Endeavoring To Awaken --A Guide To Rune Fencer

RUN just isn't especially well tailored to multiple mobs, dangerous multi-element fights (you won't beat Aegis for that), or mobs with especially strong and frequent physical attacks that might not be blocked by Foil (even something like AAHM can easily wipe you out with CdC plus a crit attack if you're not careful). Honestly, I'd say just use PLD on those things. While RUN might be able to handle it if you've got no other options, it's going to be riskier and certainly not "optimal".

RUN is a BEAST on predominantly single element fights (any high tier avatar, WKR, Delve Marjami/Kamihr) or stuff where you want to resist status effects.

It's also good for:
* Anything where you want a tank and some enmity control but it isn't super threatening (say, a lot of UNMs) - basically interchangeable with PLD on those
* I find RUN highly underrated as a job that plays very well with nukers. Weaken the mob with Rayke and Gamit, and you're serving as somewhat of a tank + buffer by helping every nuker in the alliance. With the current strength of Magic Bursts on some stuff like Escha NMs, this is a more notable scenario now.
* Little quirks: Foil can often block deadly single hit moves if there's something especially deadly to avoid, Valiance extending to party members is super helpful to keep other people alive (that dumb THF who hasn't ever heard of DT- gear? you might just keep em alive through that big AoE nuke).

In comparison to PLD, RUN also has better offensive potential than PLD, at the cost of some of PLD's turtle defense power (e.g. Sentinel, shield). Though both are pretty pitiful for damage if you're in full tanking gear on anything difficult, it's nice to do something like swap into DD gear for fodder or less threatening NMs in an event, while using full tank set for the big baddies.

RUN was also MASSIVELY helped by two things this year:
(1) enmity system changes - previously, it was pretty hard to hold hate outside of /BLU and constantly spamming spells with no pause. Now, not so much of an issue. I tend to /WAR on most stuff these days as a nice all-around sub: DA, Provoke, small amounts of Attack/Defense Bonus, situational use of Aggressor/Defender...

(2) an absolutely amazing Empy reforge set. For my money, best empy set in the game. 4/5 (all but head, which is a useful macro piece) are great for tanking, the set bonus absorb DT is excellent, and there's great utility in the additional effects: body convert physical damage to MP & reduced enmity loss, resist, enmity+.


I'm with Sechs on this, consistent with my previous comments. The body is too damn good. I'll still toss on Futhark+1 for pure magical damage fights sometimes, but in general Erilaz+1 4/5 is a great set.

As far as a really resist-focused set as Kanryu posted, I'd also note that Runeist Coat+1 (resist all elements +33) is not a bad option there. Personally, I'd use it over Emet+1 if I was really heavily focusing on resist.

Pre-Empy reforge, Emet+1 had a nice place as you could cap PDT with it and still also be capped on MDT, so didn't really need Futhark+1 a lot of the time and could instead use Emet+1 for the added Acc. Now, Erilaz is probably the better choice. Futhark+1 if you really need all the MDB you can get, Runeist+1 for some resist scenarios, something like Taeon in your DD set. I use Emet+1 for DT- sets on my other jobs now, kinda lost a place for my RUN.

I haven't done anything with a PLD tank in ages, but Saf, if you'd like we could team up for something just so you can see what a seasoned RUN fights like.

I would say that PLD's only significant advantage over RUN is taking on multiple powerful enemies at once (like in Divine Might). In Vagary, I can get away with using Seigan and turtling in PDT. For Divine Might though, it's definitely better to get a PLD to hold them, otherwise you'd need a GEO to Wilt them, which also requires having hate on all of them.

For multi-element fights, it's usually not a big deal; I usually pick runes/barspells based on which statuses are the worst to deal with. With some enemies, though, the enspell damage from runes can make them unusable. Even still, RUN is resilient enough that any sensible healer can cover them. engulfer cape +1 and shadow ring are also worth wearing against such enemies.

Only played with a run a few times but they were so bad i dont want to see them anymore, seeing amchuchu doing well makes me wonder what do most people do wrong? I'm pretty sure there must be some good run's out there, how you do it?

Probably undergeared, no experience with the enemy and therefore not knowing what runes and JAs to use and when, and so on. It's really no different than a player being unreliable in any other job, I suppose.

I see a lot of RUN with a weird mishmash of DD gear, random MAB pieces, and tank stuff. I think the main issue is that since RUN isn't specifically stated in a lot of commonly discussed event/fight strategies, a lot of people don't really know what they're trying to be. Which often results in them just acting as a bad melee DD that adds a very minimal amount of elemental damage and eats elemental AoEs a bit better than your average DD.

From my experience, it's maybe even worse than BLU and PUP, other jobs that have traditionally had a lot of "unique snowflake" players that make you shake your head with their gear choices. You can usually pick out the good RUNs when you see them rocking stuff like 3+ pieces of Empy 119 armor, using ~50% PDT- sets regularly, casting Foil like it's going out of style... The bad ones will toss on Futhark+1 body (which is not bad!) but pair it with random melee stuff and just pretend to be a melee.

Main thing to remember: while RUN can put on some solid DD gear and not be useless at killing things, it's CLEARLY a tank job now with the 2015 updates. You're never gonna come close to a SAM or something for offense, playing to your strengths means being a tank, and maybe having the flexibility to contribute non-meaningless damage if you're fighting stuff where there's not much threat of death and you can slip into your DD gear. RUN kinda confused people when it was released just because tanking was in such sorry shape AND RUN didn't really get the gear to counter that, so nobody really knew what to make of it and that confusion persisted a bit into today.

As for tanking stuff with especially potent physical attacks, it's certainly doable on RUN with good gear/ability use. Though the guys like Jeanpaul rocking the PDT II -25% Ergon weapon sure make it look easier ;) While a non-Ergon RUN will do in a pinch, in general it's a heck of a lot lower barrier to get a competent PLD to do the same thing more easily. I imagine most groups will have a much easier time getting a run of the mill Aegis (or even Svalinn/Priwen) PLD than having a RUN handy with the gear and skill to tank the same kinds of things.

Personally, I use my RUN more for high tier battles (D in groups, or lately a LOT of solo/lowman E~N level for chapters/drops/fun), UNM, and some specific RUN-friendly fights (e.g. Delve Kamihr/Marjami), and I expect to get some use out of it for some Escha NMs as I get more into that. When we're running something like Vagary, DM 2.0, or even Incursion... we have a good Burt/Aegis PLD who is generally the far better choice for my group, so I come on a different job.

A lot of it just comes down to misinformation or a lack of understanding. As Capuchin mentioned, it might even be worse than the stereotypical BLU, and that's saying something. Both jobs offer an exceptionally diverse pool of gear and abilities and can both be played in various ways. This often leads to people really not knowing which way to play and just combining everything into one amalgam of mediocrity. I am by no means highly knowledgeable about RUN, but I've played BLU for years and can see the similarity in the confusion among the playerbase. No, MAB does not help your TP phase, please take Hagondes off.

Mab totally makes the enspell from runes stronger!!11!one!

Indeed, and it's quite a global issue. Not that I expect anyone to start writing guides on how to clear content with regards to 22 different job applications, but some jobs are just completely non-existent in most copy/paste strats. It has lead to a state where people don't often give much thought to the situation at hand, and get caught like a deer in headlights when something deviates from the norm. Then again, most players generally have a lot of jobs leveled/gear, so there's also issue with mindfulness and articulation when it comes making the most out of any job you play, casually or sporadically.

Of course, RUN is "new", and it has never had a spot-light like GEO, so most of its mechanics are relatively unnoticed. I once did an Ayapec run where everyone was pretty insistent on the PLD/RNG strat, but I offered the alternative of me tanking on RUN/NIN and bringing another melee along to SC with for all the BLM to nuke on. Now, I actually had to explain how Valiance and OFA work, because they thought the melee would be a liability, but eventually convinced them otherwise. Regardless, I feel this fight is a good example of how small deviations and foresight often lead to better results. Knowing that 99% of the fight was blinkable/magic damage allowed me to full-time (outside of MAB/enmity/FC swaps) DD gear, for instance. I was able to keep TP up in order to close Double Light with Dimidiation quite often, in-between establishing hate, Gambits, MBs and rebuffing. It worked surprisingly well; the fights went fast, hate was never an issue, and no one really took any damage outside of pitiful Bubble Showers numbers. I'm sure there are better ways to handle the fight, but the point is, I think it was a better alternative to me going on RNG and having a PLD sit there AFK. You know, the kind that miraculously comes back just in time to ruin a SC with his Savage Blade.

I'm not really much of a RUN player (I've only ever used it for a couple low-man Escha/UNM fights), so my opinion/experiences might not carry any weight. However, I do strongly agree it is a misunderstood job that could use a little more acknowledgment. It's not always gonna be highly recommendable, but I'm sure there are a lot of missed situations where it's more than just "viable".

Playing solo with style.

I occasionally fill in as a tank for LS members who need it during non-event times when our paladins aren't around, but that's fairly rare.

Same here, we have 2 pld in our Ls and i'm RDM 99.99% of the time, but when i can use my RUN (or my DNC) i'm an Happy guy ^^

I feel like I might be the only person in the entirety of the game who is stuck going as RUN for everything.

Lucky Guys, RUN is a really fun job to play

You did set the bar pretty high on RUN on Sylph, and contributed alot on this forum tho Jeanpaul ;p

Idunno, some slyphians still dont understand RUN at all.

I'm a noob with decent gear and have been using RUN very successfully in
1) Delve 2 runs (all 3 zones)
2) All 9 avatar battles
3) Several UNM fights
4) Vagary CP pts (I also tanked no problem both Fomor gate and Brash gate with an alliance and me as only tank)

Thanks for the answers guys. Here's her tanking set currently:

ItemSet 336295

4% augment on cape, so exactly 50% PDT. Possibly swaps would be Lithelimb Cap and Umbra Strap in, which would be an 8 acc gain but a slight HP loss. We're working on D-Ring, she's 5/5 119 AF3, and has Refined Grip (a few more hides to go for +1). Once she gets D-ring, we'll move to a more ideal set.

Enmity set (kinda kludged together, needs a little work):

ItemSet 336532

Her other sets are solid, Lunge needs the most pieces.


Thanks for this. And I'd love to see your RUN in action, you've only ever been thief when we've played together.

Probably because you're so good at it.

RUN is excellent in Escha, folks. There's only a few mobs that give us trouble; otherwise, we do really well. I'm not certain that I'd trust RUN on deathbunny though...even with capped FC we'd be riding those Utsusemi timers pretty hard.

Since I'm adamantly against the randomness that is Taeon augments, I suppose that Rawhide gear would provide some niche pieces? The empy set is so good I usually wear most of it while tanking, but I think my DD set needs an overhaul.

Also, thoughts on Pernicious Ring?

Incidentally, those are the only two jobs I play. Anyway yeah, any kind of content you'd want to see RUN in action for, particularly a merit BC or a tree Delve. If you have any drops from things you want, then that'll work out just fine.

Actually, it's mostly because I tend to lead events and I just don't really know any other tanks.

Rawhide body and hands will easily outclass Taeon in the same slots, even with ideal augments. Path A offers a tremendous amount of DEX and STR, while B and C offer considerable accuracy. I went with A since I can use them for THF too. The body is also excellent for MAB, and the hands offer Acc/Macc, great for things like Shockwave or Flourishes if you use them. Rawhide head and legs are inferior for TP/WS compared to Taeon, but serve other purposes, notably Refresh if you find yourself wanting them. The feet are more or less the same as Taeon, but without the randomness.

That ring doesn't seem very good, considering we can always use Epona's, Rajas, Tojil's ring, etc.

so my mains are rune and drg, yea i got other jobs decently geared but wondering, if i wanted to strait DD as rune, macbain with aug? or maybe dual wield axes? thoughts? i ask mainly for yorcia skirmish where drg sucks lol

I would go with Macbain or dual sword myself ;p

Though the update might hold some nice stuff for us, it seems the best way for pure damage (without owning Epeolatry) would be dual-wielding Usonmunkus and using Savage Blade. This is not taking skillchains or crazy high evasion into account, however. Naturally, using Epeolatry with /SAM and AM3 will trump anything else, particularly if you are making self-Light constantly.

If you're doing sword or shield runs, switching from DRG to RUN seems a bit backwards.

unless you have actually gone drg before, the mobs agro my pet. super lame lol. its a shame cause i got mythic on drg. but another part is i just like to play rune so want to find a way to make it work for that situation.

Vorpal not Savage. Savage Blade is very meh without high levels of TP, which Warrior and Beast Master get but not anyone else.

Savage @1000TP +moonshade and /NIN would be 7.56 fTP with 5.56 of it coming from the first hit. Vorpal would be 4+1 hits and it copies fTP, so 1.575 with Belt + Gorget, 7.875 fTP and then crits. Multi-attack favors Vorpal as it gets full fTP while Savage gets regular 1.0. Now if you find yourself at higher TP, 1500~1800 or more, then Savage really starts to shine.

Just for general information
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Savage_Blade
1000 TP = 4.0
2000 TP = 10.25
3000 TP = 13.75

Then add 1.0 for the extra hit and 1.0 for any additional hits from off hand or MA procs. So low TP is ~meh~ but once it approaches 2000 then it's ~wow~.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Vorpal_Blade
1.375 fTP on four hits that copies fTP for the off hand and any additional hits. So belt + neck makes it 1.575, pretty much the exact opposite of Savage. At low TP it's nice, especially if you have DA / TA, but it doesn't scale well with TP.

As far as RUN versus DRG for Alluvion Yorcia blade/shield, neither seem all that great for it honestly, and you might be better off just using another job. That being said, if you're only picking between the two, I'd assume an equally geared DRG (even without bothering to call the wyvern) is quite a bit stronger than RUN, particularly since everything you fight is piercing-weak.

Assuming you're gonna go RUN anyway, personally I'd just /SAM and use a good Macbain over 1h swords... "good" augments being DMG (Dusk), Acc&Atk (Snow), and DA (Leaf). But that's coming from someone who was lucky enough to get DMG+34, and I know augments can be annoying so it's nice to have alternatives.

If we're talking sword (which to be honest I'm not that up on for RUN), is DW really the way to go over single-wielding with /WAR: DA, Fencer (particularly nice for Vorpal Blade), Aggressor, etc? Also, if you don't have constant haste, self-haste from a Blurred Sword (assuming you can use Su2) is probably nice.

Single wielding with a sword on RUN would be pretty shitty. If you were going the sword route, it'd be /NIN.

In Skirmish, I tend to only go on Run/Sam. The pet aggro issue really screws you over on Drg. I do have Epeo, so a scholar throwing Regen V, ViV. Pulse heals, and the occasional haste has me covered the whole event. The fact that you can swap elements as needed, nullify the big elemental damage, and you're not limited to just killing butterflies, and can take out elementals with swipe/lunge, en-element, or even throwing in a herc. slash gives you a lot more versatility. Lorissa you can pretty much throw up battuta and take her out pretty quick with dimi self-light SC.

If I've got a newer player running the book, which is often, they're bound to summon worms, which end up useless pretty quickly. However, with a mage sub (usually RDM for MAB and Haste), I can -ga a bunch of butterflies/elementals and bring them to the worms. This works best if the enemies are reasonably close to the Marchland. Another good trick is to grab a ton of stuff and use Battuta.

I'm saying the pet aggro issue is avoided easily enough by just not calling a wyvern at all. Similarly geared/skilled DRG with no wyvern present should still easily do better damage than RUN, especially with the piercing bonus on butterflies.

I'm not sure RUN ability to handle elementals a little better than your average melee DD matters much if you're doing a melee sword/shield run, since there are so few of them. And defending against their element is irrelevant since you can just not fight them and they don't aggro.

If you're doing a ring/cape/sash run where elementals are more plentiful, your group is going to want to bring more efficient elemental-killers than RUN anyway, so the minor benefit kinda goes away. Meleeing elementals is still shitty from a speed perspective no matter how you slice it, and riding a 3min Lunge timer is kinda laughable compared to BLU BLM SCH etc. Easily surviving drawn out fights isn't the point of Yorcia, killing fast is.

I mean, I'm sure RUN CAN work in the event. Pretty much any job can manage in Yorcia especially by using the eudaemon that best suits your party. I just don't think RUN is especially well suited to Yorcia Alluvion in particular compared to other job options (it's a lot more helpful in Rala/Cirdas Alluvion, Ra'kaznar normal skirmish, etc.)

Then again, I tend to BLU for Yorcia so maybe I'm biased since that's essentially the perfect job for the event. 1~2 shot kills without engaging the mob, AoE multiple elementals to death in a couple seconds, can melee with the best of em if you're doing a melee-focused run, etc. I mean, I could make it harder on myself and play on other jobs, but why?


That's... pretty freaking clever :)

Two new Great Swords from the update.

Humility
PLD, DRK, RUN
DMG:270 Delay:480 STR+15 DEX+15
VIT+15 Accuracy+15 Attack+15
Magic Evasion+25
Magic Accuracy skill +188
Great Sword skill +242
Parrying skill +242
Enmity+7

Bidenhander
RUN
DMG:261 Delay:480 HP+130
Accuracy+10 Attack+10
Great Sword skill +242
Parrying skill +242
Magic Accuracy skill +188
"Liement" duration +3
Damage taken -5%

Both look absolutely crap. First one is beaten by Macbain for DD and the second one is crushed by Aettir for tanking.