Yellow Rune-keeper

Lightning Rune-keeper ‘Thunder’ Build

By Araphorn – Updated for Yondershire, U33

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Yellow Rune-keeper 95

Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome, here you will find a good build for Lightning RK, built for high-burst damage.

Lightning RK got some nerfs, and it is very behind the top dogs of DPS (Champ, Hunter, Warden etc.). They have quite a lot of RNG as well when it comes to their DPS, thus not making it a very reliable choice for serious endgame content.

If Lightning RK is still being played, then they can provide DNFs to the group (which can be valuable), and they can provide decent (not great) ranged DPS if they play it right.

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 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 Vitality, Finesse, or other Stat of your choice after meeting Stat goals mentioned above.

Gear

With new Raid released, new gear for Lightning Rune-keeper is published in the tables down below. They will use 4-pieces of the new Yellow Line set, along with 3-pieces of the new Red Line set for additional damage.

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
Pocket Hiddenhoard Raid
Bracelet 1 Storvagun Winter Festival
Bracelet 2 Storvagun Winter Festival
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
Pocket 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.
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 I trait my Lightning RK:

yellow dps 1

Lightning RK tree.

You get everything important here, the extra Will from Blue line, extra Mits and instant Self Motivation from Red line, and everything you need from Yellow line to DPS.

35 Trait Points Build for Legendary Servers:

rk yellow 35

35 Points Build

60 Trait Points Build for Beginners:

rk yellow 60

60 Points Build

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.

virtues will 2

Virtues for RK.

Here are the Virtues which go along with the Stat Goals:

  1. Honesty (Great for Mastery/Outgoing Healing and Critical Rating)
  2. Wisdom (Great for Mastery, Finesse and Critical Rating)
  3. Confidence (Great for Critical Rating and Finesse)
  4. Wit (Great for Finesse, Mastery and Critical Rating)
  5. 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, Lightning RKs might be interesting to play, as they will get an extra +11m range on most of their Lightning Skills. Yellow RK just needs 1 Rune-stone for DPS, the Satchel can be shared from Red Line.

Lightning Rune-stone (Weapon)

Type Sockets
Heraldic Tracery Heraldry of the Eagle
Word of Power Area Effect Attack Criticals
Word of Power Ranged Attack Extension
Word of Mastery Chill of Winter Duration
& Critical Vulnerability
Word of Mastery Rune-Stone Healing
& Damage
Word of Mastery Scribe’s Spark Damage
& Cooldown
Word of Mastery Shocking Words Damage
Word of Mastery Sustaing Bolt Damage
Word of Mastery Word of Exaltation Cooldown
& Bubble Potency
Word of Craft Ascendent Lightning
Word of Craft Ascendent Lightning

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 Heroic Precision
Word of Craft Heroic Precision

*Note: Using this setup on Satchel, can allow this item to be shared with Red Line also.

Rotation

Here is what I do on Lightning RK:

But before I begin, I will clarify how Writ of Lightning works if there are multiple RKs in group.

  • Tier 1 : Writs can override each other in this tier between RKs. First RK’s Writ T1 will be replaced with second RK’s Writ T1 and will not upgrade to T2!
  • Tier 2-3: Writs do NOT override each other between RKs. Whoever has the Tier 2-3 writ on the mob has the full control, any other RK’s writ will do nothing (will not upgrade, will not refresh duration will do just nothing)
  • CnR Writ: CnR Writ is the exception, overrides any writ regardless of tier.
  • So, if there are multiple Lightning RKs in group, you need to assign 1 person for Writs as usual and first 3-4 seconds no other RK should use writ. As soon as Writ RK upgraded his writ to T2, others then can use writs freely.

DPS Rotation, assuming it’s a boss fight:

  1. Place down Flurry of Words on where boss is supposed to be moved/tanked at.
  2. Place down Lightning and Fire rock for attunement boost, so Concession & Rebuttal (CnR) skill can be used 1-2s before getting into combat.
  3. If you are the Writ RK, then use Writ now, to get a T3 Writ debuff on boss. If you are not, then don’t do this.
  4. Use Ceaseless Argument (CA) next and always keep it on cooldown, prioritize this skill the most, only exception is Static Surge (SS), use SS first even if CA is off cooldown.
  5. After CA is on cooldown, use Scribe’s Spark, then Essence of Storm, then Vivid Imagery and cut that animation with Final Words skill.
  6. After you have done that, refresh Writ (if you are the RK assigned for it), and watch for a buff called ‘Closing Remarks’. It can help a lot if you use a plugin to track this buff. I use BuffMonitor to track this buff and ‘Charged’ buff.
  7. If you have the Closing Remarks buff, use Epic Conclusion (EC) now, this is the only time you will use EC for the next 3 minutes till your CnR skill is back. Ideal time to use EC is when you have CnR up on yourself, you have Closing Remarks also, and there is an Oathbreakers on the boss. That’s the one time EC and its DoT will do the most damage. Never use EC without those things.
  8. Never use Shocking Words unless you want to stun a mob, because it removes all your attunement, meaning you will lose out on 9% critical chance and 27% damage until you bring your attunement back. Never use EC also as mentioned above, unless you have CnR/Closing Remarks buff and Oathbreakers on boss to compensate.
  9. This brings us to the last Lightning skill, called Sustaining Bolt. Use this skill only when you have the ‘Charged’ buff. Track this via a plugin, I use BuffMonitor. If you use this skill without the Charged buff, then you lose all attunement and it’s a DPS loss.
  10. To summarize, here’s how the rotation looks:
  11. Writ – CA – Scribe’s Spark – Essence of Storm – Vivid Imagery – Final Words
    Static Surge (used whenever proc, drop every other skill in favor) – Sustaining Bolt (used whenever Charged buff proc) – Epic Conclusion (used with CnR/Closing Remarks and Oathbreakers).
  12. Track ‘Charged’ and ‘Closing Remarks’ via BuffMonitor plugin, it really makes life easy. Track Writ of Lightning debuff using Debuff Vitals plugin, which also makes life super easy. Both plugins are easy to setup and get working.
  13. When there is a rotation gap, use Flurry of Words. Also, you can use Steady Hands – Words of Exaltation on tanks/people taking heavy damage to give them a nice morale bubble.
  14. Refresh DNFs every 2m30s.

Consumables

There are the consumables I use on RK:

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Yellow Rune-keeper 96

  1. This Enamel I use for a Dev. boost when there are Oathbreakers on the target.

And this is the food to use:

food regen
Yellow Rune-keeper 97

food will
Yellow Rune-keeper 98

Updated as of U33

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