Curse

Don Zardeone · Mar 08, 2011, 04:35 PM // 16:35

Paradon with DP and no extra energy can't cast agressive refrain until DP is lost. I may throw an attunement rune on my pees, or stop dying.

bhavv · Mar 08, 2011, 05:42 PM // 17:42

I have radiants and 112 energy on my elly

For heroes though, I'll take armor boosts first, and survivor insignias second.

S4br3t00th · Mar 08, 2011, 06:29 PM // 18:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Zardeone

Paradon with DP and no extra energy can't cast agressive refrain until DP is lost. I may throw an attunement rune on my pees, or stop dying.

Easy: just bring along a high energy staff (+20 or +30/-1), and switch to it if you get too much dp just for the cast of AR.
If you do that and switch your radiants with centurions, you'll die less (they will always be active considering you bring AR) so you'll be less likely to even have needed radiant in the first place

Sir Mad · Mar 08, 2011, 06:33 PM // 18:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by S4br3t00th

Easy: just bring along a high energy staff (+20 or +30/-1), and switch to it if you get too much dp just for the cast of AR.
If you do that and switch your radiants with centurions, you'll die less (they will always be active considering you bring AR) so you'll be less likely to even have needed radiant in the first place

Can't help if that's a hero. Well yeah, you could open his inventory, drag the staff, make him cast the chant, drag the spear. That would be a pita...

By the way, what is a Paradon? A Paragon sorry for not being a necro? J/K

Kaida the Heartless · Mar 08, 2011, 06:47 PM // 18:47

Didn't read much of the rest of the thread, but your Runes and Insignias should be balanced between +Health (usually via Runes) and +Armor (usually via Insignias).

Showtime · Mar 08, 2011, 08:46 PM // 20:46

All my heros on my mains have sup vigors and use max weapons since they were cheap to outfit earlier. I try balance it out so there is'nt a glaring target with less HP. Casters generally use staffs.

Survivors on anyone I don't want targeted or to bring up HP to rest of groups.

Para bip runs centurions but will be trying survivors for the drop. (Damn, those runes are 2100 now lol.)

Torm on my necs, but you're done if you run into heavy holy damage. Then survivors obviously.
My mm heros run survivor or mm insigs.

Blessed on healers/prot.
I like anchorites on my smiters/roj monks.

Radiant only on my main/rangers since they hardly get targeted. Also I will spam skills til I'm out of mana to finish groups faster. Hardly happens. Things tend to die quickly. Vs cold etc is great in some builds.

Now what about vitae or attunement?

I usually have 1 or 2 slots left and prefer Vitae's though seems like a waste of space either way lol.

GranDeWun · Mar 08, 2011, 09:08 PM // 21:08

Higher max energy is relevant for necromancers, otherwise armor is the best choice. With a 7 hero team, chances are you are always under an enchantment...just sayin'.

Dzjudz · Mar 08, 2011, 09:26 PM // 21:26

I never use Radiant on heroes, ever. Armor insignia if there are appropriate ones (i.e. Centurion for para, Prodigy for mesmer), otherwise Survivor (necros usually).

Never use attunement either, always vitae.

Kunder · Mar 09, 2011, 04:47 AM // 04:47

+max health and +max energy are useless unless you plan on dieing or running out of energy otherwise.

+armor lowers damage, which simultaneously prevents you from dying while causing you to need less healing. If everyone wears blessed insignia's its essentially a +19% to the healer's energy EFFICIENCY. +armor is better defense than +health while being energy MANAGEMENT at the same time, which is the best thing you can add to your armor. The effect scales up even better the more armor you have. Guess what happens when most of your casters are sitting at +20 armor just because of armor + weapon bonuses? Yay, my stupid Healing Burst monk hero who can't manage spells for crap is now 41% more efficient. Isn't that just awesome? Its almost like a free Healer's Boon that also affects DF. What does extra health and energy do for you? A big flat 0%.

TL;DR, unless you have a REALLY good RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing reason to run something else (if you need to ask whether your reason is good, its probably bad), run whatever gets the largest dependable +armor for your build.

distilledwill · Mar 09, 2011, 10:15 AM // 10:15

Just gonna throw my hat into the ring - Survivor/Armour all the way. The consensus of the community is that energy management > larger energy pool.

With + energy and less health your heroes (in a sustained battle) will run down their energy supply and then die.

With + health/+armour and energy management skills your heroes (in a sustained battle) will maintain a decent energy pool and have the health to back it up.

I have to admit that I usually run Survivor on my heroes except in the following cases:

Paragon: + Armour under a shout
Dervish: + Armour under an enchantment
Necro: 1 Bloodstained for faster minion making

Amy Awien · Mar 09, 2011, 11:49 AM // 11:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by distilledwill

... The consensus of the community is that energy management > larger energy pool.

It's not about an extra spell or skill, the larger pool makes e-management more efficient, the larger buffer means you're e-management will waste less energy due to 'overfilling' the buffer. It's the same reason a larger health pool means less overhealing and thus more efficient healing.

Quote:

Necro: 1 Bloodstained for faster minion making

Especially necro's, who have no control over the moment their energy gets a refill, benefit from a larger energy pool.

Why? · Mar 09, 2011, 04:05 PM // 16:05

frankly, it doesn't matter. People obviously have very strong opinions, but for 90% of pve areas, it really doesn't matter.

Elite areas might be another story, but no one has posted their all hero team elite area builds yet.

Captain Bulldozer · Mar 09, 2011, 05:40 PM // 17:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amy Awien

It's not about an extra spell or skill, the larger pool makes e-management more efficient, the larger buffer means you're e-management will waste less energy due to 'overfilling' the buffer. It's the same reason a larger health pool means less over-healing and thus more efficient healing.

This isn't true if your energy management is based off energy regen skills like Blood Ritual, Blood is Power, etc. Unlike health regen, which is usually a poor way of healing, energy regen can be a valid way of managing energy, and its generally easy to use. You have a good point, however, when the energy management is done with skills that result in direct energy gain. Still, just as with healing, a skillful player can generally avoid overfilling the buffer, so I don't find the "larger buffer" idea that compelling.

Wenspire · Mar 09, 2011, 07:47 PM // 19:47

For HM PvE, radiant on all except your tank. Because no matter how much life/armor you have as a sqishy, it will usually come down to around 10 hits before you are dead because of having protective spirit or shelter being in play.

Sir Mad · Mar 09, 2011, 08:51 PM // 20:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Bulldozer

This isn't true if your energy management is based off energy regen skills like Blood Ritual, Blood is Power, etc. Unlike health regen, which is usually a poor way of healing, energy regen can be a valid way of managing energy, and its generally easy to use. You have a good point, however, when the energy management is done with skills that result in direct energy gain. Still, just as with healing, a skillful player can generally avoid overfilling the buffer, so I don't find the "larger buffer" idea that compelling.

Yeah but we're talking about heroes here, not skillful players.

Indeed BR is a great skill, and one of my hero always carry it (even if he's not spec'ed in Blood Magic, the skill remains amazing), however heroes can't use it properly. Basically, they're just looking at the energy bar of the other toons, and check if they're casters. If that's the case and if they're low in energy, they're gonna use BR. They don't mind at all using it when the SoS is going to use Spirit Siphon for example. On the other hand, if you're a physical DD, you really have to have 0 energy and everybody else has to be full to get a BR.

Don Zardeone · Mar 09, 2011, 11:34 PM // 23:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by S4br3t00th

Easy: just bring along a high energy staff (+20 or +30/-1), and switch to it if you get too much dp just for the cast of AR.
If you do that and switch your radiants with centurions, you'll die less (they will always be active considering you bring AR) so you'll be less likely to even have needed radiant in the first place

I was talking about my heroes. Swapping a staff on them is a pita. This is hero forum.

distilledwill · Mar 10, 2011, 01:26 PM // 13:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amy Awien

It's not about an extra spell or skill, the larger pool makes e-management more efficient, the larger buffer means you're e-management will waste less energy due to 'overfilling' the buffer. It's the same reason a larger health pool means less overhealing and thus more efficient healing.

If your energy is being filled to the max by that energy management skill, then it doesn't matter a whole lot if you waste 5 or so energy in doing it, the result is the same: your energy is maximum - I'd rather take the trade off of higher health.

For example:
My hero has 30e and 600hp. My hero maintains almost maximum energy almost all the time. My hero has 100 more health than yours.
Your hero has 50e and 500hp. Your hero maintains almost maximum energy almost all the time. Your hero has 100 LESS health than mine.

There is no doubt that having a large energy pool AND good energy management will mean your hero has mad energy skillz - but overall it won't perform any better than a hero with good energy management on its own.

Quote:

Especially necro's, who have no control over the moment their energy gets a refill, benefit from a larger energy pool.

Its true that the necros energy can sometimes be difficult to predict, but its well documented that soul reaping is one of the best energy management tools out there. This, coupled with other energy giving skills (Signet of Lost Souls, Foul Feast) makes the necro one of the heroes with the most energy to play with. Thats why everyone uses them for EVERYTHING. Thats why they can endlessly spam rit heals and discord. Taking energy runes/insignias on them would be a waste (see the above paragraph).

Jeydra · Mar 10, 2011, 03:28 PM // 15:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Bulldozer

Generally speaking, I'd rate it like this:

armor > health > energy

Sometimes the armor options via runes and insignias kinda sucks for the profession or build, so in that case I'd go with health. Energy, if you need more at all, is easy enough to get from your weapon set. Why just running a staff, a char can easily get +20 energy and +30 health if they want. Radiants and Attunements do have some niche uses, but mostly on farming builds. A paragon might like to use a radiant or two, but only because of the massive cost of Aggressive Refrain. Also, a derv can benefit from a radiant here and there, since derv armor already has native health buffs. This was more true before the update however, and a zealous scythe usually covered it anyway.

This. Go with +armour insignias whenever you can (including for example Blessed Insignias when you can't find Shaman's insignias, but can count on being enchanted), then Survivor. Radiants are pretty pointless on a hero; if I do find I can spare the health loss by using Radiants, I'd use a Major / Superior rune and boost my damage output.

House Silvermoon · Mar 10, 2011, 07:52 PM // 19:52

radiant and survivors sux, armor wins guild wars. i kno its 2k11 and game is dead but srsly if there is one thing everyone should kno its this.

Plutoman · Mar 10, 2011, 08:56 PM // 20:56

Match it to the build, class, and purpose.

Those that should be attacked having lower health, sometimes significantly lower to compensate for the increased aggro of casters. Casters that need to have significantly higher health to avoid being attacked need survivor runes (ie, healers). Casters that run in the middle, will vary. Some need a larger energy pool so the energy management is 100% efficient (if you have a mesmer regaining 21 energy in one go, is at 20 energy, and maxes at 35, you are losing the value on skills). Some don't need extra energy.

I'll balance runes with the builds intended for a hero, the purpose they play, and the class they're using. General answer? It depends.

Just sayin', armor doesn't win the game. Planning does. Armor is the best choice for conserving health though, when you've considered all factors.