Introduction - The state and identity of the Runebinder Set
(if you wanna skip to the build proper just scroll down. This is just a bunch of ramblings about Runebinder)
AoM brought us Inquisitor, and along it - a 5-piece set made just for Inquisitors, the Runebinder Set. At first it gained quite a bit of flak. Some people didn’t like the set cause it tries to accomodate both of Inquisitor’s main playstyles, Ranged and Rune caster, while seemingly not having enough support for both. Even with full set, it’s hard to max out overcap for any of the runes, while it doesn’t give support to any of the ranged WPS. The set didn’t gain much traction until it was shown that Rune of Hagarrad is so good and the set is a natural fit. Still, going full Hagarrad has better options. Runic Bolts were left in the dust especially since the primary users of 2h elemental ranged (Purifer and Vindicator) have better options in Fire Strike and Savagery/Primal Strike. Fast forward to 1.0.5.0, the set received some changes:
It seemed that Crate wanted the set to be more focused on the ranged aspect, buffing the ranged bonuses while nerfing rune support. It looks good for builds that want to use Runic Bolts, though I was sad at the time because it nerfed my double Rune Purifier. Now I view the change as positive towards the whole set. It gives Runebinder more of a fixed direction instead of enticing the player on going for a hybrid apporach. The design still encourages runes, but players who have read about the nerfs would tend to move away from the set, especially for cold Hagarrad where there are better options. In the future, I would be happy if this set would totally move towards 2h ranged. I know Crate had success in creating generalist sets like Markovian (can be used for any physical build) and Iskandra (can be literally used by any Arcanist based build, regardless of aether or elemental focus), however, these 5-pc sets supporting a single playstyle/skillset is better, imo, cause these mon-class sets would become obsolete once new sets that have overlap with these older sets emerge, the 5pc sets might just become obsolete. We can see it now with Markovian itself - though it’s not bad, many will favor Warborn for Cadence and Octavius for Forcewave because of the specific support. I don’t want this to happen to Runebinder in the future.
The build
1.0.7.0 - Nothing big really changed. Seal and Censure both nerfed but didn’t really affect anything performance-wise. All links form here up to Mercymaker’s vid still very strong for current patch. Enjoy!
GRIMTOOLS: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/62awpAxZ > Build with seekers, 2 greens, down from 3 in the original 0.6 version. 9 mins clear on mine. Better if you have better rig.
https://www.grimtools.com/calc/lV7M1byN > No greens but I haven’t really tested this. Will be a bit slower in cleartime cause less slow res but should still be at least 10 min clear.
New 10/15/2018 Grimtools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/dVbD0GmN > My current setup. Very specific medal affix but that’s just me wanting to minmax everything to get 16/10 Storm Spread. Links above are still very good.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfsEaAeKJYc - 151-170 8:35 min clear. 4 buffs+banner using the newest setup.
NEW!! Video by Mercymaker. Very fast runs using a no MI setup. 3 runs in one set of buffs WITHOUT BANNERS.
1.0.7.1 video - i got a new pc which runs a lot better so naturally, as one of my favorite builds, I tested this one a lot.
Slight update: I got a new rig already and decided to record a vid of this one. Got a 7:09 clear with a no MI setup.
Grimtools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/eVLEMadZ > Change 2 lifescent powders into Kingsguard Powders so you have better resists. I forgot to do that so I had shit acid and pierce res on the video.
Damn it really felt like i just got out of the hyperbolic time chamber.
UPDATE 1.0.6.0
PATCH IS HEEEERE. Finally we can now break out of the DA meta and build this as a real DPS machine. Significant changes to this build include:
- Flame Torrent nerf - this was deserved and the proc is still very good, but it impacted the build significantly.
- No more stalwarts, more killing prowess - added elemental balance rings, as any elemental based autoattacker would do. Also changed ring to the one I have that gets me the most OA (w/o using GDstash).
- Devotion rework - I moved away from Arcane Currents and got Whirlpool + Meteor instead for MOAR DPS. And yeah, it delivers.
- OA for days - the ring, medal and devotion change gets our OA to 3000 before procs and about 3400 after Deadly Aim. And that’s before Word of Pain and Rune DA reduction. We get up to 3800 effective OA after everything is set.
- Not as tanky as before but who cares? We kill them before they kill us. You need to dodge meteors here, though. And you need to step trick double reapers. One reaper, though, you just melt him before he gets enough stacks. The new problem guy now is Grava. 69% resistance to both Fire and lightning deters you from killing him so fast. Still, you can kill him before a reaper stacks enough damage and then kite reaper to reset stacks and wreck house.
Cleartime for this build on crucible of the dead went from 13 mins on the 4.2k DA version to 11 mins on the new version. Clear pic below:
Oh yeah. GT link: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/0V04oJRV
Also, for old1.0.5.1 setup click below here
[spoiler]This because this is one of the few builds where a different class actually passed the theorycrafting stage before I realized that another class might be better.
Tactician for an elemental build seems… weird, for me at least, before I started playing this build. I initially started with Mage Hunter, built about 3.5k DA + double Mirror and tried it in crucible. Didn’t clear 170 and it felt so clunky having CT, Nullification, Mirror, Hagarrad, Storm Box, Seal and Word of Renewal in an autoattack build. I then started to find ways to have more QoL and a discussion with Superfluff about 2H Ultos kinda had me that Soldier would be a better 2nd mastery for this build. So revamped the build and I arrived at this.
This build can clear 151-170 in about 12-13 mins. You can facetank most of the waves with a few exceptions:
- 154 - if you can’t kill one of the guys fast enough. Gabal’thunn and Thalonis can stack RR which can make tanking hard cause Kuba can kill you that way. I suggest rushing Gabal’thunn cause you can usually kill him before Kuba reaches you. It is then mostly safe to tank Kuba+Thalonis after that.
- 169 - this has high aether overcap at 47% but it’s still not safe to tank too long against Annie RR.
- REAPER - all caps cause he is the only real danger to this build. Stay in one spot for too long and time will come where he will almost oneshot you and kill you. Death wave would be 2x Reaper + Maiden cause with Maiden you can’t run efficiently and gain life cause she’s got strong DoTs. Great care should be taken when Reaper appears.
Most of the others aren’t problems. Alex meteor can be tanked (but don’t do it if Reaper’s there). Grava can make you run a bit with the disruption, but otherwise, he’s nothing.
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]
The one on Dead had Reaper+Maiden, so 170 took a bit. The one on Deeps had Grava+Reaper, making me kite a good amount at 170 but after Reaper died I just facetanked everything.
Maybe the most surprising feat this build achieves for me is the fact that it can kill MQ in 16 seconds, which, imo, is amazing for such a defense-oriented build. I only recorded the cleartime once so I don’t know if it could do better but I’m happy with it. The MQ test crossed my mind when I was impressed when I killed 170 Alex in Crucible of the Dead (a small arena) before any of the other Nemeses reached me (I had Reaper and I think Valdaran). More offensive builds should be able to rival some of the sub-10s kills, I think. Here’s a video:
MQ - https://youtu.be/EQHz7Awa7Iw
Don’t mind the FPS. I play on a toaster, which is why I’ll never make a cruci vid and I’ll probably only make this one vid considering most builds I play are caster that require more micro = more lag.
Update 03/28/2018: Modified the build a bit to better handle Reaper without sacrificing much against the others. -Red and Yellow Crossroads +2 Jackal nodes for attack speed, Eldritch Mirror instead of Sacred Plating on helm. Makes the build more comfortable to tank one Reaper due to attack speed making lifesteal more effective. You can also opt for 5 pt Revenant (remove Giant’s Blood) and you’ll own Reaper but hurts a bit against Alex and Grava. Pick what suits you best. Char sheet is still the same in screenshot except hp.
Grimtools: https://www.grimtools.com/calc/a2dWYL0N
Original version (bit more hp, bit less atk speed): https://www.grimtools.com/calc/vNQevEXN
Char sheet with all permanent buffs and Word of Renewal. No runic bolts charges and Deadly Aim.[/spoiler]
Gear, Skills and Devotions: UPDATED FOR 1.0.6.0
Since we’re no longer constrained by the DA meta, We can now build this guy more offensively. Let’s start with the part with the least changes:
Skill build is still mostly the same except for the part where I replaced Storm box with Word of Pain as Flame torrent activator since I’m using Wendigo Eye medal with -50 DA to Word of Pain. Feel free to use Storm Box if you don’t have the medal
Itemization, this was a very big factor in getting those Da before, so now this gets a good amount of revamping. All the main armor, weapon and amulet remain the same. Rings are changed to Elemental Balance Rings and Medal to Wendigo Eye - the one with the most OA I have. There is only one goal with these changes: DPS. Without Wendigo Eye or any high OA greens, the next best is probably Mythical Direwolf Crest. +130 OA is so good that I don’t care if it’s for melee. BTW, use Storm Box instead of WoP if you don’t use Wendigo Eye.
Devotions, this is the most exciting part. I liked Arcane Currents but I must admit it’s not the best for DPS. So I went all-out with getting 2 Tier 3 devotion procs in Meteor and Leviathan. These two boost DPS by a lot and the path also gets you a good amount of OA and DA. The devo path is actually flexible. You can go Ultos + Leviathan, Ultos + Meteor or Meteor + Dying God. Anything that suits your taste. I’m still contemplating whether to get 1 point in Horn of Gandarr as meteor activator or just bind meteor in a WPS since the recent changes to Hagarrad doesn’t allow it to proc meteors. Atm, I’m just binding it so Bursting/Chilling Round cause I’m lazy to put one more button.
Old build gearing section here:
[spoiler]For gearing I focused on getting 4k DA. Sadly it’s the only way this build can clear 170 considering both soldier and inquisitor don’t offer -OA effects. Solael pants is chosen for the lifesteal, though any other green pants with the affixes can be used since we have high overcaps in both Bleed and Aether. Suffix in boots is for slow res, useful when you encounter Reaper cause you’ll be kiting a fair amount against him. Gloves is for maximum overcap on Biting cold, will be explained later. Medal is just random stalwart of readiness thing. Rings are for the much-needed attack speed.
You might ask, why not only use the bow and get anything else for the others? Well, we could, but it would mess the setup a lot. Focusing on all three elemental damage types is hard, especially since there is no -%RR for elemental in the devotion tree. Full Runebinder gives that and makes the devotion setup much smoother.
For skills I wanted it to be as offensive as possible. First I opted for minumum rune investment, to ensure that the build will not be carried by runes, which are very powerful even without maximum commitment. I invested so much in Biting Cold though, to accomodate my offensive approach in skill distribution by having a huge amount of DA reduction. This is also the reason why I’m taking Storm Box instead of Word of Agony with my spare points as my Arcane currents activator. I prefer the DA shred the Impaired Aim, which isn’t so useful cause the majority of enemies are melee.
100% WPS is something I wanted personally, to boost my auto-attacks further. 7/10 Storm Spread for the extra projectile. The rest are pretty standard.
My devotion setup is also pretty defensive for an elemental setup, hence picking Attak Seru instead of something like Ultos, Leviathan or meteors. I was targeting for a few %DA nodes.[/spoiler]
Closing:
The recent changes to Runebinder set made rune support worse while making Runic Bolts better. Runic Bolts and full Runebinder are now good for 170 crucible and will clear in kinda fast speeds when built with high DA. Tactician is best for building that way.
I do think that Runebinder needs some more QoL changes. The full set forces you to use Inq Seal offensively for the RR, and thus it would be good to have something like an extended duration for the seal as a 5pc bonus.
I don’t know why I loved writing this (long) thread, but loved it so thanks for reading.
Attachment: Capture.PNG
