A Quick Guide to Runes

1) What are runes?
Runes are components you can use on your armor to raise the attribute levels of your primary profession.

2) Who can use which runes?
You may only use runes of attributes in your primary profession. For example, Elementalists can put runes of Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Energy Storage in their armor. There are also Vigor runes available to any class, which raise your health. Also, Warriors have Absorption runes which are specific only to them. Fury runes were in beta only and no longer exist.

3) What are the levels of runes?
There are three levels, Minor, Major, and Superior. The effects are as follows:

For Attribute Runes:
Minor = +1 to attribute, no health loss
Major = +2 to attribute, -50 health
Superior = +3 to attribute, -75 health

For Vigor runes:
Minor = +30 health
Major = +41 health
Superior = +50 health

For Absorption:
Minor = -1 damage
Major = -2 damage
Superior = -3 damage

4) How do runes stack?
They do not. If you use 2 of the same type of rune, you WILL suffer from both health penalties, however, you will only recieve the larger of the two benefits. So, you only need one absorption (if you're a warrior), and one vigor. Also, the absorption runes are global, meaning that having absorption runes on every piece of armor has the same effect as only having one. Also, the effect of absorption runes stacks with the (also global) effect of Knights/Ascalon armor, for a maximum total possible damage reduction of -10 (-3 from runes, -5 from a shield, and -2 from Knights/Ascalon.)

*** You can only have one rune in each piece of armor. Putting a rune into a piece of armor that already has one will cancel out the old rune. ***

Also, in regards to the +1 from headpieces, yes, those actually DO stack with rune bonuses. For example, on an earth elementalist, he would use the earth eye which gives +1 to earth magic. If he then put a Superior Earth magic rune in any piece of armor, he would have a total of +4 earth magic, allowing for a possible total of 16.

5) Is it worth the sacrifice to use Superiors and/or Majors?
Generally, no one will use Major runes, because if having -50 for +2 is worth it, then -75 for +3 is not much of a difference.
Most warriors will only use minors, and sometimes a Superior of either their weapon mastery attribute, or Tactics, depending on if they are tanking or fighting.
Defensive monks use a Superior of either Healing or Protection, depending on what their focus is. In addition, they use either a minor divine favor or a superior divine favor. Minor is generally preferred since monk deaths are usually the worst.
Elementalists often use a combination of Superior (element) Magic along with Minor or Superior Energy storage.
Necromancers commonly use a superior of their preferred attribute along with a minor Soul Reaping.
Rangers use a Superior of whatever it is they're doing along with a minor or superior Expertise.
Mesmers use a minor or superior Fast Casting along with a Superior of their preferred attribute.

Some general advice:
Most people will place the superior they would like to change in their headpiece. For example, Warriors often get an Axe Mastery helmet and put Superior Axe Mastery in it. That way they can do the same thing for hammers, swords, and tactics, and be ready for anything. The same applies to all the other classes. This way you can change builds rapidly and easily.

The most important thing to remeber is that there are no rules set in stone as to what runes you should pick. You should try out various setups, and go with what suits YOU best.

superior energy storage? Don't like it. If you die once, you still have the full 75 penalty, but lose 15% of the 9 energy it gives. I prefer minor energy storage therefor.

Monks are probably better off with only minor runes in pvp...
Divine Boon monks in pve might consider Superior Divine Favor...
It just shows how hard it is to give standard advise...

Often only one superior is used, because the healthpenalties can add pretty fast.
Also, I'd like to do another shameless link: sof linky again..sorry
There is some nice info on equipmentstacking and runeplacing there.
Nice read anyway Unie. And nice new avy.


greetings Makk.

Yeah, when I was thinking about this, I decided to go short and sweet, so that new players would make decisions that weren't really terrible, rather than give all 10482849 different possible combinations. I just listed the common setups as a way to say, "Try this, but remember, it is YOUR build. Go with what suits you best." A list of all possible builds with their most efficient rune setups would be WAY too long, and highly debatable. This guide (I'm hoping) doesn't have anything in it that SoF members don't already know. It's called the "Quick" guide for a reason.

Oh, and, Makk, your guide still says "Underworld armor." Wouldn't want to confuse people!

You got a point there Unie. Some points don't belong in a starter guide... You can keep it this way, or add a seperate paragraph for more in-depth material if you feel like fully covering the subject.
As for the article, it was not mine by FrogD's (check the banners under the articles to see the writers). And it was written a LONG time ago, altough still holds much truth. Thanks for the pointer, i'll pm him on it.

~ makk

I disagree...I use sup energy storage plus sup elemental class I am using. Agree that if you die, dp can suck, but usually I just hang back a little more until dp becomes reasonable (or better yet, don't die =) ). If you're an ele and getting hit, you're probably doing something wrong...casters don't really need a lot of hp in PvE (disregard this strategy for PvP ) Of course, I always keep a back up set of armor in minor's just in case, which I highly recommend. i.e. If you're an air nuker and have a sup energy storage in the gloves for example, buy another set of gloves with a minor rune and carry with you in case the dp becomes too much to handle. I use this methodolgoy on all of my characters.

Great article for people new to runes. It's great to also see the hp and absorbtion benefits for the vigor and absorbtion runes

Ok im pretty new to guild wars and have just aquired my first rune, so im now interested on where to put to build up the best i can.

no i think i understand that the table potentially is as such if i add a rune to each potential area:

Head : +4 -75 (with the added bonus or +1 stacking)
Chest : +3 -75
Hands: +3 -75
Legs : +3 -75
Feet : +3 -75
Weapon : +3 -75
Shield : +3 - 75

Now if i added the same rune to each piece i would have a grand total of

+ 13 -525 Thats with the -figures Stacking yet only the Head, 1 piece of armor, The Weapon and the shield stacking.

First question - are my calculations correct?

if not then:

second question - for a ranger specialising in marksmanship looking for advice on which runes can i put where to get the best outta them.

Thanks in advance

If I'm reading your post correctly, then your calculations are incorrect.

1. You cannot add runes to weapons or shields.

2. Benefits from runes of the same type do not stack.

Using the following as an example (with made up values for attribute and health):

Lvl 20 Ranger with 500 health.

Expertise: 10
Wilderness Survival: 10
Marksmanship: 11 (where +1 is from a mask)
Beast Mastery: 0

With 5 Superior Runes of Marksmanship (+3 to attribute, -75 health), one for each piece of armor, you will get:

Expertise: 10
Wilderness Survival: 10
Marksmanship: 14 (where +1 is from a mask, and +3 from a rune)
Beast Mastery: 0

and a lvl 20 Ranger with 125 health.

The health reductions from all the runes are stacked giving -375 to health, however only one rune increases the Marksmanship attribute (the others are ignored as they are all of the same type).

Since having runes of the same type serves no benefit, the 5th piece of armor is left out for the following.

With 4 Superior Runes for each of the attributes, you will get:

Expertise: 13
Wilderness Survival: 13
Marksmanship: 14 (where +1 is from a mask, and +3 from a rune)
Beast Mastery: 3

and a lvl 20 Ranger with 200 health.

The health reductions are still stacked, but as the runes are of different types, the attributes are increased by +3.

The health reduction is too high to use many Superior runes.

(Please correct me if I'm wrong on this. )

Yes, that is correct. A lot of people only feel comfortable with one superior rune on, but I usually use 2. If you have a good defensive skill in your build (which you should pretty much always) you're usually alright with 2. However if you're just learning the game, I'd recommend only 1 and then minors for the rest.

All Monks have a Minor Divine Favor rune, and many Healing/Protection builds have a Superior Divine Favor rune, I think this should be added