Runes and Ensignias, oh my... - Guild Wars Forums

greywolf31 · Sep 27, 2007, 12:09 AM // 00:09

Hi All,
I tried to search this but I can't seem to phrase it right.

This is what confuses me in the game: the chocies of Runes and Insignias.

I finally got the whole stacking/non-stacking thing down. <yay me>

I am running an Ele/Me (currently focusing on fire)
Has anyone seen a chart of what/which runes and sigs to use?

Cuz frankly I am overwhelmed, you don't even want to know how many times I overlayed a rune with another thinking there was a sig on the armor, or nuke the armor trying to save the 3k rune... (not 15k armor)

Anyways...

I would like some suggestions for tweakin' my char in the rune/sig area.
Or tips on the logic of how to approach my choices.

I'll worry about the weapon/focus mods when I find some real items.
It always seems to drop anything but what My Character needs...

As Always thanks for all the help and patience.

Todd

Savio · Sep 27, 2007, 12:17 AM // 00:17

[wiki]Rune[/wiki]
[wiki]Insignia[/wiki]
Insignias are the prefixes, runes are the suffixes. Armor will be named [Insignia] Armor of [Rune].

greywolf31 · Sep 27, 2007, 12:26 AM // 00:26

Oh I read through those pages, not studied, but read through... =)

What I need is a couple of examples of what ppl have chosen for runes and sigs, for an elementalist. Or in my case Ele/Me.

Then maybe I can see the bigger picture and apply the logic to my other characters. (It may be clear to a lot of folks, but I find myself befuddled)

I've always had problems when there were too many choices to be made... LOL

THX Again

xarchitect · Sep 27, 2007, 01:04 AM // 01:04

On you headpiece, put a rune of fire. You put fire on the headpiece so that you can make a headpiece for each element type as needed and get the appropriate rune on it. It does not matter if you use minor, major or superior. People will give you all kinds of reasons for one way or the other, which essentially means use what you are comfortable with. Need more help with the decision, fine: If you understand kiting and can keep yourself out of danger, use superior and do more damage to mobs. If you find yourself dead too much, use minor and keep the 75 health.
On your chest piece, put the greatest vigor rune you can afford.
On the hands, put a minor rune of energy storage.

Now the above is your baseline setup. You still need to add Insignias on all 5 pieces and 2 more runes.
Option 1 - maximize energy: Use this setup if you find yourself frequently running out of energy. The two remaining rune spots should be attunement and you use radiant insignias on all 5 pieces.
Option 2 - maximize health: If you can manage energy decently, this gives you more health so you can get a little (just a little) closer to the action. Put Vitae runes on the 2 remaining spots and Survivor Insignias on all 5 pieces.
Option 3 - mix and match any number of attunement/vitae runes with radiant/survivor insignias.

That is how I would set up a basic armor set for a fire ele. When you start getting more specific needs to farm an area, you will adjust (or make a whole new set) as needed.

Mournblade · Sep 27, 2007, 03:11 AM // 03:11

My ele runs full Survivor insignias for +hps, and runes of Minor Energy Storage, Superior (whatever element i'm using) headgear, Superior Vigor, and whatever vitae or attunement I have sitting around. Ele's have a naturally large energy pool, and if you are good at managing it you don't need 80+ energy to make it through a fight. More hps is goooooood. =)

TGgold · Sep 27, 2007, 03:28 AM // 03:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mournblade

My ele runs full Survivor insignias for +hps, and runes of Minor Energy Storage, Superior (whatever element i'm using) headgear, Superior Vigor, and whatever vitae or attunement I have sitting around. Ele's have a naturally large energy pool, and if you are good at managing it you don't need 80+ energy to make it through a fight. More hps is goooooood. =)

I useually like +armor for eles. +10 while enchanted is a good bet.

arsie · Sep 27, 2007, 03:46 AM // 03:46

Headgear should have a Rune of your choice of attribute point (Fire) because you can get a Headgear with a +1 Fire. The usual recommendation is for you to go with a Superior Rune here.

Why headgear? Because when you want to change your main attribute, to say Earth, you just need to buy another Headgear with +1 Earth and put a Rune of Earth on it.

Most Insignias and Runes are quite clear.

All (most) Insignias of your profession gives you some form of armour bonus. All Runes of your profession gives you attribute point bonus.

Then there are Common Insignias and Runes, which any profession can use. These can be a bit confusing.

Radiant Insignia = + Energy
Rune of Attunement = + Energy

Survivor Insignia = + Health
Rune of X Vigor, Rune of Vitae = + Health

So you can + Energy and + Health on both the prefix and suffix of the armour.

Here's the next potentially confusing part:
Radiant and Survivor Insignia works different when put on different pieces of armour.

Radiant gives +3 Energy on Chest, +2 on Legs, and +1 elsewhere.
Survivor gives +15 Health on Chest, +10 on Legs, +5 elsewhere.

So you realise that these Insignia costs the same, but is more useful on the Chests and Legs. Of course, because the Chest and Legs get hit more often, you are forgoing putting armour bonuses there.

Attunement and Vigor/Vitae can be put everywhere.

You cannot stack 2 Vigor's bonus, but you can stack Vitae.

My poor man's set of caster armour tend to have Radiant on Chest and Legs, and armour bonus of your choice on the Head, Arms and Feet.

Main attribute on the Head, sub attribute on the Arms or Feet, and a mixture of Attunement, Vigor and Vitae of your choice.

Why sub-attribute on your Arms and Feet? You may or may not want to have a Minor Rune of an attribute in your armour.

Say you have Superior Rune of Fire on your head, you might want a Minor Rune of Energy Storage as well. Put them on your Arms and Feet because they are cheaper to make, in case you want to salvage the Rune, or make extra sets to swap.

It is generally recommended not to use more than one Superior Rune because its not wise to have more than -75 health. So use one Sup Rune, or two Major Runes, and any number of Minor Runes to your taste.

HawkofStorms · Sep 27, 2007, 04:37 AM // 04:37

Blessed (+10 armor while enchanted) is a very good choice for eles since you will probablly be using fire/water/earth/or air attunement at all times.

Suvivor is also popular and is the best bet for PvP.

greywolf31 · Sep 27, 2007, 02:34 PM // 14:34

Hi All,
This is Just what I wanted to see, this is my first time running an Elementalist.
(and it explains why I had so much trouble with my first character the Mesmer)

I usually just do PvE stuff.

With what Savio said in his post, I can now tell what I already have in place.
Before I accidentally whack it. =)

I can also apply this logic to my heros as well.

Thanks for Everything, and making this a lot more fun.

Now if I could only afford it in game... <snicker>
Well, off to farm so I can tweak.

Thanks Again,

Todd

xarchitect · Sep 27, 2007, 04:43 PM // 16:43

I have always been a fan of +armor over +health (especially on an ele)because it saves you more HP over the long run. However, I have found a lot of enchant stripping has been added to PVE with GW:EN, so if your attunement gets stripped, you are left with neither HP or energy until it is recharged. That is why I favor either survivor or radiant insignias atm. You can also just put the +armor (blessed insignia) on your chest since that piece takes the greatest percentage of damage and put survivor insignias on the rest. That gives you a bit of the best of both worlds.

Antheus · Sep 27, 2007, 06:35 PM // 18:35

All survivor insignias.

Head: (minor or major) Elemental attribute (fire/water/air/...) rune
Chest: Superior Vigor rune
Glovers: Minor energy storage
Pants: Rune of vigor or Minor elemental attribute (other than headpiece)
Shoes: Rune of vigor

Elementalists have more than enough energy to go around. While having large pool may have mattered at some point, it's mostly irrelevant.

Health however, goes a long way. If you intend to do anything a bit harder, you'll find that with enchant stripping, degen, agro spills and other annoyments, health will always win out. When you get hit for 200-400 damage, no +5 or +10 armor will help you - period. It'll be up to monks and other protection to keep you alive. And by having 550-600 health, you're making their job easier. This is why there's also no sup rune listed above.

Mac Sidewinder · Sep 28, 2007, 03:30 AM // 03:30

One other thing to think about is if you want to change runes or insigs on armor. You can simply apply a new one over the old one without salvaging the old one off. You will have to absorb the cost of the new rune or insig but at least you don't run the chance of breaking the armor you dearly paid for.

Also on your heroe's armor you can salvage the runes and insigs to your hearts content since you cannot break their armor no matter how many times you salvage it.

Just something to think about.

arsie · Sep 28, 2007, 04:05 AM // 04:05

Yeah, pay attention to rune costs.

Some runes cost more than a 1k piece of armour + materials. Many costs a lot less. So whether to cover over or to salvage depends on the price.

A Superior Vigor rune is worth almost as much as a piece of 15k armour. Many runes run into the 1k-2k region.

You might want a dedicated salvage character with high Wisdom and Treasure Hunter ranking. So let that character identify all your Golds. Of course, my luck as it is, my salvage character actually fares worse at salvaging than my other characters

Sep 27, 2007, 12:09 AM // 00:09	#1
greywolf31 Academy Page Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Western MA, USA Guild: BHG Profession: E/Me	Runes and Ensignias, oh my... Hi All, I tried to search this but I can't seem to phrase it right. This is what confuses me in the game: the chocies of Runes and Insignias. I finally got the whole stacking/non-stacking thing down. <yay me> I am running an Ele/Me (currently focusing on fire) Has anyone seen a chart of what/which runes and sigs to use? Cuz frankly I am overwhelmed, you don't even want to know how many times I overlayed a rune with another thinking there was a sig on the armor, or nuke the armor trying to save the 3k rune... (not 15k armor) Anyways... I would like some suggestions for tweakin' my char in the rune/sig area. Or tips on the logic of how to approach my choices. I'll worry about the weapon/focus mods when I find some real items. It always seems to drop anything but what My Character needs... As Always thanks for all the help and patience. Todd

Sep 27, 2007, 12:17 AM // 00:17	#2
Savio Teenager with attitude Join Date: Jul 2005 Guild: Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]	[wiki]Rune[/wiki] [wiki]Insignia[/wiki] Insignias are the prefixes, runes are the suffixes. Armor will be named [Insignia] Armor of [Rune]. __________________ People are stupid.

Sep 27, 2007, 12:26 AM // 00:26	#3
greywolf31 Academy Page Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Western MA, USA Guild: BHG Profession: E/Me	Oh I read through those pages, not studied, but read through... =) What I need is a couple of examples of what ppl have chosen for runes and sigs, for an elementalist. Or in my case Ele/Me. Then maybe I can see the bigger picture and apply the logic to my other characters. (It may be clear to a lot of folks, but I find myself befuddled) I've always had problems when there were too many choices to be made... LOL THX Again

Sep 27, 2007, 01:04 AM // 01:04	#4
xarchitect Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Mar 2006 Profession: E/	On you headpiece, put a rune of fire. You put fire on the headpiece so that you can make a headpiece for each element type as needed and get the appropriate rune on it. It does not matter if you use minor, major or superior. People will give you all kinds of reasons for one way or the other, which essentially means use what you are comfortable with. Need more help with the decision, fine: If you understand kiting and can keep yourself out of danger, use superior and do more damage to mobs. If you find yourself dead too much, use minor and keep the 75 health. On your chest piece, put the greatest vigor rune you can afford. On the hands, put a minor rune of energy storage. Now the above is your baseline setup. You still need to add Insignias on all 5 pieces and 2 more runes. Option 1 - maximize energy: Use this setup if you find yourself frequently running out of energy. The two remaining rune spots should be attunement and you use radiant insignias on all 5 pieces. Option 2 - maximize health: If you can manage energy decently, this gives you more health so you can get a little (just a little) closer to the action. Put Vitae runes on the 2 remaining spots and Survivor Insignias on all 5 pieces. Option 3 - mix and match any number of attunement/vitae runes with radiant/survivor insignias. That is how I would set up a basic armor set for a fire ele. When you start getting more specific needs to farm an area, you will adjust (or make a whole new set) as needed.

Sep 27, 2007, 03:11 AM // 03:11	#5
Mournblade Furnace Stoker Join Date: May 2005 Location: Houston, Texas Guild: Dawn Treaders [DAWN] Profession: W/Mo	My ele runs full Survivor insignias for +hps, and runes of Minor Energy Storage, Superior (whatever element i'm using) headgear, Superior Vigor, and whatever vitae or attunement I have sitting around. Ele's have a naturally large energy pool, and if you are good at managing it you don't need 80+ energy to make it through a fight. More hps is goooooood. =)

Sep 27, 2007, 03:46 AM // 03:46	#7
arsie Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Jun 2007 Profession: N/	Headgear should have a Rune of your choice of attribute point (Fire) because you can get a Headgear with a +1 Fire. The usual recommendation is for you to go with a Superior Rune here. Why headgear? Because when you want to change your main attribute, to say Earth, you just need to buy another Headgear with +1 Earth and put a Rune of Earth on it. Most Insignias and Runes are quite clear. All (most) Insignias of your profession gives you some form of armour bonus. All Runes of your profession gives you attribute point bonus. Then there are Common Insignias and Runes, which any profession can use. These can be a bit confusing. Radiant Insignia = + Energy Rune of Attunement = + Energy Survivor Insignia = + Health Rune of X Vigor, Rune of Vitae = + Health So you can + Energy and + Health on both the prefix and suffix of the armour. Here's the next potentially confusing part: Radiant and Survivor Insignia works different when put on different pieces of armour. Radiant gives +3 Energy on Chest, +2 on Legs, and +1 elsewhere. Survivor gives +15 Health on Chest, +10 on Legs, +5 elsewhere. So you realise that these Insignia costs the same, but is more useful on the Chests and Legs. Of course, because the Chest and Legs get hit more often, you are forgoing putting armour bonuses there. Attunement and Vigor/Vitae can be put everywhere. You cannot stack 2 Vigor's bonus, but you can stack Vitae. My poor man's set of caster armour tend to have Radiant on Chest and Legs, and armour bonus of your choice on the Head, Arms and Feet. Main attribute on the Head, sub attribute on the Arms or Feet, and a mixture of Attunement, Vigor and Vitae of your choice. Why sub-attribute on your Arms and Feet? You may or may not want to have a Minor Rune of an attribute in your armour. Say you have Superior Rune of Fire on your head, you might want a Minor Rune of Energy Storage as well. Put them on your Arms and Feet because they are cheaper to make, in case you want to salvage the Rune, or make extra sets to swap. It is generally recommended not to use more than one Superior Rune because its not wise to have more than -75 health. So use one Sup Rune, or two Major Runes, and any number of Minor Runes to your taste.

Sep 27, 2007, 04:37 AM // 04:37	#8
HawkofStorms Hall Hero Join Date: Aug 2005 Profession: E/	Blessed (+10 armor while enchanted) is a very good choice for eles since you will probablly be using fire/water/earth/or air attunement at all times. Suvivor is also popular and is the best bet for PvP.

Sep 27, 2007, 02:34 PM // 14:34	#9
greywolf31 Academy Page Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Western MA, USA Guild: BHG Profession: E/Me	Hi All, This is Just what I wanted to see, this is my first time running an Elementalist. (and it explains why I had so much trouble with my first character the Mesmer) I usually just do PvE stuff. With what Savio said in his post, I can now tell what I already have in place. Before I accidentally whack it. =) I can also apply this logic to my heros as well. Thanks for Everything, and making this a lot more fun. Now if I could only afford it in game... <snicker> Well, off to farm so I can tweak. Thanks Again, Todd

Sep 27, 2007, 04:43 PM // 16:43	#10
xarchitect Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Mar 2006 Profession: E/	I have always been a fan of +armor over +health (especially on an ele)because it saves you more HP over the long run. However, I have found a lot of enchant stripping has been added to PVE with GW:EN, so if your attunement gets stripped, you are left with neither HP or energy until it is recharged. That is why I favor either survivor or radiant insignias atm. You can also just put the +armor (blessed insignia) on your chest since that piece takes the greatest percentage of damage and put survivor insignias on the rest. That gives you a bit of the best of both worlds.

Sep 27, 2007, 06:35 PM // 18:35	#11
Antheus Forge Runner Join Date: Jan 2006	All survivor insignias. Head: (minor or major) Elemental attribute (fire/water/air/...) rune Chest: Superior Vigor rune Glovers: Minor energy storage Pants: Rune of vigor or Minor elemental attribute (other than headpiece) Shoes: Rune of vigor Elementalists have more than enough energy to go around. While having large pool may have mattered at some point, it's mostly irrelevant. Health however, goes a long way. If you intend to do anything a bit harder, you'll find that with enchant stripping, degen, agro spills and other annoyments, health will always win out. When you get hit for 200-400 damage, no +5 or +10 armor will help you - period. It'll be up to monks and other protection to keep you alive. And by having 550-600 health, you're making their job easier. This is why there's also no sup rune listed above.

Sep 28, 2007, 03:30 AM // 03:30	#12
Mac Sidewinder Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Jun 2007	One other thing to think about is if you want to change runes or insigs on armor. You can simply apply a new one over the old one without salvaging the old one off. You will have to absorb the cost of the new rune or insig but at least you don't run the chance of breaking the armor you dearly paid for. Also on your heroe's armor you can salvage the runes and insigs to your hearts content since you cannot break their armor no matter how many times you salvage it. Just something to think about.

Sep 28, 2007, 04:05 AM // 04:05	#13
arsie Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Jun 2007 Profession: N/	Yeah, pay attention to rune costs. Some runes cost more than a 1k piece of armour + materials. Many costs a lot less. So whether to cover over or to salvage depends on the price. A Superior Vigor rune is worth almost as much as a piece of 15k armour. Many runes run into the 1k-2k region. You might want a dedicated salvage character with high Wisdom and Treasure Hunter ranking. So let that character identify all your Golds. Of course, my luck as it is, my salvage character actually fares worse at salvaging than my other characters