This is my opinion on it. I don’t want to see them be as overkill as D2 but I still think they are a really cool idea and add interesting currency!
Same. They should rather be special and game changing. Not stat boosters like in D2. And with the condition and effect system, they are already heading in the right direction
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Still, their builds consist of more than mainstat and green arrows for attack, defense and crit v:
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Matters not in the end if the builds are the same. Considering that is a favorite argument that D3 blows because everyone just uses the same build for the season.
there are no real builds in D3 xD
there are sets. and those sets will tell you, which skills to use, hahahahaha
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Bro you mostly just go to every thread and start flaming whatever you consider " most of the D2 crowd". This isn’t even an actual opinion or piece of discussion on itemization or runewords, did you really just come make a big assumption/presupposition and speak for a group of people?
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Love your idea about the 3rd, or even 4th rune in a run set (I won’t call it runewords to avoid confusions).
But I don’t think a 3rd rune should totally change the effect rune, since the effect rune would be meaningless. And I don’t think there should be a debuff duration either, at least not from the 3rd rune, because that would be dangerous, especially in boss fights. The best version I can think of is the 3rd and 4th runes will work like buff support runes in PoE, they can increase the effect time, AoE effects, or cause the buff to affects nearby allies, or brings additional effects like more resist during buff time, or life per resource spent, or additional move speed, damage conversion, or cause the effect rune to trigger randomly, etc.
I think they should make D4’s “runewords” usable for legendaries and mythics as well, and make it compete with gems/jewels. That would be interesting and deepening the build variables.
Totally agree. No stat booster, just effects. And make gems/jewels do the stat boosters so we can choose between.
But you can definitely put several condition and effect runes in the same item and make them work together
And then, call them runewords 
(See, my post)
I have played YEARS in D2 and i see a lot of pros in current D4 version of RW; they can be put in blues, rares, sets and legendaries; but also i think 2 runes are not enough for this system, at least 3-4 would be ok, maybe more in the future expansions.
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The problem about that is, it doesn’t give normal items a value in this scenario. So a real runeWORD system could change that
Or just give normal items a bigger number of sockets, so they are the kinda “make an item yourself” items
If Blizz would leave as it is in D4, but with more combinations of runes, white items could even don’t exist.
I always bring this up when someone is talking about runewords… if there isn’t something distinguishing and unique about WHITE items, then runewords is really just a legendary item that got “crafted”.
That’s the first thing I need to see to consider runewords like D2. How is the item differentiated… are there stat requirements for heavier armor or slower movements. Shaftstop is always chainmail and has a certain defense value range and str requirement. A runeword could be put in a chainmail, or mage plate or ancient armor and that would completely depend on what else you were doing, if you are getting 230+ strength for a big two hand mace then maybe go with that ancient armor for max defense.
Seeing as there is no stat requirement or anything to look to differentiate item types in D4, then runewords in D2 way do not make sense.
well, if they are different enough to uniques/legendaries, it would just be an other kind of top tier items
runewords in D2 are too similar to uniques
the runewords that i wrote, evolving from the condition and effect runes, are very different
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i think whey have to be carefull with the New Runeword system… If they make to many sockeds in Rares or legendarys, with a 4 Rune type system could outbalance Gems or and Jewels… making Runes the only viable option as sockets… a more commen Item should have more room for Power/sockets 
IMHO would balance out power between different Items for better or worse xD
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There could be limitation f.e. Rares 3s max, Lege 2s max, but overall whole rw system should be more expanded than current max 2s version.
Tbh, if Blizz will not back to D2 RW system, removing white items from D4 is not a bad idea. I like D2 RW but they were very strong and in most builds they were must have items. So we would have to choose between RW and Rare/Lege item. If Blizz wants make Lege items most powerful as mentioned on Blizzcon, this new system gives opportunity for it.
i think, with the new legendary consumable system, they are trying to make all items viable, altough it is flawed. and david kim also mentioned, there will be a complex crafting system with materials that you can gather all over the world, so normal items will not be out of the run
also, if you make runewords, they dont have to be like in D2
they could be more special and doing only their own thing, like i tried to interpretate it: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d3/t/runewords-are-very-possible-within-the-new-system
As i see your suggestion is something between D2 and D4 RW system. I like it, but it forces to choose between Lege or RW (I don’t mind it to be clear).
Perfect system would be what you have mentioned + some gems AND jewels that could be inserted into Rares, Lege, Sets items (which means Runes would work ONLY with white items). If it will be only like D4 i still don’t see a sense of white items (maybe only as a crafting material).
How exactly does it “force”? I mean, Itemization should be balanced in a way that you can’t say “OK I go full legendary or full runeword or full set”, where you decide to pick a leg, a runeword, a rare, maybe a magic and a crafted…where all rarity types are capable of having a BiS position in your build. Right?
In my suggestion, you could put some runes in higher tier items but only in white items you can put enough, to make runewords.
David Kim talked about a crafting system that we don’t know much about, yet. It might utilize normals as a base, like RWs in D2
I am based on D2 experience - there were RW that were must have in specific slot/build. There were so powerfull that there was no alternative Uniq item to replace it in most of the cases.
Perfect solution would be as you mentioned above; i would add something from myself:
- magic/rares/sets/leges: max 2sockets, “only” trigger and effect;
- white: 2-4 sockets, creates runeword which gives 2-3 stats + trigger and effect and maybe any legendary affix?
Well i don’t know how they gonna balance items so I suggested, legendary/rare: 2 slots, magic: 3 slots, normal: 4-6 slots (for the sake of some runewords that I created lol)
And I actually think, rune words should change, compared to D2
rather just giving a special gimmik instead of stats and affixes
a passive aura that rlies to the runes used, a stronger effect for a certain condition, an effect that is very game changing and can compensate for the item, not having a lot of stats
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