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''' are magical writing from unknown source, that will help heroes in their battle against [[Diablo]] and minions of [[Hell]].
+'''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.
-==Diablo 3 Skill 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 going to work differently than runes in [[Diablo II]]. They will no longer be socketed into [[items]], like {{iw|Rune Diablo 2 runes}}, and there will not be any combination of runes to make {{iw|Runeword RuneWords}}. A lot about Skill Runes was told during Blizzcon 2008 Class Design Panel. The following are infos gathered from the Panels, Developer Interviews and Q&A sessions.
-==Skills Customization==
+* See all [http://diablo.incgamers.com/categories/category/runestones/ news related to runestones in Diablo III].
-Skill Runes are being designed as a way to customize and improve your character's skills and are one of the main aspects of Diablo 3's skill system. By socketting in a Skill Rune you will actually change the look and way the skill works.
+* [[Rune Archive]] -- Runes evolved greatly during the development of Diablo III. See the archive page for a detailed history lesson.
-It seems Skill Runes can be inserted into Active Skills only. As shown into Blizzcon Diablo 3 play sessions, every Active Skill presents a socket to insert runes into, while passive skills and masteries had none. Skill Runes can be swapped in and out freely, thus allowing and encouraging experimentation.
-==Rune Types and Quality==
+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.
-In a way similar to Diablo 2 gems, Skill Runes will come in a variety of kind and quality.
-The type of rune you socket in determines the way the skill will be altered.
-As of today, known runes are:
-*Energy Rune
-*Lethality Rune
-*Multistrike Rune
-*Power Rune
-*Striking Rune
-The number is probably going to grow, since developers stated they will consider adding new runes whenever they come up with an idea to custumize skills in a cool new way.
+==Rune Basics==
-Right now, only the Minor quality runes where shown. By the way, it was clearly stated that runes will come in four or five tiers of quality, with higher quality runes progressively more powerful. No further info on rune quality is available at the moment, still a progression like Minor, Normal, Major, Perfect runes, or similar pattern, is likely to show up in the final game.
+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.
-==Skills with Skill Runes exemples==
+[[File:Rune_ui.jpg|left|thumb|400px|Socketing a rune.]]
-During the panel it was shown how Skill Runes will affect the way Skills work, depending on the runes that are socketed into.
+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.
-*Wizard's Mirror Image
-**Basic Mirror Image: creates an illusionary duplicate of yourself.
-**Multistrike Rune: number of images increased by one (higher qulity multistrike runes will surely increase the number even more).
-**Power Rune: your duplicates get more hitpoints and last longer.
-*Wizard's Teleport Skill
+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]].
-**Basic Teleport: you simply teleport into the desired spot the blink of an eye.
-**Striking Rune: allows you to do damage to whatever you teleport near to.
-**Multistrike Rune: you split into images of yourself, with the illusions distracting monsters.
-*Witch Doctor's Skull of Flame
+===Attaining Runes===
-**Basik Skull of Flame: you throw an exploding skull at your enemy, causing a fire explosion.
-**Multistrike Rune: the skull you throw will bounce on the ground, exploding and hitting enemies several times.
-**Power Rune: the skull will leave burning areas on the ground, with monsters walking through those taking additional damage.
-*Wizard's Electrocute
+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.
-**Basic Electrocute: you pierce an enamy with an arc of electrical energy, wich chains up to one additional target.
-**Multistrike Rune: the effects chains up to several more monsters.
-**Lethality Rune: Whenever you kill a monster with the electrocute skill, it'll blow up in a nova-like explosion, hurting nearbye anemies.
-During Diablo III play sessions at Blizzcon 2008 the use of Skill runes was enabled for Wizard characters only. If you where one of the lucky ones to try the early version of the game, and had the chance to play around with skill runes, feel free to contribute by reporting your experience.
+{{Clear|left}}
-==Diablo 2 Runes==
+==Skill Rune Videos==
-{{interwiki|half= }}
+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.
-==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.
+<center>
+{|
+| <youtube>uASjbyfo3eo</youtube><br>
+The Barbarian's [[Whirlwind]].
+| <youtube>V0C_15IzneY</youtube><br>
+The Demon Hunter's [[Cluster Arrow]]
+|}
+</center>
-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]].
+<center>
+{|
+| <youtube>R8gfPFuWs6g</youtube><br>
+The Monk's [[Sweeping Wind]]
+| <youtube>rWJhV31TY8U</youtube><br>
+The Witch Doctor's [[Acid Cloud]]
+|}
+</center>
-[[Category:Items]]
+The Wizard's [[Ray of Frost]]
-[[Category:Runes]]
+<youtube>k2Uo2X8iF0U</youtube>
+===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.
+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.
+==Media==
+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>
+{{Skill_navbox_Diablo_III|Barbarian}}
+{{Template:Items navbox}}
+[[Category:Skill runes]]
+[[Category:Classes]]
+[[Category:Featured articles]]
+[[Category:Lore]]

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