General rune usage.

I haven't been playing Guild Wars for a few years and have decided to come back in preparation for Guild Wars 2 HoM stuff. I've been looking around and can't seem to find a guide that explains generally what runes to use when. I understand what runes are and how they work however I'm having difficulty figuring out what runes to use in general for my characters. I've read a lot about people saying that you should use runes that give plus health, but no one says how many or what balance to look for (this is for mana heavy professions like Monk or Necromancer).

TL;DR
What balance of runes should I use in a generalized setting for my Monk (as a general healer) and my Necromancer. I've already got the minor runes that are needed for their attributes but after that is when I get lost, what mana/health balance am I looking for, should I use superior or higher attribute runes?

If there's a link to a guide that explains this please do link it, I've been searching for a couple days now and can't find the answers I'm looking for.

Generally speaking you'll want a minor rune for each attribute you use. Extra slots will be a vigor rune and then vitae (these don't make a significant difference though). Don't use higher potency runes (except vigor which has no health penalty) unless there is a significant breakpoint in one of your skills at the really high ranks.

As far as insignia go (each piece can have one rune and one insignia) you'll want +armor.

For specific advice, check the stickies in the profession subforums or on guildwiki or PvX (PvX often has questionable/bad advice though so rely on other sources if you can).

with my own, i usually follow this template for most heroes unless theres a specific build i want to use on them (like sabway).

Head: Superior matching your weapon req
Chest: Major Vigor
Hands: Vitae
Legs: a Minor for whatever your primary attribute is (like for warrior its Strength)
Feet: Vitae

as for insignias, you want the insignia that will give you the most coverage. For example, if Im using a Dervish, well dervishes are usually always enchanted in some form or another, so you use an insignia that will give you +x armor (while enchanted).

If nothing seems to really work, then just throw health and energy into the empty slots until you get a plan figgered out.

good luck.

In general, and after much experimenting with various setups, I've settled on this as a generalized, multi-purpose setup:

Head: Survivor / Major or Minor of most significant attribute (depends upon build).
Chest: Radiant / Minor of needed attribute (usually the class primary, such as Divine Favor or Soul Reaping)
Hands: Survivor / 3rd attribute (if needed/wanted) or Vitae/Attunement
Legs: Radiant / Vitae/Attunement
Feet: Survivor / Vigor (at least Major)

Note though, this is just a generalized setup that I use on most characters and Heroes, but there are variations for particular builds - particularly for farming. For example, a Minion Master Hero will use a Survivor on the legs and a Bloodstained on the feet.

Generally for a necro I would go survivor just because radiant would be redundant with soul reaping, i usually have whatever my main stat is with a superior rune and then just rune them out as you see fit. with my monk i have a fair balance of radiant and survivor stuff depending on how much energy i need and how much energy my weapon set would supply.

Note though, that Radiant isn't entirely redundant with Soul Reaping. Radiants, and other energy related items such as staffs and offhands, affect the total size of your energy pool - SR affects the refilling of the pool. You want your total energy pool to be large enough to handle the spells you use before SR kicks in, for example.

And you want your total energy pool to be large enough that energy you collect with soul reaping isn't wasted. See it like a bucket you are filling with a large barrel: if you only have a small cup for your energy pool and are refilling it using a large barrel pouring it over it, almost all of its original contents is spilled.

If you're just starting back up with little cash don't bother with any of it it doesn't really matter much in normal mode - (just finished Factions on a second account with most of my heroes having 2 major runes (cheap) and no insignias and such).

Once you start doing hard mode and end game stuff the best thing is to go with minor runes for all to get more health.

My monk: Headpiece (+1 attribute) + minor attribute rune. One headpiece for healing, another for protection prayers. Smiting prayers headpiece has a superior rune just to increase the damage. I mostly use my healing headpiece since I'm running a WoH hybrid build.

Armor set #1 - full Survivor insignias
Armor set #2 - full Radiant insignias

Runes: Chest - Superior Vigor, Hands - Minor Divine Favor, Legs - Minor Protection Prayers, Feet - Rune of Vitae.


My necro: superior curses headpiece and superior death magic headpiece. Armor set #1 - full Survivor insignias, Armor set #2 - minion master's insignias and a bloodstained insignia on the boots. Runes: Sup.Vigor, minor SR, 3x Attunement.