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→Rune Functions
==Rune Functions==
[[File:Runes5.jpg|left|thumb|85px115px|The five Runes.]]
Runes have no function on their own, other than beautifying your inventory. They are only useful once they're [[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.
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. ([[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 120 skills x 5 runes in each.
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.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blue-on-unchanging-skill-runes/] Such runes will increase the damage, lower the resource cost, etc, but without radically changing the graphic or basic function.
While the rune functions can not be entirely known in advance, it was thought that they 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.
