I'm guessing the Warrior archtype will be jumping for joy with the new great runes?

First we'll be jumping for our credit cards.

I'd rather have an artifact weapon, but, hey... maybe I'll find a use for these runes.

Oi, these runes make any forged weapon never decay, always reset, AND add 5 to all stats, for just 150 credits, this ROCKS. Especially cause I just found a scimitar with exactly 463 added stats. -grabs creditcard-

Personaly I love the idea. It means those that want huge artifact swords, still need to buy them from players, then upgrade them to true artifact status. Way to go on another great idea.

I can forsee a marketing challenge. "There's a limit on how powerful my weapon can be with runes! Screw that, I want a real artifact weapon." But if you compare the artifact weapons in Achaea to what you get with the knight and champion class runes attached to a weapon at the maximum capacity allowed, you actually get a more powerful weapon for 50 fewer credits at level 1 than you would get in Achaea, and I think level 2 and 3 were cheaper or equal but still come out more powerful. Plus you get to choose the weapon design you want rather than pre-canned weapons like Roarkian Broadsword or Vorpal Hammer of Doom. Thus the runes give your more power per credit than in Achaea, and more customization in the design. (Customizing a vorpal sword text in Achaea would cost an extra 50 credits. Though in case you want it super-special-custom with a design not available to anyone via the cartels, you can still chip in 50 credits for it, but my guess is that the cartel designs will fulfill most people's customization needs.) It's also further customized since you can attach a rune to a weapon with more speed and less damage or vice versa if that's your preference, rather than being stuck with fixed stat values like the artifact swords in Achaea.

Anyone got stats handy to post on the artifact weapon stats for Achaea's 1 handed swords? Subtract 5, 10, or 15 (for level 1, level 2, and level 3 respectively) and add up the resulting stats. If it's less than the whatever the cap is for the runes (anyone got that stat handy) then that means the rune can be combined with a better sword to attain stats superior to Achaea's artifact weapon. Then throw in the champion rune to increase your wounding even more, making it an even better weapon. Then compare the credit costs of those two runes to the one weapon, and it should be less or maybe equal. (Sorry I'm vague on numbers here, but I don't have all the info in front of me at the moment.)

And for bonecrushers, your bludgeon weapon types correspond to swords, so the comparison to Achaea's artifact one handed swords is still valid. Hammer=rapier, mace=longsword, ....? I forget the others.

The stats compared to achaean artifact weapons are MUCH higher, for way less credits, for example, you can have a 40/190/230 rapier, put a puissant knight rune on it, and it'll become a 45/195/235 blade that never decays, always resets -drool-....in achaea, you -cannot- get a 45/195/235 artifact blade for 150 credits...runed it's 55/205/245...just look at those stats, just for 150 credits -glee-.

Boo on Great Runes. Knights don't need any more help.

Feh, mages are a bit in our position at the start, we were getting desperate, and suddenly everything was fixed to be perfect, I'm sure it'll all even out nicely.

There are indeed some more tweaks planned for mages.

and guardians? *hopes*

Pff, Guardians are pretty much fine! Wicca could use some downgrading though. (Well, Wiccans ARE kinda like forestal guardians)

Celestines still need alot of work..

Never played Achaea, and never owned an Aetolian artifact, heh. We'll see how this goes. I can forsee me making 20 weapons of one kind in order to make it a superweapon... Are attatched runes permanant?

yes they are permanent

You know, since I was a paladin back in Aetolia but wanted to step away from the Light/Darkness thing and become a druid, the goodiness of these Runes make me wish it had been the other way round.

Why? I haven't heard any complaints at all from a single decent celestine fighter...I think except for some bugs, aquamancers and in a lesser degree geomancers, are the only archetypes in dire need of some balance-tweaking. And with decent, I mean above average...

I have complaints o.o and i'm decent.

I like the idea of the runes... now need to find some sorce of money... but

Why did it have to be puisuant knight... and not puisuan warrior?

Not all warrior archtypes are knights you know.

Hmm I like the idea, I got me a set of flails that need great runing....can you etch dwarven forging runes on top of greaterruned stuff?