As the developers are introducing new runewords for Season 3 to sprinkle in more variety, I wanted to share my thoughts about adding more exciting attributes to the new resist helm runewords as they seem rather bland and overall uninspiring…
Cure
Add +5-10% To Max Poison Resist
Add Level 1 Cleansing Aura When Equipped
Change name to “Restoration” or “Purification”
This runeword needs max poison resist to keep the resistance angle of these helms along with a cleansing aura when equipped to make it more versatile and used on mercenaries. Lastly, change runeword name to "Restoration” or “Purification” as it fits more with Diablo lore and aesthetics.
Hearth
Add +5-10% To Max Cold Resist
Add Cannot Be Frozen
To make this runeword more useful, simply give it max cold resist and CBF, which offers more items with this important attribute as it is essential to have for melee characters (e.g. ravenfrost isn’t ideal for horking).
Ground
Add +5-10% To Max Lightning Resist
Add +X% CtC Level X Nova When Struck
Change name to “Conduit”
To improve the usefulness of this runeword, add max lightning resist along with chance to cast nova when struck. Lastly, consider changing runeword name to “Conduit,” to fit the theme of channeling electrical energy.
Temper
Add +5-10% To Max Fire Resist
Add +X% Extra Gold From Monsters
To improve this runeword, I recommend adding max fire resist along with a significant boost to gold find, which fits the theme of tempering precious metals.
They already have +10-15% absorb for that particular element, but it isn’t enough and really feels mundane/uninspiring in design. In addition to resist/absorb, they should have more usefulness/flavor- CBF, GF, etc.
I think we need more sources of CBF in general and ‘hearth’ is unplayable without it. Especially since we don’t start seeing ravenfrost drop until later. For first playthrough on melee cold really hurts DPS and survivability.
‘cure’ I agree with, also poison is just the least valuable resist in game. Curse duration great way to stay on flavor and make it useful. Some1 suggested a low level cleanse aura like 1-5. Which would also help with super poison in hell.
'Temper" or ‘Ember’ could probably keep the fire absorb. I kinda like the idea of it being a dwarf star on your head. Good stuff. The runes are also pretty easy to come by so theoretically could have them on swap for particularly rough elemental areas in hell. Aka souls in WSK and the hydras of the council members. Particularly nasty on early playthroughs.
then people would still just play bulwark. They need to have niche reasons to play each. I don’t mind niche early level RW especially since they are cheap to make. +75 life and +5% max life are not the same. +75 life is significant. These are not meant to be end game RW, they are meant to fill gaps in gear for melee users in early progression.