Usefullness of Great Runes

[königplatzen]

I finished the game with not using a single rune arc, because it just feels wasted considering how often I died in late game.
I would propose to give Great Runes a tamed down amount of buff even without a rune arc. Otherwise it feels so useless to gather all Great Runes and don't even use them.
Some might say, then just use the rune arcs. But I really don't want to base my playstyle too much on farmable and/or limited resources (btw. I don't do PVP to farm rune arcs)

[LastMedjai]

Originally posted by königplatzen:

I finished the game with not using a single rune arc, because it just feels wasted considering how often I died in late game.
I would propose to give Great Runes a tamed down amount of buff even without a rune arc. Otherwise it feels so useless to gather all Great Runes and don't even use them.
Some might say, then just use the rune arcs. But I really don't want to base my playstyle too much on farmable and/or limited resources (btw. I don't do PVP to farm rune arcs)

the great runes is a mechanic from dark souls trilogy, where you go hollow after death, and you are punished with a lowered maximum HP
in order to get back to your maximum potential (removed hollowed status) you used an item like an ember.

In Elden ring, they completely removed the punishment for death, and instead allowed you to permanently be hollow, and if wanted you can un-hollow yourself with the rune Arc.
Not only that, they also added a choice to which stats do you want to gain, by using the ember (rune arc) depending on which great runes you have gathered.

i think this is a perfect addition to the souls games and nothing should be changed.

[Omastar]

Originally posted by Valor:

Originally posted by königplatzen:

I finished the game with not using a single rune arc, because it just feels wasted considering how often I died in late game.
I would propose to give Great Runes a tamed down amount of buff even without a rune arc. Otherwise it feels so useless to gather all Great Runes and don't even use them.
Some might say, then just use the rune arcs. But I really don't want to base my playstyle too much on farmable and/or limited resources (btw. I don't do PVP to farm rune arcs)

the great runes is a mechanic from dark souls trilogy, where you go hollow after death, and you are punished with a lowered maximum HP
in order to get back to your maximum potential (removed hollowed status) you used an item like an ember.

In Elden ring, they completely removed the punishment for death, and instead allowed you to permanently be hollow, and if wanted you can un-hollow yourself with the rune Arc.
Not only that, they also added a choice to which stats do you want to gain, by using the ember (rune arc) depending on which great runes you have gathered.

i think this is a perfect addition to the souls games and nothing should be changed.

I'd like to see phantoms/invaders/blues get access to great runes as well.

[LastMedjai]

Originally posted by Omastar:

Originally posted by Valor:

the great runes is a mechanic from dark souls trilogy, where you go hollow after death, and you are punished with a lowered maximum HP
in order to get back to your maximum potential (removed hollowed status) you used an item like an ember.

In Elden ring, they completely removed the punishment for death, and instead allowed you to permanently be hollow, and if wanted you can un-hollow yourself with the rune Arc.
Not only that, they also added a choice to which stats do you want to gain, by using the ember (rune arc) depending on which great runes you have gathered.

i think this is a perfect addition to the souls games and nothing should be changed.

I'd like to see phantoms/invaders/blues get access to great runes as well.

i mean if you ask me, i think forced invasions on players that have their Online status activated is the main reason i personally would buy the game, instead of pirate it for free. If the devs want more sales, allow forced invasions on players, it was one of the best features of the original souls series, the game was already hard, but then suddenly XXXDADDYXXX joins with a dual ultra greatsword and Havels armor and you have a nightmare duel, harder than bosses ingame.

This is compeltely off topic, but man i hate so much that they removed invasions in Elden Ring.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by Valor:

Originally posted by Omastar:

I'd like to see phantoms/invaders/blues get access to great runes as well.

i mean if you ask me, i think forced invasions on players that have their Online status activated is the main reason i personally would buy the game, instead of pirate it for free. If the devs want more sales, allow forced invasions on players, it was one of the best features of the original souls series, the game was already hard, but then suddenly XXXDADDYXXX joins with a dual ultra greatsword and Havels armor and you have a nightmare duel, harder than bosses ingame.

This is compeltely off topic, but man i hate so much that they removed invasions in Elden Ring.

They only removed solo invasions. Invasions are still a thing. And you have Taunter's Tongue.

[Sonnenbank]

Well great runes are not meant to be active all the time.

They give a considerable buff to your char in strength.
So when should you actually use a great rune in a casual playthrough ?

1.) fight the boss without first
2.) learn the boss first to be close enough to almost beat him
3.) activate great rune to beat him

Great runes are meant to be that final help for you when you are almost beating a boss but a tiny bit is missing

[Fishercat]

I still forget about them when I die until I stumble on them in the menu

[Deformerad Dallarydsbo]

Beat the game without using a single one, but I used alot of humanity in the other soulsgames, not sure why I didn't use it in ER

[Dr.Falcon]

I personally don't like the system. The actual effects of the great runes are negligible in the end game. Godrick's Great Rune is by far the best for the early/mid game. Morgott's being the best in the endgame. All the other runes effects are either not satisfying or are outclassed.

The system should have been like this. I equip a great rune to gain a small passive buff to my character. In order to unlock the runes "full potential", like what the game tells you in the tutorial message, I must use a rune arc to gain the full benefit. Godrick's passive effect might just be +1 to every level, with the rune active it would increase to +5.

Activating a rune arc flags the player for invasions much like how being embered or becoming human worked.

All playthrough's, except my first, I have only used Mohg's great rune as that's the only option I have for invasions. I personally don't like to rely on temporary stat increases to make my build work. Especially with duels. using Morgott's rune to get 3000+ hp which might be a thousand or even double your opponents health just feels scummy.

Malenia's great rune should be another "PvP" great rune. Trading my flask abilities to gain health back on trades in an invasion would be a fun, different way to play the game.

[WumboWise]

I almost never used them my first playthrough, but they do make a huge difference. Godricks Great Rune essentially gives you 5 levels in each stat, effectively leveling you up forty times as long as you don't die, along with all the defense bonuses that come with it. Some of the mid and late game runes are useful as well. Such as Morgott's Great Rune, which is a 25 percent HP bonus. Or Malenia's Rune which brings back Bloodborne's Rally mechanic of regaining lost HP if you retaliate fast enough.

Play around with them if you get the chance. They are just another layer on this already expansive game.

[Hammer_Squirrel]

Originally posted by Sonnenbank:

Well great runes are not meant to be active all the time.

They give a considerable buff to your char in strength.
So when should you actually use a great rune in a casual playthrough ?

1.) fight the boss without first
2.) learn the boss first to be close enough to almost beat him
3.) activate great rune to beat him

Great runes are meant to be that final help for you when you are almost beating a boss but a tiny bit is missing

Theoretically, but in practice I ended up beating the bosses after learning the fight without ever using a rune. Then again I’m a consumable hoarder in video games.

I think the only time I one was to cast Law of Regression in Leyndell.

[Gan]

Originally posted by Valor:

i think this is a perfect addition to the souls games and nothing should be changed.

Remember in Dark Souls 1, when you needed to become human in order to preform certain tasks? Such as kindle your bonfire, raise your item discovery, and summon others? The trade-off being, that you can now be invaded. Remember how they incorporated that into the lore perfectly as well? Making you literally appear "human", and so others will want to take your "humanity"? Creating a perfect risk/reward system, that the player can figure out intuitively...

How the ♥♥♥♥ do you think this system is superior to that? It should work exactly like it did in DS1. I'm on NG5 now, and I literally stopped collecting the "Great" Runes, because I never use Rune Arks. I never interact with the invasion system, because there is literally zero incentive to do either.

This system needs to be completely reworked for the next souls, (born, kiro, ring) game...

[königplatzen]

Originally posted by Sonnenbank:

Well great runes are not meant to be active all the time.

They give a considerable buff to your char in strength.
So when should you actually use a great rune in a casual playthrough ?

1.) fight the boss without first
2.) learn the boss first to be close enough to almost beat him
3.) activate great rune to beat him

Great runes are meant to be that final help for you when you are almost beating a boss but a tiny bit is missing

Yes, that's usually the way to go. Still it's somehow not how I did it. The thing is probably, that getting the kill finally was quite random. I was never very confident to get the kill, but somehow, it worked without every thinking to activate rune. I thought, I will waste all the rune arcs on Malenia, because its quite a bit RNG involved, whether you get some weird behaviour, which instakills you.

Originally posted by Dr.Falcon:

The system should have been like this. I equip a great rune to gain a small passive buff to my character. In order to unlock the runes "full potential", like what the game tells you in the tutorial message, I must use a rune arc to gain the full benefit. Godrick's passive effect might just be +1 to every level, with the rune active it would increase to +5.

Yes, that would be nice something like that. Like a bit of reward from actually unlock the rune at the tower.

Originally posted by Earthen Meat:

Originally posted by Valor:

i think this is a perfect addition to the souls games and nothing should be changed.

Remember in Dark Souls 1, when you needed to become human in order to preform certain tasks? Such as kindle your bonfire, raise your item discovery, and summon others? The trade-off being, that you can now be invaded. Remember how they incorporated that into the lore perfectly as well? Making you literally appear "human", and so others will want to take your "humanity"? Creating a perfect risk/reward system, that the player can figure out intuitively...

Maybe have a reason other than a temporary buff to actually activate the runes from time to time. Kindling a bonfire was a really good one. Imagine, you have to activate a great rune to activate graces at certain point, probably after stormveil/godrick. Although it's probably too rough to change that now.

[Kim]

Originally posted by königplatzen:

I finished the game with not using a single rune arc, because it just feels wasted considering how often I died in late game.
I would propose to give Great Runes a tamed down amount of buff even without a rune arc. Otherwise it feels so useless to gather all Great Runes and don't even use them.
Some might say, then just use the rune arcs. But I really don't want to base my playstyle too much on farmable and/or limited resources (btw. I don't do PVP to farm rune arcs)

If you choose to see Elden ring as a solo player game , Rune arc is a rare ressource.

If you choose to see Elden ring as a coop game , Rune arc is a common ressource.

As for the Greater rune themselves , as far as i understand , Godryck is the one that is the most used probably because it is the most usefull rune.So i will place it way harder to find to let the player experiences other great rune before having this one.

[vamirez]

Agree with OP here. I used up all my collected rune arcs fighting Malenia, but didn't use them at all otherwise. Humanity and embers in the DS games worked better in my experience - the buff was more vital for me, more required to be able to beat the bosses. Here, as an offline player, you burn up a rare resource for an effect that's there, but you can just go without. OP's suggestion makes sense to me - the main mechanic of the great rune would be there permanently when you equip it, and the rune arc would give a strong temporary boost.

[Scraps]

What's telling is that Godrick's is by far the most useful. 5 stats in every attribute made me double take, since 25 levels with the only penalty being it needing rune arcs is insane. Otherwise, Morgott's and Rykard's are fine if you really don't want to use Godrick's rune, while Mogh's is technically the only one that benefits invaders (buffing the host's enemies isn't so bad).

Malenia's and Radahn's suck pretty hard, though.

But overall, they don't provide that much impact except for Godrick's, so I don't think getting through the game without them is a big deal like getting through DS1 or DS2 without their respective humanities.