What runes do you use?

[yummy]

For your highest level towers, and your favorites that you use all the time, what type of runes do you use in each slot?

Are DMG Runes better than Skill Runes?

Discuss! Post screen shots for extra bonus.

[LotusBlade]

Discussing that means someone willing to improve his enemies power = to reduce his own chances to capture mines. Each tower needs specific runes. As for dmg/skill - you can put one of them into tower, then pull it out and place the other one and finaly compare numbers.

[alveolate]

pretty much skill runes are always better, since upgrading a tower = +50% dps (if dmg is main stat). would be interesting to know if there's a different optimal highest upgrade where it's okay to put a +%dps rune instead. perhaps in terms of dps/prime spent? shrugs.

[LotusBlade]

Originally posted by alveolate:

pretty much skill runes are always better, since upgrading a tower = +50% dps (if dmg is main stat). would be interesting to know if there's a different optimal highest upgrade where it's okay to put a +%dps rune instead. perhaps in terms of dps/prime spent? shrugs.

The only reason to put dmg instead of +levels is when you can't afford to upgrade towers and want to stick to lower levels. This is good idea in case of Mortar (60 prime to build), Arrester (55) and Flame Cannon (65).

Damage runes are better only for one extra level.
1) You have 100 dmg tower at lvl zero and put dmg rune into it = 135;
Lvl 1 - 135 + 50% (67,5) = 202,5;
Lvl 2 - 202,5 + 67,5 = 270;
Lvl 3 - 337,5;
Lvl 4 - 405;
Lvl 5 - 472,5.

2) You put same tower with 100 dmg at lvl zero but now with +levels rune which also has +9% dmg bonus:
Lvl 1 - 109 + 50% (54,5) = 163,5;
Lvl 2 - 163,5 + 54,5 = 218;
Lvl 3 - 272,5;
Lvl 4 - 327;
Lvl 5 - 381,5;
Lvl 6 - 436 (right now it's effect smaller than damage rune);
Lvl 7 - 490,5 (now it's better from damage rune);
Lvl 8 - 545;
Lvl 9 - 599,5.

In other words, if you can afford building all towers with atleast 7 lvl, it would be better to use +levels. Mostly because anomalies, injector, curse and slowing will significantly boost damage in %.

[alveolate]

also gotta note that the +35% dmg rune isn't that common especially in slot 1... not that we often get red/cyan skill rune either. but yea, i've been thinking of doing the math comparison for a while and i'm still too lazy to properly do one in a spreadsheet :P

the general case seems sensible though: if the tower is expensive, it could make sense to go %dmg over skill. it's more a case of... what is the cutoff point and how high do the runes need to be...

[ArtiXim]

As Lotus mentioned it is the main case for damage over skill, is if you need a touch more early damage than you already have and prime is limited.

The main rune tweaking I do is fiddling with time increase, ability power, ability hit chance and attack speed. The optimum damage for a tower with DoT is usually a combination of time, ability power and speed, as opposed to just going all time or all ability power.

[ultramage]

My lvl81 Sun Tower has 8665 dps with +14.5% per shot, 2.8 rate, 3.7 range, 7 upgrade levels.
It's using: 7* ascension (+9% dmg, +4 up, block flyers), 6* deadly (+30% dmg), 5* destruction (+15% dmg, +12% range), 5* ingenuity (+9% dmg, +2 up, block diggers), 4* power (+15% power), 7* might (+30% dmg), 7* power (+30% power).
This adds up to +4175 dps, +6 ups, +45% power and +0.4 range.

I don't know what I'm doing, I just pick whatever seems to be the strongest rune for each slot.

[alveolate]

do you have many counts for your sun tower?

imo, placing the best runes on one card is a good strat (more like, obviously duh) but choosing which card to max out is equally important.

if that card doesn't have many counts, or is too expensive... it means you don't get maximum bang for your runes. for instance, i love my volcano, but i only have 1 count, and it starts at 50p... even if i got 2 or 3 more now, i can only build 1-2 ranked7 towers before hard mode starts. worse still: volcano only hits land-based.

my current maxed out card is still league spray [8 count] but i am considering migrating the runes over to electric [3 count]. if i wanna grind out 20 hard levels, i still need my league spray at this point, unfortunately. i have a pretty strong league fog too, but they're not aoe so i'm hesitating a bit.

[Kosiciel]

Originally posted by LotusBlade:

The only reason to put dmg instead of +levels is when you can't afford to upgrade towers and want to stick to lower levels. This is good idea in case of Mortar (60 prime to build), Arrester (55) and Flame Cannon (65).
In other words, if you can afford building all towers with atleast 7 lvl, it would be better to use +levels. Mostly because anomalies, injector, curse and slowing will significantly boost damage in %.

Nice math! Question on purple (and possibly orange) runes - fourth rune being skill rune (+2 upgrades). Is it even worth considering damage rune instead of skill rune (another +2 upgrades), so 3 vs 5 tower levels in two scenarios - just normal walkthrough and getting to highest hard mode possible? Please, enlighten me ;)

[ultramage]

do you have many counts for your sun tower?

I have collected enough fragments to have 4, but unless I'm going deep into hard mode survival, I can only ever afford one. Having to often build ice, curse, purifier, slammer and detector towers only gives me enough budget for a lvl4-lvl5 upgrade by the time the level ends.

I think we used to get more starting prime, because my strat was to build lvl5 sun and lvl3 ice and a mortar. At one point it seems it got balanced and now I can afford to build much less, even with maxed ship upgrades.

[ArtiXim]

It would be quite nice to have a "rune test" tool, where people can test out tower builds with all the possible runes. Maybe I will build one.

[yummy]

Originally posted by alveolate:

if that card doesn't have many counts, or is too expensive... it means you don't get maximum bang for your runes. for instance, i love my volcano, but i only have 1 count, and it starts at 50p... even if i got 2 or 3 more now, i can only build 1-2 ranked7 towers before hard mode starts. worse still: volcano only hits land-based.

I think you are over thinking it too much. If you have a good opener, you will pass the wave of having too little prime to having too much prime. Use your spells in conjunction with your short comings. I use Maga, Curse, Fire Rain, and then Meteor.

But if you simply do not have enough mana to pass the wave, you should do a lower mine. Grinding out a lower mine is faster and will net you more experience in the long term.

Use the hero that boosts EXP, also. Doing hard mode and getting 400exp a pop is better than only being able to do a super hard tower once.

Also, I've gotten push back for this, but Electower is much better than Spray.

[Kosiciel]

Originally posted by yummy:

Also, I've gotten push back for this, but Electower is much better than Spray.

Care to explain that statement? I (being level 55) just got League Spray Tower and can't decide if I should switch to it from 2x Electric Tower.

[Kosiciel]

Originally posted by ArtiXim:

It would be quite nice to have a "rune test" tool, where people can test out tower builds with all the possible runes. Maybe I will build one.

If you have the skill and knowledge - please do it! It would be very useful for most of us, players.

[LotusBlade]

League Spray tower gives you 103 dmg per 1 prime spent, while Electric gives 94,9. So, no, Electric is NOT better than L*Spray.

Check my guide i will update it today with tower damages (part 2).

[yummy]

Haha, LotusBlade is great. He does have the best advice.

As a level 55, I am still going to say Elec is better. I just hit level 90 yesterday, so now that I am max, I may not bring the Elec tower and more, and subtitute it for the League Spray.

But I did not use Spray during the leveling up process. I have had Elec for a very long time.

Regardless of Runes, Elec costs 35, while Spray costs 45.

First upgrade on Elec is 17, while Spray is 22.

The difference at initial built and a +1 upgrade is 15 prime. That's enough to boost your curse or frost tower once.

As someone who is leveling up, every point of prime counts. You don't have the benefit of having higher level Ship and Crew to boost your powers.

Electric is cheap and the damage is very close. With those extra prime you are saving, you can build something else like a Frost or Curse tower.

At the end game of Min/Max I'm sure the League Spray is better. But as a general purpose tower the Electric Tower kills the competition because of the price point.