Runes for new ascended armor

[aumboy.1932]

after 5 years I'm finally getting around to crafting ascended armor for my many toons. I’ve made a Zoija light set, (most of) the medium set and will do heavy soon. My question is the best rune that works for zerker classes? (that means like a fresh air ele, a Greatsword Necro, phantasm-based Mesmer, a staff Thief, Longbow/greatswd ranger, etc etc)

I like varied playstyles and play different classes every day. Ascended armor is a serious time and gold commitment and I don’t want to change runes often. So, the point is I want flexibility.

Superior rune of scholar at first seems the best choice but the rune of Strength with its emphasis on might seems equally viable and be more condi-friendly

FYI I am 50% open world play with some dungeons, fractals and WVW spread over the other 50%.

thanks to all!

[Sephylon.4938]

Scholar is recomended in any instanced pve content and can work in openworld. Strength runes also work assuming your group has no might stacker. Wvw is a whole different ball park and each build has different rune uses there. You can use scholar if you want to go full glass cannon. Otherwise rune of the traveler, altruism, and/or the durability. You can also try melandru runes for -25% condi duration in wvw.

[Ojimaru.8970]

@aumboy.1932 said:Ascended armor is a serious time and gold commitment and I don’t want to change runes often. So, the point is I want flexibility.

This... makes no sense at all. The cost of changing runes has absolutely nothing to do with however much you spent making your armor; the cost of changing runes are the cost of runes, period.

As for recommendations, Runes of the Scholar is only worthwhile in situations that you can ensure your health stays over 90%. This arguably includes open world encounters with one or two easy enemies, or if you have a good dedicated healer for your grouped instanced content (dungeons, Fractals, and Raids). Runes of the Spellbreaker is a solid secondary option for a majority of PVE content, if you intend to focus more on DPS.

WvW, however, is a different beast. Running complete glass in WvW is not something you'll see recommended outside of a handful of gimmicky builds, and you're even more unlikely to benefit from the Scholar 6-piece set bonus, for example.

If you want the most flexibility from your runes, Runes of the Traveler would be the most well-rounded by far.

[aumboy.1932]

@Ojimaru.8970 said:

This... makes no sense at all. The cost of changing runes has absolutely nothing to do with however much you spent making your armor; the cost of changing runes are the cost of runes, period.WvW, however, is a different beast. Running complete glass in WvW is not something you'll see recommended outside of a handful of gimmicky builds, and you're even more unlikely to benefit from the Scholar 6-piece set bonus, for example.If you want the most flexibility from your runes, Runes of the Traveler would be the most well-rounded by far.

Thanks for the thought. I keep other armor sets around for WvW if I need durability. As for the relative sense of 'cost' of changing not being a factor, I do change around a lot so changing superior runes on a weekly basis just seems wasteful to me.

Travelers hadn't occurred to me. Thanks, I'll play with that concept for a bit.

[altermaven.7385]

Will also clarify. The moment you put a rune in does not mean the rune can't be replaced. You can put a different rune in a piece of armor that already has a rune in it, as long as it's not the same rune, but be warned that the old rune will be unrecoverable as it will be destroyed. The game will politely warn you about this.