What is your opinion about the runes?

Messed a bit with the inquisitor and in my opinion, Rune of Hagarrad are on the weak side when compared to skills like Wind Devil and Flash Freeze.

When comparing Rune of Hagarrad to Wind Devil and Flash Freeze, the rune does not have anything that stand out for it. Wind Devil is very good in triggering devotion, stick to bunch of enemies until it expires and because of that does a lot more damage, while applying debuffs. Flash Freeze is very good at CC right out of the box and comes with it’s own resistance reduction unlike Rune of Hagarrad that has 1/3 chance of freezing.

Biggest weakness for me is the 4 sec cool down that I have to wait after every cast. Combine that with the 1.5 sec arming time that is 5.5sec for 1 rune cast

Maybe Crate can remove/reduce CD on the rune so that player can trap the area more effectively.

Another suggestion is to change the rune from a single burst attack to a large AoE ground effect like Sigil of Consumption when triggered in line with the Inquisitor Seal making ground control a theme of the Inquisitor.

Invest points into Artifact Handling further down the Inquisitor tree to lower the base cooldown from 4 seconds down to 2.5 seconds at the most, helps a ton.

I haven’t used Rune of Hagarrad but Biting Cold stands out to me for providing a large amount of DA reduction (which more or less translates to a gain in OA similar to Flashbang) meaning besides a nice bonus to offense, it provides support for the rest of your abilities as well.

I have used Rune of Kalastor and I don’t think anything about it fundamentally needs changing. Can’t speak on damage much as I’ve only used it for levelling throughout Normal.

Being able to place them as traps comes in handy every now and then, mainly I find placing 2-3 around a Desecrated Devotion shrine means you get a good start on nuking whatever spawns. Certain bosses like Darius are good for this too.

I am aware Artifact Handling helps a ton with runes but that is 10 points for a passive that affect 2 skills max if you use both runes.

I like the DA reduction of Rune of Hagarrad but after trying it out I feel like it really don’t do that much for me as dual wielding Inquisitor/Arcanist. Inner Focus, Aura of Conviction and Deadly Aim helps a lot with OA.

There is also this feeling of rigidness that if I want to use any rune in my build I either have to go all in on the rune to fully benefit from Artifact Handling or it is better that I don’t use it at all.

I haven’t played with them much other than on my baby Inquisitor in Normal, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them “rearm” themselves once or twice. That would be sweet.

That would be extremely cool.

Maybe Crate can change Artifact Handling into an active skill on 10 or 15 sec cooldown that will cause the next 2 runes casted to have an additional pulse.

Well said.

They feel clunky to use for sure. They’re not bad as DoT triggers since it’s just another skill in the rotation, but the delayed burst damage never feels worthwhile. I’d prefer behavior similar to Thermite Mines where you throw down a bunch with essentially no cooldown, but you delete the oldest mine when you run up against the summon limit. The arming time could be kept to maintain the thematic and prevent abuse.

Rune of Haggard deals huge damage its a shotgun skill and as long as it’s right under and enemy it will always freeze them. Haggard also has huge radius when it explodes the bolts travel for almost half the screen which turns the multihit aspect into more of a multihit against huge targets

Rune of Kalastar could use a buff though it’s damage isn’t bad but doesn’t touch that of Haggard although it’s stun and knockdown is very good for keeping enemies in position to get hit but everything from Haggard

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Runes enable the “preload tactical DPS” style where you prepare the battle by positionally placing tons of them and then lure the enemies into the fireworks of doom.

This style is unfound in pre-1.0.2 GD or Titan Quest and is unpopular in ARPG due to the one button smashing and fast clearing meta in the genre. If you play any DnD based games (e.g. Baldur’s Gates), you’ll notice the style is more like rogue trapper.

Personally, I fucking love this style!

With 30 second lifetime and enough cooldown reduction, I can lay down 10 of them before engaging a boss and I pretty much one shot every single boss on Veteran with only 5-7 points in each Rune.

Due to the clunkiness, I don’t see how Runes would become popular or how viable they are against tough bosses in higher difficulties where the tactical game just won’t work especially in tight areas. Anyhow I will still battle along with my Inquisitor through ultimate in a fun journey.

All I can say is, you need to change your mindset and playstyle to enjoy a Rune build. It is not for everyone.

I have to thank Crate for introducing the Runes playstyle. Inquisitor is now my favourite class.

would be nice if there was a modifier/transmuter (like artifact handling) that lowers or removes the arming time - so you could also use the runes as direct damage spells by dropping them straight on a target in range.

would make them much more attractive for a more mobile playstyle.

Kalastar has instant damage with its upgrade and the arm time is extremely short I have never had a “wasted” rune drop them middle between mobs and you and then just drop at your feet

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Just a thought… arming time should scale with casting speed, they should offer up a transmuter that scales with attack speed (maybe at a reduced rate).

I could see runes really shining with artifact handling and CDR.

stormbox has a slow but Im not in love with it. I feel like we are missing a positioning tool that allows us to suck up or drag mobs onto our runes. I’ll need to look at the wps skills a lil more. I think the WPS kinda offer it but the positioning i need to think about.

i really like the idea of handling offering another pulse or a rearming runes.

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I think they allow pretty unique and fun way to play. I like them a lot.

I’m still trying to get used to my low level Inquisitor build, and I agree that stormbox feels odd. it reminds me of blackwater cocktail in Demo, but you need to be targeting a mob to cast it, and it ends up just feeling really funky for me.

I don’t mind the nature of the traps though…My main in D2 was a light trapper assassin, and the place and lead kind of playstyle I find enjoyable. Downside in GD is that they’ve pretty much eliminated playstyles like that allot. But perhaps the Inq is “the” class that can make stuff like that happen. We’ll see.

I’ve gotten my two handed ranged Vindicator build to 77 and here are my observations:

  1. Didn’t like storm box. It has to target an enemy like primal strike so unless it’s on your right click it is hard to use effectively. If it could target an area it would be easier to use.
  2. The WPS skills work great with savagery. Got them up to 5 each and they are very effective.
  3. Have both runes at 6 and maxed artifact handling. I tend to drop them into large groups along with storm totem and they are very affective against trash. Against bosses I tend to rely on my 1 point briarthorn to hold it in a spot while I spam savagery and primal strike while using wind devil and storm totems as positional damage dealers. Only use the runes as pure dps since they can’t cc bosses.
  4. Used inquisitor seal for veteran but removed all points to concentrate on savagery in elite as the damage absorption stopped being decent. I prefer the confuse aspect of horn of gandar which also has a nice elemental resist debuff.
  5. Maxed shaman for storm caller pact instead of inquisitor auras as they didn’t help my lightning build.
  6. Haven’t determined if adding more than 1 point to deadly aim is worth it.
  7. Didn’t play with word of pain much. Heard some love to max it out. I just don’t like too many area skills and max grasping vines is too effective for a ranged shaman build to not use.

well, have a few inquisitor builds at later levels, a purifier and a tactician. Both of them I leveled primarily as the “other class” and inquisitor was the secondary (mostly the buffs and Ult on one).

the one I’m leveling through my 30’s I’m doing mostly inquisitor so i can take advantage of the runebinder set at late game. On an off note, it would be nice to have a lower level version of the set…it’s lvl 94, and if you’ve seen it’s design, it essentially “gives” you a default attack. Nice idea, but it’s a long time to wait for a solid Default attack if your building around that. Especially with guns…they need a default ranged attack to do something when your WPS aren’t proccing.

So far My initial feeling with Inquisitor at lower levels is it’s weak. it really needs effective skill dispersion in allot of different skills, and those skills need to be at a semi decent level to make things work. the best combo I’ve found is using word of pain in combo with the runes…it’s DoT component is much more effective when kiting then trying to go with a gunslinger build early on.

The WPS skills only start to shine when you have decent levels in them, and enough of them to count. They all cap at 20%, unlike some other WPS im used to (like Markovian’s advantage), so until you’ve put at least 5 points in each, you are going to have consistent dry spells w/o procs, which means a default skill is needed, like savagery, Fire strike, or cadence. You could fill it in with gear skills like troll rage or Beronath’s fury, as I am doing.

an alternative would be to put points in your other class, whatever it may be, and then respec into inquisitor more heavily later on. Both my tactician and purifier leveled mostly as the other class, and it went very smooth.

I think with traps that Artifact Handling should impact both CD and arm time. arm time needs to simply be allowed to go faster. it wont affect the tactical aspect of trap placement at all, but it will affect greatly the ability for you to place traps in active scenarios easier. The biggest issue I have with them at higher levels is that while they sill take 1/5 seconds to arm, mobs move MUCH Faster and hit harder at higher levels. Unless you are simply dropping them at your feet, they don’t work well.

And their point investment means that they are going to be primary damage sources, which means that if you make a mistake with them, you are heavily penalized. In other games where I have played trap builds (such as assassin in D2), the nature of the traps is a more consistent damage over their lifetime behavior, which drastically lessens the impact of missing your targeting with them.

So I would either like to see the AH have an arm CD reduction, or perhaps have the runes actually PULSE damage instead of one shot boom. or perhaps at least make one of them intelligent targeting…instead of waiting for something to walk over it, have it shoot at something.

AH could also be lower in the mastery tree…I honestly feel that it’s a simply requirement if you plan on using traps at all, which means that your traps really don’t start to shine until much later. I think it would fit quite nicely at the 10 pt tier, and we could shift deadly aura back to the 5pt tier. That would leave the bottom row a bit empty at higher tiers, but we could throw in a solid defensive skill there that wouldn’t be out of place.

Perhaps something with some resists in it, or perhaps a passive that increases the Radius of certain skills, like inquisitor seal and horn of Gandaar (I keep thinking Horn of Gondor when I see that hehe). both of those could use a radius boost, and it would not be out of place that late in the mastery. or we could just shuffle skills around a bit so we’re not adding more skills to an already bloated tree.

I could see why the traps work well with a druid. the nature of wind devils and/or lightning totem means you have directional intelligent targeting in addition to the big whoomp of the traps going off. But when the runes are a primary component of your damage, they’re one sided limitations become very apparent.

Cdr should affect the arming time. Otherwise, they’re alright, if a bit clunky to play, IMO.

Started a purifier 2 days ago - have to say - the runes need like 100% more dmg and 100% more area coverage.
Also…where is the lightning rune ?

Also Flames of Ignafar should have a little more longer range, and have some lighning effect to it, or electro, as long as it does that dmg alo.

Also Aura of Conviction is missing direct Fire and Lighning dmg - it just gives burn and electrocute.

And the worst of all Aura of Censure - skill level 13/12 - 7 meter radius…again…SEVEN METERS - at +1 over max level…wtf ?

Increase Ranged Expretise max skill level 15 so we get to 20% attack speed

I agree. I’ve gotten A Tactician and Purifier to 100, and have an Infiltrator at 97, and I’ve made heavy use of Kalastor and artifact handling on all of them. The playstyle is different from most others, and it does take some getting used to, but I think the runes are fine as is.

I think the ice rune is awesome. I use it on my max level vindicator With runebinders set it gets a lot of points and buffs.