Ah, my Rune-keeper. This class is always so refreshing because I have a DPS class that can also do some reliable healing (even if I only use it for myself). It is always a much appreciated change of pace by the time I get to it in my leveling schedule. The only downside is that I’m finding as I get a bit higher level I am getting a little lost with some of the new skills. I also think that I miss out on a bit of the intricacies of some of the skills (like how the skills change with differently attuned stones) as well as how I should use the ones that are focused on group play. It was with this class that I started to feel that come Moria, I might benefit from trying to get into some groups in order to better familiarize myself with the class a bit more. However, with the upcoming release of the Rise of Isengard it will be interesting to see if my grouping options will stay as open as they would be right now.
The biggest change for me in these levels was the use of Master of Writs. I found myself using this quite a bit when my health was low in order to boost my healing up a bit. I really liked the skill and I was glad that it was available during this level period. I can’t say that my strategy changed that much with the Rune-keeper over these levels outside of that, though. Mostly it’s go in, blast, stun, and kill. It’s not a huge change from previous levels at least with my playstyle, but there’s a part of me that thinks that I’m possibly following into a simplified version of gameplay with the class instead of really grasping an understanding of what it is truly capable. So for those of you willing to help me broaden my horizon on the class feel free to enlighten me in the comments below.
| Skill | Skill Effect | Opinion | Level Obtained |
The Blade will not Wound |
Increases you or a fellowship member’s wound resist and also dispels the next wound attack made.Attunes 1 |
I get wounds all the time. I honestly wish that I had this skill on more characters; especially my Guardian who is tired of getting disarmed all the dang time! | 40 |
Master of Writs |
Allows Rune-keepers to use Writs regardless of their attunement, but with additional cost to power.Attunes 1 |
I like this skill and I found myself using it quite a bit to boost my healing when I was solo. | 40 |
Smouldering Wrath |
An attack that is uninterruptable by damage and deals initial fire damage as well as a fire-based DoT.Attunes 1 Requires 9  |
I used this a lot when soloing; mostly because of the deed associated with it. Granted, it takes a lot of attunement to get it to be usable, but once you can use it you find yourself doing quite a bit more damage. | 40 |
Essay of Exaltation |
A healing skill that decreases incoming damage for 3 seconds, grants an initial heal as well as a HoTto the entire fellowship. However, it also increases your Healing Attuned Skill cost by an additional 50% for 10 seconds as well.Attunes 1 Requires 9  |
I didn’t have much cause to use this except when I was messing about, but it seems like kind of an “iffy” skill. I’m hesitant of any fellowship-wide HoT because of the aggro it generates, but doubly so when it’s going to raise the cost of my healing skills afterwards. | 42 |
The Fang will not Poison |
Increases you or a fellowship member’s poison resist and also dispels the next poison attack made.Attunes 1 |
This seems like a pretty solid skill to me. I would just need to remember to actually use it! | 44 |
Do Not Fall to Storm |
A 1 minute buff that negates 100% of the damage done by Lightning damage. This buffand the damage it negates can be changed by equipping a rune-stone with a different affinity.Attunes 1 |
I have heard good stuff about this skill and I can see where it can come in handy especially when you know the type of damage that is going to be used and who might benefit from it the most; like a tank. | 46 |
Our Fates Entwined |
Allows the Rune-keeper to take 10% of the Fellowship’s damage and will not allow damage to interrupt you for the duration of the buff. (This is a toggle skill.)Attunes 1 Requires 9 |
OK, is this worth it? Because this seems like a really stupid skill to me. I can see where not being interrupted and having a more focused healing target (yourself) would be good, but it still seems a bit too risky to actually use. | 48 |
Fall to our Wrath |
A debuffthat decreases a target’s Tactical Resist Rating and has 10% chance to decrease it’s morale when it takes any damage. This is a one time effect.Attunes 1 |
This was a fun one to play around with and it did do some serious damage at the times it went off, however when you’re soloing it really comes off as more of a “toy” than a must on normal mobs. I think on mobs with larger health pools this would be a lot more fun. | 39+ Legendary Class Book |
Steady Hands |
Decreases your Power Cost for all skills by 100% and makes you immune to Silence for 15 seconds.
Attunes 9 |
I failed to earn this one so I can’t really vouch for its merit, but I can see where it might come in handy. | 39+ Legendary Class Book |
That Which Does Not Kill Us |
Allies will gain morale over time and will receive a powerful HoT the next time they are struck.Attunes 1 Requires 9 |
Again, I really don’t find myself in situations where I’m 9 deep into the healing attunement, but I can see where this would be useful. However, I can’t help but wonder what the aggro situation would be like after executing this skill. | Level 45 Class Quest |
| Trait Name | Trait Effect | Opinion | Level Obtained |
Martial Training |
Increase your Melee Damage, Base Melee Critical Rating, Maximum Morale, Maximum Power, and in-Combat Power Regen. | I’m on the fence about this one and would love to hear peoples’ opinions on it. Sure, the Melee Damage doesn’t hurt I guess, but really I’d be doing it for the Morale, Power, and iCPR. However, is it worth the the Legendary slot? | 39+ Legendary Class Book |
September 8, 2011 at 9:12 am
Couple of things- I’ve got a 65 RK who is healing focused most of the time but occasionally does raid DPS (poorly, or certainly not “elite”).
Martial Training is one that EVERY RK equips constantly. Steady Hands is more situational, but for raiding it’s just a good emergency skill for when the minstrel goes down and someone needs to pick up the slack.
I personally like both EoE and That Which Does Not Kill Us. Aggro is never really a problem for an RK- usually by the time you tier up you’ve fallen behind the DPSers and the Tank on the aggro ladder. It’s not like a minstrel popping Triumphant Spirit and just waiting for the adds come kill you.
Our Fates Entwined.. Yeah.. I don’t use it too often really. If it’s a situation where I’m not taking ANY damage and I know I can mitigate damage done to the tank some, then I might pop it. It won’t last long though, because inevitably you’ll be called on for corruption removal, you’ll need to regen some power, or some other “neutral” skill will lower your attunement from 9. So is it semi-handy? Eh maybe. A situation where you’re a little behind on the tank and want to see if ZC is correct about Epic for the Ages’ epicness and pop a couple of those back to back while rotating your others. Otherwise, it’s a tool, but not one you’ll reach for every time.
All in all, there’s some good stuff in these levels!
September 8, 2011 at 11:28 am
Thanks so much for the tips! it really helps to get a better view from those who know what they’re doing.
September 8, 2011 at 9:15 am
Sorry for the long post guys, but these are my opinions:
Martial training is like Rune-Keeper’s Sword and Staff. You put it in, and never take it out. Everything it gives is amazing, and you shouldn’t underestimate RK’s melee damage. They can actually do a comparable amount, and for a DPSing RK it can be quite beneficial to be up there smacking the mob (dependent on which mob it is, of course)
Steady hands is also a similar skill – I never take it out. No matter how you’re traited, it can sometimes be very useful to immediately switch. (Moreso when you’re DPSing though!). I also find it very useful near the end of a fight when I want just a little more DPS and I’m out of power. I use it, then just use my Scribe’s Spark and Ceaseless argument. I can usually get to about 4-6 attunement easy, and use Shocking words or Sustaining bolt for completely free, which, especially with crits, is a nice bust of damage for completely free. Same goes for healing too.
All fates intwined is actually quite useful too. You have to remember, it makes you take 10% less damage from all sources. Yes, you are taking 10% of your fellowships damage, but most of the time, that’s just your tank, and you can easily counter it with a few heals on yourself. And not getting interrupted is amazing, especially in fights like igash where the devoted is smacking you. The most annoying this is how this drops off if your attunement drops, however.
Essay of Exhalation is also quite useful. I mainly use it as a last resort, mostly after a large AOE that threatens the whole fellowship. (Igash’s fight comes to mind, when he does his large AOE stun). It lasts longer on whenever has a writ of health too, so your tank gets a nice damage reduction and heal. The power cost is nasty, but if you’re nearing the end of a fight, it might not matter.
Do not fall to storm is very useful in SG, at the lightning boss. With a fire stone, Do not fall to flame is very useful on the fire boss. Basically, this skill is close to cheating in SG, especially if you have two stones.
September 8, 2011 at 9:21 am
Another point that I should add is a lot of the high-attuned healing skills become a lot more useful at level cap or nearer-end-game instances.
September 8, 2011 at 11:30 am
Thank you very much. These are something that I’ll have to play with, but I definitely see you points. I wonder if GS will let me heal sometime. At least if she dies she won’t be surprised!
September 8, 2011 at 9:59 am
What stinks about Martial Training is that because EVERY rune-keeper sees is it as a necessary skill, you really only get to pick two other legendary traits.
September 8, 2011 at 11:31 am
Yeah, it seems that Martial Training and Steady Hands seem to be necessary.
September 8, 2011 at 12:28 pm
I slot Martial Training, Fall to Our Wrath and Vivid Imagery. I can’t recall ever having slotted Steady Hands.
Part of it is my play style; when I rolled my RK, it was for the express purpose of building for DPS. I had a 65 minstrel which I use for healing, and when I join a group, I tell everyone up front that while I don’t mind off-healing (and they don’t mind the time it takes for me two swap attuenment), they need to find someone else to main-heal (if no other healer can be found, I just alt to the minstrel who stays traited on the blue line).
September 8, 2011 at 10:43 am
The big group heals are great. I use them as my “oh crap” buttons on my RKs. As long as you keep up Calming Verse (with both Linnod of Peace and Linnod of Subtlety slotted it’s -20% threat from healing and damage, lasts a minute and is instant cast), it shouldn’t be an issue. By the time you have enough healing attunement and a situation that requires you to use Essay of Exaltation or That Which Does not Kill Us, aggro should be solid enough that you’re not in danger of suddenly finding yourself tanking.
September 8, 2011 at 11:31 am
Ah, traiting for healing… Yeah, that could have been a problem for me.
Thanks Ketani!
September 8, 2011 at 10:48 am
Elevyr covered just about everything I was going to. The only thing I would add is that I found it a really good habit to pop either Fall to Our Wrath or Fall to Storm before every single pull, even when soloing. One or the other is almost always off cooldown, and they really do a add a significant amount of damage. For bosses or soloing elites, put them both up before the pull, and at least one is almost certain to go off, making your kill a lot easier. And if BOTH happen to activate, when you fire off an Epic Conclusion buffed by both Thundrous Words and Harsh Debate…well, then you get the kind of astronomical RK numbers that make the rest of your group go “Wait…what just happened there?”
September 8, 2011 at 11:33 am
Ooh, I like these suggestions. Thank you Eve!
September 8, 2011 at 11:34 am
Martial training should be slotted all times like others have said. I have never ever untraited it. I spent far too much time in Forochel when I was in the 40-50 range, I really got sick of all the snow.
September 8, 2011 at 11:45 am
Martial Training is a must… must kill more humanoids. the other skill listed that I love is the blade would not wound, would love to see that this class remove some of the skills or combine them… running out of bar space and only at 46… so many things to use but so little could be used while soloing =( many of the high attunement offensive skills are not practical to use while soloing, induction kills it and 9 attunement is most likely too hard to reach… love the fast pace of lvling though, fastest in game imo, good dps small heals keep you up, every two minute power boost, no down time, thing about RK is you can utilize most of the cool skills and be godlike take on things way above your lvl or you can play with one hand and spam two button when you are watching movie killing the on lvl things
September 8, 2011 at 1:39 pm
I’ll admit, my RK is young (level 53, Vanmoriel, Silverlode), however, I’ve levelled her with a primary focus on healing, running as a pair for quests and skirmishing when I can. I would say that ‘Our Fates Entwined’ is a great skill as a healer, because if the tank is doing his job, you should have no aggro, taking no damage (except for certain instances, of course). Taking some hits for the team and using group heals to keep everyone up has worked very well for me so far.
I also usually trait full blue and use Master of Writs constantly; it allows me to be more flexible in attunement and switch roles easily (albeit with power cost!) I personally can’t wait to heal for some bigger instances and see what challenges they bring. ^_^
September 8, 2011 at 5:26 pm
I love “Fall to our Wrath”. It’s an effect that can be refreshed every 60 seconds (or sooner depending on your traits). The 10% chance to decrease its morale when it takes any damage (almost 1K of HP) is pretty much 99% guaranteed because it includes ANY damage taken including DoTs. The damage doesn’t have to be delivered by you, so it can be (and should be) applied and refreshed, even if you are the healer.
This is the one legendary trait that needs to be equipped for every RK.
September 8, 2011 at 5:27 pm
Ah, the RK…my absolute favourite class. I want to help, so here are my notes, in no particular order:
Traiting
- ALWAYS trait Martial Training; NEVER trait Steady Hands. Seriously, when you need to switch to healing, it takes about 3 – 4 neutrally-attuned skills to reach 0 Attunement; and if you cannot spare the 8 seconds, it’s probably a wipe. Use Self-motivation, Armour of X (when you get it), Final Words/Abrupt Words, and Calming Verse (or any other neutral skill, should some of those be on CD).
- The extra slot lets you trait Vivid Imagery and either Fall to Our Wrath or That Which Does Not Kill Us, the latter being what I use now, even when in DPS mode, since the damage output of the former is too low to really matter next to the benefit of the latter in groups.
Skill Rotation
- Speaking of Attunement, when you use either Epic Conclusion or Essay of Exaltation, the power cost for either Battle or Healing skills increases. Use those 10 seconds to rotate through the neutrally-attuned skills in your rotation, if you can, since their power cost is unaffected during this time.
- When prepping for a mob pull, it’s a good idea to have a pre-fight rotation in place. I like to drop my stone, cast Prelude to Hope on myself, then Calming Verse, The Blade Will Not Wound/Fang Will Not Poison, Fall to Storm, Fall to Our Wrath (if I have it traited), and finally begin the fight with Fiery Ridicule and Chilling Rhetoric.
Stones and Satchels
- No matter what type of stone you use, be it Fire, Lightning, or Frost, as your primary LI, ALWAYS carry stones of the other two types in your bag. You can pick up a low-level stone at the AH for 20s, or just keep one of each from quest rewards as you level up. The reason for this is that you can switch stones in the middle of combat to the one with the type you need in order to cast Do Not Fall to _____ .
- Along the same vein, it is always a good idea to develop a DPS stone/satchel AND a healing stone/satchel, and to keep the 2 you aren’t using in your bag at all times, so that, for example, if you’re DPSing in a group and the healer goes down, not only can you switch attunement to healing, but you can also switch to your buffed-out healing LIs at a moment’s notice, thereby drastically increasing your healing output.
Utility Skills
- Master of Writs is a very useful skill, not only when soloing to boost healing, which I use occasionally, but also when healing in a group. If I have my HoTs all working well, there is usually a window of time where there isn’t really anything for me to do, so if I have the Power to spare, I’ll cast MoW and put a couple of Writs of Fire/Cold on the boss to help reduce its morale and/or increase the length of its inductions, the latter being something that is HUGELY helpful when fighting Durchest in BG, for example.
- Our Fates Entwined/All Fates Entwined is another very useful group skill. Sure it toggles off if your attunement drops, but never underestimate the value of 10 – 30 seconds of uninterruptable casting combined with reduced damage to your tank, which necessitates less healing on your part. Besides, even if it toggles off, you can use that opportunity to go through your neutral attunement rotation and then tier up your healing again before toggling it back on again.
These are just a few of the things I have learned that have helped me along the way. Everyone has their own style, so my best advice would just be to play with different ways of building your RK until you find one that gives you the most enjoyment and success.
Have fun!
September 8, 2011 at 6:01 pm
A big ditto to everything Dragonwitch has said, particularly regarding All Fates Entwined. It was one of the skills that I had forgotten existed until I kept dying while on the final boss in SG because of the skeleton adds interrupting my inductions. I actually hit the wrong blue button in panic (I was going for Final Words to interrupt the boss), and got AFE instead… And a big lightbulb went off in my n00b brain. A bunch of this stuff you end up learning at endgame simply because the RK levels so fast that your 65 before you’ve ever learned to use all your skills (or at least that’s how it was for me).
September 9, 2011 at 3:48 am
I don’t agree with the NEVER traiting steady hands. A lot of the utility skills have a rather long cooldown time. if you need to switch for a quick spot heal, getting back is rather difficult with just utility skills.
September 9, 2011 at 11:21 am
Everyone has their own style, absolutely. But for me, with Distracting Winds, Armour of X, and Self Motivation all giving me 3 neutral attunement, Final Words and Shocking Touch giving 2, and everything else providing 1, there is never a situation where I’m out of neutral skills to cast. Add in the fact that Prelude to Hope is castable at any time, and MoW lets you use Writ of Health twice before it ends, and spot heals aren’t an issue, either. I simply prefer using that legendary trait slot for additional DPS or Heal, that’s all.
September 9, 2011 at 8:06 pm
That’s fair enough, I suppose. I just really like the free power cost too I suppose
September 9, 2011 at 1:31 am
>> And a big lightbulb went off in my n00b brain <<
Haha, same for me. The group was dying and someone screamed out "Use the damn bubble" and I thought "F*ck, I have a bubble…?" Panic while searching it on my skillbar – and then got a real lightning moment