why do we put runes on the head?

so head armour comes with +1 to an attribute. what's the difference between putting an attribute rune on the head and somewhere else? it's the same benefit in the end: +4 attribute, right?

If you put it on the common armor headpiece, you get an extra +1 to rune's attribute.

It's easy to keep the runes together. Many players have multiple headpieces for different builds. Warrior: strength and tactics. I also have multiple gloves for the weapon type.

Eles and monks are even more likely...fire, earth, air or water magic. prot, heal, divine, smite. It would suck to switch to an earth build from a fire build and switch out the headpiece to earth, but still have that fire rune on my feet when the vigor rune on the headpiece would be better suited there(and be more economical). Why have +1/2/3 to fire on the feet when you're using an earth headpiece and build?

but if i put the rune on my chest, don't i still get +4 attribute in the end? i'm so confused

REad my post. Not his.

my bad, you posted when i was answering his post. k, now i understand. thnx

Thought he was asking about GW:EN headpieces. Oh well.

Basically, it's better to have your main runes on your headpiece so you can switch fast to something else.

On your characters armour you have the +1 whether anything else is added or not.
Its +1 and then you can add any of the following runes +1 +2 or +3 if you wish.
Putting the +3 on any piece of armor works fine.
However the headpiece of Heroes only activates when you add a rune to it.

Unless there has been an update to character armour to make them the same as Hero armour and I didnt notice.

If you want to change the added + rune on hero headpieces for a different build just Us a superior salvage kit and remove the rune.
Done this 3 times without loss of rune, I assume its intended to be done this way.

edited to add "salvage to remove a rune you added to the hero armour I mean not the inate rune"

With heroes it's based on the rune itself. May happen with PvP characters too, but don't quote me on that one.

You put runes on the head so you get +4 on the head for let's say, markmanship, but when you go trapping, you want +4 for wilderness, so you swap to your wilderness headpiece with a sup wilderness rune on it.

What he said, makes switching builds cheaper and easier, so instead of buying sets of armour for air magic, fire magic and earth magic you only need 3 head pieces that have the runes that boost those attributes.

Its all for the ease. There is no real purpose other then having different armors for different purposes, you get the same +attribute by attaching the rune anywhere.

This is the correct answer.

Let me give an example -

I'm a warrior, and i want my headpiece to give +1 to axe mastery. Done.

But, now say i wanted to have +4 axe mastery. Using a superior rune, i can achieve that, but only if i put it onto my headgear.

If it was attacked to my headgear - +1 inherit, +3 from rune = +4
If it was put on, say, my gauntlets - +3 from rune, the +1 inherit is cancelled and not added in.

I hope that answers.

I think some of you are confused with the new function of headpieces. Headpieces you can attain in Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall, have a fixed +1. Headpieces in Eye of the North give nothing until a rune is put on it. If you put a protection rune on a headpiece from GW:EN, you get +1 (or 2 or 3, depending on what class of rune) from the rune, and the headpiece gets an inherent +1 prot.

K I'll add on to what i said before I guess most people here only stick to one thing.

Say I roll as a fire ele most of the time so my armor would be like this:

Head: +1 fire magic, and +3 from superior rune
Body: +1 Energy management
Gloves: +50 Health from superior vigor

Now if I wanted to switch to an air build for pvp I would switch the head piece to make it like this:

Head: +1 air magic, and +3 from superior rune
Body: +1 Energy management
Gloves: +50 Health from superior vigor

This is done because you dont want a boost in attributes you dont use so something like this would be bad:

Head: +1 fire magic, and +1 energy management
Body: +3 fire magic from superior rune
Gloves: +50 Health from superior vigor

This works if you use one build but if you want to switch now you cant cause you'd end up with something like this:

Head: +1 fire magic, and +1 energy management
Body: +3 air magic from superior rune
Gloves: +50 Health from superior vigor

and that +1 fire magic doesnt do anything for ya.

Just keep your fire runes to your fire headpiece, air to your headpiece, domination to your domination headpiece, etc, etc. That's the most economic and easy way to switch attributes when switching builds.

Ok just to prove a point I went to Kamadan and bought a +1 blood magic headpiece for my necro.
Stripped off armour till blood magic read 12 in white
Put on the new headpiece and it read 13 in blue
ok
Headpieces in Prophesies nightfall and factions do have inate runes that work wether you add another rune or not.
They did before Gwen and still do today.
They sell all the different headpieces still.

So you are the weakest link goodby

Wrongo. Go to prophecies and get a +1 to something headpiece, and get a superior rune of that same attribute and put it on a cheap pair of gloves. YOu'll still get your +4 attribute.

I just did it. +1 beast mastery mask, superior beast mastery rune on a pair of gloves. +4 beast mastery.
http://www.a11eur0.com/gallery/d/5666-1/runes.JPG

so it all depends on which campaign i got my headpiece from? so if it's Prophecies, the only reason to put the rune on my head is to make changing builds easier, whereas in GWEN it does give me an extra attribute point?

The attribute point from the EotN headpiece is dependant on which rune you use, simple as that.

No they are all the same universal in every camp.The reason you want to put a rune on your head piece is to give that 1 extra attribute +14 with a minor instead of a 13.I put my runes throughout my armour so my maxxed out attribute is 13 not 14 eg. my Warrior has sword at 13 because my gauntlets have the swordmanship in them not my head piece it is tactics.

They ARE different.

I hope that after this post everyone else gets it too.

In GW:P, GW:F and GW:NF, you craft a headpiece with a fixed attribute. In GW:EN, you craft a headpiece with the function that the inherent +1 gets tied to the rune you apply on it.

If you put a Minor Protection Prayers Rune on a Canthan Healing Prayers Scalp Design, you get +1 Protection Prayers from the Rune and +1 Healing Prayers from the Scalp.
If you put a Minor Protection Prayers Rune on a Bandana, you get +1 Protection Prayers from the Rune, and the Bandana will have its function changed to give you +1 Protection.

I tried to look for info about this on the wiki's but I couldn't find anything. Try it ingame if you still don't get it. Just talk to an armorcrafter in one of the campaigns, and hover your mouse over the headgear. Do that at an armorcrafter/collector in the expansion, and you'll see that it gives +1 for the "item used upon" (or something) it. This function was introduced with heroes, with their headgear. So if you don't have GW:EN and still don't believe me, remove whatever rune of one of your heroes' headgear and read what it says.

So, to un-confuse things a bit:

There are two types of Headpieces - those that have a fixed attribute and those that have an attribute linked to the rune that's put on them.

If you have a Headpiece that says (for example) "marksmanship+1", you will get +1 to your marksmanship whether you have a Marksmanship Rune on it or not. And, in that case, if you put a +3 marksmanship rune on some other piece of armor it will add up to +4 in Marksmanship. And, even if you put a Rune of Vitae on the headpiece, you'll still get the +1 to marksmanship.

If, on the other hand, you have a headpiece that says "+1 to item's attribute", you will only get the +1 if you put some other Rune (with a + attribute) on it. Again, using marksmanship as an example, if you put a +3 marksmanship on the headpiece, you would get a total of +4 to marksmanship, but if you put the +3 marksmanship on some other piece, you would only get +3 to marksmanship. If you put a Rune of Vitae on that headpiece, you'd lose the +1 altogether.

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As has been said, many people use the headpiece as a convenient way to switch builds. You can have one headpiece (again, using Ranger as an example) with +4 (total) in marksmanship for, say, a barrage build, and another one with +4 (total) to Wilderness Survival for trapping.
You can also have one headpiece with +4 (headpiece + superior rune) attribute on it and another one with only +2 (headpiece + minor rune) to switch to if you have a DP and want to boost your health.

There are two main reasons why people use the headpiece to do this. One is the fact that you can get headpieces with different +1 attributes on them or the generic "+1 to item's attribute".
The other is that headpieces are one of the cheapest pieces to buy, and you don't have to display them. Therefore, if you have full set of some expensive armor, you can just buy extra headpieces of the cheapest set going without changing the overall "look" of your character.
One thing that I do is to use completely different headpieces (for example, tinted spectacles and a bandanna) or I dye them different colours so that I can easily see which configuration I have at the moment.