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[[File:Runestone1.jpg|frame|left|Crimson rune.]]
'''Runes''' in [[Diablo 3]] are small items that are socketed , one each, into '''active''' every single [[skill]]s, (but not into [[traits]] or [[item]]s as was the case they were in Diablo II.) Diablo III's skill runes grant special bonuses to the skill they are socketed into, improving the skill's function in various ways. Runes are always an improvement over the plain skill, and almost always desirable.
There are five types of runes, each representing of which can be found at seven levels of quality. Each type of rune provides a general type sort of bonus, such as the Crimson Rune's +damage/fire, though these vary quite a bit between different skills, and are slightly randomized in order to make all of the runes desirable. The names of which the runes have changed repeatedly several times during game development. The final (?) name change was revealed made in early 2010, and made public in May 2010, when [[Bashiok]] [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/new-skill-rune-names-revealed/] revealed the rune names as having changed to [[Crimson]], [[Indigo]], [[Obsidian]], [[Golden]], and [[Alabaster]]. Considerable, but not total, changes to their bonuses came with that name change.
Runes can be found at 7 quality levels, with the highest levels extremely rare. There maybe rune quality upgrades or outright rune creation recipes available from the [[Mystic]].
==Rune Functions==
Runes have no function on their own, other than beautifying your inventory. They are only useful once they're socketed [[socket]]ed in a skill, where they modify the skill's function, always in a beneficial way. Any rune in a skill is an improvement over the base function of the skill, and since runes are easy to swap in and out of skills, it's always in your best interest to stick a rune into a skill at the first opportunity.
[[File:Runes5.jpg|thumb|125px|The five Runes.]]
The functions of the runes are not entirely predictable in a given skill. Their bonuses vary widely and wildly, and all rune functions are custom assigned by the devs; none of them are simply +x damage, or +X casting speed. This is an enormous ([[Gems]] provide those sorts of predictable bonuses when socketed into items.) Creating and implementing the rune effects was a tremendous amount of work for the developers and artists; there are nearly 150 skills x 5 runes in each.
While the rune functions can not be entirely known in advance, it was thought that hey would have general properties that transferred across skills. This may no longer be the case, as it seems the developers are shuffling the bonuses around unpredictably, probably in an effort to make the different types of runes equivalently useful. Rather than, for instance, allowing Crimson to be the most useful and Golden the least, on the whole.
Prior to Blizzcon 2010, runes (which had different names at the time) were generally accepted to do the following:
* [[Alabaster rune]]: Wild card functions.
::'''Bashiok:''' That’s a good question, I can see how that could be justified. I don’t know what the plan is there, I’ll have to ask. My gut is that it would be too much to keep some type of rune ‘power rating’ in mind when altering drop rates, especially post-release where patches could jumble them around a fair bit. “This rune sucks now but it’s still the rarest!” Also, ideally, each rune type will be equally viable to different people and builds. Saying one is more powerful than another would mean we’re probably balancing them to be, and that’s not the case.
Prior to the early-2010 reworking, when runes changed from strict functions to the more varied color/substance names, it was clear that some runes would be much more sought after than others. For instance, Power runes were obviously going to be more desirable and useful than Energy runes. This is not necessarily the case, now that rune functions are so varied.
For example, if the Alabaster rune has 5 really popular uses, and the Golden rune has only 2, they could simply switch 2 of those very popular Alabaster bonuses to Golden, instantly changing the rune values. This would not be a good hotfix, since it would ruin the rune bonus in their skill for thousands of players. If a change this drastic were planned, it would have to be done with a patch/ladder reset, so that only newly-found runes after the patch would have the change, while older ones in the non-ladder economy would continue to work as they always had.
