Diablo 4’s Hateship expansion puts a modern spin on Diablo 2’s Runeword system, which will allow players to gain abilities not normally available to their chosen class.
In a lengthy livestream that focused on discussing class changes and improvements to the way difficulty and leveling work following the release of Diablo 4’s expansion pack, Blizzard saved the best for last. The developer revealed that Rune Language is a feature unique to the expansion pack, and players can create new abilities by combining runes.
To create a Runeword, players need to combine Ritual Runes and Summoning Runes. They effectively act as resource generators and resource consumers respectively. A ritual rune will specify the type of action that must be performed to activate it, such as casting a skill that has a cooldown. Completing the Ritual Rune will generate a new resource, the Offering, which is then used to activate the Summoning Rune of the Runezig. If a player has more offerings than are needed to summon a rune, they gain overflow, gaining Runeword bonus effects proportional to the amount of overflow.
Only two Runewords can be equipped at a time, and they will use the same slots currently used for gems. The same rune word cannot be equipped twice. Each rune has three rarities. The higher the rarity, the stronger the power. Runes can be obtained in the Ship of Hate expansion, but there will be a specific area, the Undercity, where players can also farm runes.
The power gained from the Rune Words can produce a variety of effects. For example, a runeword allows the player to use the magician’s teleportation ability. The other will channel the Druid’s Petrify skill, stunning enemies and increasing the damage dealt to them. Blizzard says each class will have a total of two skills and one possible legendary aspect represented in the Runeword pool.
Runes can also be used for crafting. Combining three identical runes will create a new rune with a chance to roll at a higher rarity. Runes combined with Brilliant Sparks can also be used to craft certain Mythic unique items, giving players another way to obtain some of the most popular items in the game.
Runewords are just one of the new features coming to Diablo 4’s first expansion pack, launching on October 8th. ’s return along with all the aforementioned upgrades and difficulty changes.
