Haven't played in over a year and starting fresh with a RK. Only at level 20 and read the stickies but still have questions. From a purely soloing/questing perspective:
1) Best virtues?
2) Best trait setup?
3) Stats to concentrate on?
4) Basic rotation?
5) Does your Runestone make a difference in dps?
This is not gospell, its only my opinion. For virtues I favor armor and phis mit at lowish levels and mix in tact mit as you level up. I feel that stats are easy enough to get on armor and jewlery. On the subject of class traits I was running around with 2 yellow and 2 blue. I decided to try 4 yellow and the difference is amazing. I'm gonna have to retrait to group heal I just accept that.
This is not gospell, its only my opinion. For virtues I favor armor and phis mit at lowish levels and mix in tact mit as you level up. I feel that stats are easy enough to get on armor and jewlery. On the subject of class traits I was running around with 2 yellow and 2 blue. I decided to try 4 yellow and the difference is amazing. I'm gonna have to retrait to group heal I just accept that.
Dont believe theres any best, as its personal opinion, but i run: Valour Zeal wisdom loyalty and justice.
2) Best trait setup?
Same as above, but i prefer to run 7 lighting or 7 heals, the 3% per trait is just too good to miss, and especially on heals, you kinda CANT run without all the traits.
3) Stats to concentrate on?
Will, vitality and fate.
4) Basic rotation?
Land mobs:
Chilling retoric for charged, 2 Cas, Essence of storm and shocking words, if its not dead yet, spam Ca until its dead....Then one shot the another mob with EC
Haven't played in over a year and starting fresh with a RK. Only at level 20 and read the stickies but still have questions. From a purely soloing/questing perspective:
1) Best virtues?
2) Best trait setup?
3) Stats to concentrate on?
4) Basic rotation?
5) Does your Runestone make a difference in dps?
Thanks.
1) In general, ignore the raw stat boosts. Go for Resistance, Physical Mitigation, and Tactical Mitigation. Use your virtues to make yourself more resilient. I haven't capped my traits yet, but I've had a lot of success with: Idealism, Innocence, Charity, Compassion, and Empathy.
2) Depends on what you're doing, but for pure solo, I trait 5 yellow 2 blue.
Harsh Debate,
Thunderous Words,
Closing Remarks,
Master of Tragedy (or Winterstorm if you like your Ice skills I guess, but I don't really recommend traiting both)
Tale of the Storm (use Confounding Principles instead if you're worried about how you'll handle adds.
Rune of Endurance and Linnod of Peace are two Blue traits that can help you sustain longer fights. I trait RoE for the extra Healing stone HP - mobs can hit it for longer without it breaking, making for good crowd control.
Solo Legendary traits, I use Martial Training, You Shall Fall to our Wrath, and Perfect Imagery.
When I'm healing, it really depends on the group, what instance we're running, etc. I typically go for 5B2R, but lately I've been doing more 6B with Overflowing Confidence or Frost-Burn as the only red. I just did an Isen 3-man (T1 Pits, fire side, with two hunters, no real tank) traited 6B with Frost-burn. No one died, not even me, which surprised the hell out of me ^_^
3) For solo, you want Vitality, Vitality, and Vitality. Also Will & Fate. Raw Morale helps too. When you get up to lv75, you will agonize over how low you're willing to let your Morale Max go. I've seen a lot of RKs running around with about 5k morale... mine's about 4k, and that's with 5x Draigoch pieces. It's worth reminding you that we are the most fragile class, by design. Anything you can do to boost your resilience will help you solo.
4) Depends on what I'm fighting. For easy stuff, I'll hit them with Fall to X (whatever affinity I have up, usually lightning, but it doesn't really matter). Writ of Fire or Fiery Ridicule (either or to start) SS, CA, CA, Essence of Storm, Shocking words, Sustaining Bolt. etc... You'll mostly be spamming lightning skills while solo. Fire skills have inductions, so they tend to be used more as opening skills or after stunning a mob solo. For harder things, you'll want to stack more fire DoTs, kite, buy time to heal yourself with a well timed Shocking Touch or Vivid Imagery, whatever it takes.
I don't consider this a skill "rotation." RK is about getting your attunement ramped up as quickly as possible. If you're in a hurry, you can always use an Enamel to get at your harder-hitting skills quicker.
5) The affinity mechanic has been changed, so your Rune Stones have less impact on your overall DPS than before. When I leveled through, I typically only used lightning stones because under the old system, it affected what skills you had available (Armor of Storm is much better emergency crowd control than either Armor of Frost or Flame). Now, your options are more open as far as what stones you'd rather use.
I would also suggest, if you don't already have a Scholar alt, that the Scholar profession complements an RK nicely, as does Jeweler or Tailor. Woodworkers also make a couple RK consumable items, but they're not nearly as useful as a Scholar's Battle & Warding Lore and RK Enamels. Jewelers, in addition to Hope tokens, make rune stones while Tailors make our rune sacks (and armor, of course).
Wow there´s already been quite a lot of information I wouldn´t agree with at all
1) Virtues:
Leveling up, Questing and Soloing:
Zeal, Valour, Compassion and Innocence and Empathy (Armor Value = Common Migitation and every Physical damage you face is Common damage)
Why? Max Morale and Physical Migitation, anything else isn´t needed at all, the stats are just to low to be of any worth, Resistance isn´t needed either, you won´t face tactical attacks to resist and wounds/poisons are better avoided with "Their Weapons shall not harm us"
Raiding and PvP:
Zeal, Valour, Fidelity, Tolerance, Honour
Again Max Morale, but now Tactical Migitation. In raids you´ll only get hit by AoE tactical attacks, which can´t be resisted so don´t bother with Resistance Rating. In PvP only low ranks do physical damage, every dangerous (high-ranked) Creep does tactical damage, again don´t bother with Resistance, Creeps Finesse will reduce it to 0 anyways
2) Traits:
The first 5 should be yellow (Lightning) Traits:
Harsh Debate, Thunderous Words, Tale of the Storm, Master of Tragedy, Closing Remarks
If you don´t have as many of them as you have free trait slots, just use other yellow Traits until you get them all
Once you get your 6th and 7th Trait slots use Linnod of Peace and Writ of Well-being (2 blue/Healing Traits)
Linnod of Peace is just great for surviveability and Writ of Well-being improves your Writ of Health, which you can cast instant on the move with Master of Tragedy buff
2 blues allows you to drop your stone in combat, preferably while your enemy is stunned.
Legendary Traits:
Martial Training and Perfect Imagery are must have..Fall to our Wrath in Instances/Raids, Steady Hands while soloing/PvP,
3) Stats to concentrate on:
Lots of Will and some Vitality, as well as Tactical Offence, Critical Rating and Morale
Dead Mobs can´t hit you, focus on your offence, you´ll get morale and migitations from your virtues
4) Basic Rotation:
Pull with Chilling Rhetoric as soon as you get it, always
Basic Rotation: Scribe´s Spark, CA, CA
Always replace CA with your harder hitting skills, like Essence of Storm or Sustaining Bolt, Scribe´s Spark should be used on cooldown, it hits much harder than CA
Save of Shocking Words for the higher stun chance until you´re at high attunement
Once you have the 3 Traits (Harsh Debate, Thunderous Words, Closing Remarks) use Epic Conclusion only with Harsh Debate and Thunderous Words Buffs up, as then they´ll both increase damage and crit chance by 15%
When you get Master of Tragedy always use the instant Writ of Health on yourself
5) Runestone:
Just look for the stats on it (+ Will, Morale etc.) neither DPS (it´s only your melee auto attack) nor affinity (changes with used skills) are relevant
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Re: New Runekeeper - help
Some of my own tips and tricks at level 20:
1- Use Rune of Restoration before every single fight
2- Use Fall to X before every single fight
3- Moving while using lightning skills, generally called "kiting", will increase your survivability greatly
4- If you get an add (a 2nd monster shows up to the party), tab to it, use Shocking Touch, tab back to main target and keep kiting
5- If things get hairy (like a 3rd monster arrives), use Distracting Winds, turn around and run for 8 seconds or so (pop a Prelude as you run), then turn and keep nuking
6- Whenever things get dicey, use Armour of X, it will help a lot at all Affinities
7- At level 20, your gear and traits choices are a lot less important then learning to master your skills. I like focusing on Vitality honestly, and slot any lightning traits the strike your fancy. Fire is a more advanced traitline to solo with.
"There will be prizes and gambling as usual to celebrate Columbus’s triumphant rise from the dead to smite his enemies without mercy. Don’t count yourself amongst them! We’ll be discussing and praising all of Columbus’s many inventions such as the lightbulb, telegraph, and plastic to avoid incurring his wrath."
Wow you actually got our Dev to come and give you some tips lol.
Anyway
1) Best virtues? Once you get higher level I would focus on virtues that focus on vit/morale/and mits for added survivability. If you lacking will you can also throw that in.
2) Best trait setup? When you get higher for solo I would run 5yellow and 2blue so you can always drop your rock and you get best out of lightning. You could also do 5yellow and 2red and do some fire spells in for added DPS or even just go 7yellow.
3) Stats to concentrate on? Will, crit rating, and vit are the stats to focus on. On items crit rating is better than just plain fate since fate was broken. The more will you get the harder you hit and the more vit you have the longer it takes to take you down.
4) Basic rotation? Rotation will depend on how you trait really. All I can really give you is read the trait descriptions and how they alter your skills and then work out a rotation that fits your traits.
5) Does your Runestone make a difference in dps? All runestone matters for is stats and once you get legendary weapon legacies. Since affinity was moved to be set by last skill used just look for the best stats you can for runestone.
Request: Could you get the dev for each class to post/write up a short intro to early play? For those new to a class, this is about as useful as it gets.
Being the class dev, your advice carries much weight.
Zombies post is of course huge. My take (ive leveled to 44 sence the last update) if its gonna be tough cast your rock then pull. Cast writ of health soon (again tough pull). Rk is much more playable now but you gotta cast the right spell at the right time. And that is what it should be. It should be possible to level and quest and group for that matter, but it just might take skill and an understanding of the situation your in at the moment.
Thanks again for the tips. Level 31 now and having no problems soloing 2 same-level signatures or 1 same-level elite. Once i started kiting properly with Chilling Rhetoric and Distracting Winds, it seems you can solo just about anything that won't 1 shot you. My biggest issue is running out of power too quickly.
Thanks again for the tips. Level 31 now and having no problems soloing 2 same-level signatures or 1 same-level elite. Once i started kiting properly with Chilling Rhetoric and Distracting Winds, it seems you can solo just about anything that won't 1 shot you. My biggest issue is running out of power too quickly.
For going lightning you will want to use the charged buff for free sustaining bolt cast and use the power restore every time it's off cd(blanking on the name for some reason and it's making me mad lol).
zombies post is spot on, additionally, if you know you're gonna pull more than say 2, then use chilling rhetoric on one, tab to whatever is ranged and dps it down, the third should be fighting your stone, try to kite away from your stone once the add is on it, so that once your stone dies the add has to run further to get to you, kill the chilling rhetoric target, then switch to the target on your stone.
zombie what are your tips for dealing with wargs in the moors? I got 4 Audacity atm (working on my chestpiece) I love playing my rk out there again, but the wargs do super dps to me, anything else i can handle but wargs make me wanna hide on ec rock and not come down lol.
Last edited by loki84; Mar 20 2012 at 03:41 AM.
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I would just like to say that this has been the best thread I have read in my short life as an RK, only level 23. I wish there were more threads like this that provide good answers to a person new to a class. So many of the threads deal with things I won't see for a while.
Edit: By the way, the 2007 start date was only for a short time and haven't played again until about a month ago. Otherwise it looks like I have years of experience and haven't learned a thing.
...5- If things get hairy (like a 3rd monster arrives), use Distracting Winds....
Yeah... except you don't get Distracting Winds until level 22.
Last edited by PerfectApproach; Mar 20 2012 at 09:34 AM.
While you burn at the stake, I dance with the flames. I take what you love and leave you in tears. I am relentless, unpredictable, and waiting for your last breath.
I would just like to say that this has been the best thread I have read in my short life as an RK, only level 23. I wish there were more threads like this that provide good answers to a person new to a class. So many of the threads deal with things I won't see for a while.
Edit: By the way, the 2007 start date was only for a short time and haven't played again until about a month ago. Otherwise it looks like I have years of experience and haven't learned a thing.
After reading this thread and a few others and thinking about what was said I took my little 23 RK to Naerost in the Lone Lands. Pretty much every fight was against at least 2 level 25 half orcs. It was a cake walk. Think I never dropped below 50% health. 2 were easy, 3 not a huge problem. I know this does not compare with soloing a raid boss but compared to what I had been doing it was fantastic. Thanks for all the good advice.
seem to have covered it for lvl20 so i think ill go ahead and throw some stuff in for later
cast writ of health on yourself - when traited it tiers down so you can stack it up to 3 and you have 40 seconds to hit it once and make it t3 again
sometime in your 50's you will get the master of tragedy trait. this makes it easier to stack writ of health up since you can now cast it instantly after 5 lightning skills (dont have to stop moving)
I would just like to say that this has been the best thread I have read in my short life as an RK, only level 23. I wish there were more threads like this that provide good answers to a person new to a class. So many of the threads deal with things I won't see for a while.
Over the last several days I went through and cleaned up the sticky at the top of the forum with more relevant and up to date information. Hopefully, that will help. If there are any threads you think might be useful in that post, shoot me a PM.
1- Use Rune of Restoration before every single fight
2- Use Fall to X before every single fight
3- Moving while using lightning skills, generally called "kiting", will increase your survivability greatly
4- If you get an add (a 2nd monster shows up to the party), tab to it, use Shocking Touch, tab back to main target and keep kiting
5- If things get hairy (like a 3rd monster arrives), use Distracting Winds, turn around and run for 8 seconds or so (pop a Prelude as you run), then turn and keep nuking
6- Whenever things get dicey, use Armour of X, it will help a lot at all Affinities
7- At level 20, your gear and traits choices are a lot less important then learning to master your skills. I like focusing on Vitality honestly, and slot any lightning traits the strike your fancy. Fire is a more advanced traitline to solo with.