3x3 RUNES GUIDE by no2ironman1100

I'll go on talking about my game balance experience with runes, as people probably have about the story of the game and such; So Scroll down for a Tl;Dr
All information that I consider very balance important is underlined.


UNDEFINITIVE RUNES

Time seems to be way strong. It's stats pretty much makes it ALWAYS better than the other undefined runes. Curse has the worst stats so far: You get it around endgame, where your hp is in the 8-900 at minimum. So the HP boost is negligeable, and time gives a way bigger action boost (+astral, ap boost). Curse even has a chance reduction, which I assume is your dodge rate or critical hit/hit chance. (Don't know) which makes it even worse stats wise.

The curse ability is nice for slow teams (compared to ennemy), but on quick teams you'd rather deal extra damage than take off half of their turns. Seeing how optimal play seems to go, I'd rather use Time most of the time(excuse pun);

Or Space Which has a larger AP boost that can be usefull for going through an area or a character playing as support using def-rune, Since extra speed does nothing if you run dry of energy in a short time.

Overall, Time dominates in boss battles (usefull spell with slow or speed up that gives you ap) or farming (extra speed helps you use a melee build to farm mobs) Effectively making it the go-to spell for most things.

I haven't tested the abilities of space yet, But unless they deal crazy amounts of damage, I'd rather use the damage abilities of thunder or fire, Or use my SP abilities more by using time lvl2/3 to slow/accelerate, Right ?

In general, you can just take Time level 2/3 for any build and filll in the gap


PROTECTIVE RUNES

All defense runes are usefull.
Water has good stats, and it has a usefull ability (lots of strong ennemies use astral, Astral dmg reduction is very good).

Earth has lower stats than water or metal, But it has by far the most op ability (Regenerates a TON of hp with level 2/3) even if it costs quite a bit of sp.

Metal has the ability to make physical damage become nothing, altough it means less astral defense.

With the stats of the characters, It litteraly makes all of them usefull.


DESTRUCTIVE RUNES

Offensive magic also have an okay balance so far,

Wind coming in as my favorite for melee and general builds because it has a big action and slash boost. It's top tier early game and stays strong late game, with spells that can kill low level mobs easily, making farming extra quick. The spells are somewhat op early game to late game but suck at longer ranges. more usefull if you want to BLIND.

Lightning doing crazy astral damage boost combined with an alright slash boost, It's the strongest mid game for just progression if you have the right build, Stays somewhat usefull late game. It's tier 1 and 2 spells are pretty strong against the right ennemy types, But it becomes weak later on. It's tier 3 isn't of any use against bosses however.

Fire has an okay but lower astral damage boost, But the spell itself is stronger than lightning's single target.


ABILITY RUNES

I'm still unsure about the Ability runes, But they seem somewhat balanced, although again with a slight tip to speed again.

Speed is pretty strong;
(I'm starting to wonder if I just really love speed or if it's really that usefull)
for melee builds, it's a lot less usefull unless you don't have your time;Wind rune slotted in. In case you have both of those in, you're probably better off with extra slash for melee or whatever defense type that ennemy implies (endure/barrier)

Against bosses, I feel Endure and Barrier would fall off since I noticed damage seems reductive (values can go to zero) Speed's dodge chance then becomes more usefull because it's technically 8% less dmg on BOTH astral and physical, which becomes exponentially usefull and would at high damage values levels just meant endure and barrier are useless in comparison.

Slash still stays strong, It counters the ennemy's defense and of course, SP abilities that use slash take time meaning diminishing return of speed while slash countering defense

What about astral ?
Astral is If you're counting on spells, it's very good. The main thing is that for me, It's only when i'm fighting tough mobs that I need to farm(whereas slash or speed can find use against low level mobs, bosses and tough mobs too)

I have no or little input on the synth runes yet, as I need to farm up even more to have several level 2 runes of each type.


THOUGHTS

Tl;DR, and a bit more though on the overall thing.
As of now, between your destructive, undefined and ability rune, It's vital to have at least ONE speed rune (Wind;Time(space can work as a weaker alternative); Or Speed)

Defense runes are amazingly well balanced;
The offensive rune's balance is off, With speed or lightning serving a lot of general purposes, and fire falling behind except if you need a bit more damage reduction. Damage types may close the gap.

Undefined runes feel like they have no balance except damage typing; The only good ones seem to be time 2 and 3, altough I truthfully did not check the damage curse 3 does or the dmg space does; You'd rather use an offensive spell or time's speed increase on allies/decrease on enemies.

Time Therefore has the most broken stats and an ability that's nearly as usefull or more usefull in situations than Curse or Space's ability. But space and curse could be used to opponents for which other magics would not work as well, so very niche situations.

Space however is very good early on if you need that extra bit of SP to get through an area; As of course; As the saying goes "What's the point of running fast if you can't run the lap" or something.

The problem with damage typing closing such gaps is that it's sometimes unclear what type X ennemy is.

Finally, The Ability runes Have a fair enough balance but astral falls behind later on because of all destruction runes giving an astral increase AND the time rune which is the easiest to put on for 90% of the fights giving an astral and ap boost too. So then I just feel the need for extra speed or defense.

This could be used as a guide; but don't count on it too much. I still have not figured out damage formulas for all the attacks and rune magics or SP abilities or compared them all individually; But I have a general sense of it after grinding out with different setups and repeating a few bossfights; So far; Lapans seems to dominate bossfights anyways, With zams just being a really good support and Tou... Speedboosting ? And doing 1/5th of the damage...