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That Rune Aimer: A Runepriest's Handbook (by RayjeEliwan)
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<blockquote data-quote="Nibelung" data-source="post: 6709449" data-attributes="member: 74499"><p><strong>Originally posted by RayjeEliwan:</strong></p><p></p><p>Powers</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Functional/Grammatical Words: At-wills</strong></span></p><p></p><p>There are only four at-wills for your class, and they're all pretty acceptable. Since two are WIS-based and two are CON-based, some Runepriests will want to just take the two that fit their designated secondary stat and be done with it, and that's not a terrible idea. That said, Word of Diminishment's awesome destruction rider is stat-neutral, and Word of Exchange's protection rider still partially works even without WIS, so taking those two regardless of your secondary might be worth considering. It may be worth mentioning that none of these scale to 2[W] at 21st level the way most at-wills do, but there's nothing you can really do about that aside from asking your GM for a houserule to correct this obvious oversight.</p><p></p><p><strong>Show</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Word of Binding:</strong></span></p><p><em>Wis-based, AC, single target.</em> This is a great power to have in your back pocket, though it's mostly not going to be your bread and butter. Still, plenty of defenders would kill to have a nearly unconditional immobilize on tap. The destruction rider is acceptable in Heroic, giving your WIS as extra damage on the next hit from an ally, but the protection rider has a much longer shelf life. Against a foe without reach, you can basically present them with the unenviable choices of attacking you (triggering your Artistry and whatever counters you have cooked up), attacking your ally (whose defenses you've boosted rather a bit), or provoking by making a ranged attack. Nice for when you want to pretend to be a defender. Without WIS, this power's usefulness goes down a fair bit; I'd call it purple for folks without a good WIS score.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Word of Diminishment:</strong></span></p><p><em>Lightly CON-based, AC, single target.</em> The destruction rider is just great here. Vulnerability isn't a bonus to damage, so you're unlikely to run into colliding bonuses unless you're in a mafia-style party. Best of all, the destruction rider is totally stat-independent. If you have a permastealth ally or other shenanigans for getting opportunity attacks, this is even better. The protection rider is weak, though it's passable in low Heroic (particularly combined with your native rune state of protection).</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Word of Exchange:</strong></span></p><p><em>Lightly WIS-based, AC, single target.</em> This power is interesting because I feel like the protection rider is more aggressive than the destruction rider. A no-questions-asked penalty to all defenses is a pretty hefty buff . . . many similar leader powers only apply to one ally (e.g., Righteous Brand), one attack (e.g., Lance of Faith, Aggravating Force), or one defense (e.g., Guiding Strike). Add in a nice boost to AC to the next ally to hit (though watch the timing, since it lasts until the end of your next turn, not the ally's next turn), and we have a very nice tool to keep around. The destruction rider isn't bad, though the effective bonus to hit from protection is going to outstrip the bonus to damage from destruction pretty quickly. For CON-based Runepriests, this power is still useful, just less so.</p><p></p><p><strong>Word of Shielding:</strong></p><p><em>CON-based, AC, single target.</em> This power suffers from a lack of scaling. The extra damage from the destruction rider isn't especially impressive (though it is a separate damage instance, if you can somehow get it to ping a vulnerability . . . difficult to make that worthwhile), though the blunting effect from the protection rider (particularly combined with the native rune state of protection) is noticeable early on. Generally, it's a lot better in Heroic than in later tiers. Without CON, this isn't worth it at all.</p><p></p><p></p><p>[/sblock]</p><p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Lexicon of the Evolving Mind: Encounter Powers</strong></span></p><p></p><p><strong>Level 1:</strong> There are no actively BAD powers here, though it's frankly hard to use Flames of Purity very well. Executioner's Call is the stand-out, but the daze from Divine Rune of Thunder is a tool that very few other Runepriest powers will give you.</p><p></p><p><strong>Show</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><strong>Anvil of Battle:</strong></p><p><em>Lightly CON-based, Fort, single target.</em> Reasonably accurate, and it gives you kind of a pseudo-defender focus for a round. You get resistance to the target for 1 round, so they're likely to want to find someone else. In destruction mode, if they shift, they provoke from you or a friend (with a CON-based bonus to hit); in protection mode, if they shift, you and your friends can shift as well (perhaps following them). Against artillery, this isn't bad, because it makes staying and place and shifting away both likely to incur opportunity attacks. Against melee creatures, you'll probably get another swing, but your friends aren't likely to; if you have a friend in position to punish them, they'll just attack your friend instead of you. It's a decent power, but it has a limited leader focus, since the attack grant is pretty unreliable. CON is a nice bonus, but WIS characters can use it just fine.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Divine Rune of Thunder</strong><strong>:</strong></span></p><p><em>WIS-based, AC, single target.</em> The destruction rider is just some mild extra damage and CA, and it really isn't that useful. The protection rider adds a bit of control to your toolbox, granting a nice push and a daze effect. Remember that dazed creatures grant CA, so you're not giving up much compared to the destruction rider. No-questions-asked daze is nice to have on tap, and that can be enough forced movement to make things uncomfortable for them. CON builds can benefit from the daze, but less so from the push, and really not at all from the destruction mode.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Executioner's Call:</strong></span></p><p><em>No stat, AC, single target.</em> This is a leader power through and through. A typeless bonus to damage (stacks with Rune of Mending!) is nice, though of course Word of Diminishment is functionally similar. The real money comes with the destruction rider. A +4 to hit is rather massive, and it'll make sure that your ally's big gun isn't wasted. (It's actually likely to be a +5 total, thanks to your native rune state.) The protection rider has its uses, but it'll come up a lot less often than the destruction one.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #993366"><strong>Flames of Purity:</strong></span></p><p><em>No stat, AC, friendly blast 3.</em> This power is nice in that it's a blast (and you don't have many multitarget powers), but it doesn't do too much. The power bonus to damage from the destruction rider is only one point better than Rune of Mending and doesn't stack with it, and the healing from the protection rider really isn't very impressive even at level 1. Add in tricky targeting to gain the maximum benefit from affecting both allies and enemies, and you end up with a power that's rarely worth the hassle. That said, if your GM favors combat with multiple waves of enemies, it's not entirely out of the question that you'll need the damage bonus after you're out of Runes of Mending, but the targeting is still tricky.</p><p></p><p>[/sblock]</p><p><strong>Level 3:</strong> This level isn't really fair, since you pretty much HAVE to pick Words of Bravery if you don't have Mark of Healing or another reliable way of granting saving throws. Failing to do so means accepting that you're simply not going to be granting saving throws to your allies. If you have Mark of Healing or another method of granting saving throws, Symbol of Wrath Reversed adds a swing to the field, Mark of the Blinding Shield removes a swing from the field, and Beacon of Vengeance is interesting and different. I will mention that since the really nasty save-ends conditions haven't hit the field at level 3 (at least not with the frequency you see later), you might take a different power at this level and retrain into Words of Bravery later.</p><p></p><p><strong>Show</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Beacon of Vengeance:</strong></span></p><p><em>Lightly WIS-based, AC, single target.</em> Invisibility isn't a bad buff at level 3, especially before everything and its brother gets blasts and bursts. Between the CA from invisibility, your native rune state, and the ability to target Reflex, an ally benefiting from the destruction rider of this power is going to wind up with a pretty beefy bonus to hit, though of course allies that don't target AC get less of a benefit. The protection rider is nice in that the ally can stealth from the enemy, though some GMs will have other enemies point out which square the target escaped to. Either way, it's a solid buff package for an ally, and a decent defenderish trick.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Symbol of Wrath Reversed:</strong></span></p><p><em>Lightly CON-based, AC, single target.</em> Here we have your first reliable (if not Reliable) attack-granting power. Anvil of Battle isn't likely to actually trigger an attack from an ally (maybe from you), but this is another story. An enemy with reach might be able to weasel out of granting an extra attack, but a clever party can usually nail them anyway. The protection rider is, like most of your early surgeless heals, really nothing impressive, and I'd only recommend using it over the destruction rider when you've got several floored allies who need a nudge to get above zero, and that's not a situation we want to be in anyway.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #993366"><strong>Word of Alliance:</strong></span></p><p><em>No stat, AC, single target.</em> This power is your first 2[W] encounter power, but that's about all it has going for it. The destruction rider is not very good; in order for the power bonus to hit to be greater than the effective boost given by reducing their defenses with Word of Exchange, your ally has to have three other party members next to the target. That's frankly not terribly likely in most parties. The protection rider is tolerable when you've got a melee furball beating something to death, but it's still not a great boon, particularly because melee furballs tend to come at the end of combat, not the beginning (especially at level 3, before you have a ton of mobility upgrades). I like my leader powers to be more useful at the beginning than at the end. Note that you don't count as an ally for determining the protection rider, but you do for the destruction rider.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Word of the Blinding Shield:</strong></span></p><p><em>CON-based, Fort, single target in burst 5.</em> This is very likely to turn a hit into a miss, and that's frankly worth something. It's also one of the few off-turn ways you're ever going to have to change (or, later, reapply) a rune state, which is also cool. It deals minimal damage (only CON in destruction mode, and nothing at all otherwise), but negating an attack against an ally is still rock solid. Note that the blindness lasts for the whole turn, not just the triggering attack, so this is great to use on a multiattacking foe (though this only applies to true multiattacks, not blasts or bursts). The CON riders aren't very important compared to the blinding, so WIS builds can still have fun with this. Since burst and blast attacks become more and more common as you get higher in level, this loses some luster eventually, but that's OK.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Words of Bravery (D404):</strong></span></p><p><em>WIS-based, AC, unfriendly burst 1.</em> This is your ONLY native way of granting saving throws, and that's terrible. If you don't have Mark of Healing or another solid way of handing out saves, this is basically mandatory, just because saving throws are such an important leader function, especially at higher levels. If you have other ways of granting saving throws, this power is still decent. It's a burst (though it's strangely unfriendly—it bothers me somewhat that the Barbarian's bursts are friendly, while yours aren't, but I digress), it contains some forced movement (quite a lot, if you happen to use the destruction rider), and it grants a saving throw to both you and a friend regardless of whether you hit. CON builds can still benefit from tossing out saves, but WIS builds get a whole lot more mileage out of it.</p><p></p><p>[/sblock]</p><p><strong>Level 7:</strong> The CON-based powers aren't very impressive, but Symbol of Cowardice lets WIS-users throw around some fun numbers, and Word of Befuddlement is a great choice for anyone, especially with the right party.</p><p></p><p><strong>Show</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><strong>Gathering Storm Intonation:</strong></span></p><p><em>Lightly CON-based, Ref, mostly single target.</em> This power is weird, and it doesn't really do much for your leading abilities. If the target attacks, you can zap its adjacent allies for STR mod damage. If you're in protection mode, you slide those other enemies. If you're in destruction mode, the initial hit has an extra ping of damage equal to your CON mod. I think it's a separate damage instance and thus will ping vulnerabilities twice, but really, if you're that concerned about that sort of thing, you're probably in the wrong class. I guess this could incite the target to want to move away from allied minions before attacking? I don't really see the benefit here.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #993366"><strong>Rune of Roaring Fire:</strong></span></p><p><em>CON-based, AC, single target.</em> Under really ideal circumstances, you can rack up a decent amount of damage with the destruction rider if the enemy is dumb enough to keep swinging, but it'll probably take a pretty specific party setup to make that really shine, and I don't want to rely on that. Without some kind of vulnerability in the picture, it's unlikely to make your foe really unwilling to take the opportunity attacks, so I don't think it adds much in the way of party mobility. The protection rider is cute; concealment is a passable buff, though the CON rider won't do too much, since any ally who can hide with non-total concealment probably already has high enough Stealth to autosucceed against most enemies. Without CON, the destruction rider becomes really unimpressive, though the protection rider remains about as good. At least it deals 2[W] damage, if you really think an extra die is the path to power on a leader.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Symbol of Cowardice:</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"></span><em>WIS-based, Will, single target.</em> This power is nice and accurate, and the protection rider is really nice. Even with no allies adjacent to the target, that's a pretty noticeable penalty on a WIS-based character, and if you've got a melee furball going, the enemy isn't hitting squat. The destruction rider has its uses, though it's a lot more situational than the protection rider. It's especially nice if you've got a hazard you want to repeatedly attempt to shove the enemy into. They might make one saving throw to resist being forced into that pit, but will they make three or four? One way to find out! 2[W] damage, if you care. CON-users can still get some use out of the power, but it'll take more party coordination.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Word of Befuddlement:</strong></span></p><p><em>No stat, Will, single target.</em> Think of the destruction rider as granting an attack, only to your enemy instead of to your friends. The only thing keeping this from being truly fantastic is the fact that you're not really going to get to apply any bonuses to the granted attack, but with MM3 damage, that matters less. Do note that the target can attack themselves, if you choose. If you have a defender in the party whose punishment triggers on making any attack (not just attacking allies), this will force a mark violation and become pretty much unequivocally the best choice of the level in the process—though if you're unlucky, the mark penalty may make the enemy miss! This is especially nice against enemy controllers, who often have nasty effects on their MBAs, but any post-MM3 monster will probably be worthwhile. The protection rider is very situational, but if you have a party that can take advantage of it, it's a very powerful penalty that will all but guarantee that you become the center of the target's attention. 2[W], because this wasn't nice enough already.</p><p></p><p>[/sblock]</p><p><strong>Level 13:</strong> Not the strongest array at this level, with a couple powers that don't really offer enough benefit over your at-wills to be worth the slot. That said, there's some surgeless healing in Words of Fiery Fidelity, and wannabe defenders will find something to love in Iron Redoubt. If you just want to throw around numbers, it's not unthinkable that you'd go back to level 7 for either Symbol of Cowardice or Word of Befuddlement, but you might find something you like here.</p><p></p><p><strong>Show</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><strong>Iron Redoubt:</strong></p><p><em>WIS-based, AC, single target.</em> You're a pretend defender! This power has very little to do with being a leader, but you can make a reasonably convincing defender for a round, if you squint. You'll have to rely on positioning and/or party synergy (or an AP'd Word of Binding, though it'll be a rare case for that to be your best use of your AP) to keep them from just walking away, but if you've got them somehow pinned down, you've got as nice a catch-22 (attack the Runepriest with damage resistance and Artistry, or eat a boosted MBA) as you're likely to get on a non-defender. The protection rider has started to lose its edge by level 13 (even an 18/18 starting array won't give you more than +6 WIS, +7 next level, and that assumes a pure 18/18 array . . . meanwhile, MM3 standard monster damage of level 13 is 21 on a non-Brute), but if you've isolated the monster to the point where it's likely to only attack you, it can be decent. I'd only take this power if I really expected to get to play an off-defender, but it's good at what it does. CON-based builds can probably skip it unless they REALLY want some mark-and-punish mojo.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Whirling Storm Word:</strong></span></p><p><em>CON-based, AC, single target.</em> If you have a party that can reliably get true flanking, the destruction rider is a sizable damage boost for a CON-based build, and of course it does stack with Rune of Mending. What keeps it from being sky blue? Well, you've probably got Word of Diminishment (especially as a CON build), and that'll grant an effective +4 to you and your friends' damage without having to muck around with flanking. Your CON is likely only to be +5 or +6 at the highest by this point, so that's not really a giant improvement. Of course, if you AP, they do stack, and the protection rider is pretty beefy for when you want to make sure something misses. If for some reason you're a CON build who doesn't have Word of Diminishment (I can't imagine why not, but I guess it's possible), this is definitely worth a look. WIS builds, look elsewhere.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #993366">Word of Astral Defiance:</span></strong></p><p><em>WIS-based, Reflex, unfriendly burst 1.</em> I see what this power is TRYING to do, but I don't think it does a good job. As I indicated with Whirling Storm Word, the vulnerability you grant with this power is only likely to be a couple of points higher than that which you grant with Word of Diminishment, and Word of Diminishment can't be avoided by just moving one square. It's multitarget, but I think it'll be rare for you to really get a benefit out of attacking more than one critter with it. The protection rider seems at odds with itself, since it rewards allies for being adjacent to you <em>after an unfriendly burst attack!</em> (Admittedly, if you're already in the Rune State of Protection, your allies will have a touch of resistance against you, but still.) If you're WIS-heavy and have enough mobility tricks to make the bizarre timing on the protection rider not a big deal, it's a decent enough bonus (especially if you're a Rune Shield, though you'll almost <em>have</em> to target your allies to really make that click), but it seems like it's more trouble than it's worth. CON builds, stay away. (If you can convince your GM that having this power target creatures, rather than enemies, is pretty much nonsensical, it becomes rather a bit better, but I have to rate the powers based on RAW, not on Rules-As-I-Want-Them-To-Be. Even so, the other concerns apply.)</p><p></p><p><strong>Word of Lingering Thunder:</strong></p><p><em>CON-based, AC, single target.</em> This power is kinda poorly worded. Anyway, the destruction rider has a minor defendery bent and is acceptable at keeping your foe away from your allies. It's actually pretty funny against skirmishers with those annoying “shift 18 squares and make 8 attacks at any point during the shift” powers. The protection rider is where the poor wording comes in. “Moves away,” eh? I imagine that this is intended to be “is adjacent to and moves away from,” but that's not what it says, so any time the target increases its distance away from your friend next round, it triggers the damage and the prone. Incidentally, this is going to be much easier to trigger than the destruction rider, more often than not. The real shame of this power is that it doesn't really enhance your role as a leader (hence the black rating), but it's interesting enough to still be worth looking at. 2[W], for you dice-lovers out there.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Words of Fiery Fidelity (D404):</strong></span></p><p><em>No stat, Fort, single target.</em> THIS is what a surgeless healing power looks like. If you stick to destruction mode (and on most battlefields, you should), this is guaranteed to heal at least 20 damage to probably at least 2 or 3 members of the party. If you're careful and lucky, it can heal much more. It's actually pretty damaging for the level, too, with a 2[W] smack at the start and a nontrivial amount of ongoing fire damage as a hit-or-miss effect. Note that the fire damage and the healing aren't one-for-one; if the target resists some but not all of the fire damage, your allies still heal for the full amount (though if the target is vulnerable to fire, the reverse is true). If you have an encounter stun or two in your party (and by 13, you very well might), it's a lot of fun to surround the last target, slap this one them, stun them, and just “sit around the campfire,” regaining free health and readying actions to demolish them once they successfully save. It won't be an option in harder, more drawn-out fights, but it can turn easier fights into an actual net gain if you're lucky. The amount of healing you get will be a lot less nice by Epic, but hey, surgeless healing is surgeless healing.</p><p></p><p>[/sblock]</p><p><strong>Level 17:</strong> Two good enabling powers here: Rune of the Astral Phalanx is awesome, and Word of Healing Assault has its uses if your party demands more healing. The other powers can't compare. If you have absolutely no allies worth enabling (though that's a strange state of affairs at this point in 4e's life cycle), Mark of Battle's End is about as much field-shuffling as your class will offer you as a single action.</p><p></p><p><strong>Show</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><span style="color: #ffcc00"><strong>Rune of the Astral Phalanx:</strong></span></p><p><em>WIS-based, AC, single target. </em><u>Oh. Hell. Yes.</u> The Warlord has a certain power. He calls it Hail of Steel. It's kinda class-defining. You get Hail of Steel <em>with a built-in damage bonus</em> (and of course a built-in attack bonus from your native rune state, if you use destruction, which you should). HoS is slightly more flexible in that it gives RBAs as well as MBAs, but still, an “everybody swing!” power is solid gold if your party is even a little bit cooperative. Runepriests love slinging around bonuses, and this is just about the best way to make them trigger over and over and over. The protection rider, as I read it, gives allies the choice of attacking or shifting, so I guess if you happen to have a Wizard or something stuck next to the target, this can let them get free . . . but it'll be a rare battle where this is the best choice. CON builds won't get the damage bonus, but oh well. This is still worth it. Naturally, in a party with very few or no good basic attacks, this power's rating drops <strong><span style="color: #ff0000">like a stone</span></strong>, but that's true of any enabling power.</p><p></p><p><strong>Mark of Battle's End:</strong></p><p><em>No stat, AC, single target.</em> I . . . don't see the point of this power. I guess it's more battlefield rearrangement than you're going to get from pretty much any other single Runepriest power (which is why I rated it as high as black), but still, I have a hard time imagining when this will be your best choice.. It's 3[W], though if you're really using that as a primary factor in choosing leader powers, I don't think I can help you.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #993366"><strong>Whisper of the Cunning Step:</strong></span></p><p><em>Lightly WIS-based, AC, single target.</em> Very few creatures are even going to notice the slowed condition by 17 (especially by the time the melee-based leader gets into position), but it's not useless. That said, this gives you a bit of ally-shuffling mojo, but not much else. The bonus from the destruction rider isn't bad, but I still wonder if it's really the best use of your action at this level. There's a pretty hefty teleport attached to the protection rider, but I feel like that's too conditional to really be worth one of your power slots. If you know your GM loves placing you on maps where teleportation is necessary, I guess it's worth considering, but I'm not sold. The teleport is WIS-based, but it's not really any worse for CON-based builds. 2[W], not that you care.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Word of Healing Assault:</strong></span></p><p><em>Lightly CON-based, no attack roll, 2 allies in burst 5.</em> This is your only lazy power, not that you probably care much about that. Anyway, two allies get basic attacks (with your CON as a damage boost if you go for the destruction rider), and you get to toss out some boosted healing if they hit. Rune of the Astral Phalanx is likely to do more damage, but this is more flexible in its targeting, and if you've only got two allies with good basic attacks, this is worth considering. Do note that these basic attacks are either melee or ranged, so that might be a consideration in your party. I don't love relying on the healing from this power, since when an ally needs me to heal them, they need me to heal them NOW, regardless of whether or not they hit with a granted attack. Even so, it's a solid power. The protection rider is a little bit small for level 17 (average monster damage at 17 is 25, after all, and that's just bare baseline), but it can come up, and it's stat-independent. Note that this is a healing power that targets allies, so if you're lucky enough to have Mark of Healing, it will grant saving throws to your allies. WIS builds will likely stick to the protection rider, but they'll still get about as much use out of this as CON builds will.</p><p></p><p>[/sblock]</p><p><strong>Level 23:</strong> Rune of Rising Fury is my choice if you've got allies worth enabling, though snagging Word of Healing Assault from 17 isn't a bad idea either if you want to go down that road. Otherwise, take Mark of Untamed Wrath if you trust your controller to lock down the enemy's choices, and take Tide of Victory if you just want some numbers.</p><p></p><p><strong>Show</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><strong>Mark of Untamed Wrath:</strong></p><p><em>No stat, Will, single target.</em> This power is hard to rate. The destruction rider CAN add up to a nice chunk of damage, though it takes a pretty specific battlefield to make that damage more useful than just adding damage to the target. The protection rider can be pretty strong (monster attacks at 23 are really nasty), but it basically relies on the rest of your party to lock the enemies in place and make sure that they can't weasel out of it. If you trust your party to do that reliably, I could see this as being blue or better. In a vacuum, well, it's harder to say, hence the black rating. 3[W], because that totally matters at this level, or something.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Rune of Rising Fury:</strong></span></p><p><em>No stat, AC, single target.</em> This is like Rune of the Astral Phalanx, only spread out a bit. You don't do any damage on your own hit, and the attacks are spread out in the initiative order. The advantage to this over Rune of the Astral Phalanx is that it's far less dependent on your allies' starting positions. You can simply tag the target with this, then let your allies get into position on their own turns (or make ranged basics at their leisure). The destruction rider isn't worth much (who doesn't have CA on tap by level 23?), though the protection rider can be useful on the right map, particularly if the enemy has an aura you might not want to end your turn in. If you only have two allies with worthwhile basic attacks, Word of Healing Assault from 17 is strictly better, since it doesn't rely on your attack roll succeeding.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><strong>Rune of the Wandering Star:</strong></span></p><p><em>CON-based, AC, single target.</em> This would be a perfectly acceptable (though not outstanding) power at, oh, level 7. CON mod damage is simply not going to be a noticeable factor in a level 23 fight. If nobody in the party has a better way of clearing minions, the destruction rider can at least reasonably remove a bunch of them from the field, though the time delay factor makes this awkward at best (and really, that should not be the Runepriest's job). Likewise, the penalty to damage rolls (once again time-delayed) simply isn't going to make a big deal at this level. The penalty to attack rolls isn't even to more than one attack, so enemies with multiattacks, multitarget attacks, or multiple actions will barely even notice. Too little, too late. This power is bad for anyone, but it's even worse for WIS users. 2[W], blah blah.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Tide of Victory:</strong></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"></span><em>Lightly CON-based, Will, single target.</em> I always like to see weapon vs. Will, and the positioning necessary on this power is pretty easy. Unless you tend to fight very spread-out battles, this will pretty much work at full strength more often than not. The destruction rider is pretty situational (will a push of 3-5 squares really matter at Epic? Depends on what tricks your partymates have up their sleeves), but the protection rider is a pretty hefty penalty with pretty easy conditions. Definitely a defensive power, but those have their place. 3[W], if you care. WIS users will lose a bit of damage on the destruction rider, but they won't lose much else.</p><p></p><p>[/sblock]</p><p><strong>Level 27:</strong> All of these powers are actually pretty good, and if your party can handle the tactics involved with some of them, there aren't really any bad choices. I'm fond of the sheer numbers you get to sling around with Word of Divine Battle, but you can have fun with any of these.</p><p></p><p><strong>Show</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Invocation of Carceri:</strong></span></p><p><em>Lightly CON-based, Reflex, 3 enemies in friendly burst 2.</em> This is some reasonable control. The tricky part will be getting your Runepriest (a class not especially known for mobility) into position, then ideally getting them out again, since the entire point is to punish targets in the zone for attacking folks outside the zone. If your party is all melee-based, this power becomes very hard to use, but if you've got some ranged capability and/or reach, it's pretty nice indeed. The protection rider will come in handy far more often than the destruction rider, so WIS builds will probably be just fine sticking with this.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Word of Divine Battle:</strong></span></p><p><em>WIS-based, AC, single target.</em> You want numbers? Let's throw around some numbers. A +4 bonus to hit the target, no questions asked, is rock solid, and a WIS-based bonus to defenses, no questions asked, is also rock solid. If you're WIS-based, you'll be able to happily use this power with either rune state. Simple, effective, and powerful. CON builds might take this just because the destruction rider is so good, but the protection rider really needs some WIS to make it pop, so this power is probably just <span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>blue</strong></span> for them.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Word of Vengeful Thunder:</strong></span></p><p><em>No stat, AC, single target.</em> This is kind of interesting in that the target has very little to do with the benefit your allies get. The reflective damage (or the damage shield) doesn't care who's doing the hitting. Monsters hit pretty darn hard by 27, so this can be a pretty nice deterrent, though I'd rely on it more for defensive purposes than in the hopes of racking up damage from it. Do note that for the destruction rider, enemies that damage both allies (for instance, with burst attacks) will take damage twice, which can be fun. I especially like this power if your defender has ways of redirecting damage onto himself or herself (for instance, a Battlemind with Lightning Rush, or anyone with the Guardian theme).</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Word of Weal and Woe:</strong></span></p><p><em>WIS-based, AC, single target.</em> If you want a healing power, this one's pretty good. The real meat is simply the fact that the surges are spent; you don't want to rely on your allies having surges to spend (and needing to spend them) in order to rack up bonuses and penalties. That said, simply getting to heal most of your party has its uses, and if you DO get a few surges spent, the penalties associated with the protection rider are nice.</p><p>[/sblock]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nibelung, post: 6709449, member: 74499"] [b]Originally posted by RayjeEliwan:[/b] Powers [CENTER][Size=4][b]Functional/Grammatical Words: At-wills[/b][/size][/CENTER] There are only four at-wills for your class, and they're all pretty acceptable. Since two are WIS-based and two are CON-based, some Runepriests will want to just take the two that fit their designated secondary stat and be done with it, and that's not a terrible idea. That said, Word of Diminishment's awesome destruction rider is stat-neutral, and Word of Exchange's protection rider still partially works even without WIS, so taking those two regardless of your secondary might be worth considering. It may be worth mentioning that none of these scale to 2[W] at 21st level the way most at-wills do, but there's nothing you can really do about that aside from asking your GM for a houserule to correct this obvious oversight. [b]Show[/b] [sblock] [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Word of Binding:[/b][/COLOR] [i]Wis-based, AC, single target.[/i] This is a great power to have in your back pocket, though it's mostly not going to be your bread and butter. Still, plenty of defenders would kill to have a nearly unconditional immobilize on tap. The destruction rider is acceptable in Heroic, giving your WIS as extra damage on the next hit from an ally, but the protection rider has a much longer shelf life. Against a foe without reach, you can basically present them with the unenviable choices of attacking you (triggering your Artistry and whatever counters you have cooked up), attacking your ally (whose defenses you've boosted rather a bit), or provoking by making a ranged attack. Nice for when you want to pretend to be a defender. Without WIS, this power's usefulness goes down a fair bit; I'd call it purple for folks without a good WIS score. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Word of Diminishment:[/b][/COLOR] [i]Lightly CON-based, AC, single target.[/i] The destruction rider is just great here. Vulnerability isn't a bonus to damage, so you're unlikely to run into colliding bonuses unless you're in a mafia-style party. Best of all, the destruction rider is totally stat-independent. If you have a permastealth ally or other shenanigans for getting opportunity attacks, this is even better. The protection rider is weak, though it's passable in low Heroic (particularly combined with your native rune state of protection). [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Word of Exchange:[/b][/COLOR] [i]Lightly WIS-based, AC, single target.[/i] This power is interesting because I feel like the protection rider is more aggressive than the destruction rider. A no-questions-asked penalty to all defenses is a pretty hefty buff . . . many similar leader powers only apply to one ally (e.g., Righteous Brand), one attack (e.g., Lance of Faith, Aggravating Force), or one defense (e.g., Guiding Strike). Add in a nice boost to AC to the next ally to hit (though watch the timing, since it lasts until the end of your next turn, not the ally's next turn), and we have a very nice tool to keep around. The destruction rider isn't bad, though the effective bonus to hit from protection is going to outstrip the bonus to damage from destruction pretty quickly. For CON-based Runepriests, this power is still useful, just less so. [b]Word of Shielding:[/b] [i]CON-based, AC, single target.[/i] This power suffers from a lack of scaling. The extra damage from the destruction rider isn't especially impressive (though it is a separate damage instance, if you can somehow get it to ping a vulnerability . . . difficult to make that worthwhile), though the blunting effect from the protection rider (particularly combined with the native rune state of protection) is noticeable early on. Generally, it's a lot better in Heroic than in later tiers. Without CON, this isn't worth it at all. [Size=4][b][/b][/size] [/sblock] [CENTER][Size=4][b]Lexicon of the Evolving Mind: Encounter Powers[/b][/size][/CENTER] [b]Level 1:[/b] There are no actively BAD powers here, though it's frankly hard to use Flames of Purity very well. Executioner's Call is the stand-out, but the daze from Divine Rune of Thunder is a tool that very few other Runepriest powers will give you. [b]Show[/b] [sblock] [b]Anvil of Battle:[/b] [i]Lightly CON-based, Fort, single target.[/i] Reasonably accurate, and it gives you kind of a pseudo-defender focus for a round. You get resistance to the target for 1 round, so they're likely to want to find someone else. In destruction mode, if they shift, they provoke from you or a friend (with a CON-based bonus to hit); in protection mode, if they shift, you and your friends can shift as well (perhaps following them). Against artillery, this isn't bad, because it makes staying and place and shifting away both likely to incur opportunity attacks. Against melee creatures, you'll probably get another swing, but your friends aren't likely to; if you have a friend in position to punish them, they'll just attack your friend instead of you. It's a decent power, but it has a limited leader focus, since the attack grant is pretty unreliable. CON is a nice bonus, but WIS characters can use it just fine. [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Divine Rune of Thunder[/b][b]:[/b][/COLOR] [i]WIS-based, AC, single target.[/i] The destruction rider is just some mild extra damage and CA, and it really isn't that useful. The protection rider adds a bit of control to your toolbox, granting a nice push and a daze effect. Remember that dazed creatures grant CA, so you're not giving up much compared to the destruction rider. No-questions-asked daze is nice to have on tap, and that can be enough forced movement to make things uncomfortable for them. CON builds can benefit from the daze, but less so from the push, and really not at all from the destruction mode. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Executioner's Call:[/b][/COLOR] [i]No stat, AC, single target.[/i] This is a leader power through and through. A typeless bonus to damage (stacks with Rune of Mending!) is nice, though of course Word of Diminishment is functionally similar. The real money comes with the destruction rider. A +4 to hit is rather massive, and it'll make sure that your ally's big gun isn't wasted. (It's actually likely to be a +5 total, thanks to your native rune state.) The protection rider has its uses, but it'll come up a lot less often than the destruction one. [COLOR=#993366][b]Flames of Purity:[/b][/COLOR] [i]No stat, AC, friendly blast 3.[/i] This power is nice in that it's a blast (and you don't have many multitarget powers), but it doesn't do too much. The power bonus to damage from the destruction rider is only one point better than Rune of Mending and doesn't stack with it, and the healing from the protection rider really isn't very impressive even at level 1. Add in tricky targeting to gain the maximum benefit from affecting both allies and enemies, and you end up with a power that's rarely worth the hassle. That said, if your GM favors combat with multiple waves of enemies, it's not entirely out of the question that you'll need the damage bonus after you're out of Runes of Mending, but the targeting is still tricky. [/sblock] [b]Level 3:[/b] This level isn't really fair, since you pretty much HAVE to pick Words of Bravery if you don't have Mark of Healing or another reliable way of granting saving throws. Failing to do so means accepting that you're simply not going to be granting saving throws to your allies. If you have Mark of Healing or another method of granting saving throws, Symbol of Wrath Reversed adds a swing to the field, Mark of the Blinding Shield removes a swing from the field, and Beacon of Vengeance is interesting and different. I will mention that since the really nasty save-ends conditions haven't hit the field at level 3 (at least not with the frequency you see later), you might take a different power at this level and retrain into Words of Bravery later. [b]Show[/b] [sblock] [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Beacon of Vengeance:[/b][/COLOR] [i]Lightly WIS-based, AC, single target.[/i] Invisibility isn't a bad buff at level 3, especially before everything and its brother gets blasts and bursts. Between the CA from invisibility, your native rune state, and the ability to target Reflex, an ally benefiting from the destruction rider of this power is going to wind up with a pretty beefy bonus to hit, though of course allies that don't target AC get less of a benefit. The protection rider is nice in that the ally can stealth from the enemy, though some GMs will have other enemies point out which square the target escaped to. Either way, it's a solid buff package for an ally, and a decent defenderish trick. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Symbol of Wrath Reversed:[/b][/COLOR] [i]Lightly CON-based, AC, single target.[/i] Here we have your first reliable (if not Reliable) attack-granting power. Anvil of Battle isn't likely to actually trigger an attack from an ally (maybe from you), but this is another story. An enemy with reach might be able to weasel out of granting an extra attack, but a clever party can usually nail them anyway. The protection rider is, like most of your early surgeless heals, really nothing impressive, and I'd only recommend using it over the destruction rider when you've got several floored allies who need a nudge to get above zero, and that's not a situation we want to be in anyway. [COLOR=#993366][b]Word of Alliance:[/b][/COLOR] [i]No stat, AC, single target.[/i] This power is your first 2[W] encounter power, but that's about all it has going for it. The destruction rider is not very good; in order for the power bonus to hit to be greater than the effective boost given by reducing their defenses with Word of Exchange, your ally has to have three other party members next to the target. That's frankly not terribly likely in most parties. The protection rider is tolerable when you've got a melee furball beating something to death, but it's still not a great boon, particularly because melee furballs tend to come at the end of combat, not the beginning (especially at level 3, before you have a ton of mobility upgrades). I like my leader powers to be more useful at the beginning than at the end. Note that you don't count as an ally for determining the protection rider, but you do for the destruction rider. [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Word of the Blinding Shield:[/b][/COLOR] [i]CON-based, Fort, single target in burst 5.[/i] This is very likely to turn a hit into a miss, and that's frankly worth something. It's also one of the few off-turn ways you're ever going to have to change (or, later, reapply) a rune state, which is also cool. It deals minimal damage (only CON in destruction mode, and nothing at all otherwise), but negating an attack against an ally is still rock solid. Note that the blindness lasts for the whole turn, not just the triggering attack, so this is great to use on a multiattacking foe (though this only applies to true multiattacks, not blasts or bursts). The CON riders aren't very important compared to the blinding, so WIS builds can still have fun with this. Since burst and blast attacks become more and more common as you get higher in level, this loses some luster eventually, but that's OK. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Words of Bravery (D404):[/b][/COLOR] [i]WIS-based, AC, unfriendly burst 1.[/i] This is your ONLY native way of granting saving throws, and that's terrible. If you don't have Mark of Healing or another solid way of handing out saves, this is basically mandatory, just because saving throws are such an important leader function, especially at higher levels. If you have other ways of granting saving throws, this power is still decent. It's a burst (though it's strangely unfriendly—it bothers me somewhat that the Barbarian's bursts are friendly, while yours aren't, but I digress), it contains some forced movement (quite a lot, if you happen to use the destruction rider), and it grants a saving throw to both you and a friend regardless of whether you hit. CON builds can still benefit from tossing out saves, but WIS builds get a whole lot more mileage out of it. [/sblock] [b]Level 7:[/b] The CON-based powers aren't very impressive, but Symbol of Cowardice lets WIS-users throw around some fun numbers, and Word of Befuddlement is a great choice for anyone, especially with the right party. [b]Show[/b] [sblock] [COLOR=#ff0000][b]Gathering Storm Intonation:[/b][/COLOR] [i]Lightly CON-based, Ref, mostly single target.[/i] This power is weird, and it doesn't really do much for your leading abilities. If the target attacks, you can zap its adjacent allies for STR mod damage. If you're in protection mode, you slide those other enemies. If you're in destruction mode, the initial hit has an extra ping of damage equal to your CON mod. I think it's a separate damage instance and thus will ping vulnerabilities twice, but really, if you're that concerned about that sort of thing, you're probably in the wrong class. I guess this could incite the target to want to move away from allied minions before attacking? I don't really see the benefit here. [COLOR=#993366][b]Rune of Roaring Fire:[/b][/COLOR] [i]CON-based, AC, single target.[/i] Under really ideal circumstances, you can rack up a decent amount of damage with the destruction rider if the enemy is dumb enough to keep swinging, but it'll probably take a pretty specific party setup to make that really shine, and I don't want to rely on that. Without some kind of vulnerability in the picture, it's unlikely to make your foe really unwilling to take the opportunity attacks, so I don't think it adds much in the way of party mobility. The protection rider is cute; concealment is a passable buff, though the CON rider won't do too much, since any ally who can hide with non-total concealment probably already has high enough Stealth to autosucceed against most enemies. Without CON, the destruction rider becomes really unimpressive, though the protection rider remains about as good. At least it deals 2[W] damage, if you really think an extra die is the path to power on a leader. [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Symbol of Cowardice:[/b] [/COLOR][i]WIS-based, Will, single target.[/i] This power is nice and accurate, and the protection rider is really nice. Even with no allies adjacent to the target, that's a pretty noticeable penalty on a WIS-based character, and if you've got a melee furball going, the enemy isn't hitting squat. The destruction rider has its uses, though it's a lot more situational than the protection rider. It's especially nice if you've got a hazard you want to repeatedly attempt to shove the enemy into. They might make one saving throw to resist being forced into that pit, but will they make three or four? One way to find out! 2[W] damage, if you care. CON-users can still get some use out of the power, but it'll take more party coordination. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Word of Befuddlement:[/b][/COLOR] [i]No stat, Will, single target.[/i] Think of the destruction rider as granting an attack, only to your enemy instead of to your friends. The only thing keeping this from being truly fantastic is the fact that you're not really going to get to apply any bonuses to the granted attack, but with MM3 damage, that matters less. Do note that the target can attack themselves, if you choose. If you have a defender in the party whose punishment triggers on making any attack (not just attacking allies), this will force a mark violation and become pretty much unequivocally the best choice of the level in the process—though if you're unlucky, the mark penalty may make the enemy miss! This is especially nice against enemy controllers, who often have nasty effects on their MBAs, but any post-MM3 monster will probably be worthwhile. The protection rider is very situational, but if you have a party that can take advantage of it, it's a very powerful penalty that will all but guarantee that you become the center of the target's attention. 2[W], because this wasn't nice enough already. [/sblock] [b]Level 13:[/b] Not the strongest array at this level, with a couple powers that don't really offer enough benefit over your at-wills to be worth the slot. That said, there's some surgeless healing in Words of Fiery Fidelity, and wannabe defenders will find something to love in Iron Redoubt. If you just want to throw around numbers, it's not unthinkable that you'd go back to level 7 for either Symbol of Cowardice or Word of Befuddlement, but you might find something you like here. [b]Show[/b] [sblock] [b]Iron Redoubt:[/b] [i]WIS-based, AC, single target.[/i] You're a pretend defender! This power has very little to do with being a leader, but you can make a reasonably convincing defender for a round, if you squint. You'll have to rely on positioning and/or party synergy (or an AP'd Word of Binding, though it'll be a rare case for that to be your best use of your AP) to keep them from just walking away, but if you've got them somehow pinned down, you've got as nice a catch-22 (attack the Runepriest with damage resistance and Artistry, or eat a boosted MBA) as you're likely to get on a non-defender. The protection rider has started to lose its edge by level 13 (even an 18/18 starting array won't give you more than +6 WIS, +7 next level, and that assumes a pure 18/18 array . . . meanwhile, MM3 standard monster damage of level 13 is 21 on a non-Brute), but if you've isolated the monster to the point where it's likely to only attack you, it can be decent. I'd only take this power if I really expected to get to play an off-defender, but it's good at what it does. CON-based builds can probably skip it unless they REALLY want some mark-and-punish mojo. [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Whirling Storm Word:[/b][/COLOR] [i]CON-based, AC, single target.[/i] If you have a party that can reliably get true flanking, the destruction rider is a sizable damage boost for a CON-based build, and of course it does stack with Rune of Mending. What keeps it from being sky blue? Well, you've probably got Word of Diminishment (especially as a CON build), and that'll grant an effective +4 to you and your friends' damage without having to muck around with flanking. Your CON is likely only to be +5 or +6 at the highest by this point, so that's not really a giant improvement. Of course, if you AP, they do stack, and the protection rider is pretty beefy for when you want to make sure something misses. If for some reason you're a CON build who doesn't have Word of Diminishment (I can't imagine why not, but I guess it's possible), this is definitely worth a look. WIS builds, look elsewhere. [b][COLOR=#993366]Word of Astral Defiance:[/COLOR][/b] [i]WIS-based, Reflex, unfriendly burst 1.[/i] I see what this power is TRYING to do, but I don't think it does a good job. As I indicated with Whirling Storm Word, the vulnerability you grant with this power is only likely to be a couple of points higher than that which you grant with Word of Diminishment, and Word of Diminishment can't be avoided by just moving one square. It's multitarget, but I think it'll be rare for you to really get a benefit out of attacking more than one critter with it. The protection rider seems at odds with itself, since it rewards allies for being adjacent to you [i]after an unfriendly burst attack![/i] (Admittedly, if you're already in the Rune State of Protection, your allies will have a touch of resistance against you, but still.) If you're WIS-heavy and have enough mobility tricks to make the bizarre timing on the protection rider not a big deal, it's a decent enough bonus (especially if you're a Rune Shield, though you'll almost [i]have[/i] to target your allies to really make that click), but it seems like it's more trouble than it's worth. CON builds, stay away. (If you can convince your GM that having this power target creatures, rather than enemies, is pretty much nonsensical, it becomes rather a bit better, but I have to rate the powers based on RAW, not on Rules-As-I-Want-Them-To-Be. Even so, the other concerns apply.) [b]Word of Lingering Thunder:[/b] [i]CON-based, AC, single target.[/i] This power is kinda poorly worded. Anyway, the destruction rider has a minor defendery bent and is acceptable at keeping your foe away from your allies. It's actually pretty funny against skirmishers with those annoying “shift 18 squares and make 8 attacks at any point during the shift” powers. The protection rider is where the poor wording comes in. “Moves away,” eh? I imagine that this is intended to be “is adjacent to and moves away from,” but that's not what it says, so any time the target increases its distance away from your friend next round, it triggers the damage and the prone. Incidentally, this is going to be much easier to trigger than the destruction rider, more often than not. The real shame of this power is that it doesn't really enhance your role as a leader (hence the black rating), but it's interesting enough to still be worth looking at. 2[W], for you dice-lovers out there. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Words of Fiery Fidelity (D404):[/b][/COLOR] [i]No stat, Fort, single target.[/i] THIS is what a surgeless healing power looks like. If you stick to destruction mode (and on most battlefields, you should), this is guaranteed to heal at least 20 damage to probably at least 2 or 3 members of the party. If you're careful and lucky, it can heal much more. It's actually pretty damaging for the level, too, with a 2[W] smack at the start and a nontrivial amount of ongoing fire damage as a hit-or-miss effect. Note that the fire damage and the healing aren't one-for-one; if the target resists some but not all of the fire damage, your allies still heal for the full amount (though if the target is vulnerable to fire, the reverse is true). If you have an encounter stun or two in your party (and by 13, you very well might), it's a lot of fun to surround the last target, slap this one them, stun them, and just “sit around the campfire,” regaining free health and readying actions to demolish them once they successfully save. It won't be an option in harder, more drawn-out fights, but it can turn easier fights into an actual net gain if you're lucky. The amount of healing you get will be a lot less nice by Epic, but hey, surgeless healing is surgeless healing. [/sblock] [b]Level 17:[/b] Two good enabling powers here: Rune of the Astral Phalanx is awesome, and Word of Healing Assault has its uses if your party demands more healing. The other powers can't compare. If you have absolutely no allies worth enabling (though that's a strange state of affairs at this point in 4e's life cycle), Mark of Battle's End is about as much field-shuffling as your class will offer you as a single action. [b]Show[/b] [sblock] [COLOR=#ffcc00][b]Rune of the Astral Phalanx:[/b][/COLOR] [i]WIS-based, AC, single target. [/i][u]Oh. Hell. Yes.[/u] The Warlord has a certain power. He calls it Hail of Steel. It's kinda class-defining. You get Hail of Steel [i]with a built-in damage bonus[/i] (and of course a built-in attack bonus from your native rune state, if you use destruction, which you should). HoS is slightly more flexible in that it gives RBAs as well as MBAs, but still, an “everybody swing!” power is solid gold if your party is even a little bit cooperative. Runepriests love slinging around bonuses, and this is just about the best way to make them trigger over and over and over. The protection rider, as I read it, gives allies the choice of attacking or shifting, so I guess if you happen to have a Wizard or something stuck next to the target, this can let them get free . . . but it'll be a rare battle where this is the best choice. CON builds won't get the damage bonus, but oh well. This is still worth it. Naturally, in a party with very few or no good basic attacks, this power's rating drops [b][COLOR=#ff0000]like a stone[/COLOR][/b], but that's true of any enabling power. [b]Mark of Battle's End:[/b] [i]No stat, AC, single target.[/i] I . . . don't see the point of this power. I guess it's more battlefield rearrangement than you're going to get from pretty much any other single Runepriest power (which is why I rated it as high as black), but still, I have a hard time imagining when this will be your best choice.. It's 3[W], though if you're really using that as a primary factor in choosing leader powers, I don't think I can help you. [COLOR=#993366][b]Whisper of the Cunning Step:[/b][/COLOR] [i]Lightly WIS-based, AC, single target.[/i] Very few creatures are even going to notice the slowed condition by 17 (especially by the time the melee-based leader gets into position), but it's not useless. That said, this gives you a bit of ally-shuffling mojo, but not much else. The bonus from the destruction rider isn't bad, but I still wonder if it's really the best use of your action at this level. There's a pretty hefty teleport attached to the protection rider, but I feel like that's too conditional to really be worth one of your power slots. If you know your GM loves placing you on maps where teleportation is necessary, I guess it's worth considering, but I'm not sold. The teleport is WIS-based, but it's not really any worse for CON-based builds. 2[W], not that you care. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Word of Healing Assault:[/b][/COLOR] [i]Lightly CON-based, no attack roll, 2 allies in burst 5.[/i] This is your only lazy power, not that you probably care much about that. Anyway, two allies get basic attacks (with your CON as a damage boost if you go for the destruction rider), and you get to toss out some boosted healing if they hit. Rune of the Astral Phalanx is likely to do more damage, but this is more flexible in its targeting, and if you've only got two allies with good basic attacks, this is worth considering. Do note that these basic attacks are either melee or ranged, so that might be a consideration in your party. I don't love relying on the healing from this power, since when an ally needs me to heal them, they need me to heal them NOW, regardless of whether or not they hit with a granted attack. Even so, it's a solid power. The protection rider is a little bit small for level 17 (average monster damage at 17 is 25, after all, and that's just bare baseline), but it can come up, and it's stat-independent. Note that this is a healing power that targets allies, so if you're lucky enough to have Mark of Healing, it will grant saving throws to your allies. WIS builds will likely stick to the protection rider, but they'll still get about as much use out of this as CON builds will. [/sblock] [b]Level 23:[/b] Rune of Rising Fury is my choice if you've got allies worth enabling, though snagging Word of Healing Assault from 17 isn't a bad idea either if you want to go down that road. Otherwise, take Mark of Untamed Wrath if you trust your controller to lock down the enemy's choices, and take Tide of Victory if you just want some numbers. [b]Show[/b] [sblock] [b]Mark of Untamed Wrath:[/b] [i]No stat, Will, single target.[/i] This power is hard to rate. The destruction rider CAN add up to a nice chunk of damage, though it takes a pretty specific battlefield to make that damage more useful than just adding damage to the target. The protection rider can be pretty strong (monster attacks at 23 are really nasty), but it basically relies on the rest of your party to lock the enemies in place and make sure that they can't weasel out of it. If you trust your party to do that reliably, I could see this as being blue or better. In a vacuum, well, it's harder to say, hence the black rating. 3[W], because that totally matters at this level, or something. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Rune of Rising Fury:[/b][/COLOR] [i]No stat, AC, single target.[/i] This is like Rune of the Astral Phalanx, only spread out a bit. You don't do any damage on your own hit, and the attacks are spread out in the initiative order. The advantage to this over Rune of the Astral Phalanx is that it's far less dependent on your allies' starting positions. You can simply tag the target with this, then let your allies get into position on their own turns (or make ranged basics at their leisure). The destruction rider isn't worth much (who doesn't have CA on tap by level 23?), though the protection rider can be useful on the right map, particularly if the enemy has an aura you might not want to end your turn in. If you only have two allies with worthwhile basic attacks, Word of Healing Assault from 17 is strictly better, since it doesn't rely on your attack roll succeeding. [COLOR=#ff0000][b]Rune of the Wandering Star:[/b][/COLOR] [i]CON-based, AC, single target.[/i] This would be a perfectly acceptable (though not outstanding) power at, oh, level 7. CON mod damage is simply not going to be a noticeable factor in a level 23 fight. If nobody in the party has a better way of clearing minions, the destruction rider can at least reasonably remove a bunch of them from the field, though the time delay factor makes this awkward at best (and really, that should not be the Runepriest's job). Likewise, the penalty to damage rolls (once again time-delayed) simply isn't going to make a big deal at this level. The penalty to attack rolls isn't even to more than one attack, so enemies with multiattacks, multitarget attacks, or multiple actions will barely even notice. Too little, too late. This power is bad for anyone, but it's even worse for WIS users. 2[W], blah blah. [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Tide of Victory:[/b] [/COLOR][i]Lightly CON-based, Will, single target.[/i] I always like to see weapon vs. Will, and the positioning necessary on this power is pretty easy. Unless you tend to fight very spread-out battles, this will pretty much work at full strength more often than not. The destruction rider is pretty situational (will a push of 3-5 squares really matter at Epic? Depends on what tricks your partymates have up their sleeves), but the protection rider is a pretty hefty penalty with pretty easy conditions. Definitely a defensive power, but those have their place. 3[W], if you care. WIS users will lose a bit of damage on the destruction rider, but they won't lose much else. [/sblock] [b]Level 27:[/b] All of these powers are actually pretty good, and if your party can handle the tactics involved with some of them, there aren't really any bad choices. I'm fond of the sheer numbers you get to sling around with Word of Divine Battle, but you can have fun with any of these. [b]Show[/b] [sblock] [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Invocation of Carceri:[/b][/COLOR] [i]Lightly CON-based, Reflex, 3 enemies in friendly burst 2.[/i] This is some reasonable control. The tricky part will be getting your Runepriest (a class not especially known for mobility) into position, then ideally getting them out again, since the entire point is to punish targets in the zone for attacking folks outside the zone. If your party is all melee-based, this power becomes very hard to use, but if you've got some ranged capability and/or reach, it's pretty nice indeed. The protection rider will come in handy far more often than the destruction rider, so WIS builds will probably be just fine sticking with this. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Word of Divine Battle:[/b][/COLOR] [i]WIS-based, AC, single target.[/i] You want numbers? Let's throw around some numbers. A +4 bonus to hit the target, no questions asked, is rock solid, and a WIS-based bonus to defenses, no questions asked, is also rock solid. If you're WIS-based, you'll be able to happily use this power with either rune state. Simple, effective, and powerful. CON builds might take this just because the destruction rider is so good, but the protection rider really needs some WIS to make it pop, so this power is probably just [COLOR=#0000ff][b]blue[/b][/COLOR] for them. [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Word of Vengeful Thunder:[/b][/COLOR] [i]No stat, AC, single target.[/i] This is kind of interesting in that the target has very little to do with the benefit your allies get. The reflective damage (or the damage shield) doesn't care who's doing the hitting. Monsters hit pretty darn hard by 27, so this can be a pretty nice deterrent, though I'd rely on it more for defensive purposes than in the hopes of racking up damage from it. Do note that for the destruction rider, enemies that damage both allies (for instance, with burst attacks) will take damage twice, which can be fun. I especially like this power if your defender has ways of redirecting damage onto himself or herself (for instance, a Battlemind with Lightning Rush, or anyone with the Guardian theme). [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Word of Weal and Woe:[/b][/COLOR] [i]WIS-based, AC, single target.[/i] If you want a healing power, this one's pretty good. The real meat is simply the fact that the surges are spent; you don't want to rely on your allies having surges to spend (and needing to spend them) in order to rack up bonuses and penalties. That said, simply getting to heal most of your party has its uses, and if you DO get a few surges spent, the penalties associated with the protection rider are nice. [/sblock] [/QUOTE]
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That Rune Aimer: A Runepriest's Handbook (by RayjeEliwan)
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