Ive seen this topic mentioned a few times and I am curious. I only played D2 thru the campaign and dont recall messing with these. What are runewords, were they fun and how would they improve D4?
First we’ll start with runes, which were items you found randomly through playing that would give a specific affix when placed into a socket on an item. However when inserted into a White/Normal item that had sockets, in a specific order, the runes would spell a word, hence runeword, and the combination of these runes in a specific order would turn the item into something far greater then what the individual runes would do. The more powerful the runeword, the more rare the runes to complete it.
Now while it did make White Items useful, it created the other problem of making them highly sought after for builds. Very similar to how certain builds won’t work without uniques in D4, Runewords were the same way and offered immense power or benefits. It completely changed the itemization structure and a lot of builds were made obsolete due to its implementation.
They essentially created a solution to a problem that didn’t exist, but it was for an expansion, and power creep is known to happen during expansions.
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First off, thank you.
Second, it sounds like something we dont really need in the game. Itemization was just changed and masterworking accomplishes the same thing.
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For the moment I would agree with you. It wouldn’t make much sense to implement another system on top of all of the itemization changes we just got, that would pretty much undermine all the hard work put into this patch.
However back in April 2023 I want to say, they did showcase Runewords for Diablo 4. Adam Jackson did an interview with wccftech (you can google wccftech - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Diablo IV Customization / Respec / Progression / Crafting Systems - Posted Apr 25, 2023). It was obviously a work in progress at the time, and they would function differently from D2.
Just to give some examples.
Eld - When you are stunned or frozen activate the next socketed rune.
Eth - Every 3 seconds without moving, activate the next socketed rune.
Sol - When active, gain a random shrine effect for 7 seconds.
Dol - When active, gain 50% critical strike chance for 7 seconds.
Fal - When a pet dies, activate the next socketed rune.
There’s a few more but you get the idea. It wasn’t discussed if they would gain additional benefits of making actual runewords though.
Now in D2, just to give an example, as I could give many, this is a Runeword, combining 5 runes onto an item.
OBEDIENCE
5 socket [Polearms ]
30% Chance To Cast Level 21 Enchant When You Kill An Enemy
40% Faster Hit Recovery
+370% Enhanced Damage
-25% Target Defense
Adds 3-14 Cold Damage 3 Second Duration
-25% To Enemy Fire Resistance
40% Chance of Crushing Blow
+200-300 Defense
+10 To Strength
+10 To Dexterity
All Resistances +20-30
Requirements -20%
There’s far more crazier runewords then that, but you get the idea. Mind you there’s currently a total of 89 Runewords that require anywhere from 2 to 6 runes to create. It definitely added some customization, but toward the endgame everyone went after the same runewords depending on the build.
They sounds a lot like the return of “damage on tuesday” stats that we just got rid of. Not sure how fun that would be.
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With their prototype runes, yea pretty much. D2’s were better in that sense at least. D2 also offered you the ability to use other classes abilities through other items and runewords as well. So for example you could make an item that would give you a Barbarian Shout, which would give you a buff, or you could get Sorcs Teleport Ability, or Smite from a Paladin, etc.
Some came with charges, others didn’t have charges and you could potentially use them infinitely given you had enough resource to use. Everyone used Mana back then mind you, there was no Rage for Barbs, Energy for Rogues, etc. We all used mana and mana potions.
There is a bizarre juxtaposition in these forums of people who complain about blizzard not being creative enough to create new systems and people who say “we need to reuse this old feature from an old game”. I wonder what the overlap between those two groups are?
I personally would prefer to see new systems not rehashed old systems as much as possible. I know there’s only so many things you can do within a genre so some similarity is bound to happen though.
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Runes and Pgems are the reason trading worked so well in D2. Trading might be more popular if these were a thing in Diablo 4.
Love it or hate it runes ran the economy in D2. I still enjoy meeting random people and trading with them on D2R. FG and real money plagues the current trade system though. A big con towards runes imo. That and I haven’t been able to make jahithber in 20 years. One day!
Runewords where good when they first came out because they had balance. Especially low level runewods. They are just uniques with extra steps.
Post 1.10 Runeword powercreep replaced all uniques. There were also runewords like enigma which should have never existed or been changed but it gave every class teleport.
It was a shame because 1.07 to 1.09 were the best years of D2.
Mind you S3 broken teleport was awesome. It reminded me of the glory days of teleport.
Runewords are great. Whites matter since you make RW with white items.
On top of all a rare rune drop is an amazing feeling of accomplishment.
You have a feeling of progression with every rune drop.
Possibilities open up and you start to theorycraft what RW to make.
The final item has a great history and emotional connection 