I really liked the idea of runes as they were originally intended to be, that is, as item drops that enhanced your skills. While there are quite good reasons why runes were changed to the current system, I think the game lost something when they abandoned that system.
I think the idea of runes being a part of the item game could be implemented in the current system, and this is how I propose it could be done. Note, this is just the beginnings of an idea, and is far from fully developed.
The Idea:
The basis of this system would be a new item type. For the purposes of this discussion, we'll call them 'Glyphs'. When a glyph drops, it randomly rolls one of the runes for one of your classes abilities (and if a more robust trading system was in operation, it could also roll runes for other classes, but that's another discussion).
Currently, the idea is that glyphs would be a socketable item, like gems, and would go into sockets just like them. When socketed, the glyph will activate the rune that it rolled, much like the legendary items that do this. So you might roll a "Rune of Frenzy(Smite)" for your barbarian, and when socketed, your Frenzy would get the affect of the Smite rune, in addition to whatever other rune you are using normally. The skill would use the elemental damage type of the rune you've got normally selected. So for example, you might be using Frenzy with Maniac, so the ability will do fire damage and have the stacking damage buff, but it will also have the 30% chance to stun that comes from having Smite activated through the glyph.
The glyphs being put into normal sockets does seem like it would weaken the system drastically though, as you probably wouldn't choose that over the 280 main stat you'd get from just using a gem. An alternative is perhaps bringing back the Talisman, which would essentially just be a place to have sockets to place your glyphs in, and it wouldn't do anything other than this.
I think the idea of runes being a part of the item game could be implemented in the current system, and this is how I propose it could be done. Note, this is just the beginnings of an idea, and is far from fully developed.
The Idea:
The basis of this system would be a new item type. For the purposes of this discussion, we'll call them 'Glyphs'. When a glyph drops, it randomly rolls one of the runes for one of your classes abilities (and if a more robust trading system was in operation, it could also roll runes for other classes, but that's another discussion).
Currently, the idea is that glyphs would be a socketable item, like gems, and would go into sockets just like them. When socketed, the glyph will activate the rune that it rolled, much like the legendary items that do this. So you might roll a "Rune of Frenzy(Smite)" for your barbarian, and when socketed, your Frenzy would get the affect of the Smite rune, in addition to whatever other rune you are using normally. The skill would use the elemental damage type of the rune you've got normally selected. So for example, you might be using Frenzy with Maniac, so the ability will do fire damage and have the stacking damage buff, but it will also have the 30% chance to stun that comes from having Smite activated through the glyph.
The glyphs being put into normal sockets does seem like it would weaken the system drastically though, as you probably wouldn't choose that over the 280 main stat you'd get from just using a gem. An alternative is perhaps bringing back the Talisman, which would essentially just be a place to have sockets to place your glyphs in, and it wouldn't do anything other than this.