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To most of you Runestones are not cutting edge news. Since their fresh debut at Blizzcon 2010 Runestones have been popularized as a powerful feature in Diabo 3; adding a whole new level of skill customization we've never seen before in the Diablo franchise. Runestones have had multiple debuts prior to this last Blizzcon though. At Blizzcon 2008 Runestones were also demoed. While their general function hasn't changed through their development, both their UI, and name for each of the five runes have. Moving from names such as Lethality, Multistrike, and Power to the names Energy, Viper, Hydra, Force, and Striking was the first step towards our current model. A constant throughout each refresh has been that each rune has kept a mildly predictable effect. The name transitions from Multistrike, to Hydra, and now the Indigo Rune hint at the fact that the Indigo Rune still primarily adds multistrike to most skills. An example of this can be seen in the Blizzcon 2011 Crafting Sanctuary Panel, when Julian Love showed how an Indigo Rune effects the as seen here. Though runes still have a general theme, originally each rune had a very strict effect, with little to no room for off the wall skill variations. While some of each rune's predictability still exists, the new names open up more possibilities.

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.


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.

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?

Probably either the one that looks the coolest or increased damage

Quote from Winged

To most of you Runestones are not cutting edge news. Since their fresh debut at Blizzcon 2010 Runestones have been popularized as a powerful feature in Diabo 3; adding a whole new level of skill customization we've never seen before in the Diablo franchise. Runestones have had multiple debuts prior to this last Blizzcon though. At Blizzcon 2008 Runestones were also demoed. While their general function hasn't changed through their development, both their UI, and name for each of the five runes have. Moving from names such as Lethality, Multistrike, and Power to the names Energy, Viper, Hydra, Force, and Striking was the first step towards our current model.

A constant throughout each refresh has been that each rune has kept a mildly predictable effect. The name transitions from Multistrike, to Hydra, and now the Indigo Rune hint at the fact that the Indigo Rune still primarily adds multistrike to most skills. An example of this can be seen in the Blizzcon 2011 Crafting Sanctuary Panel, when Julian Love showed how an Indigo Rune effects the as seen here. Though runes still have a general theme, originally each rune had a very strict effect, with little to no room for off the wall skill variations. While some of each rune's predictability still exists, the new names open up more possibilities.

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jewDFyHfvTE&hd=1

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.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Pick up a rune and mouse it over a skill and the tooltip will tell you how it affects the skill. The UI does a good job of informing you how each rune interacts with each skill.

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 like debuffs, slowing effects and DOTs. Multistrike could also be cool. Less resource cost if it's using too much. It depends on the skill I think.

I voted debuffs. Good article Winged.

@ snared - You don't have to quote the entire post.

Nice writeup Winged! I enjoyed it!

I went with play style but would rank debuff around same place. Ray of frost being a prime example. I want to make a short range wizard at some point and ray of frost with indigo?, I forget which one (the one that makes it a a spherical torrent sound about right. As for damage that's what my gear is for. I might pop one for resource if it's a hog the way i want to use it and another damage type doesn't seem terrible. Also I could careless about PvP use. Lastly other if it's fun to use I'll be using it at some point.

Playstyle. I really don't know anything about Monk's skills right now so it's really hard to say. It depends strongly on the skill in question and what array of skills I plan to use (duh).

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?

You can take swap them around in town with no cost I think.

Nice. There will be much experimentation then.

That makes sense, though. Rune effects seem difficult to analyze without actually trying them.

Definitely voted play style. I want to play with a group of friends and I've always loved the support role. What i'm aiming for is a Witch Doctor crowd control build. I'll slow, scare, distract the mobs while my homies (and girlfriend) slay away. I cant wait so see what they do with zombie dogs and sacrifice rune wise. Of course one of sacrifices runes will be larger aoe but what about the other 4? Hmmmmm..... Thanks guys. I love this site.

I will rune for the coolest looking spell effects. I argue this should be added to the list of poll options.

I voted skill playstyle because changing a skill's function looks cool, but it's difficult to say which one I'll be using the most. It depends on whether or not I find a skill I like using without modifying how it works.

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 decided to go for runes that deal an additional type of damage. Those will come up handy when the monsters start getting resists and inmunes in NM and Hell.

Before I vote, I want to know what you mean by "Skill Playstyle". Does that mean a rune effect that changes the function of the skill so much that it becomes something entirely new, such as the Indigo Rune in Ray of Frost?

Quote from AcidReign

Before I vote, I want to know what you mean by "Skill Playstyle". Does that mean a rune effect that changes the function of the skill so much that it becomes something entirely new, such as the Indigo Rune in Ray of Frost?

I originally took "Skill Playstyle" as changing the effects of the rune to suit a specific playstyle you want. But i guess all runes do that. I would say that your right in your Indigo Rune in Ray of Frost scenario.

I imagine that i would change my vote to debuffs to maximize my supportive defensive role. Thanks!!

I chose "Increased Damage" because as a Barbarian lover I find more damage means my axe's can cut through my butter-like foes faster

Additional Damage type is definitely going to be my favorite, i've always loved being able to attack with a weapon with lightning, fire, ice and etc.

I can't wait for Diablo III everytime something cool like this get's released I want it more & more!

I voted for play style, but I might mix it up when going through runes on my first character. Depending on how much I'll be PvP'ing or PvE'ing and which runes will do what to certain skills, I will adjust my build accordingly. I'm very curious and excited to see what the other runes will do for other skills for other classes, most of all the Barbarian's potential abilities.