Current, and likely final Runestone names.
The switch to the current names was made to bring a similar feeling of origin to all the runes. Furthermore the current names allow the development team to vary the effects each rune could have on a skill. As before with strict, predictable names for each rune, strange variations such as the Witch Doctor's Plaque of Toads skill, where when an Obsidian Rune is place in it; instead of casting multiple small toads, you summon one giant toad which eats nearby monsters whole. That would hardly fit the description for any of the older rune names. Another example of a skill which wouldn't have fit in the original Runestone model is the Indigo Rune in the Wizard's Ray of Frost skill which turns the skill from a focused beam of frost damage, to a AoE around the Wizard. This can be seen in Force's Runestone - Game systems video.Advance the video to 2:12 for the mentioned example.
With the possibility that a rune will have an unforeseeable effect on a skill; one might ask how'd you know this before placing the rune into the skill? Bashiok provides us with an answer.
As of late, Magistrate promptly Covered Runestones, alongside the official cut of the Talisman. Before that Jackzor did an in depth article on Runestone's Levels and Progression. Hype about the rune system doesn't seem to be dying down, and for good reason. On a single class with every skill, and runestone taken into account there are over 96,000,000 possible combinations. To qoute Julian Love, Lead Technical Artist for Diablo III.
Official Blizzard Quote:
96,886,969,344. This is the number of skill combinations with runes, that you can have per class. This does not include things like traits, gear, dyes, charms, anything like that this is purely active skills.
This topic, and Runestones in general was farther delved into by Sixen and Force in their Lastest Podcast.
While keeping in mind the majority of that number consists of low level skills combined with low level runes; one has to wonder how many viable builds there will be come endgame. For further information on Runestones feel free to visit our Runestones wiki page, the Official Diablo Runestones page, view Blizzcon 2010 footage at our youtube channel, TheChatGem, or read any of the past articles linked. Concerning last week's poll on Blizzcon Ticket Prices, just under half of the voters felt that the "Ticket price doesn't matter compared to travel and other costs". Between plane tickets, a hotel room, and food the expense of the event ticket doesn't seem to stand out.As for this week's poll, Runestones will surely be an excellent system by keeping skills fresh for long after release. So, What are your preferable rune effects?
I'll be interested to see how these effect other skills, should be good.
For the most part I'll probably use runes for skills that make them more efficient resource-wise. Since Whirlwind is now rage based and I assume (though I could be dead wrong) that you won't be able to regenerate that rage faster than you use it, even in a large pack of monsters (unless there are items/traits/etc that allow you to do that of course), then I'll favor rage cost -% modifiers over anything else for purely practical reasons. As to other skills and classes, it will wholly depend on that skill's purpose as to what rune I'll favor for it.
The ridiculous number tossed out kind of annoys me. 96,886,969,344. I mean, how much did the Borderlands developers toss out their ridiculous numbers for weapon drop possibilities? And in the end that really didn't mean much for gameplay, as all weapons were based around just a handful of archetypes, and those in turn based around a similarly small amount of sub-categories. I have no doubt that there will be basically endless customization to skills, but saying "Golden rune tier 1 skill A, Golden rune tier 2 on Skill A, etc." Is kind of pointless. Why not just multiply the number of active skills in a class by 5 (one for each rune) rather than engorging that number exponentially by throwing trivial stats in there like accommodating for each and every tier of each rune. That, I believe, would produce a much more helpful, and truthful, number to work with.
I voted debuffs. Good article Winged.
@ snared - You don't have to quote the entire post.
And, honestly, also what I manage to get my hands on first. I don't recall, are runes inserted forever or can you take them out?
That makes sense, though. Rune effects seem difficult to analyze without actually trying them.
I think I'll end up using a variety of runes. For instance, if I find equipment that boosts a certain type of elemental damage, I'd go with a rune that changes the skill to that element, if possible. Or if a resource managing rune would let me use a skill without any downtime, I could see myself using that.
I imagine that i would change my vote to debuffs to maximize my supportive defensive role. Thanks!!
I can't wait for Diablo III everytime something cool like this get's released I want it more & more!
So, yeh.. I chose other.