<b>Bashiok:</b> Yes, the mechanic stays the same for the rune type in all ranks (more or less). It simply increases in power. For the alabaster in poison dart example I’m actually not sure the increase in effect, but likely plays off of the stun effect (higher ranks stun the target for longer). Runes that reduce cost reduce even more cost as the rank increases. A rune that would cause multiple projectiles would fire even more projectiles as the rank increases, etc. It’s not necessarily a hard and fast rule though that the increase must only be one thing. Maybe it means more projectiles AND ups the damage a little to make sure it remains competitive with other runes or skills. It has to be a somewhat fluid system.</blue>
There are seven quality levels of runestones, roughly distributed so that 1-3 are found as a character progresses through Normal, 4-5 are found in Nightmare, and 6-7 are found in Hell. Higher level runestones can be distinguished by additional points around their perimeters. It's not known how rare high level runestones will be, but as powerful as they are, most players expect them to be fairly scarce.
===Skill Function Changes===
All runes offer improvements; any skill with any rune is better than the same skill with no rune. That said, each player will want to pick runes that add the sort of bonuses that best fits their play style.
The new rune effects come with new visuals in every case, but with every skill there is at least one rune that doesn't change the basic function of the skill. Such runes will increase the damage, lower the resource cost, etc, but without radically changing the graphic or basic function. <ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blue-on-unchanging-skill-runes/ @Diablo tweet] - Diablo.IncGamers.com, April 2011</ref>
This assertion was partially disproved by the five runestone effect videos, since several of them show graphical changes to every runestone, along with at least partial changes in function. <ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/new-runestones-details-and-videos/ New skill rune videos] - Diablo.IncGamers.com, April 2011</ref>
==Runestone Scarcity==
The issue of There are seven runestone scarcity is still up quality levels, roughly distributed so that levels one through three are found as a character progresses through Normal, four and five are found in the airNightmare, and six and seven are found in Hell. Higher level runestones can be distinguished by additional points around their perimeters. It's not known how rare high level runestones will be. The most recent info information about it came from a forum post by [[Bashiok]] forum post in January 2011.<ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/runestone-info-galore/ Bashiok forum post] - Blue Tracker, January 12, 2011</ref>
::'''Question: '''Are all five runes equally as rare or is one or more types rarer than others?
