ll give a try in wvw for survivability.
I can totally see 3s of Fury being useful with Sword fast attacks and/or quickness, and 3s of Swiftness are REALLY useful in WvW, since we only get 47% superspeed uptime.

I think that the damage output will be pretty good, the siphoning also does damage, but the many small siphons/heals will be good for sustain, I reckon. The runes synergise well with the on-dodge traits in the Retribution Line and the crippling attack is quite nice too. I’m thinking Zerker set with a couple of Zealots pieces thrown in, depending on how well the siphoning scales with healing power.

For solo situations, the Rune of Rage will be a good choice, but for maximum DPS in groups, Scholar will still be the way to go.

Do you actually have any better suggestion? Something in between scholar and rage?
I didn’t check every single rune.

Hoelbrak could be pretty nice, same with Strength, Pack would be very nice, Citadel also decent.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Hoelbrak could be pretty nice, same with Strength, Pack would be very nice, Citadel also decent.

They all seem pretty good, but inferior to Rage specifically on Revenant (all of those except Citadel would be better on any other class). Pack is really nice on Revenant, too bad it has no damage modifier and Revenant can’t make great use of the swiftness duration boost. 125 free precision is nice however.
Citadel is basically the same as Rage with a bomb every 15s instead of +5% damage under Fury.

Kidel.2057:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Hoelbrak could be pretty nice, same with Strength, Pack would be very nice, Citadel also decent.

They all seem pretty good, but inferior to Rage specifically on Revenant (all of those except Citadel would be better on any other class). Pack is really nice on Revenant, too bad it has no damage modifier and Revenant can’t make great use of the swiftness duration boost. 125 free precision is nice however.
Citadel is basically the same as Rage with a bomb every 15s instead of +5% damage under Fury.

Yeah, shame about the pack runes having swiftness duration and not fury, but that would be mad OP. Citadel has Power instead of Ferocity too.

Power, in almost all scenarios, will add the most damage to your attacks. Rage will work pretty well for revenant because it will allow you to keep your 7% damage buff up more often.

If you already have fury uptime, the Scholar and Strength and Pack runes will do more for you.

Don’t forget runes of the Eagle – they’re another Scholar alternate like Ogre, but without the Rock Dog that tends to get people angry in dungeons.

Given the fury generation hovewer I think Rage is the way to go.

I’ve done some math too. Rage is prob the best choice for most people.

As for Sigils I’m looking at Sigil of Air and Sigil of Force as they seem like a pretty decent PvE setup for dual swords.

I don’t like sigil of Air in pve, maybe WvW. The 5s coldown (yeay, says 3s but it’s 5 atm) makes it inferior to Frailty and even Accuracy on zerker builds. Actually Air is maybe a 2% increased damage, while Frailty is a 4-5% increased damage (and it’s actually pretty useful on hammer/mace/staff with Devastation line because you also get 7% damage boost from trait) and Accuracy is basically 10-15% average if you have a lot of ferocity.
I’m going Force+Accuracy on swords and Force+Frailty on anything else.

I also looke through runes and Rage seemed the best option for Shiro.

Or run around with pet ele who who has trait to give Fury on fire blast finishers

As for sigils…With how Shiro works I kinda like Superior Sigil of Blood idea. Life steal + DMG coupled with same from shiro’s skills/heal/traits. Force and Accuracy will probably win though.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Rage will be the go-to rune for Revenant i feel if you have access to permanent fury, which you should if you have a warrior in the group using FGJ on cooldown alongside the Revenants traits that proc fury and such.

Never been a fan of scholar runes, as soon as you dip below 90% hp (which happens quite often) the runes are just suddenly not being utilized at all, they’re effective in a premade group where you can coordinate better, but most people probably run in pugs, but thankfully (as you’ve stated yourself) Rage will pull ahead on damage over scholar runes for the Revenant (Hooray!)

This pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter. Rage runes came to mind immediately when I saw our traits. Considering their cheap price and the fact that most people PvE casually, Rage runes are definitely the way to go.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Rage will be the go-to rune for Revenant i feel if you have access to permanent fury, which you should if you have a warrior in the group using FGJ on cooldown alongside the Revenants traits that proc fury and such.

Never been a fan of scholar runes, as soon as you dip below 90% hp (which happens quite often) the runes are just suddenly not being utilized at all, they’re effective in a premade group where you can coordinate better, but most people probably run in pugs, but thankfully (as you’ve stated yourself) Rage will pull ahead on damage over scholar runes for the Revenant (Hooray!)

Warriors shouldn’t be taking FGJ in fights anymore though. Warriors take double banners and signet of fury/might, as the fury is covered from other classes and the might can easily be maintained without it.

Ranger can maintain fury on a group pretty easily, ie, one skill. Although, good Rangers are few and far between, unfortunately.

With moa+horn? Just asking.

Ahem… rune of the pack…

ferocity from traits, extra power and precision, fury on getting hit (annoying to trigger but tested on guardian- if your evasions fail you want to take some benefit to hit back harder) and most important: swiftness duration.

Take Shiro+Jalis, s/s for dmg + hammer for utility
Jalis has lightning field and 3 (maybe 5-6 not sure about hammer #2) blast finishers.
Mobility problem ?

Swiftness duration, meh, I don’t know. If it’s true that you can have Impossible Odds up 99% of the time just doubleswapping ooc, then we’re not going to bother with Jalis combo, so swiftness duration may be basically wasted at the moment. In combat mobility is also better just with Shiro or Mallyx, or weaponskills.

While might and fury uptime AOE is nice (just a little bit inferior self-fury compared to Citaled/Rage because no fury duration) I think 5% damage from Rage is really good.

It has might+power+precision instead of ferocity+5% damage, so it could be interesting. On any other class it would be the superior choice. However I think that maximizing fury uptime is very important on Revenant because you also get +30% precision and +7% damage, so that 30% fury duration may be really impactful.

Given that I may not end up using Fierce Infusion because of Cleansing Channel (it really depends on how Revenant is bad at dealing with conditions), my only other source of Fury would be stunbreaking.
I need to wait for the next beta I guess.

Kidel.2057:

With moa+horn? Just asking.

The Moa by itself if you have Nature Magic.

The only rune-sets i plan to use on my rev are perplexity,torment,nightmare for conditions. For power builds in pve i would only run Scholar still no reason not to. For WvW/Spvp It’s a mix up of Pack,Vamp or Lyssa.

Citadel runes are garbage and should never be used. Rage is a maybe, though in group play you should have perma fury anyway.

And if healing ever became truly viable or needed I’d use Monk.

This is of course if HoT doesnt bring a bunch of new rune sets and such that trump any of the listed ones.

Stinja.9612:

The only rune-sets i plan to use on my rev are perplexity,torment,nightmare for conditions. For power builds in pve i would only run Scholar still no reason not to. For WvW/Spvp It’s a mix up of Pack,Vamp or Lyssa.

All creative stuff. I expecially like your Lyssa suggestion for WvW

Stinja.9612:

Rage is a maybe, though in group play you should have perma fury anyway.

I can assure you that it really depends on the group or in general who you play with.

Stinja.9612:

This is of course if HoT doesnt bring a bunch of new rune sets and such that trump any of the listed ones.

Yep, that’s why I’m not wasting 90+ gold on runes. Rage seems also good for that reason: a lot of sinergy with the class, for a very cheap price.
If something better comes, then no problem.
New good runes will probably have a skyrocketed price at launch.