Runes/Runewords of D3!

[Bill Cosby]

Hey guys-

Just want to get some convo going on what everyone thinks of the runes we have seen so far in Diablo 3.

Do you think they have gotten rid of the specific named runes? No more Els?

Do you think you absorb them when you walk over them like the red globes, and what they say is like a "shrine" was in Diablo 2?

Do you think named runes are still around but just not shown in the gameplay video?

Do you think runewords are going to make a comeback by combining the Energy, power, vitality runes?

Any thoughts welcome!

I personally dont think they have gotten rid of the named runes and we just have not seen them yet. I think it would be pretty cool if the runes that we have seen were the equivalent of the shrines we saw in previous Diablo games, and this is a more (i guess) "realistic" explanation for why they are there!

[Ghosted]

I personally don't think runewords will show up. They might just keep them as minor rune and get bigger just to keep them simple. They probably don't want everyone making the same ultimate rune word and run around killing everything in D3. They might have runewords in the expansion to make everyone say "wow, at last runewords are back again, we were getting tired of these crappy ones". IDK, it could be cool to get new ones but it would also be good if they weren't, that way we can focus on trying to find great gear by randon drops rather than making the gear.

[lukefojut]

I'd possibly like to see the disappearance of rune words entirely. More uniques and more importantly, more variable stats/even skills? on items would be lovely. For example, a 'unique' sword that could gain differing elemental powers and also had differening added damage.

So, you could end up with a weapon with great elemental bonuses and low damage, or the other way around...

[nSin]

Runes were a great way for new players to get "rich" in the game though, in a similar way that charms and gems do.

[Ghosted]

I'd possibly like to see the disappearance of rune words entirely. More uniques and more importantly, more variable stats/even skills? on items would be lovely. For example, a 'unique' sword that could gain differing elemental powers and also had differening added damage.

So, you could end up with a weapon with great elemental bonuses and low damage, or the other way around...

I like that! Random elemental damage, random +1 skills, that is awesome!

[plpop]

i'd like to see uniques be nothing more than really really rare rares. I'd like to see most people running around in rares, but then some times a unique drops, and it works like a rare item with random generated stats, but has ridiculously good mods and gold lettering/unique item look in the inventory

[Bill Cosby]

What if they just take on the properties and are like gems? Kind of Like how it would be in D2 if they never created any rune words, but just had the properties they said on them? Things like Um's and Cham and Ist and Zod would still be valuable on their own, but would not make any over powering rune words

[opis]

id like to see uniques pretty much the way they are in game now, just make only elite items drop in hard places, exceptional in midlevel areas and normal in normal areas, that way if you want a normal item that suits your build, you'd go mf in normal mode for it. aside from that i think availability will be fixed in d3, since you wont have people running the boss that drops the best stuff in game in 30 secs over and over and over again all day long = easy available items. imagine if it always took you 15mins to do meph, then zakas would be alot more rare :)

on topic: overall id dearly like to keep runes for the sake of a functioning currency, and id love for any player to "work their way up" to something, instead of just finding alot of mid items that can never give you any good item. now i can always get runes, and i can always craft them upwards to eventually get something worth the item i want, and that can only be if the rune itself is good for something.

[nSin]

What if they just take on the properties and are like gems? Kind of Like how it would be in D2 if they never created any rune words, but just had the properties they said on them? Things like Um's and Cham and Ist and Zod would still be valuable on their own, but would not make any over powering rune words

If there was an easy way to socket items that could be "okay"

[Anthraquinone]

I'd really like to see runes and runewords back in D3 but they should work differently from D2. Not like: you insert Jah into a 3-sox armor and you got a crappy armor with some minor mod. You add an Ith -> armor with two crappy mods. Then you add a Ber and -BANG!- all of a sudden you have this powerful super armor.
I'd rather see a smooth increase in quality upon adding more runes; maybe combined with some kind of synergy system.

-AnQ

[Dimmu]

from what i saw with the runes in the trailer i think that the "runes of blah blah blah" are just going to replace jewels in functionality.
I'm thinking the runes we know will either remain the same or possibly drop as set or unique runes. Because if you think about it, the runes it takes to make a runeword functions similiarly to the way sets do.

[stephan]

I'd possibly like to see the disappearance of rune words entirely. More uniques and more importantly, more variable stats/even skills? on items would be lovely. For example, a 'unique' sword that could gain differing elemental powers and also had differening added damage.

So, you could end up with a weapon with great elemental bonuses and low damage, or the other way around...
Those are the 'rares' in D2. Almost no one uses them anymore.

[Kaeros]

Call me a purist, but I love everything about the item system in DII, and I'd hate to see Runewords disappear in lieu of these new "Power Runes", or Uniques watered down to be some sort of strange variant of Rares.

A lot of the problems cited in DII are a result of the out-of-control duping. If that was taken care of, you wouldn't see everyone with the best of the best .. unless, of course, they took the time necessary to get it all themselves. And if that's the case, who cares?

1/3rd old, 1/3rd improved, 1/3rd new. That's Blizzard's game philosophy, borrowed from Sid Meier's own. Undeniably, D and DII's item system and combat is what made it the hit it is today. To change something that works so well and has kept a game alive for a decade would be a very bad, bad thing.

Add new things on top of the old, but don't get rid of what has traditionally worked great in the past.

[Cast_Raider]

Runewords are really nothing more than uniques, with a customizeable appearance. That's it.

Currently they're overpowered, but that doesn't have to remain the same.

My only hope is that they implement them differently, if they use them. A couple of problems we have now:

1) Runes are transmuteable all the way to zod. Sounds good in theory, but this is probably how there are already a full selections of runes for sale. I assume that a duper finds an el rune, and one of each chipped gem, and dupes/transmutes until he has one of each high rune.

2) From what I understand, when you stick "unperm" runes into a legit socketed item, it assigns a new legit item number, and the rune's illegitimate ID #'s are erased. (?) Or maybe that's just a bnet myth, I dunno.

[Totalpain]

Already by the second page of this post you guys are boggling down over if runes should be used as currency or hacking then to make more runes and more powerful ones. Maybe blizzard will omit the implementation of runes for these exact reasons...

In D2 now, most great items are not uniques, they are mostly the eth BOTD's, Enigmas, CoA, HOTO's, etc... Runewords seem to have replaced regular uniques and items, and most runewords are so vastly superior in all aspects to these same items/uniques. I think blizz is going to have a tough time considering this subject. Although I've loved runewords and runes, they have become a huge factor in the diablo 2 general economy and game play, and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

That's my two cents

[PontifulGC]

needing impossible to find runes was sign of under the table cash being made on the game in later patches.

it is impossible to find two jah's and a ber within 3 years of playing nightly unless you have some sort of special angle on the game/luck.

[Swiffer]

i'd like to see uniques be nothing more than really really rare rares. I'd like to see most people running around in rares, but then some times a unique drops, and it works like a rare item with random generated stats, but has ridiculously good mods and gold lettering/unique item look in the inventory

You do realize that totally destroys what makes a Unique item Unique, right?

Unique items are Unique because unlike any other item of that particular base type, it has very particular stats. Magic and Rares can have all different sorts of stats, millions of combinations. The fixed stats (with a small range of variation on each stat) is what makes them stand out from the rest of the randomly generated items.

In D2 now, most great items are not uniques, they are mostly the eth BOTD's, Enigmas, CoA, HOTO's, etc... Runewords seem to have replaced regular uniques and items, and most runewords are so vastly superior in all aspects to these same items/uniques. I think blizz is going to have a tough time considering this subject. Although I've loved runewords and runes, they have become a huge factor in the diablo 2 general economy and game play, and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

I honestly hope they make an implementation similar to gems in WoW, which would totally remove runewords. In WoW (for those that don't know) gem slots have certain colors, and a 'set bonus' that you get if you match your gems to the gem colors (eg 3 red gem slots, put in 3 red gems, you get a small bonus). The 'set bonus' is not overpowering (actually they are often ignored) and the addition of the gems themselves provide a moderate bonus, but rarely do they make the item so much better than anything you could reasonably attain in the future.

Essentially, gems provide a nice bonus, but the items themselves are still usually what determines upgrades, not whether you can fit an uber runeword in them.

We have seen a Minor Power Rune drop, though we cannot really suggest much from that.

[patriach owen]

i dont think there should be specific runewords, i just think that they should interacct differently depending on where they are with what..

EG

jah, in a helm gives some damage
jah ith, in a helm gives more damage and some res
jah ith ber, in a helm gives even more damage and res
jah ith cham, gives same damage as jah oth but with more res than jah ith ber

then all of the same lets say in youre "pants" :D and they give cast speed increase and a mana regen bonus...

not just

jah ith = useless
jah ith ber = MEGA OP armour...

but then again this is a rune"word" and it isnt properly spelt with just he jah and ith so i suppose it works out really...

[smartdot]

my opinion is get rid of runes and rune words entirely unless there are extreme anti duping methods. runes words were originally based on the principle that they would be so rare, that it was ok to make them OP. Unfortunately blizzard underestimated the cheaters. I think these are the choices blizzard has.

1. No runewords
2. same a current, but much greater security.
3. Bring runewords more in line will the lower uniques and make runes more common. (about the same drop as rares)

any way, just my opinion

[Darklite]

I really hope they keep runewords. Dupers may have ruined them in D2, but the concept of rune words is really cool

[AxlStrife]

If the power level of runewords is kept low (something like the original RWs), then I could see them returning. Of course, I don't think that will happen, so it's unlikely we'll see runewords.

[KiLLJOi]

I would love to see the ability to continuously upgrade a single weapon that your character can have throughout the whole game. For example: starting off with a long sword, then gradually increasing its power over time, possibly by combining runes and gems ect., resulting in a very powerful arsenal unique to your character in the end

[mephiztophelez]

i hope runewords are put on a very short leash, if we have them at all.

i certainly never want to see a D3 enigma or grief.

imho: the seriously "top-tier" items should generally be the theoretical mythical rare, followed by runewords & uniques etc.

i'd love to see some comprehensive upgrades available to items too.

[Crudesash68]

It really comes down to duping. If they can stop that, runewords will be viable because of their rarity. What would be a good percentage, for a replayable game? 1 in 1,000? 1 in 100,000? The odds on a Zod rune were what, 1 in 8 million at best?

WoW ships with an invasive client, called Warden, which looks for suspicious software, and WoW servers are incredibly clean, compared to B-net (in my almost 2 years of playing, our server has had hardly any suspected hackers, and they are reported almost immediately), but there is a privacy concern.

Just my 2 cents; I like runewords, just adds some variety to the character build.

[raveharu]

Runeword are ok, provided they do not grant other skills from other classes.

[Matora]

Wow, the world's gonna hate me for this one. I miss weapons of D1 with some random penalties as well, making item balance a bit more interesting. It might do a world of damage, but it kicks me *here* in the backside.

If this idea was introduced, the return of runewords may have some impact, especially if more items had negative effects.

[Wurmer]

Honestly, I don't think I'd like to see runes return in D3, at least not in the form they are now. I think that randomness is the name of the game and having the possibility of getting uber fixed mods for any items is not a good idea. In fact, I pretty much like the way things were in D2C, when most people were beating the game with a combination of rares items.( Saddly the best were duped quite a bit) Using that as a basis, I think it's possible to improve on that concept and give people a chance a getting good items that are not the same as everyone's else. Following this line of reasonning, runes could be used to improve gear by adding mods that would be random up to a certain extent. Going that way would give players a huge assortement of decent gear as well as a huge pool of trading currencies.

[phool]

I think D3 could learn something from the jewelwords system in Median, which allows a great deal of customisation for 'runewords', as you can effectively alter the properties granted from the individual runes.

I think runewords in D3 should mostly be about letting players make themselves some quite basic gear - I'm thinking items like D2's treachery, stealth, gloom, crescent moon here - and not have powerful exclusive properties (and concurrent ubiquity) we saw in D2 with items like beast, infinity and enigma.

By giving classes access to skills from other classes some runewords also make for wholely new builds and I hope that stays, though uniques can equally fulfill this function.

[AlexanderM]

I like the idea of a 'gradual runeword' system, it's a bit like set items (some bonuses for having more than 1 piece, but less than the total). It would make in-game runeword discovery more interesting :D!

[AlexanderM]

Honestly, I don't think I'd like to see runes return in D3, at least not in the form they are now. I think that randomness is the name of the game and having the possibility of getting uber fixed mods for any items is not a good idea. In fact, I pretty much like the way things were in D2C, when most people were beating the game with a combination of rares items.( Saddly the best were duped quite a bit) Using that as a basis, I think it's possible to improve on that concept and give people a chance a getting good items that are not the same as everyone's else. Following this line of reasonning, runes could be used to improve gear by adding mods that would be random up to a certain extent. Going that way would give players a huge assortement of decent gear as well as a huge pool of trading currencies.
The only drawback I see to have only rares, is that there will need to be a currency system. In D2 it became specific unique, then runes, duped rares. Assuming duping doesn't come back, either gold will have to have a bigger role, or trading will really be a bartering on a case-by-case basis, which is fun, but rather in efficient.

On the other side, it would prevent cookie-cutter equipment sets (lidless/shako/occulus/etc.), which is something that always bothered me about playing on battle.net.

Matora: There are some runewords with penalities, nadirs -% gold from monsters caused piles of 0 gold for me once :D! But you're right, they're not a big thing. No more "ring of the pit: -20 all stats" in D2, would be nice to regret you ID'd an item though. Or if you'd have to balance between a nice rare +2 all-skill helm with -all-res, and another nice rare with it's own drawback.

I'd also like to see rares with names that slightly reflect their stats. The rare names in D2 were weird at worst and hilarious at best, but never reflected the item, and are usually ignored (unless really ironic) I'd like to see unique-like names on very nice rares, like gauntlets that add lots of lightning damage would be "Thunderfist" or "Zerae's Hand", not "Light gauntlets of thunder". You'd need a really large database to minimize the chances of everyone getting the same "rare" name on similar items though.

I'm not sure how runes will act in D3, we saw specific names in the gameplay video, but there's a lot of development left, they could overhaul it/rename everything.

EDIT: raveharu: I concur, +oskill wasn't a good idea, it blurred the identity of the classes together, and made each one less distinct from the rest.

My 2 cents (see above)

[spigot]

I believe they will change the way that crafting works, but they have already stated that there will be some element of crafting. I doubt very much whether they've made up their minds yet, as a lot of it will come down to how they balance the game.

I would like to see a system in which more people have to use basic items, and even inferior items earlier on, with basic magic items being rare early on, so that you don't have the phenoma of weakling level 3 or 4 characters wandering around in a perfect set of equipment that's been handed down from your bigger more powerful character, it takes away from replayability of the game as people just rush their way through the game to get access to high level equipment.

Some customization would be nice, but I think it would be more fun to have a system in which you can create unique individual items rather than have a specific 'build' in which everyone you meet wears exactly the same stuff as everyone else; make uber items, but make them individual, and hard to get/make.

[Rhiana]

tl;dr thread x.x

But I don't think the minor power rune is in any way related to the runes as we know them from D2. I'm thinking it's more of a Mana Potion / Stamina / Adrenaline (Fury? o.O) thing, or a brief "Strength +1" or "Damage +10%" thing, say 30 seconds.

As for the runes and runewords of D3... I can't say I care very much. Yes, runewords would be very nice to have, as well as the runes from D2, maybe with added letters.

[Tao Jones]

Why introduce runes now? The fact that they're stating only five initial character classes tips their hat that they are developing an expansion pack simultaneously.

So the runes or whatever it is will be included on the expansion pack.

[Ghoulz]

If they're not overpowered and impossible to obtain yourself, I wouldn't mind.

[snugglson]

I wouldnt mind it if uniques had their own random set of modifiers that could not be found on rares or magic items. That way they would still be more powerful than rares and magic items, but they would really be unique. No two people would be running around with the same unique gear.

As for runes, I think some sort of synergy could be interesting, with the runes adding bonuses depending on what runes you matched, rather than specific rune words. I think it would add more variety and options as far as runes go. now, of course, there would be certain rune combos that most powergamers would use, but thats inevitable no matter what they do.