Ranger Armor Help

[eggs0wn]

Ok, my Ranger has full Radiant Armor with a major vigor, minor expertise, and two attunement runes. Then I have three radiant masks with superior w. survival/beast mastery/marksmanship respectivly. Through playing I have realized Survivor and health armor would be more beneficial and I plan to get full Survivor Norn Armor with an expertise mask. So I ask you what, rune I should get for the mask: sup, maj, min. Looking at Gwiki's expertise table, 13 expertise seems to be a top option. So I'll either have 11+2, 10+3, 9+4. I have been leaning towards the 10+3 so I would get a major rune but before I do anything I want all your opinions.

[Bobulation]

I personally never use superiors for general PvE play. I think that you will be Ok with using a major rune, as 35 hp doesn't matter TO much in PvE. If you really want those extra attribute points, you can go with the superior, since you have survivor insignias, and use some vitae runes. Also, since your a ranger your probable going to be in the backline, where Hp doesn't matter as much.

[Ichigo724]

Post your build.

[eggs0wn]

Post your build.

I use many different ones.

BA
BHA
Barrage
BM
Packhunter
etc

And yeah, I was rethink of changing my sup marks to a maj. The w. survival was just for trapping so sup is fine there.

[Age]

I use both radiant and survivors insignias on mine all with minor runes wih a major vigor.

[Ichigo724]

Just run survivor with a minor ws, minor marks, sup vigor and a vitae (on chest, leggings, gloves and boots). Get some headgears to suit whatever you're doing (1+1marks for general play, *+3ws for trapping, etc).

As a note, the attribute spread for a normal ranger (BHA, BA, magebane, etc) should be 12+1+1exp, 9+1marks, 9+1ws).

[Lyndka]

I only use a Sup Marksmanship in my headgear if I think I'm going to be doing a lot of Melee otherwise its a major marksmanship or wilderness survival.

I run mostly with a monk hero (or with a partner with a Sabway team) so don't worry too much about maintaining health Regen. I do however (and encourage new Guild members playing Rangers to) try to keep Expertise as high as possible - it's your energy 'source' after all.

Survivor Insignia are ok - but only of any real use on the chest and leg armour, if you want to boost more then use Runes of Vitae. You can then use the remaining three Insignia slots for Stalwarts or Pyrebound (most monsters try to burn you!) and if you use a Pet then a Beastmaster.

[Aldric]

I usually just go for Sup Vigor and dual minor runes , normally with the expertise on the mask . I have the odd build where I can stick a sup mask on but I cant remember the last time i did that. I don't feel any extra damage warrents -75 health

As for Survivor/Radiant I generally always go for Radiants since I run with 540-600 health and with that amount plus a decent stance there is no reason to have survivor insignias. Extra energy is much more useful

540 health if non fortitude bow / 570 health if a fortitude bow / 600 health if Spear/Shield is my preference.

[Striken7]

Radiants are baaaaaad. Like real bad. Keep doing what you were doing and switch to Survivor, then get yourself a Sup Vigor.

I primarily switch between a Packhunter (NM) and BHA (HM) for PvE, and both run with a Major Expertise on the headgear.

For BHA, it's 12+2+1 Expertise, and 12+1 Marksmanship. A few Norn skills added in for bonus damage plus SS Rebirth Signet fill up my bar, meaning I only need the two attributes. The 15 Expertise drops BHA down to 6 energy cost.

For Packhunter, it's 8+1 BM, 10+2+1 Expertise, 12 Spear. The 13 Expertise gets my 5 energy attack skills down to 2 energy cost. With a couple good Adrenaline attacks, I never run out of Energy anyway.

Bottom line is, when I switch between these builds, all I need to do is swap between Minor BM and Minor Marksmanship runes that I stick on my boots. I also use two Vitae Runes for the last spots.

[Aldric]

Radiants are baaaaaad. Like real bad. Keep doing what you were doing and switch to Survivor, then get yourself a Sup Vigor.
Radiants are not bad . Generalisations are.....

What insignia you should use depends on what builds you run and style you play in.

If i have 600 Hp why would I use an almost worthless insignia like survivor ? If I can't stay alive , as a ranger , with 600hp in pve then I suck and extra survivor insignias ain't gonna help me . Radiant/Beastmaster/xyz insignias which actually relate to my build would be more useful.

I'm not saying radiants for everything is good , just making the point that sometimes just buffing health to ever higher levels can be a waste of inscription slots.

[horseradish]

Radiants are not bad . Generalisations are.....

Radiants for anything other than shockaxes, instagib sins, and farming are baaaaaaaad :)

Survivors are good for most everything else. It's the universal defense against everything.

More health isn't necessary, but most everything else is CRAP

[High Moral]

(thoughts when using MAJOR vigor, because all can afford that. )

Survivor on all armor peaces, It has been stated many times before and the monks say the same thing. Having a BIG energy pool does NOT help you regain energy. So, learn to play with a lower energy pool and more hit points and you WILL be better. Now, I like to have my hitpoints over 600, no matter what char I play. (Ele, prb around 580 or so.. but still).

So, if running packhunter for example you use a +30hp spear and +30hp shield which allows you to use a major beastmastery rune, and land on 605 Health or so.

When going any marksman, I use a minor marksman for stated reasons.

A minor expertise is always on the armor.

Then again, its all a matter of taste. IMO Radiant, sucks, on all classes.

[eggs0wn]

Well here is what I got:

Full Survivor
Major Expertise
Major Vigor
Three Vitae

My 25 energy is looking really small though compared to my whopping 37. :(

[Orange Milk]

Radiant Insignias are not bad, if you will recall 99% of all Rangers wore Druids/Radiant armor 99% of the time prior to the introduction of insignias.

Each Rune/Insignia has it's place in a specific build.

@ OP:

I have 5 sets of armor and 12ish masks, because as I just stated Different runes are needed for different builds. I have no idea what a "generic" set would be like as typically mix and match for the optimum set up for my build.

I can tell you this though, be sure you have a +1 expertise rune armor piece laying around, it's your most important rune. If you are wearing your expertise mask, take off the armor piece for something else, if you have on a Marksman Mask, you'll need that expertise rune on your armor.

Also in general PvE I use niether Radiants or Survivors, I typically wear Sentrys, Stances are our friends.