Superior Runes for warriors?

I always wondered why people use superior runes on warriors, since they are mostly used as tanks, and the -75 health is a LOT. They use the runes on Swordmanship or axe-mastery, is it really usefull? Since as a warrior you get hit a lot in pve, making high health a must. What does +5 damage for a sword attack or 2sec more deep wound effect do to make up for the - 75 health?

Also I can need some help on warrior build.
Please note that my character is factions-only at the moment, so my choice is limited. At the moment I have:

W/Mo

Tactics: 11 + 1 + 1 (helmet)
Swordmanship: 11 + 1
Healing Prayers: 7 or 9 I can't really remember - I have +6 on healing breeze
Strength: 0 + 1
And +41 health rune

- Healing signet
- Sever Artery
- Gash
- Quivering Blade (my only usefull elite skill at the moment)
- Defensive stance
- Watch yourself
- Healing breeze
- Rebirth

I'm not going pure tank, since most players I team with take aggro away from me, so tanking becomes way less usefull. Note I also considered Drunken Blow for Quivering Blade to get an energy based attack skill, but being knocked down constantly isn't gonna improve anything. I also considered shields up and protectors defense instead of watch yourself/ defensive stance. I even considered going smite prayers for Kirins Wrath, but that only seemed to scare the enemies away from me, what isn't a good thing cause they'll run towards the monks and ele's.

If there are any other suggestions to improve the build, I would like to know

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The superior rune makes you a more effective warrior, at the cost of 75 health that you won't need anyway. Having higher weapon mastery raises your base damage, the critical hit rate, and the damage bonus from skills. Compare a warrior with 14 in weapon mastery to a warrior with 16 and it should be painfully obvious what the point of that superior rune is.

As for your build, defensive stance is a bad choice because it cancels when you use skills. Also drop healing breeze for Silverwing Slash or Standing Slash, and put all of the points you wasted on Healing Prayers back into Swordsmanship and Strength.

Ditto'ing on what Marty said.

Also, it's a lot better to use a tank skill (i.e. Dolyak Signet) than to bring Healing Breeze - you heal a lot less efficiently than a monk. And it's usually best to put 12 +3 +1 into your weapon attribute.

Dude...All the extra health you really need is maybe around 5-35 (depending on your choice of weapons). I have 515 total health using +50 sup vigor rune, +30 sword mod, and +30 sheild mod. And remember the warrior as an extremely high AL, thats really nice and can be lots better then health due to the lowering of damage. I think you should use at least a major rune or two, if your looking for more health, but don't look at health that much, having lots of health only helps under degeration. Which occurs seldom in PvE and lots with noob touchers.

Ok thx for your help,

first I was afraid losing health but now I need to get rid of my tank skills too?

Well, Im gonna try it out right away, the only thing I'm afraid of is that my only skill that should prevent me from dieing would be a healing signet that takes a few seconds to activate and in the mean time you have -40 armor

Take a tanking skill if you're that scared then. You won't have aggro most of the time anyway so you should outheal it (If your tactics is as high as it should be). If you really, really feel you need it, then take dolyak sig or watch yourself.

I personally won't touch a superior rune in PvE. Why?

1. I solo without henchmen. When soloing, you need every ounce of health you can get, given that your number one priority is to survive.

2. When I do group in PvE, I almost exclusively act as a stance tank. It sounds like some of you have bad PuG experiences - but for the most part if you (a) make it known to your team members not to come inside your aggro circle and (b) know effectively how to body block and use terrain to your advantage; you should have absolutely no problem in holding aggro. And that extra 75 health may make the difference between a monk being able to infuse you or not.

NOTE: I exclusively use superior runes in PvP, since you are generally not the target of attacks unless you overextend or otherwise make yourself vulnerable. And in those circumstances, really good PvP warriors know how to armor switch to make up for that difference.

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Runes are CHEAP.

For this reason i change them around very often, putting 1 superior rune on at a time. ONLY 1, or i lose 150hp. If i decide to troll farm i put a sup tactics on to maximise length of glads defence. If spider farming, i want more dmg on my attacks, so i use sup axe mastery. Its all about place and time, and thats how i decide what runes i need.

Depends on situation: I always carry a secondary helmet with a minor rune, and if things get bad or i get heavy DP i just switch to that set. Otherwise, 1 sup rune and rest minor ftw

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Don't forget the healing signet and maybe watchyourself and a Tank mostly use strenght skill like defy or endure.

I PvE with no secondary profession skills and 5 Superior Runes. Meaning my health is 305 with out any fortitude bonus. I never have a problem staying alive...even solo spiders with that setup. Don't be afraid to go to that extreme. I've not had one complaint from a healer either. In fact, I'd venture to say nobody noticed yet.