Solo Rune character is very weak.

[Paul Bunyom]

Is it just me, or is Rune primarily a team support/buff mastery? I tried to start a solo campaign with a Rune character, and I've been getting just pummled. I haven't died, but I'm running away to heal far more frequently, and the buffs don't seem to be doing anything, especially in combat, where I take an astounding amount of damage, and deal out barely anything. I just got to Sparta, and the graveyard just before it was a chore.

[Atomic Kid]

rune is one of the worst masteries in the game pre lv50..but it takes off it you bare it that long...his passives are amazing and his moves are amazing and you can wear int gear as a warrior...pick defense if you feel the survivabilty isnt too good,

pick hunter if you want more dps, going mage seems to make sense but imo its too squishy to go that route even with a shield+throwing...rune by iself isnt anything fancy but the entire rune weapon tree and rune:absorb, rune:feather, and seal of fate are really good moves...and rune of life gives you 2 of the best resists bleed/vit a big boost.

max rune:feather asap for an offense ability boost and the ability to leave str low..it shouldnt be above 90 base...then the entire rune weapon tree except the hp steal (leave at 1 for now)..then start leveling rune:absorb (you block a lot more with this maxed and mana steal),and ya rune of life for prob the 2 best resists in the game...

also dump a lot of points into int so it gets multipled by rune weapon, with plenty dex, and low str (50 is doable with godly gear but more likely you'll be at 80-100) and later hp as rune doesnt give a lot of hp...you badly need transmuation and the magical charge add on in rune weapon to get decent damage and then level the base rune weapon to multiply that damage, maxing magical charge after rune feather is highly recondmended as it all 3 elemental at once (fire,ice,lighitng) so that low number is misleading and you refelct a lot of damge to enemies that melee you... then after magical charge is maxed then max transmution to make use of your base weapon damage and add more dps..

1 point in life steal so you can keep yourself healed and mana stealing. later the 100% maxed rune weapon tree is amazing up there with onslaught maxed tree (though not as tanky and doesnt give atk speed though you'll never run outta mp and it hp steals)

[Paul Bunyom]

Originally posted by Atomic Kid:

rune is one of the worst masteries in the game pre lv50..but it takes off it you bare it that long...his passives are amazing and his moves are amazing and you can wear int gear as a warrior...pick defense if you feel the survivabilty isnt too good,

pick hunter if you want more dps, going mage seems to make sense but imo its too squishy to go that route even with a shield+throwing...rune by iself isnt anything fancy but the entire rune weapon tree and rune:absorb, rune:feather, and seal of fate are really good moves...and rune of life gives you 2 of the best resists bleed/vit a big boost.

max rune:feather asap for an offense ability boost and the ability to leave str low..it shouldnt be above 90 base...then the entire rune weapon tree except the hp steal (leave at 1 for now)..then start leveling rune:absorb (you block a lot more with this maxed and mana steal),and ya rune of life for prob the 2 best resists in the game...

also dump a lot of points into int so it gets multipled by rune weapon, with plenty dex, and low str (50 is doable with godly gear but more likely you'll be at 80-100) and later hp as rune doesnt give a lot of hp...you badly need transmuation and the magical charge add on in rune weapon to get decent damage and then level the base rune weapon to multiply that damage, maxing magical charge after rune feather is highly recondmended as it all 3 elemental at once (fire,ice,lighitng) so that low number is misleading and you refelct a lot of damge to enemies that melee you... then after magical charge is maxed then max transmution to make use of your base weapon damage and add more dps..

1 point in life steal so you can keep yourself healed and mana stealing. later the 100% maxed rune weapon tree is amazing up there with onslaught maxed tree (though not as tanky and doesnt give atk speed though you'll never run outta mp and it hp steals)

I'm having thoughts of a balls to the wall warfare, with abysmal health but a ton of damage, high risk high reward sort of thing, and take Rune as my second mastry, to go for a viking berserker build. Appropriate for the Ragnarok expansion adding the mastery. Does it sound like a good idea?

[Pannathrax]

if you can take tonnes of damage then reflection build might be suitable.

warfare is good because of onslaught and battle standard, very tanky and have stun skill, with occasional pet for distraction if needed.

[Atomic Kid]

warfare is a little tankier due to battle standard and the ignore pain addon on onslaguht. I mean its not as tanky as the defensive masteries and warfare is very gear dependant later on but you'll def kill fast as warfare is one of the higher dps choices.

rune gets tankier when you max rune:absorb and have a good shield, and sacred rage procing so having good hp so the 40% req happens sooner..though most ppl keep sacred rage and its add on at 1 point each for a long time as runemaster has too many other things to max but that damage absorb and damage reduction from the add on and the only req being 40% hp means it'll proc and proc often.

[Paul Bunyom]

Originally posted by Atomic Kid:

warfare is a little tankier due to battle standard and the ignore pain addon on onslaguht. I mean its not as tanky as the defensive masteries and warfare is very gear dependant later on but you'll def kill fast as warfare is one of the higher dps choices.

rune gets tankier when you max rune:absorb and have a good shield, and sacred rage procing so having good hp so the 40% req happens sooner..though most ppl keep sacred rage and its add on at 1 point each for a long time as runemaster has too many other things to max but that damage absorb and damage reduction from the add on and the only req being 40% hp means it'll proc and proc often.

Alright I'll try that then. Start over with Warfare, and go into Runes for my second mastery.

[Atomic Kid]

um its prob better to start as rune and heavy focus int and use warfare for support like battle standard, 1 point battle rage, etc....and leaving str at 50-80 and never learning onslaught

if you rather use onslaught and use couple rune things to support warfare you wont be pumping int and skipping rune weapon and using onslaught and using the dual wield move from rune to give close to 100% to dual wield...and sacred rage to save you if you get low on hp...

both builds work imo, rune is more a backup mastery though you can make it your main if you go heavy on the int and use the other mastery to backup it...the best skill of rune is rune weapon which asks for massive int investment and having rune:feather to make str req really low (and it works on shields too)...but using rune as a backup works too due to the passives and rune of life being quite good though you cannot make use of rune weapon without int invesment.

[Billy Pilgrim]

Lots of misinformation in this thread. Rune is one of the BEST masteries for the early game. The only skill you need is magical charge, max it asap use a very/fast base and it will carry you through normal with a white weapon. It is that good.

[Atomic Kid]

i wont say rune is the best but ya magical charge is the best move to max after rune:feather, adding 1 point to rune:absorb and 1 point to the one with life steal fixes most mp problems the increase of mp magical charge gives...

dream or warfare is easier to use in the early game, dream due to trance of wrath wrecking normal and warfare due to battle standard adding a ton of set phys dps that can make up for bad weaponry. but ya rune def gets easier if you level magical charge of the rune weapon tree first and max it

but for rune its all 3 elemental at once (so the low number isnt low) for the reflect and the hit so its triple of what the numbers say and it remains good to the end of the game so after you max magicial charge it does a lot of dmage then you add transmution after and lastly max the base rune weapon after both magical charge and transmution is maxed and watch it multiply that elemental damage, ya forgot to mention that you always max magical charge after maxing rune:feather, that is a normal mode nuke and remains good to the end of the game, rune weapon base skill wont have much to multiply if you max that first so you max that after transmution and magical charge

[Billy Pilgrim]

Originally posted by Atomic Kid:

i wont say rune is the best but ya magical charge is the best move to max after rune:feather, adding 1 point to rune:absorb and 1 point to the one with life steal fixes most mp problems the increase of mp magical charge gives...

dream or warfare is easier to use in the early game, dream due to trance of wrath wrecking normal and warfare due to battle standard adding a ton of set phys dps that can make up for bad weaponry. but ya rune def gets easier if you level magical charge of the rune weapon tree first and max it

but for rune its all 3 elemental at once (so the low number isnt low) for the reflect and the hit so its triple of what the numbers say and it remains good to the end of the game so after you max magicial charge it does a lot of dmage then you add transmution after and lastly max the base rune weapon after both magical charge and transmution is maxed and watch it multiply that elemental damage, ya forgot to mention that you always max magical charge after maxing rune:feather, that is a normal mode nuke and remains good to the end of the game, rune weapon base skill wont have much to multiply if you max that first so you max that after transmution and magical charge

Warfare is just about the worst to level with... It's a good mastery but for levelling its horrible, like hunting. Dream is OK for levelling, the best is earth because of ring of flame.