Build:The Runeknight

The Runeknight is a Character Build in Outward, created by TheOathseeker.

Summary

The Runeknight
A physical warrior with the utility of the rune mage.
Breakthroughs			Required Faction

Equipment
Weapon	Off-Hand	Head	Body	Boots	Backpack
Whiplash	Fechtbuch	Economy	Shelter	Guidance of Wind

Quickslots
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8

Introduction

The above build is the pinnacle of physical damage and survivability. You can very easily easily dish out large amounts of damage while being roughly as tanky as the game will allow. It does however rely on endgame content to get that far. Particularly the Fechtbuch enchantment is available only after upgrading the Enchanting Guild in New Sirocco. This would seem to be a problem, as you will only get to use the full build to fight the end game bosses. And while this is true, the combination of classes and skills is very flexible and allows you to play with a few iterations of the build that allow you to be really powerful, all through the game.

Early Game

In the very early game, the first priority is unlocking your skills. I prefer unlocking the Rune Sage skills first as the spells don't need any equipment to be strong. Making mage skills most powerful in the early game with some Mana Cost Reduction equipment. Keep in mind though that you will not be using a lot of spells once you get all the pieces together, so don't take too much mana. I usually take 2 ticks of mana.

Mid Game

Using the power of the Rune Sage you farm up enough silver to buy all of the skilltrees and scrounge up some decent equipment to start being a martial character. You will use your Rune Magic mainly for buffing and healing outside of combat. Switching to either a 2 handed weapon or a shield when fighting. Some equipment to look out for:

Armor

Blue Sand Set makes you universally tanky, adding 20 resistance to all elemental damage types
Runic Armor offers good protection while giving bonuses that allow you to stick more to a battlemage playstyle. Has good enchantments available.
Black Plate Boots can be gotten early and easily enchanted with Guidance of Wind.
Scholar Circlet enchanted with Rain (enchantment) gives you a lot more mana to work with. Also a cheap enchantment.

Weapons

Sanguine Cleaver paired with the Abomination gives you a weapon that rivals the Tsar weapons.
Starchild Claymore With the right preparation you can fairly easily defeat the boss that drops this. And it's one of the strongest two handed weapons in the game.
Dreamer Halberd Getting this only requires you run around a lot. So actually one of the easiest weapons to get. While extremely powerful.
Skycrown Mace Due to it's high impact and attack speed, easily one of the best one handed weapons in the game. And fairly easy to get.
Fabulous Palladium Shield Elemental vulnerability can heal you deal with bosses more easily when you use the appropriate Imbues.
Galvanic Shield Inflicting Pain with your Shield Charge is always useful.

Late game

Once you finish the main faction story, you can finally start working towards the physical damage focussed build shown above. You can still use either a two handed weapon or a shield because you still haven't enchanted the Lexicon yet. But you can start farming the for the ingredients to the Pain in the Axe and the higher level enchantments like Economy and start building New Sirocco. So you can work towards the Expanded Library for the Enchanting Guild and the Levant upgrade for the Alchemist shop

Stats

When you are using the equipment above, have the Runic Protection and Discipline with Master of Motion on. Have aquired the Alchemical Experiment and Kirouac's Breakthrough passives, and are running the Warm, Mist, Blessed, Cool and Possessed boons. You will have the following stats:

Protection: 12
Damage risist: 82% , 50% , 50% , 50% , 50% , 50%
Impact resist: 47%
Damage bonus: 125% , 55% , 55% , 50% , 45% , 45%
Mana Cost: -25%
Stamina Cost: -5.5%
Movement Speed: +9%

Brawns and Imbues
Note that I did not include Brawns in this calculation. This is because it makes you very inflexible. Many enemies, and particularly bosses, are much more easily defeated when you have the ability to apply Imbues to the element they are weak to, through varnishes. Taking Brawns will make you even better at doing physical damage, but severely weakens that option. If there is ever a build to take Brawns on though, it would be this one.

Gear
There is gear that will allow you to get even higher physical damage, but it's not worth the loss in survivability in my opinion. Depending on how much mana you get from a layline (I prefer as little as possible) and how much you tend to use heal in combat, you might want to wear a heavier helm for combat, to make you even tankier. Zagis' Mask comes to mind.