Runewords are incredibly underwhelming at the moment, though I am hopeful with a few tweaks, they can potentially be improved.
Many Ritual Runes don’t generate enough Offering
Many Invocation Runes Offering costs are too high
This is a balancing issue and just needs tweaking. A Rune like Bac (50 Offering per 5 meters moved) is arguably one of the easiest Offering generators to upkeep, but it still struggles to trigger Que (Druid’s Earthen Bulwark for 800 Offering).
I wish I could deep dive into all the runes, but instead I’ll generalize
- If the Offering cost is greater than 400, it’s too high
- If the Offering generation is under 20, it’s too low
There are exceptions, but this has been my experience so far.
Rune combinations are too weak to justify their socket occupation
Individual Runes serve no purpose
A main-stat gem typically gives you more consistent power, where as a Runeword combination gives you a niche power under specific circumstances.
In Diablo II, Runes had their own affixes. Tal (D2) gave +75 Poison over 5s / 30% Poison Res.
Maybe add thematic affixes to the individual Runes so that their socket occupation still gives a consistent benefit.
There aren’t enough Ritual Runes / Offering generators
Invocation effects are underwhelming
I found that a lot of the Invocation effects are lackluster because I just don’t have any Ritual Runes that have decent synergy with my build to allow me to consistently cast the effects I want. This forces me to take the most generic Ritual Rune I can and pair it with any Invocation Rune that it can afford the Offering cost of, which ends in a “boring” result.
Additionally, many of the Invocation Runes are underwhelming because they simply lack power. This is evident in Runes like Tal, wherein the Pestilent Swarms spawned by it seemingly do nothing.
- Many more Ritual Runes are needed with a wider variety of Offering generators
- Many Invocation Runes need to be “dialed to 11”, instead of a lukewarm “2”
Rune combinations don’t benefit, enhance, or augment builds
I believe the biggest reason why there’s a disparity at the moment between Diablo IV’s Runewords and Diablo II’s is that they’re not build defining and they don’t offer enough power to transcend current builds.
In Diablo II, ‘Melody’ (Shael + Ko + Nef) offers the following passively with no conditions:
- 50% enhanced damage
- 300% damage to undead
- +3 to Bow & Crossbow Skills
- +3 to Critical Strike
- +3 to Dodge
- +3 to Slow Missiles
- 20% attack speed
- +10 to Dexterity
- Knockback
And while I’m sure ‘Melody’ wasn’t Amazon’s endgame meta Runeword, it certainly raised the fun and fantasy of playing a ‘Bowazon’. Diablo IV’s Runewords are missing this ‘hard in the paint’ approach to build benefit.
There aren’t enough sockets per item to create “Runewords”
By limiting items to 0-2 sockets, Diablo IV locked itself out of combining ‘Runes’ to create powerful, unique ‘Runewords’.
While I don’t actually expect the devs to rework sockets now, it probably should have been something done in retrospect when considering Runewords as a system.
Part of the fun with the original Runewords, was finding combinations of Runes that made words like ‘Melody’, ‘Silence’, or ‘Wealth’.
Final Thoughts
The current iteration of Runes has decent enough bones. But I wouldn’t exactly call it a ‘Runeword’ system just yet. If some of the changes I suggested were made though, maybe they could grow into something much more enjoyable or build defining.
I, personally, would like to see more wild or exotic effects; treat the Runewords like Uniques where “anything goes”.
Not to be taken literally, but maybe something like:
Bac
- +50 Offering: Travel 5 meters
- +15% movement speed
- Casting a Mobility skill causes 25% Slow for 3s to surrounding enemies
Ner
- -400 Offering: Evoke Rogue’s Countering Concealment
- Killing an Elite grants you Stealth for 5s
- Entering Stealth restores 10% of your Primary Resource
Bac + Ner (Haunting)
- Travel 40 meters to Evoke Rogue’s Countering Concealment
- +15% movement speed
- Casting a Mobility skill causes 25% Slow for 3s to surrounding enemies
- Killing an Elite grants you Stealth for 5s
- Entering Stealth restores 10% of your Primary Resource
- (Unique to Bac+Ner) Breaking Stealth Fears surrounding enemies
- (Unique to Bac+Ner) You are always Unhindered
- (Unique to Bac+Ner) 10% Chance for attacks not to break Stealth
- (Unique to Bac+Ner) Mobility Skills do not break Stealth
I don’t know; maybe that too isn’t as ‘hard in the paint’ as some people expect of Runewords. But I think something like this would be a good start to elevating things.
Anyways. Hoping the Runewords find their place in Diablo IV. I enjoyed the system in Diablo II and it is definitely a system that scratches my nostalgia.