[Suggestion] Change runes to 3-tier instead of 6-tier to increase build variety

[Reiiama.6198]

Runes as they are are interesting, but the variety in them is bland. If you pick a rune, you necessarily have to pick 6 of that rune to fully equip yourself. It's unheard of to equip 4 of one rune and 2 of another, as you're losing a significant amount of stats and the 6-rune unique benefit.

 

So why not condense the benefits to make individual runes more desirable? Let's condense the benefits at half-strength down to 3 runes, and allow people to mix and match more. If you want more raw stats, you can put 3 2-rune combos. If you want access to full-rune benefits you slot 2 3-rune combos.

 

Here's an example of how this works, using Superior Rune of the Krait as an example.

Before:

1) +25 Condition Damage

2) +10% Bleed duration

3) +50 Condition Damage

4) +20% Bleed duration

5) +100 Condition Damage

6) +20% Bleed duration; inflict Bleed, Torment, and Poison to nearby foes for 8 seconds after using an elite skill . (Cooldown: 30 Seconds)

 

After:

1) +30 Condition Damage, +10% Bleed duration

2) +60 Condition Damage, +15% Bleed duration

3) Inflict Bleed, Torment, and Poison to nearby foes for 8 seconds after using an elite skill. (Cooldown: 30 Seconds)

 

Combining runes would be that much more interesting if this were to be implemented. There's a variety of runes that go completely unused, but would see use if this were implemented, simply due to the sudden need to supplement existing builds. For instance, the need for another Bleed rune to supplement the Krait rune (Rune of the Mad King, Lich, Tempest, or Traveler). Furthermore, we get to potentially combine the '6-rune' effects of two different runes which, let's be honest, is the most fun part about runes.

[Randulf.7614]

It is quite an interesting idea and i like the diversity it brings. It has zero chance of implementation given they already changed up the runes recently and this is a very big change given the knock on effects from build disruption to redesigning crafting recipes.

[Aaralyna.3104]

While I understand your idea, I think this would be a drama to get the professions balanced from a dev's perspective. It would also add too much powercreep I think. Personally I am fine with the system we have atm. We already have zillions of different runes with different setups per rune.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

there are some rune combos that would be broke. if these were toned down then maybe.

[DeanBB.4268]

I could only see this happening if runes were then limited to 3 at a time, and then 3 other things socketed into armor (crests, orbs, etc -- stat-only items). Otherwise...power creep.

[Khisanth.2948]

This is simply bringing more power creep.

 

I am sure there are already plenty of other threads that have discussed the pros and cons of that already.

 

In the end you still won't get any real diversity. People will work out what is the best combination and mostly stick with those. The people who would deviate from those the exact same set of people who are already doing that right now.

 

The only way to make them equally desirable is to make them equally useful. By increasing the number of possible setups that makes it much harder and therefore less likely to happen.

 

You could apply across the board nerfs to arrive at something similar power levels but that means making changes that does effectively nothing. It would make things more interesting for people who want to tinker but for everyone else it would be increased complexity with no benefit.

[Westenev.5289]

At this point, I wonder if we should do away with armour stats, traits and runes/sigils. Maybe then half of our skills wouldn't be redundant,...

[Mewcifer.5198]

Wanting more build diversity is a noble cause but I think others have already pointed out the flaws in this suggestion.

[Vincenzo.3145]

I think a better solution would be to drop it down to 2 for more diversity, rebalance runes to account for power creep and keep them from becoming too powerful, and leave recipes as they are. It would make runes not only more affordable but it would also be good for the economy as people would be buying more sets of two than holding off on a set of six. It would also create a sort of buildcraft system kind of similar to what we have with specializations. That said, I don't think we should fix what isn't broken. But it's something worth looking into.

 

Another change they could do is make it so that a rune's bonus functions differently based on what gear piece it's put into. So instead of doing 1-6, if each rune had different effects depending on what gear piece you slot it in. Think Diablo 3 where you would have a single colored gem that would do one of multiple things based on where it's slotted in. Mixing multiple tier 6 bonuses would be pretty strong. But this would allow players to mix and match effects with different stat combinations as well as open up possibilities for re balancing runes that are already heavily underutilized.

[Absconditus.6804]

Would be too powerful when you can trigger special effects out of two different rune sets from the 6th bonus being a 3rd bonus instead.

[Khisanth.2948]

On second thought maybe there is a relatively easy way to do this without too much power creep.

 

Reduce everything by half but make them stackable(damage modifiers would need to be additive instead of multiplicative). In this way you can do the 3+3 of what OP wants or you go with 6 of the same and have it be the same as now. Procs from the 6/3 effect would probably need to share a timer so if you used Ogre + Golemancer it would alternate between summoning a rockdog and golem rather than both out at the same time for a shorter duration.

[kharmin.7683]

So, instead of everyone doing meta with the same one set of runes, everyone would do meta with the same two sets of runes.

[Smeerlap.2698]

No, just no.. runes and sigils are fine the way they are.

If you want something different I would suggest 1 extra armor socket.

Never understood why there are 2 sockets for infusions only and not 1 for Jewels (accessory's), there are a gazillion gemstones & Jewels in the game and they are barely used.

(Can be extracted but gem will be LOST) .. so we don't get a trillion of these things in the game & can ONLY be found in Dungeons.. c'mon some new breath of life in dungeons please ?.

 

So you get - Armor :

 

Power, Precision, Ferocity (or any other combination).

[x] Upgrade slot - Runes

[x] Infusion slot - Infusion

[x] Gemstone slot - Gemstone or Jewel (Ebony Orb or Black Diamond for example).

 

Huge power creep for sure.. but I am sure Arenanet has a button that increase Defense & Damage by 10-20% of all NPC in the game with 1 click :astonished:

[kasoki.5180]

I like the idea. But this would take some serious rebalancing otherwise it would lead to broken builds

[Turkeyspit.3965]

> @"Mewcifer.5198" said:

> Wanting more build diversity is a noble cause but I think others have already pointed out the flaws in this suggestion.

 

I'd be more interested in understanding why the OP thinks GW2 needs more diversity? GW2 has crazy amounts of build diversity! Sure, not every build will be top dog for min/maxers, and that would remain true no matter what changes ANET makes - there will always be a few select builds that maximize performance.

 

But for most of the professions/elites that I can think of, you have lots of choices between the stats on your gear, the sigils/runes, which weapons you run, which traits you take, and which utilities you slot.

 

I honestly feel this is a solution looking for a problem :sunglasses:

 

[joneirikb.7506]

Wouldn't mind the idea if each 3 set of runes was weakened to generally be weaker than half of the existing rune-set. We need a way to dial back the power creep anyways, so making them weak enough could help on that.

 

Personally I think they should just remove runes from armor, and 1 single slot for RUNE, and condense the entire 6 runes into a single rune, that you can equip and un-equip. There is absolutely no point in having runes split up over 6 slots now that it's almost universally better to have a full set anyways, let us ignore the stupid aquabreather slot, and make it more interesting to change and try new runes without having to mess up all your armor in the process most of the time.

 

And just because, I'd be find with them removing most of the stat gains from runes, to again further reduce power creep, and because we're mostly after the extra effects anyways in most cases.

[Safandula.8723]

I rly like the idea. if all benefits would be halfed, than there would be no powercreep. The only question is, would it rly bring more diversity, or u would still pick the same combinations over and over. but i would rly like to see that.

if someone is worried about powercreep, than lets consider few of them

 

scholar on tier 6: 175 power, 225 ferocity, and 5% dmg modificator above 10 %. With 3 tier system it would be: 87,5 power, 112,5 ferocity and 2,5 % dmg modificator above 90% hp. If u want it to work the old way, u can pick 6 of those runes and has exactly the same effect

 

monk on tier 6: 175 healing, 15% bd, 10% Healing Effectiveness to Allies; outgoing healing effectiveness incrased by 1% for 3 seconds after granting a boon to an ally (max 10 stacks). With 3 tier system: 87,5 healing, 7,5 % bd, 5% healing effectiveness, outgoing healing effectivness incrased by 0,5% for 3 s...

 

Nightmare on 6: 175 condi dmg, 20 % condi dur, 10% fear dur, deliver an attack that transfers a condition and blinds nearby enemies after using an elite skill. (Cooldown: 45 Seconds). With 3 tiers basicly everything halfed, and with the last effect it could be coldown on 90 s or reducing duration of transfered conditions by half.

 

Of course it needs better looking into, but it would give much more build diversity

[Biff.5312]

That would be fun for two days until someone figures out the best dps combo and this becomes the 'meta' and nobody uses any other combo ever again.