Runes 101

How does runes work on armor?

From what I understood -

If you use two runes of same type but of different levels (i.e. minor fire magic rune and major fire magic rune), those do not stack. Major will cancel out minor.

This applies to vigor as well?

Will runes for a class which I have as my secondary will benefit me? I've heard that only runes for my primary class will benefit me.

Can runes be added to shields or foci?

Anything else I should knwo?

Thanks!

1) Yes, for the most part. I think only absorption allows stacking but I'm iffy in that department because I don't have any rune experience as a warrior yet.

2) Yes.

3) No. You can't even equip them so don't sweat the secondaries.

4) No. Armor only.

5) Nope, you got the basics covered.

1) Absorption is the same as any other rune in that it does not stack. FYI Absorption is also global, you only need one.

1. I believe Asrial is confusing the fact that Absorbtion runes stack with knights/ascalon armor . the runes themselves don't stack with each other, but they do stack with knights/ascalon damage absorbtion.

Thanks, folks

Update:::

Just curious.. b/c I'm not at my console (working.. actually).. but can't you stack runes?

IE: I have Blood on my scar and my tunic. Kinda have a bet with a friend, but I'm not home to prove it.

N E Rate...
By having it on 2 armor items, doesn't it raise my blood by +2?

Also, are there penalties for doing this?


(I'm only asking this b/c I noticed that this was posted a while ago before more recent patches)

The only way they stack is if inherent to the armor (like the scar or the ranger's mask)....otherwise, runes don't/can't stack.

It still hasn't changed. Runes of the same type don't stack in their benefits; still, the -health penalties do stack.

Huh....
I'll have to check when I get home b/c I"m 99.999% sure having a Blood Rune on my Tunic and Scar gave me a +2. Might've been a glitch.

Thanks though.

You are correct, and that is what FalconDance was trying to say.

A Hat of any kind (Scar, Mask, Helmet, Eye, Tatto) that gives a +1 to an attribute is NOT a rune. It is a Hat/Mask.

You can then apply a rune of any kind to that Hat/Mask OR to ANY OTHER piece of armor, and they WILL stack.

(ie., A scar of +1 Curses, plus a Major Rune of Curses on the scar, will give you a total of +3 to curses. A monk scalp tatoo of +1 Healing Prayers, plus a Superior Rune of Healing Prayers on your leggings, will give you a total of +4 to Healing Prayers.)

Xenon, check your head gear..might have one that gives +1 to Blood magic.

Nope... it's the starting one (I know b/c I've been saving up to either buy the materials or just afford the upgrade).

Since I put a Rune on my starting scar, it's now Blood +1.
But the key is that I put the rune on there. It wasn't something I just started the game with.

As for my tunic, that I put the +1 rune on (myself). So.. it's probably a glitch since none of y'all have been able to do it.

LIke I said.. I'll verify when I get home.

Mainly, I'm just glad I had the $ to do all this fooling around.
Noobs & Black Dye are soo great. I bought Black Dye from a noob for $200, then sold it for $6,000 and used the money to upgrade to the best equipment in Ascalon.

oh yeah, you can PUT it on the armour. But if you take both pieces of armour off, your total in blood magic should only go down by 1.

Theres nothing to stop you putting 5 Superior Blood Magic runes on your armour, but you'll only ever get the base +3 (plus any inherent effect that your scar may have at a later date).

...???? Huh?

Are you saying that it is possible that I have a +2 to Blood Magic b/c I used the Blood Rune on both Tunic and Scar?
Is this not a glitch? Or am I misreading?

Did you put in 2 minor runes or a minor and a major? Maybe you put a minor blood in your scar and a major blood rune in yor tunic? This would explain why you get +2 blood since major runes are +2 to an attribute... and a major would override a minor's effect..

What Pevil Lihatuh is saying is you could put 5 superior Runes of Blood in your armor pieces but you would only get +3 Blood since the positive effect's of runes don't stack. However the negative effects do - thus the -75 health from those 5 runes would stack, giving you -375 health.

lol quite so Kamatsu.

Basically, from what I understand of your armour xenoranger, it looks like this:
Scar: nothing on the scar, but a +1 BM rune
Gloves/Legs/Boots: just the normal stuff
Body: +1 BM rune

So if you yourself manually add that up, it gives you +2 Blood magic.

However if you look at your attributes, if you take one of those pieces of equipment off, the blood magic will not go down at all. If you take both off, it will go down by 1 (or 2 if as Kamatsu suggests, you have a minor and a major in there). If you DO happen to get a +2 bonus from the runes, you're one lucky person with a nice glitch

Before when I didn't realise runes didn't stack I would put 4-5 minors of the same rune across my armor.

If you put 4 minor healing runes, it will actually increase your healing prayers by +2 instead of +1.

can someone confirm this?
does this work in pvp?

considering runes ar FREE in pvp, why not try it yourself, an then come back and tell us. tyty

OK... I tried it again, but I can't reproduce it.
I had applied 1 minor blood rune to my scar and 1 minor blood rune to my tunic. It sucks b/c I know it worked. Must've just been a glitch in the game for that play session. Still, having a +2 while just using a minor rune was pretty sweet.

1 more thing.
I know you can only apply runes that match your character's primary class. But can you have another character apply runes to your armor?

IE: If I had a mesmer friend I trusted, could I loan him my armor and have him apply a Domination Rune to it?

Or will the runes only work for the same class armor as the base for the rune (IE: Necromancer stat boost can only be used by a necromancer on necromancer armor, & Mesmer stat boosts can only be used by a Mesmer on Mesmer armor)