armor upgrades: +energy or +health?

I have a level 10 Ele/Me and just bought a full set of "elementalist armor" in Ascalon City (I'm new to the game, this is my first character and I went post-searing a day ago).

I'm trying to figure out what upgrades I want to add to the armor (insignia and runes).

I grabbed the "+1 magic" elementalist rune and added it to my 3rd eye.

I think what makes the most sense at this point in the game is for me to use a combination of Rune of Attunement, Minor rune of Vitae, Radiant insignia and survivor insignia in the other armor pieces.

I'm just trying to understand whether I should favor +energy or +health (or be balanced). I'm sure the answer is "it depends", so I guess what I'm asking is help me understand what factors might impact my decision and what the downsides might be.

At his point I mostly rely on Aura of Restoration for my healing needs, which means that if I run out of energy, not only do I have lower damage, but I also stop healing I also use Ether Fear as a backup although I'm considering removing it from my build.
I do have Energy Tap to help a bit with energy, but it's not a whole lot, so overall I think I would tend to either favor energy or go "balanced": on each piece of armor, add one +health and one +energy (I do own two each of vitae and attunement, so I would add whatever insignia adds the other attribute)

Does this make sense or do I have it all worng?

Okay, well, personally I don't think it's worth spending the money on runes until you have a set of max armor, since armor is something you want to fully upgrade as soon as possible anyway.

As for what combo would work...someone more familiar with casters than I would be able to better handle that, since I've only just started my first caster character yesterday (a Me/E, as it so happens :P )

With the exception of certain farming builds, +health > +energy on all pieces of armor.

As for maintaining energy, try finding the corresponding Attunement skill to whatever build you're using; for example if you use a lot of Fire Magic, get [[Fire Attunement] on that bar as fast as possible.

Edit: just remembered the only attunement you can get relatively early is Earth; um...yeah.

+energy only if you think you are going to need it, but seeing as you're an Elementalist, you should have enough from Energy Storage so go +health.

You should rely on your team's dedicated healers (monks, in most cases) for healing, unless you're doing solo farming/exp'ing (you alone, nobody else, no henchies)

And as an elementalist you don't really need Radiant insignia as you can just put a few points in Energy Storage and have much more than any other profession would. Your maximum energy pool is much less important than energy management skills which allow you to use less or regain energy faster over time, for example Attunements or Glyph of Lesser Energy or many skills from Inspiration attribute.

As for armor upgrades, you should probably go for health upgrades mostly, this may even allow you to comfortably use one Superior Rune +3 attribute, but you don't need that untill higher levels.

I'd advise neither of those (Survivor or Radiant). As mentioned already, Elementalist has a primary attribute (Energy Storage) to handle raising your energy, and a full set of Radiant armor only adds 8 points. 3 attribute points in Energy Storage gives you 9 points. Extra health is nice, but I rarely find a need for it on most casters. Armor is a better option then health. Increasing the armor means yuo take less damage from each hit. Since an Elementalist should be using an Attunement all the time, Blessed insignias give you +10 armor. This is for general use, if you were going to run a particular farming build, you may want another insignia though. For example, the Geomancer Insignias work well with several farming builds using Earth Magic.

seconded.

along your travels, you should find a decent amount of runes/insignias. just use these and whatever else you can find.

With my ele i max out energy storage to 12 and add a +energy storage and put a major rune of whatever attruibute. Dont use major runes though, they take away hp and i personally dont think its good for a beginner. But you dont need any other energy insigs with the ele "energy storage". I would personally buy survivor insigs to use, and a 50+ hp on hands(or whatever you can afford atm). A 1+magic attribute on headpiece.


*you can always use a perfect salvage kit to take off the insigs and runes off when you get max armor

This is exactly what I was looking for,I suspected that there are no "right" answer, but I'm getting a lot from this thread, including that I should save my money

"how long" does it take to get your Attunement skill? I've been assuming that it'll be a while, being only lvl10 and just started post-searing, so I have been assuming I need this "temporary" boost until I can get better skills and better armor, etc...

some upgrades say "stacking", other "non-stacking" but some don't say either. do those stack? I assumed Runes of Vitae would stack for example

I do get the point that I am probably too worried about Energy, being an Ele, and so far I think it fits my gameplay experience. I do need to look at what my Energy storage value is in-game, maybe I have not been aggressive enough in bumping it up. I didn't mention it but I of course use Glyph of Lesser energy religiously. I also hear some of the Mes skills will help in getting more energy (Energy Tap already does until I get better)

I forgot to mention that I have been playing solo a lot, which may explain my health concerns, although it's not necessarily that I wanted to. it seemed I haven't figured out what the right way is to get parties, and even though I know about it, I completely forgot that I could/should hire henchmen. So I have been running without healing support, which may have tainted my strategy. Nice to see that the game is survivable solo though.

I might look into that Blessed insignia, since I use Aura of Restoration all the time in combat, the +10 armor would be more or less permanent.

Fire Attunement is early midgame, and it's not even in a must-go outpost. You have to pick up the skill quest from Fisherman's Haven. EDIT: OK, I stand corrected. It's 'on the way', yes, but it's also possible for people to miss it if they're concentrating on getting to the next mission outpost. Should've clarified that. Apologies.

Runes of Vitae stack. Non-stacking - such as Superior Fire Magic - means that it'll simply take the highest value. If you have a +3 to Fire Magic rune on you, it won't add the value with the Major (+2) Fire Magic rune. You can't buy 3 Minor Fire Magic runes to get the +3 to attributes, it'll only count one of them. (It will, however, stack with the +1 Fire Magic on your headpiece, which, if you look, is labelled 'stacking'.) Vitae, Attunement, etc. stack.

Like others have said, don't buy runes and apply them until you have your max armour, and you're probably going to use a superior (insert element here) rune, so it would be a good idea to get a vigor rune to offset the health loss, or you'll be pretty vulnerable.

actually going to Fisherman's Haven isn't out of the way if you're going to the desert to Ascend.

You will find VERY soon that going solo is a quick way to die. Without hench (or heroes) to heal you and help you fight, the monsters will quickly over power you. In fact, they will usually kill you before you can kill a single one of them. The point where it will become impossible to continue solo varies by how good you are, but I'd guess it ti be by the time you reach Fort Ranik, the second mission, and that is if you could reach there.

Ever armor that drops from a monster that is blue, purple, or gold will have a rune and/or insignia on it. As noted, wasting money on runes+insignias will slow you down on acquiring max armor. Use the runes/insignias you find from drops.

To find out all you want to know about getting the various Attunement spells, consult either wiki. There are 5 attunement spells total, Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Elemental. Elemental is an elite, so you won't get that for a long time, but the others are available from quests.

Normally I don't upgrade my armor until I get the best kind. I say just play around a little until you decide what is more important to you. Do you die a lot? Go for armor or health. Do you run out of energy often? Radiant.

If I had to give you an answer now as to what I think will help you more, I'd say just go for health or armor.

Being an Elementalist, energy should not really be a problem for you. Instead, invest into health points as your AL is the attraction for hard hitters.

On the other side, if you can afford it, you can add a few runes etc on your ascalon armor.
My reasoning is, it will help you a bit in the early stages of the game, and when you get better armor, salvage them off and recycle them. Ascalon armor is cheap, so you dont loose much if it breaks when you salvage off the runes.