Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Class Guides – Rune Priest PvP: MMOGrindHouse.com

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Class Guides – Rune Priest PvP

Thursday, July 16th, 2009 · Filed Under age of reckoning, the land of the dead, war online, warhammer asia, warhammer build guide, warhammer job change, warhammer online

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Although the Rune Priests are primarily the support Archetype of the Dwarven Oathbearers Army, they are also formidable in combat. Their use of the Dwarven runes also gives them offensive capabilities like DPSing enemies.

The Following guide discusses the offensive capabilities of the Rune Priest Class. This guide is written by Excelsias.

Rune Priest PvP Guide

Version 1.0 (WAR Beta 3.3)
August 23, 2008
By Excelsias

Table of Contents
1. Rune Priests Rock! — class overview and what we do
2. Oath Runes — hidden offensive power and buffs
3. Offensive Spells — more than just a healbot
4. Dude, Where’s my Mana? — overview of AP and how healing works
5. The Heals — better than all the rest
6. Other Goodies
7. Tactics & Morale (more to come… not too relevant at R10)
8. Rue the Rune Priest!

For Grungni! Rune Priests ROCK!
Let me clear the air, and admit to any biases I have upfront. I should call this guide, ‘How to kickass and literally own any scenario you enter as a little dorf dude with a stick’, cause here’s the reality: Rune Priests rock. With instant heals, instant HOTs, and instant attacks these little spellcasting midgets can rack up reknown points and kills like no other class.

You might be thinking, “What’s wrong with Excelsias? The Rune Priest is Order’s pure healer. He’s been drinking too much. They’re not supposed to ROCK. They’re supposed to heal!” Despite the fact that I just finished off a margarita that I ALMOST had to make with Patron (Mrs. Excelsias didn’t stock up on Jose Cuervo), I’m not off my rockers.

Here’s the catch: what makes Rune Priests so powerful isn’t what they can do, but what they allow everyone else to do. They’re the ultimate backbone of any successful party with their excellent buffs, magnificent heals, and passable DPS. The hybrid healers, Warrior Priests (WP) and Archmages (AM), can’t touch them in raw healing output, although those classes are crucial to a party’s synergy as well. In my testing alongside a little dorf dude with an axe, AKA Ironbreaker (IB), my Rune Priest was able to keep the Ironbreaker up against incoming Destros for TWICE as long compared to when I played as a WP or AM. No one can spike heal like a Rune Priest.

Which, I should add, doesn’t make them overpowered. In a game that’s as fluid and RvR focused as WAR, where focus firing (FF) is the rule of the day, and healers are targeted for FF first… someone needs to be able to spike heal. So, if you want to play a class that is (a) Essential, (b) Loved by all, and (c) Targeted before ayone else… get ready. Rune Priest is the way to go, and you’re gonna’ have a blast scrambling to keep everyone alive.

What does a Rune Priest do?
While this guide focuses on 1-10, you should know that while you lots of flashy new spells on the way to R40, your role as a Rune Priest isn’t going to change dramatically. Your job is to heal, and only when possible, DPS or cast damage shields, etc. So, you better like healing. That being said… you can still put out some good DPS, and in making the Rune Priest MORE than just a healbot, I think Mythic has created a very attractive pure healer class. In my view, that’s hard to do, and therefore, I’m going to focus on the offensive capabilities of the Rune Priest to start this guide off.

Oath Runes — Your hidden offensive power!
As with all classes in WAR, the Rune Priest is defined by a mechanic that gives them some flavor besides just action points (AP) and health points (HP). Every class in WAR has a mechanic like this; think of the Rogue’s combo points / finishing attacks in WOW.

For Rune Priests, that mechanic is … Oath Runes! Surprise, right? Like… Rune Priests have runes, oh-mah-gawd, Mythic is like, so like, smart! For what this lacks in creativity, it makes up in awesomeness. Oath Runes are essentially buffs that you can give to yourself and other players. Doesn’t sound very exciting yet, until we get to their second function: all Oath Runes can be “triggered” by the player they’re cast on, causing some kind of attack to that player’s target – direct damage, DOTs, etc. The Oath Rune’s attacking function is instant cast, doesn’t disappear after being used, and refreshes every 60 seconds.

Okay, still not convinced that this is awesome? I wasn’t at first, until I realized how very, very cool it is.

Let me give you an example. I was running around in New Emskrank (Empire vs. Chaos T1/Nordland RvR area) with 2 Ironbreakers the other day. I had cast Oath Rune of Warding on them, which when triggered from the buffed player, causes all enemies in the area (30 feet) to take 90 damage or so over 9 seconds, at R10. So what did my little axe-wielding buddies do? They followed each other into the Destro zerg, triggered their runes together, and caused nearly 200 points of damage to EVERY toon in the area over 9 seconds – a lot when most people only have 1000HP or so. It was ticking on 7-8 people. If we do the math, that’s about 1500-1600 damage caused total, on top of the other damage they did.

Here’s the beautiful thing: as a healer, my BUFFS directly allowed two tanks to do that. That’s a LOT of DPS for a healer! Imagine the awesomeness of 3-4 tanks doing this together. The Rune Priest’s Oath of Warding’s ALONE could take people down, if used at the same time!

Anyway, on top of that, they FF’d on a squishy (goblins… it’s always goblins…) with their heavy blow and binding grudge attacks, both DOTs that tick away for good DPS, a good 300-400 per IB. That, combined with their Oath Rune attacks, was enough DPS ticking away over 9 seconds to kill a single squishy. And it takes all of 6 seconds of attacks.
This is a perfect example of the SYNERGY between classes and how to use them. Doing so successfully is one of the best parts of WAR, and the great thing about the Oath Rune mechanic is you can be part of your group’s offensive synergy, even though you’re the primary healer.

Other Offensive Spells
In the above example, any good Rune Priest with their mithril should also be casting:

Rune of Striking: 25AP / 2s cast / 100ft Range.
Does good damage, but the cast time is realllly slow. On the flip side, you’ve got great range on this, so it’s a good offensive standard early in your career.
Rune of Immolation: 30 AP/ Instant cast / 100ft Range.
Everyone gets this on them. Just spamming the hell out of this will get you some good DPS in zerg fests, and when you’re trying to FF on someone with your tanks/DPS, this can negate the HOTs that the target’s healers are sure to be casting. This does about 50% more damage that Striking, so it’s good to lay on early.
Rune of Fire: 40AP/ Instant cast / 100ft Range / 5s cooldown.
Does less damage than Striking (about 25% less), but it’s instant. At the same time, it costs 40AP, which can substantially detract from your AP for healing.
Rune of Might: 45AP/ 2s cast / No Range.
Does PBAE damage around you for 30 feet. Equivalent damage to a single target that you’d see from Rune of Fire. The heavy AP and casting time of this Rune makes it pretty situational; there will be times when the PBAE effect will come in handy, but not that often.

That sums up all of the major offensive spells you’ll be getting to Rank 10. For the most part, your opening salvo when loading up on DPS is going to look like:

Rune of Immolation >> Rune of Fire >> Rune of Striking

Again, you should see that Mythic has tried hard to make us more than just a healbot. In fact, the Rune of Fire and Rune of Might spells are actually pretty nifty. You’re of course not going to be taking down hordes of Destros like a Bright Wizard, but that’s not your job. Nonetheless, you should enjoy the power of your offensive skills and Oath Runes.

Dude, where’s my Mana!?
Ashton Kuchter didn’t lose it, dude. WAR took it, looked at it, and spat it out like moldy toast. If you’re coming over from WOW, EQ, LOTRO, or practically any major fantasy MMO ever made, you’ll be surprised to see that you have no mana bar as a healer.
Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay. Mythic gave you action points (AP), instead.

Action points are a substitute for mana, stamina meters, etc. Every skill you have in WAR takes AP (unless noted) and in reality, all that the AP system does is create a “universal” mana/magic/stamina pool system that limits how many skills/punches/kicks/spells any class can perform over time. It’s actually pretty elegant, but it takes some getting used to.

The reason that I’m going into so much detail about the AP system is that as a healer, you alone have to worry about balancing your AP system between DPS and heals, because both DPS and heals will drain your AP pool. Most other classes – tanks, DPS, and even the hybrid healers, to some extent – use their AP only to dole out attacks, so there’s no balance required. But every ounce of AP you spend casting offensive spells takes away from your ability to layout heals.

As a result, before you go hogwild spitting our offensive spells, you need to take a good survey of the field of battlefield and make sure that you have the AP needed to keep your tanks/party up. If you don’t, resist the urge to do so. Save your AP for healing!

Rune Priest Heals – Better than All the Rest!
The heals available to a Rune Priest are what make the class shine, but before we explore them, I need to clarify another aspect of the class that distinguishes the Rune Priest as the premium healer.

BOTH of the other healers (Warrior Priest / Archmage) have class mechanics that either inhibit their healing, or enhance it — depending on your perspective, or more accurately, your situation. Understanding how much this differs from what a Rune Priest can do is essential to knowing how powerful your Rune Priest is.

Warrior Priests heal through HOTs only, with the exception of a full group heal, BUT, all of their heals require Righteous Fury (RF). Every heal cast depletes the RF pool, and even though the HOTs are instant, that can be frustrating, as RF is only regenerated through melee attacks or a time-consuming (and AP-consuming) ability called Supplication. As such, WP can’t heal continuously without mixing in some melee attacks, much less spike heal, like a Rune Priest. Their HOTs can make your life as a RP MUCH easier, but, they can’t replace you at all.

Likewise, Archmages have a mechanic whereby each offensive cast generates “Force”, and each heal generates “Tranquility”, but these two attributes are a pendulum; building one reduces the other. If you have a balance of the opposing attibute pooled up, it will reduce your cast time. For example, casting a lot of offensive spells will build high Force, and the Archmage’s big 3 second heal will be instant cast with full Force. Doing so will deplete your Force/Tranquility balance, and start building Tranquility. Get it? Again, a limiting factor. Also pretty cool; Rune Priests never get an instant “big heal” like AM can with this mechanic, but it means that if ALL you do is heal as an Archmage, your spells are gonna’ be SLOW without some damage mixed in.

Both the Archmage and Warrior Priest can generate some pretty amazing healing. Yet, they can’t spike heal like a RP. That’s where you come in… again, your ability to provide QUICKER more EFFICIENT healing overall is going to provide awesome group SYNERGY and make these other healers even better. Get it yet?

So, let’s get to the heals! Pretty much every heal from every career has a 150 foot range (nifty, huh!?), so I won’t be including those numbers here:

Grungi’s Gift: 25AP, Instant cast.
Doesn’t heal for a LOT, but you can spam this for a good 5-8 seconds and keep somebody up for a long time. You can also spam it on yourself as you flee. You can spam this anytime, anywhere, and it will heal for a lot. Basically, as a Rune Priest, if you’re not spamming this all over the place, you’re doing it wrong. I’ll use this as the baseline to compare to other heals.
Rune of Regeneration: 30AP, Instant cast.
This DOES heal for a lot… over 15 seconds. On the flipside, total healing over those 15 seconds will be about 1000% more than the single Grungi’s Gift heal. It’s a great skill to lay on your ally being FF’d, or to top someone off.
Rune of Shielding: 40AP, Instant cast, 2s cooldown. This used to be a 2s cast, which made it pointless. What it does is shield for equal damage to about 3 Grungi’s Gift, and then when done, heal for an amount equal to about 1 Grungi’s Gift. The reality is that in the heat of battle, you really can’t use this reliably. However, it’s a great skill to use on a tank to prep. them for a charge; cast this, dump your HOT, have your WP buddy cast his HOT, and send your tank in for business.
Rune of Restoration: 50AP, 3s cast. Heals for about 5 Grungi Gift’s, making it a very effective heal, cause it only costs you 2xAP compared to Grungi’s Gift. The downside, of course, is the very slow cast time, and Mythic’s gone one step further; you get setback a LOT if you get hit using this skill. Setback is basically spell disruption, so you basically need to be sure you are NOT going to get hit in those 3 seconds or you’ve wasted your time. Using this for spot-healing really isn’t a good idea in the thick of serious RvR, but, it’s a great skill to START casting right as your tank starts getting into battle, let it rip, thenf ollow up with Renegeration / Grungi’s Gift.
Rune of Mending: 60AP, 1s cast. Frontloads about 1 Grungi Gift’s of healing, then does a HOT effect worth another 2.5 Grungi’s Gift. Not a bad skill, and it’s great to combine this with Regeneration + Grungi Gift spam to give someone a LOT of incoming healing. The downside is the high AP cost.

Healing strategy, therefore, comes down to efficiency, like in all MMOs. Do you need to spam Grungi’s Gift and can’t afford to mix in HOTs? Do you have time to work in your more effective AP:HP ratio spells like Restoration? There are no hard and fast answers to these questions. A good view of the tactical situation is critical to being a good healer.

What Other Goodies Do I Get!?
I’m glad you asked! You get a rez (Rune of Life), and a great morale move (Divine Favor) that instantly recovers about 4 Grungi Gift’s worth of HP. But the real skill that shines — and is often underused — is Rune of Preservation.

“Oh mai,” you think, “Excelsias is a real moron. A detaunt in PvP? LOLZ at him that’s for PvE!” Newp! Mythic did something pretty cool here. This works in RvR. Meaning, if you detaunt someone in RvR… well, they won’t stop attacking you like they would in a WOW raid. But they’re only gonna’ do 50% damage to you over the next 15 seconds (so long as you don’t attack them).

That’s right… if some big ol’ badass Marauder comes charging at you, DON’T IMMOLATE THEM. Detaunt them instead, and call in your DPS/Tank buddies to come to your assistance, because ANY class only doing 50% damage to a Rune Priest is going to take a LONG time to burst through the spike healing you can throw at yourself.

How cool is that!? Moreover, you can use this EVERY 15 seconds. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen whine about Rune Priest survivability on the beta forums who didn’t even know this skill exists! Hotkey it on your freakin’ forehead, and bang your head on this skill EVERY time you can.

Rue the Rune Priest!
Hope you enjoyed the alliteration! If you play your Rune Priest well, your enemies should rue the thought of ever facing off against a good RvR group that’s supported by one.
Throughout this guide, I’ve talked frequently about the RP supporting a group. I’ve talked about little tank buddies. I wouldn’t use this cute phrase without a good reason; the Rune Priest > Tank synergy is so important that it’s almost symbiotic. As a Rune Priest, I love my tanks, because they help me help them do their job. Tanks using skills like Guard and Oath Friend can give you tons of survivability. And in turn, a tank with a pocket healer like a Rune Priest can tear up the battlefield.

In short; if you want to enjoy the Rune Priest to it’s fullest, you NEED somebody completing you as the “DPS” portion of your partnership. Ideally, an Ironbreaker or Swordmaster. You find one of those guys, and you do this to them:

HUGGGGGGGG! <3 for Life! BFF!!

And you don’t let go, ever, not for anything, until the two of you have heaped buttloads of hurt on the Destro baddies.

I’m not joking. Try running around as a Rune Priest alone in a scenario. Then get a friend (or make one) who plays an Ironbreaker, and get on Vent with them. You will love your class, and your friend, forever. I <3 Ironbreakers.

Enough of the Dorf-love. You get the point, I hope! Now, get your dorf stick, and go crank it on some goblin squishies. Good luck Rune Priests!!

- Excelsias

Concept Art of Rune Priest Source: WAR Site

Source: WAR Forums

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