Red Rune-keeper ‘Cleansing Flame’ Build
By Aba of Arkenstone – Updated for Gundabad, U31.1

Table of Contents
Introduction
Welcome, here you will find an excellent build for Red (Fire) RK, tuned specifically for Endgame Raids and Instances. Fire RKs provide great sustained Ranged damage for the group, they have pretty good self-heals and provide a great utility to the group, called Do Not Fall, which is 2 Revives every 5 minutes.
Fire RK received some buffs in a recent update and is now one of the preferred Ranged DPS, surpassing Lightning RK. I have played RK as my Main before Trait Trees were introduced, so I’ve had my fair experience on the dynamics of the class, and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have or discuss any improvements I could make myself, we can all improve.
Discord: Aba#4648
Stat Goals
These stat 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 > Tactical Mastery > Finesse (30%+) > Vitality > Tactical Mitigation
After Critical Rating and Physical Mastery are capped or near capped, save some room for Trigger essences. Then Finesse should be taken to ~30% so there’s no resists for T3+ content, and if there is still room available, then some Old Vitality essences and Tactical Mitigation essences can be used. 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 Old Triggers, or other Stat of your choice after meeting Stat goals mentioned above.
Gear
With new Gundabad expansion released, new gear for Fire Rune-keeper is published in the tables down below. There are 2 published Builds, one for Endgame and one for Starters.
End-game Build
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 | |
Bracelets Alternative | Mountain-hold Barter. Use these if no Storvagun Bracelets. | |
Ring 1 | Gundabad 6-Man Instance | |
Ring 2 | Gundabad 6-Man Instance |
Starter Build
Armor/Jewelery boxes of the respective weight from the Adventurer’s Quartermaster NPC. 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 | Embers Box Barter | |
Chest | Embers Box Barter | |
Shoulders | Embers Box Barter | |
Gloves | Embers Box Barter | |
Legs | Embers Box Barter | |
Boots | Embers Box Barter | |
Cloak | Embers Box Barter | |
Off-hand | N/A – Uses a 2-hander Stone | N/A |
Class Item | Crafted, Metalsmith |
Jewelry Pieces
Gear Slot | Set Piece | Location |
---|---|---|
Earring 1 | Embers Box Barter | |
Earring 2 | Embers Box Barter | |
Necklace | Embers Box Barter | |
Embers Box Barter | ||
Bracelet 1 | Embers Box Barter | |
Bracelet 2 | Embers Box Barter | |
Ring 1 | Embers Box Barter | |
Ring 2 | Embers Box Barter |
Essences
Essence Name | Essence | Note |
---|---|---|
Critical Rating | Use these to reach near Critical Rating cap. | |
Tactical Mastery | Use these to reach near Tactical Mastery cap. | |
Mastery Trigger | Use 1 of these. | |
Critical Rating Trigger 1 | Use 1 of these. | |
Critical Rating Trigger 2 | Use 1 of these. | |
Finesse | Use these to reach 30%+ Finesse if needed. | |
Vitality | Use these to fill slots after above Essences are met. |
Trait Trees
Here is how Fire RK is traited:

This trait tree is for maximum DPS. It has full points into the Trait Closing Remarks, which increases the proc chance of getting that buff. I would use this Trait Tree for most Raid and Group situations.
Due to lack of points, Self Motivation Heal in this build is only 10% instead of 20%, but it is still instant and low CD heal, so it still should be usable.
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 Offensive 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 Mastery/Outgoing Healing and Critical Rating)
- Wisdom (Great for Mastery, Finesse and Critical Rating)
- Confidence (Great for Critical Rating and Finesse)
- Wit (Great for Finesse, Mastery and Critical Rating)
- Loyalty (Great for Vitality and survival)
If you don’t have these virtues, here are some alternatives:
- Fidelity (Great for Vitality + Tactical Mit)
- 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, Fire RK legacies can built a lot more flexible. The Satchel (Class Item) can hold all the general Traceries which can be shared between Fire and Lightning Line without any cost. Choice of Words of Power Traceries can also be managed well, for example we can keep Fire Line specific Words of Power on Fire Rune Stone, such as Skill Induction Speed and Damage Over Time (both which are not needed for Yellow Line). And we can keep 3 other Words of Power on Satchel which both lines can benefit from (DoT Critical WoP should benefit EC DoT on both lines).
*Note: Please use Word of Craft Traceries as per Stat Goals. Generally Critical Rating is better to take from Word of Crafts, as you get more passive Mastery from Primary Stats. So Critical Rating from WoC will be better in the long-term.
Fire Rune-stone (Weapon)
Type | Sockets |
---|---|
Heraldic Tracery | Heraldry of the Eagle |
Word of Power | Damage Over Time |
Word of Power | Skill Induction Speed |
Word of Mastery | Combustion Damage |
Word of Mastery | Distracting Flame Cooldown & Damage |
Word of Mastery | Essence of Flame Damage |
Word of Mastery | Searing Words Damage |
Word of Mastery | Wrath of Flame Damage Over Time |
Word of Mastery | Writ of Fire Damage |
Word of Craft | Ascendent Flame |
Word of Craft | Ascendent Flame |
Word of Craft | Empowered Destruction (To be unlocked with Gundabad) |
Rune-keeper’s Rune-satchel (Class Item)
Type | Sockets |
---|---|
Heraldic Tracery | Heraldry of the Eagle |
Word of Power | Damage Over Time Criticals |
Word of Power | Single Target Attack Criticals |
Word of Power | Single Target Attack Damage |
Word of Mastery | Ceasless Argument Damage |
Word of Mastery | Do Not Fall this Day Cooldown |
Word of Mastery | Epic Conclusion Damage |
Word of Mastery | Fury of Storm Damage & Critical Multiplier |
Word of Mastery | Self Motivation Cooldown & Power Restore |
Word of Mastery | Vivid Imagery Damage |
Word of Craft | Ascendent Lightning |
Word of Craft | Ascendent Lightning |
Word of Craft | Empowered Destruction (To be unlocked with Gundabad) |
*Note: Using this setup on Satchel, can allow this item to be shared with Yellow Line also.
Rotation
Before we begin the Rotation tips, here are a few things explained first.
Attunement Explained:
- Attunement is the class system for RK like Fervour is for Champion or Focus for Hunter, the higher the Attunement the harder you hit. 0 being the lowest (Healing line), 10 being Neutral and 20 being the highest (Red/Yellow line). It is important to make sure your hard hitting skills are used when Attunement is at its maximum level (20). There are Attunement spenders (which I will move onto shortly), which decrease or reset your Attunement back down to Neutral.
Animation Cancels Explained:
- The animation of Vivid Imagery and Epic Conclusion can be cancelled when you use Final Words or Armour of the Elements just after, speeding up your rotation and combining more skills together to maximize your dps.
*Notes:
- Red-line Rune-keeper DPS is very RNG, so no rotation is going to be the same. Decent DPS is anything over 200k over 3 minutes on the Dummy.
- Turn off Auto Attacks in settings (in Combat settings), this will allow you to use Scathing Mockery and Combustion simultaneously. After an Essay of Fire has been used, then queue up Scathing Mockery and hit Combustion as soon as the Essay of Fire induction ends.
- With having Closing Remarks traited, you are going to weave the skills; Ceaseless Argument, and Scribes Spark in-between your fire dot builders in the aim to get the buff to proc.
- Track the duration of Closing Remarks if you need to via a plugin, when it is about to expire use Epic Conclusion, which will provide a DoT if C&R is active and also consume Closing Remarks changing it to the buff: Aftershock.
- After using some Attunement spenders (Combustion or Epic Conclusion), then to quickly build up your Attunement, you can use Rune Stones, Essence of Storm, Vivid Imagery or crafted Enamels to quickly regain full Attunement.
- Swap to Yellow line and use Concession and Rebuttal (for the DoT from Epic conclusion when closing remarks has proc’d) and then switch back to Red-line and continue.
ROTATION
by Aba
There are a few different rotations depending on the circumstances of the fight, whether its a Boss pull, AoE situation or a Dummy parse.
This rotation is an example, Red RK rotation is very proc dependant and cannot be scripted but I will do my best to incorporate the Skill prioritisation for different situations, in summary for a beginner point of view, you want to use:
Single-target
Essay of Fire -> Scathing Mockery -> Writ of Fire -> Smouldering Wrath -> Fiery Ridicule or Distracting Flame –> repeat.
Essay of Fire -> Essay of Flame -> Ceaseless Argument -> Writ of Fire -> Smouldering Wrath (important you use this off of CD for maximum DPS)
Fiery ridicule -> Scribe’s Spark -> Distracting Flame (track this skill and don’t use again until its about to expire) at this point your DoT’s are up, you now need to tier Writ of fire and Fiery Ridicule up to Tier 3 (assuming Closing Remarks has proc’d)
You can fit in another Essay of fire -> Essence of Flame -> Smouldering Wrath -> go back into Writ of Fire -> Fiery Ridicule -> Ceaseless spam.
Essay of Fire -> Scathing Mockery (Closing Remarks has 2 seconds left) -> use Epic Conclusion (gain Aftershock and EC DoT). Attunement is now neutral, so now use Attunement builders.
After builders -> Smouldering Wrath (if off CD), if not refresh tier 3 Dots -> weaving through Ceaseless Argument and Scribe spark as Closing remarks can be proc’d and applied again as soon as Aftershock has ended -> Smouldering Wrath -> refresh Distracting flame -> weave through Writ of Fire -> Fiery Ridicule -> (no Closing remarks proc) -> Essay of Fire -> simultaneous Scathing mockery and Combustion- (Attunement now neutral)- Vivid imagery -> Final word animation interrupt -> Attunement builders or re-apply Tier 3 DoTs.
AoE
In an AoE situation, I prioritize getting Writ of Fire to Tier 3, and alternating with Fiery Ridicule and Distracting Flame.
Then use Essay of Fire -> Scathing Mockery combined with Combustion to spread the Writ of Fire dot to multiple enemies
Slam down Runestones for full Attunement -> Essence of storm and then use Smouldering Wrath.
Consumables
There are the consumables I use on RK:
- This Enamel I use for a Dev. boost when there are Oathbreakers on the target.
And this is the food I use:
Updated as of U31.1.
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