Difference between revisions of "Skill Runes"

Latest revision as of 05:07, 3 July 2012

Runestones is the old name for Skill Runes, which provide five different functions for every skill in Diablo III. All rune forms offer some sort of upgrade over the original skill, and there are virtually no scenarios when a character is better off using the base skill than one of the rune effects.

The five Runes.

The rune effects become available gradually, as a character levels up. All of the basic skills are available by level 30, but a character must reach level 60 to gain access to all of the rune effects, with at least 1, and usually 2 or 3 added each level up from 6 to 60. There is no set pattern or regular system to when the rune effects become available. Characters do not get another rune effect in a skill every 6 or 8 levels, for instance.

The name "runes" is something of a remnant, as there's no real reason the final game system should use that term at all, since the different "runes" are simply graphical icons attached to each of the five different forms of each skill. Originally, the skill runes were called "runestones" which were small items that characters found and socketed into their skills to grant the bonus effects. The item style of runes evolved repeatedly during development, and was eventually removed in early 2012, when skill runes lost their random effects and rune levels, and were integrated completely into the skill interface.

See all news related to runestones in Diablo III.
Rune Archive -- Runes evolved greatly during the development of Diablo III. See the archive page for a detailed history lesson.

Players once assumed that a sixth rune would be added in the Diablo III expansion, but with the final game system this seems unlikely, as all the rune effects are now customized to each skill, rather than each runestome type adding a semi-predictable effect to any skill it was added to.

Rune Basics[edit | edit source]

The final game rune system was introduced in early 2012 in Beta Patch 13, where players were first able to try them out for themselves^[1]. Runes are now effects in skills, can be switched between freely, and are entirely divorced in organization from the old runestone items system.

Socketing a rune.

Runes are now a component of the skill system that allows a player to alter a skill. Some runes, such as the Bash rune Unleashed, do not change the basic functionality of the skill, simply increasing the damage or duration, or lowering the resource cost. Other rune effects do much more, entirely changing the function of skills from offensive to defensive, or changing the function greatly, such as the Witch Doctor's Rain of Toads rune for Plague of Toads. That rune takes a short range, slow, erratically-moving projectile attack and changes it to a ranged attack with almost full screen range that deals heavy damage to a targeted location.

The five rune effects lost their individual, unifying names during development, and there is no longer any way for players to refer to something like, "the Crimson Rune effect in Cleave." All the rune effects are simply referred to by their own names now, such as Cleave's rune effects, Broad Sweep, Gathering Storm, Scattering Blast, Reaping Swing, and Rupture.

Attaining Runes[edit | edit source]

Runes are automatically unlocked at predetermined levels. Each skill lists what levels each rune unlocks at, and players receive notification of the new runes that have become available each time they level up. Runes can be changed at any time, but changing a skill or rune while not in town will trigger a 10-second cooldown, during which time the skill or spell will not be available for use or further modification.

Skill Rune Videos[edit | edit source]

In May 2011 Blizzard released a set of five videos, one for each of the classes, demonstrating various runestones in a single skill each. These show early versions of teh rune effects, and do not correspond exactly to what we see in the final game.

The Barbarian's Whirlwind.

The Demon Hunter's Cluster Arrow

The Monk's Sweeping Wind

The Witch Doctor's Acid Cloud

The Wizard's Ray of Frost

D3 Runestones vs. D2 Runes[edit | edit source]

Diablo III's Runes are nothing like the 'runes' found in Diablo II. In D2 there are thirty-three kinds of runes, which are small items that have no use on their own, but can be placed in item sockets to add various bonuses to those items, and in certain combinations produce RuneWords, which add powerful, predetermined sets of bonuses, provided that the item has precisely the right number of sockets.

Diablo III's runes are "socketed" into skills, not items. See the Gems and Sockets articles for more details about item socketing in Diablo III.

Media[edit | edit source]

Various images of Runestones and Rune Effects.

Rune Socket]
The since-renamed Hydra Rune.
Crimson rune, August 2010 design.
The old rune stones.
Level-up rune unlock notification.
A socketed rune.

References[edit | edit source]

↑ New Skill Interface and Rune System -Diablo.incgamers, 20/2/2012

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer primary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer secondary

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer corpses

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer bloodandbone

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer reanimation

Template:Skill navbox Necromancer curses

[1] New Skill Interface and Rune System -Diablo.incgamers, 20/2/2012

[1]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Runes in Diablo 3 are small items that are socketed into skills, not items. The runes grant special bonuses to the skill. There are many types of runes, all found in various quality levels, and they work across skills -- each rune will (in theory) work in every skill, adding something similar to the skills.
+'''Runestones''' is the old name for [[Skill Runes]], which provide five different functions for every skill in Diablo III. All rune forms offer some sort of upgrade over the original skill, and there are virtually no scenarios when a character is better off using the base skill than one of the rune effects.
+[[File:New_runes.jpg|thumb|125px|The five Runes.]]
+The rune effects become available gradually, as a character levels up. All of the basic skills are available by level 30, but a character must reach level 60 to gain access to all of the rune effects, with at least 1, and usually 2 or 3 added each level up from 6 to 60. There is no set pattern or regular system to when the rune effects become available. Characters do not get another rune effect in a skill every 6 or 8 levels, for instance.
-==D3 Runes vs. D2 Runes==
+The name "runes" is something of a remnant, as there's no real reason the final game system should use that term at all, since the different "runes" are simply graphical icons attached to each of the five different forms of each skill. Originally, the skill runes were called "runestones" which were small items that characters found and socketed into their skills to grant the bonus effects. The item style of runes evolved repeatedly during development, and was eventually removed in early 2012, when skill runes lost their random effects and rune levels, and were integrated completely into the skill interface.
-Runes in Diablo III are nothing like the Runes found in Diablo II.  In D2 there were 33 kinds of {{iw|Runes Runes}}, which were small items that had no use on their own, but that could be placed in item sockets to add various bonuses to the item. Certain combinations of runes could also be used to create {{iw|Runeword RuneWords}}, very powerful items with pre-set stats.
+* See all [http://diablo.incgamers.com/categories/category/runestones/ news related to runestones in Diablo III].
+* [[Rune Archive]] -- Runes evolved greatly during the development of Diablo III. See the archive page for a detailed history lesson.
-In Diablo III, Runes are still small objects that must be placed in sockets to take effect, but in D3 the sockets are in skills, not items. (Items may also have sockets, but runes won't be used in them if they do.) Active skills have sockets in the skill tree interface, and when a valid rune is placed into the socket, the skill gains an appropriate bonus, depending on the type and quality of rune used.  Bonuses vary greatly, depending on the skill and the type of rune used, and include such things as extra hits, extra damage, increased spell duration, and many more.
+Players once assumed that a sixth rune would be added in the [[Diablo III expansion]], but with the final game system this seems unlikely, as all the rune effects are now customized to each skill, rather than each runestome type adding a semi-predictable effect to any skill it was added to.
-==Rune Function==
+==Rune Basics==
-Skill Runes in Diablo III improve a character's active skills in various creative ways. Runes don't just add damage; they modify the skill in some way, making it more powerful and fun to use, as well as allowing for character customization. Runes can be used very strategically; different runes in the same spell will do things. For example, the Wizard skill Blizzard would gain different benefits from different runes. A few hypothetical Blizzard bonuses: more falling projectiles, longer duration, more damage per projectile, longer chill time, better to/hit, better chance of critical hit, and so forth. Also, each of those types of bonuses would be increased in power by the quality of the rune used, allowing for a huge variety of potential bonuses and play styles.
-As of the Blizzcon demo (October 2008), only Active Skills had sockets for runes. None of the Passive skills did. It's not known if this will remain into the final game, or if all Active skills will have sockets.  No skill had more than one socket, and that too is a feature that may change.
+The final game rune system was introduced in early 2012 in [[Beta Patch 13]], where players were first able to try them out for themselves<ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/video-journal-3-new-skill-interface-rune-system New Skill Interface and Rune System] -Diablo.incgamers, 20/2/2012</ref>. Runes are now effects in skills, can be switched between freely, and are entirely divorced in organization from the old runestone items system.
-Runes can be removed instantly from sockets, without damaging or destroying the rune. Theoretically players could juggle their runes around constantly; sticking in a multi-strike rune to deal with big mobs, changing to a power rune to up the single target damage before a boss battle, and so forth. It's likely that Blizzard will take steps to limit that sort of rune juggling exploit; perhaps forcing players to return to town before they can change the rune socketed in a spell, putting a cool down time on resocketing the same skill, limiting the number of times a particular rune can be socketed, causing runes to lose quality when unsocketed, etc.
+[[File:Rune_ui.jpg|left|thumb|400px|Socketing a rune.]]
+Runes are now a component of the [[skill]] system that allows a player to alter a skill. Some runes, such as the [[Bash]] rune [[Unleashed (rune effect)|Unleashed]], do not change the basic functionality of the skill, simply increasing the damage or duration, or lowering the resource cost. Other rune effects do much more, entirely changing the function of skills from offensive to defensive, or changing the function greatly, such as the [[Witch Doctor]]'s [[Rain of Toads]] rune for [[Plague of Toads]]. That rune takes a short range, slow, erratically-moving projectile attack and changes it to a ranged attack with almost full screen range that deals heavy damage to a targeted location.
+The five rune effects lost their individual, unifying names during development, and there is no longer any way for players to refer to something like, "the [[Crimson Rune]] effect in [[Cleave]]." All the rune effects are simply referred to by their own names now, such as Cleave's rune effects, [[Broad Sweep]], [[Gathering Storm]], [[Scattering Blast]], [[Reaping Swing]], and [[Rupture]].
-===Function Examples===
+===Attaining Runes===
-The D3 Team gave several examples of rune functions during a panel at Blizzcon (October 2008) when Skill Runes were first revealed as a game feature. ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouYP1zGfd0s Watch the demonstration] on You Tube.)
+Runes are automatically unlocked at predetermined levels. Each skill lists what levels each rune unlocks at, and players receive notification of the new runes that have become available each time they level up. Runes can be changed at any time, but changing a skill or rune while not in [[town]] will trigger a 10-second [[cooldown]], during which time the skill or spell will not be available for use or further modification.
-====Wizard's Mirror Image====
+{{Clear|left}}
-* '''Mirror Image Skill:''' This skill, from the [[Conjuring Skill Tree]], creates a duplicate of the [[wizard]], which is capable of moving around and using spells to attack monsters. (It's not just a decoy or an illusion.)
-** '''Multistrike Rune: '''Socketing this rune would increase the number of duplicates. Higher quality levels of the multi-strike rune would presumably add more duplicates.
-** '''Power Rune: '''Socketing this rune would increase the hit points of each duplicate, and increase the spell's duration.
-====Wizard's Teleport Skill====
+==Skill Rune Videos==
-* '''Teleport skill:''' Teleports the Wizard to the targeted location. The spell isn't quite as quick as it was in Diablo or Diablo 2, since the Wizard leaps up into the air before vanishing, and appears in the air, then falls down to earth.
-* '''Striking Rune:''' Adds damage to targets near where the Wizard appears, functioning something like the Barbarian's Leap Attack skill.
-* '''Multistrike Rune:''' Creates a temporary duplicate of the Wizard that will attract enemy fire and will fight and deal damage as well. (This seems to be basically a free way to cast Mirror Image when you Teleport.)
-====Witch Doctor's Skull of Flame====
+In May 2011 Blizzard released a set of five videos, one for each of the classes, demonstrating various runestones in a single skill each.  These show early versions of teh rune effects, and do not correspond exactly to what we see in the final game.
-* '''Skull of Flame skill:''' The Witch Doctor lobs a flaming skull, grenade style, which explodes on impact, dealing substantial fire damage to nearby targets.
-* '''Multistrike Rune:''' Socketing this rune causes the flaming skull to skip along the ground, like a stone over water, creating multiple explosions. Higher quality runes would allow additional bounces.
-* '''Power Rune:''' Socketing this rune adds a firefield property to the Skull of Flame, creating a small patch of flame on the ground that persists after the skull's explosion and damages any monsters that cross over it.
-====Wizard's Electrocute====
+<center>
-* '''Electrocute skill:''' The Wizard creates a strand of lightning that locks onto enemies like a beam weapon, dealing steady lightning damage.  It may chain to a second enemy, dealing damage to both.
+{|
-* '''Multistrike Rune:''' Socketing this rune allows the lightning to chain to multiple targets.
+| <youtube>uASjbyfo3eo</youtube><br>
-* '''Lethality Rune:''' Socketing this rune causes some of the monsters killed by Electrocute to explode in a nova, dealing damage to other nearby enemies.
+The Barbarian's [[Whirlwind]].
+| <youtube>V0C_15IzneY</youtube><br>
+The Demon Hunter's [[Cluster Arrow]]
+|}
+</center>
-==Rune Types==
+<center>
-Skill Runes will be found in a variety of types. Known runes:
+{|
+| <youtube>R8gfPFuWs6g</youtube><br>
+The Monk's [[Sweeping Wind]]
+| <youtube>rWJhV31TY8U</youtube><br>
+The Witch Doctor's [[Acid Cloud]]
+|}
+</center>
-* Energy Rune
-* Lethality Rune
-* Multistrike Rune
-* Power Rune
-* Striking Rune
-(Players have spent a lot of time [http://forums.diii.net/showthread.php?p=6871952 thinking up other types of runes], and discussing their potential benefits.)
+The Wizard's [[Ray of Frost]]
-More runes will almost certainly be added during continuing development, as the team thinks of useful types to include in the game. The team won't be adding a lot of odd types of runes, though. D3 Lead Designer Jay Wilson has stressed that runes must add a useful function to multiple types of skills. The D3 Team wants all the runes to be useful to all characters, so they won't add runes that just boost one type of skill, or one character's skills. They have to think up rune bonus properties that work across the board, so there are probably not going to be 50 types of runes. (Utility doesn't equal equality, since not every skill can receive exactly the same level of improvement from every rune.)
+<youtube>k2Uo2X8iF0U</youtube>
-==Rune Quality Levels==
-It's been stated that runes will occur at various levels of quality, in a fashion somewhat akin to the different quality levels of {{iw|Gem gems}} in Diablo II. At Blizzcon (October 2008) [[Jay Wilson]] said there were 5 or 6 quality levels of runes, but that the number could go up or down during development. Higher qualities of runes will (of course) be dropped by higher level monsters, and the higher qualities will be much rarer. The function of each type of rune will not change at higher quality; instead the bonuses will be increased.
-The D3 team hasn't yet revealed much information about how item crafting will work in D3, other than to say that they won't have any {{iw|Horadric_Cube Horadric Cube-style}} converting items. We therefore know nothing about the potential for runes to be upgraded by type, though it's certainly possible that something along those lines could be implemented.
+===D3 Runestones vs. D2 Runes===
+[[Diablo III]]'s Runes are nothing like the '{{iw|runes runes}}' found in [[Diablo II]]. In D2 there are thirty-three kinds of runes, which are small items that have no use on their own, but can be placed in item sockets to add various bonuses to those items, and in certain combinations produce {{iw|Runeword RuneWords}}, which add powerful, predetermined sets of bonuses, provided that the item has precisely the right number of sockets.
-==Rune Storage==
+Diablo III's runes are "socketed" into [[skills]], not items. See the [[Gem]]s and [[Socket]]s articles for more details about [[item]] socketing in Diablo III.
-At the Blizzcon demo (October 2008) runes were stored in an inventory grid on the skill tree menu; not in the normal inventory. There were 10 rune slots below the skill trees. It's not known if they will still be stored there in the final game, if there will be ways to increase the number of slots, if they can be stored in the inventory instead, etc.
-==Rune History==
-What do you really know about runes? The ones from our world comes from the ancient Vikings, and their "futhark" (equivalence of our 'Alpha Bet(a)'). They allegedly hold magic powers, and the magicks of the 'runa' are still practised today. These practices, called "Seden", are of course done mostly as a pastime, but some forms of the old runes were used in proper form as late as early 20th century in the 'Dalarna' area of Sweden...
-In [[Sanctuary]] however, runes are definitely magically inscribed symbols. Though their use has changed slightly in the last 20 years, they used to grant (sufficiently prepared) [[items]] magical properties. For sages of these runes, magical {{iw|Runeword RuneWords}} would be created to remake a mundane item into a Runic Item, with powers competing with magical artefacts.
+==Media==
-Besides the fact that these supposedly ancient runes hold great and mystic powers, we know little about them. Who created them or how they are created is unknown. They seem to attract [[demon]]s of different kinds, as they are often found on their corpses. If the runes are of demonic origin is not known either. They could have been the simple writing language of the first inhabitants of Sanctuary, who themselves were more powerful than Demons or [[Angel]]s. Whatever the origin, they are of great use to heroes wishing to dethrone [[Diablo]] or [[Baal]].
+Various images of Runestones and Rune Effects.
+<gallery>
+Image:New_Rune_Socket.png|Rune Socket]
+Image:Rune-minor-hydra1.jpg|The since-renamed Hydra Rune.
+File:Runestone1.jpg|Crimson rune, August 2010 design.
+File:Runes5.jpg|The old rune stones.
+File:Rune notification.jpg|Level-up rune unlock notification.
+File:Rune_socketed.jpg|A socketed rune.
+</gallery>
+==References==
+<font size="-3"><references/></font>
-[[Category:Items]]
-[[Category:Runes]]
+{{Skill_navbox_Diablo_III|Barbarian}}
+{{Template:Items navbox}}
+[[Category:Skill runes]]
+[[Category:Classes]]
+[[Category:Featured articles]]
+[[Category:Lore]]

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