Rune
From Guild Wars Wiki
A rune is a type of upgrade component for armor and bags. Unless otherwise specified, all instances of the word "rune" in this article refer specifically to armor runes. The only rune applicable to bags is a Rune of Holding.
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[edit] Armor runes
Runes (with one exception) are suffix upgrade components which can be used to upgrade armor, to provide a passive benefit to the character wearing the armor. Some of the more powerful runes also possess a downside - they reduce a character's maximum health.
Runes come in two broad varieties:
- Profession-specific
- Profession-independent
[edit] Profession-specific runes
Profession-specific runes, when inserted into an armor piece, enhances the attribute level of a character wearing that piece of armor. Warriors get an additional type of rune, a Rune of Absorption, that does not enhance an attribute; it instead provides damage reduction. See the long table on the right for images of profession-specific runes.
Another property of such runes is that they can only be applied to armor pieces of that profession. In other words, a character can only use runes of their primary profession, since they can only wear the armor of their primary profession. Runes for one profession cannot be applied on another profession's armor piece.
[edit] Profession-independent runes
There are also runes that can be used by any profession. Originally, this was limited to Runes of Vigor, which are mainly used to mitigate the defects of Major and Superior runes, but the release of Guild Wars Nightfall introduced six more profession-independent runes. The following table provides a summary:
[edit] List of runes
| Name | Rarity | Stats |
|---|---|---|
| Profession-specific runes | ||
| <Profession> Rune of Minor <Attribute> | Minor / Blue | <Attribute> +1 (Non-stacking) |
| <Profession> Rune of Major <Attribute> | Major / Purple | <Attribute> +2 (Non-stacking) Health -35 |
| <Profession> Rune of Superior <Attribute> | Superior / Gold | <Attribute> +3 (Non-stacking) Health -75 |
| Warrior Rune of Minor Absorption | Minor / Blue | Reduces physical damage by 1 (Non-stacking) |
| Warrior Rune of Major Absorption | Major / Purple | Reduces physical damage by 2 (Non-stacking) |
| Warrior Rune of Superior Absorption | Superior / Gold | Reduces physical damage by 3 (Non-stacking) |
| Profession-independent runes | ||
| Rune of Minor Vigor | Minor / Blue | Health +30 (Non-stacking) |
| Rune of Major Vigor | Major / Purple | Health +41 (Non-stacking) |
| Rune of Superior Vigor | Superior / Gold | Health +50 (Non-stacking) |
| Rune of Attunement | Minor / Blue | Energy +2 |
| Rune of Vitae | Minor / Blue | Health +10 |
| Rune of Clarity | Major / Purple | Reduces Blind duration on you by 20% (Non-stacking) Reduces Weakness duration on you by 20% (Non-stacking) |
| Rune of Purity | Major / Purple | Reduces Disease duration on you by 20% (Non-stacking) Reduces Poison duration on you by 20% (Non-stacking) |
| Rune of Recovery | Major / Purple | Reduces Dazed duration on you by 20% (Non-stacking) Reduces Deep Wound duration on you by 20% (Non-stacking) |
| Rune of Restoration | Major / Purple | Reduces Bleeding duration on you by 20% (Non-stacking) Reduces Crippled duration on you by 20% (Non-stacking) |
The positive effects of such runes do not stack with the effects of runes of the same attribute - the larger effect takes precedence. The negative effects of equipping several runes of the same attribute do stack. This reduction to player health from wearing redundant runes in this way, is the basis of the 55 monk series of builds. An example of how runes stack is that having two Superior Vigor runes on two different pieces of armour will only give a +50 Health bonus, not a +100 Health bonus.
[edit] Runes of Holding
A Rune of Holding upgrades the carrying capacity of a bag from 5 slots to 10 slots. Unlike armor runes, a Rune of Holding does not add a suffix to the name of the item it upgrades. Also, unlike armor runes, it can only be purchased from merchants or acquired from collectors. Runes of Holding will only work on bags, not belt pouches.
[edit] Notes
- Runes of Vitae and Attunement are single-potency runes; they use the Minor rune icon and are equivalent to Minor runes for acquisition purposes. Unlike other runes, their effects stack.
- All condition-reducing runes stack with other condition-reducing effects (such as insignia and certain skills). The reductions are each applied separately and each rounded separately.
- For example, if a character has two 20% reduction modifiers against blindness and an 8-second long blindness is inflicted, each modifier reduces the duration by 2 seconds (1.6 rounded up to 2), thus reducing the total duration to 4 seconds. If the blind was only 7 seconds long, each modifier would reduce it by 1 second (1.4 seconds rounded down to 1) for a total reduction of 2 seconds (resulting in a 5-second blindness).
- The minimum price of any rune and insignia sold to a trader is 25
, but like all other weapon and armor upgrades, they can be identified to increase their value. Although the identified values vary a lot, minor runes usually increase prices up to 26..30, major up to 40..50 and superior up to 50..100.
- There are some farming builds that require low health, like the 55 builds. Superior attribute runes are used to decrease the character's health to use such builds effectively.
