Artificing/Theory

This page goes deeper into the technical details of artificing, and contains all the information you need to become a master artificer.

Tileset Buffs
For many actions the player takes, a corresponding rune is triggered in the background. A runic tileset consists of 3-5 different runes, and activates if those runes are triggered on the player in that sequence, giving the player a buff to damage and healing. The strength of the buff can be as high as 10% damage increase and 5% healing increase, but triggering unwanted runes in-between lowers the strength - see the section about interference for more details about this.

The duration of the buff a tileset applies depends on the number of runes in the tileset:
 * 3 runes: 4 seconds
 * 4 runes: 6 seconds
 * 5 runes: 8 seconds

There can only be 3 tileset buffs on a player at once - if a new tileset is activated, the buff will override the oldest tileset buff. A tileset can activate again even if its boost has not run out yet - that means, a player can gain all 3 buffs with only a single tileset.

Interference
Interference lowers the boost to damage and healing when runes in-between your tileset runes are activated. Every piece of interference takes 1% off the damage boosts and 0.5% off the healing boosts - this means, a tileset that activates with 10 or more interfering runes applies a buff that gives no boost at all.

→ See also: Scott's notes on timing and interference

Examples

A Runemage is using only the 3-rune tileset ᛟ ᚨ ᚢ, which is activated by hitting an enemy with the spells Affliction (ᛟ), Frostbolt (ᚨ) and Fireball (ᚢ) in that order.


 * Tileset: ᛟ ᚨ ᚢ
 * Triggered Runes: ᚦ ᛟ ᛁ ᚨ Ƶ ᚢ
 * Interference: 2 runes Damage: +8%, Healing: +4%

Keep in mind that the tileset begins activating as soon as the first rune is triggered.
 * Tileset: ᛟ ᚨ ᚢ
 * Triggered Runes: ᚦ ᛟ Ƶ ᚢ Ƶ ᚢ Ƶ ᚢ Ƶ ᛟ ᚨ ᚢ
 * Interference: 8 runes Damage: +2%, Healing: +1%

Activation Timing
After the first rune of the tileset activates, you have 6 seconds to activate the rest of the runes. If the 6 second timer runs out without all runes being activated, the tileset does not trigger at all.

Examples

Here, the 6 second timer for tileset activation runs out, making the tileset start from ᛟ again:
 * Tileset: ᛟ ᚨ ᚢ
 * Triggered Runes: ᚦ ᛟ ᛁ ᚢ ᛥ ᚢ Ƶ ᛟ ᚨ ᚢ
 * Interference: 0 runes (first activation attempt times out, tileset is not triggered) Damage: +10%, Healing: +5%

Picking Runes
Use the List of Artificing Runes to see which runes you need, and how they are triggered.

Use runes where you can control when they are activated:
 * Runes triggered by your attacks
 * Delay runes
 * Attack Speed runes
 * Heal rune (ᛏ)

Avoid using these runes (except if you want to build special sets for niche situations):
 * Hit multiple enemies
 * All runes that require you to get hit (but Tanks can use ᚹ)

Rune Order
Now you know the runes you need - but putting them into a good order is the most important thing.


 * Find a rune that is unique but still happens often enough to use as the first tile. Delay runes (Ƶ or ᛁ), or attack speed runes (ᛗ, ᚾ, ᛈ or ᛢ) work great at the start.
 * Using runes that occur often as a starting tile will lead to high interference.
 * Use the minimum amount tilesets to keep you 3 tileset buffs up at all times. Some classes only need 3 or less, some need all 5.
 * Keep in mind that you can get another buff from the same tileset even before its previous buff runs out.
 * Try to keep your tilesets short - long tilesets are often weaker than short tilesets, as some things during combat trigger additional runes and create interference (like getting hit (ᚹ, ᚥ) or getting healed (ᛏ)).
 * For longer tilesets, the 6 second activation time can also run out.

Further Notes

 * If more than one tileset procs on the same action, they will activate in the order they were applied.