Blue Rune-keeper ‘Mender’ Build
By Araphorn – Updated for Yondershire, U33
Table of Contents
Introduction
Welcome, here you will find a good build for Healing Rune-keepers, tuned for high morale and critical rating. This is a very niche spec, and only required/nice to have for certain encounters and trials.
However, Rune-keeper healers are also capable enough to handle most of the other content as well, as they bring in solid healing utility, and none can match their healing per second (HPS). Their only downplay is that they don’t bring in DPS utility for the group.
Rune-keeper healers function differently than other traditional healers (such as Minstrel), as they don’t have much of burst/fellowship wide heals. They work mostly with HoTs (heal over time skills), which they can place on all members, and with their great group-wide bubbles. This makes the experience unique and fun.
Stat Goals
The best stat to have as a healer in general is Critical Rating, along with Outgoing Healing. Vitality is pretty important as well as a healer, so you don’t waste valuable time healing yourself instead your group members.
These goals are kept with Essence & Gear planning in mind, as to which Essences are to be prioritized over others. These goals can also be used when picking Virtues.
Critical Rating > Outgoing Healing > Vitality
After Critical Rating and Outgoing Healing are capped or near capped, save some room for Trigger essences, and then you can use Vitality essences to fill in the remaining slots. At the beginning of expansion, Essence slots are really limited, this gets easier as better items become available later down the line.
* Before planning Essences, slot the right Virtues (more on that down below). This way you can plan your setup better, and utilize Essences perfectly, and you can dump the remaining Essence slots in Vitality, Finesse, or other Stat of your choice after meeting Stat goals mentioned above.
Gear
With new Raid released, new gear for Blue Rune-keeper is published in the tables down below. They will use 4-pieces of the new Blue Line set, paired with 3-pieces of the new Red Line set for reduced Inductions.
There are 2 published Builds, one for Endgame and one for Starters.
End-game Build
Armour Pieces
| Gear Slot | Set Piece | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Chest | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Shoulders | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Gloves | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Legs | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Boots | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Cloak | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Off-hand | N/A – Uses a 2-hander Stone | N/A |
| Class Item | Crafted, Metalsmith |
Jewelry Pieces
| Gear Slot | Set Piece | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Earring 1 | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Earring 2 | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Necklace | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Hiddenhoard Raid | ||
| Bracelet 1 | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Bracelet 2 | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Ring 1 | Hiddenhoard Raid | |
| Ring 2 | Hiddenhoard Raid |
Starter Build
The 140 Level Gear from this Build can be acquired by playing the 3 and 6 man instances, higher difficulty will award better loot. Having this gear will allow to progress level capped Raids. As for Essences, you can use the ones you get from Questing or Crafting (whichever Tier is fine), and try to follow the Stat Goals above and Slot the ones which are needed by your Class.
Armour Pieces
| Gear Slot | Set Piece | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
| Chest | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
| Shoulders | Gundabad 3-Man Instance | |
| Gloves | Gundabad 3-Man Instance | |
| Legs | Gundabad 3-Man Instance | |
| Boots | Gundabad 3-Man Instance | |
| Cloak | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
| Off-hand | N/A – Uses a 2-hander Stone | N/A |
| Class Item | Crafted, Metalsmith |
Jewelry Pieces
| Gear Slot | Set Piece | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Earring 1 | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
| Earring 2 | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
| Necklace | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
| Gundabad 6-Man Instance | ||
| Bracelet 1 | Storvagun Winter Festival | |
| Bracelet 2 | Storvagun Winter Festival | |
| Ring 1 | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
| Ring 2 | Gundabad 6-Man Instance |
Essences
| Essence Name | Essence | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Critical Rating | Use these to reach near Critical Rating cap. |
|
| Outgoing Healing | Use these to reach near Outgoing Healing cap. Check tooltip under Tactical Mastery. |
|
| Crit Trigger | Use 1 of these. | |
| Heal Trigger 1 | Use 1 of these. | |
| Heal Trigger 2 | Use 1 of these. | |
| Vitality | Use these to fill slots after above Essences are met. |
Trait Trees
There’s generally just one good way of traiting a Blue Rune-keeper, in which you get everything you need just from one tree.
Here is the build for Blue tree:
You get everything important here, such as instant Self Motivation from Red Line, 5% Critical chance and some Fate from Yellow Line, and everything you need from Blue Line.
35 Trait Points Build for Legendary Servers:
60 Trait Points Build for Beginners:
Virtues
These are the virtues I use to reach the Stat Goals. I use mostly Mastery/Outgoing Healing, Critical Rating and Finesse options, but if need be, some of them can be switched to more Defensive options as well, depending on the type of fight. More explained down below.
Here are the Virtues which go along with the Stat Goals:
- Honesty (Great for Outgoing Healing and Critical Rating)
- Confidence (Great for Critical Rating and Finesse)
- Wit (Great for Finesse, Mastery and Critical Rating)
- Fidelity (Great for Vitality + Tactical Mit)
- Loyalty (Great for Vitality and survival)
If you don’t have these virtues, here are some alternatives:
- Wisdom (Good for extra Mastery and Finesse)
- Tolerance (Gives great amount of Tactical Mit, decent Physical Mit and Resistance)
- Innocence (Gives great amount of Physical Mit, decent Tactical Mit Mit and Resistance)
Legendary Items
With new LI revamp, Blue RK legacies remain pretty much the same, except an old legacy has made a comeback, which is great as RKs don’t have to swap Stones anymore to apply Flurry of Words, because new LI has the tracery for Chill of Winter Duration. This will allow a Blue RK to keep +5% Incoming Critical Chance (AoE in a radius) permanently with no downtime.
Rune-stone (Weapon)
| Type | Sockets |
|---|---|
| Heraldic Tracery | Heraldry of the Owl |
| Word of Power | Healing Over Time |
| Word of Power | Healing Over Time Criticals |
| Word of Mastery | Chill of Winter Duration & Critical Vulnerability |
| Word of Mastery | Chilling Rhetoric Cooldoon |
| Word of Mastery | Do Not Fall this Day Cooldown |
| Word of Mastery | Self Motivation Coolown & Power Restore |
| Word of Mastery | Target Chill of Winter Resist Chance |
| Word of Mastery | Words of Exaltation Cooldown & Bubble Potency |
| Word of Craft | Heroic Precision |
| Word of Craft | Heroic Precision |
Rune-keeper’s Rune-satchel (Class Item)
| Type | Sockets |
|---|---|
| Heraldic Tracery | Heraldry of the Owl |
| Word of Power | Single Target Healing |
| Word of Power | Single Target Healing Criticals |
| Word of Power | Skill Induction Speed |
| Word of Mastery | Bombastic Inspiration Heal |
| Word of Mastery | Epic of the Ages Healing |
| Word of Mastery | Mending Verse Healing |
| Word of Mastery | Prelude to Hope Power Restore |
| Word of Mastery | Rune-stone Healing & Damage |
| Word of Mastery | Writ of Health Healing |
| Word of Craft | Perfect Healing |
| Word of Craft | Perfect Healing |
Rotation
Here is what I do on Healing Rune-keeper, but before I proceed I will give a little bit of important information which is required to know in order to be a good and effective healer.
Following a strict rotation will not make you an effective healer, but what will is your capacity and timing to react, to heal the person which needs the heal. For that, you need to be on the constant lookout (knowing mechanics helps you predict who will take the next big hit also), you need to be able to select that person which needs attention fast enough. So, to conclude, being able to react fast enough to who’s taking damage and following a good rotation to counter that damage, makes an effective healer.
Rotation:
- The first important thing on healing RK is to keep Writs of Health on all of your Fellowship. This can be easily managed if you keep Rousing Words on cooldown.
- Also if you are in raid, and if you have time and everything is calm, use Writs of Health individually on the other group’s big damage takers also, those are the DPS guys such as Champs and Wardens.
- Now, to focus heal particular people, target them and do Mending – Rune-Sign of Winter – Writ of Health – Bombastic – Prelude. That is the single-target heal rotation.
- You can also use the above rotation on multiple people who are taking damage, when Rousing Words is on cooldown.
- If someone is on the verge of dying, give them a Single-target bubble (Word of Exaltation) – Mending – Epic for the Ages – Writ – Bombastic – Prelude.
- If all group is in danger, then use group-wide bubble (Essay of Exaltation) and try to recover with Rousing Words. If still in danger, use Our Fates Entwined rock.
- Use Fates Rock right away if there is heavy Raid-wide damage incoming.
- Try to keep Flurry of Words on cooldown on target’s assist mob location. You can do this when Rousing Words is on cooldown.
- Try to also keep Do Not Falls on your assigned targets on cooldown also.
- Use Self Motivations for self heals, and if you need more, do a Self bubble – Mending – Prelude.
Consumables
There are the consumables to use on Rune-keeper:
Updated as of U33.
\****/