Runewords Overview

First appearing in Diablo II, Runewords have long been a fan favorite, and they're back in the new Expansion for Diablo IV, Vessel of Hatred. Runewords offer exciting new customization opportunities for your characters and introduce a new mechanic to power up your character and access abilities from other classes. Let's learn about how to take our characters to another level in this new expansion!

Types of Runes

There are two types of Runes available in Vessel of Hatred, and these two types of Runes combine to form a Runeword. A Runeword is comprised of one Rune of Ritual and one Rune of Invocation, and you can only have two Runewords on a character. You cannot use two of the same Runes, nor can you use two Runes of Ritual or two Runes of Invocation in the same item (e.g., you cannot combine Bac with Bac, nor can you use Bac as your Rune of Ritual in both Runewords on your character).

The Runes have to be socketed into the same item. That is, Runewords can only be created in items with two sockets, this includes Helm, Chest, Legs, and 2H Weapon. You also cannot equip both Gems and Runes in the same item, so you have to select one or the other. Both types of Runes can drop in Magic, Rare, and Legendary rarity and the higher the rarity, the stronger the effect is. Runes are Tradeable and stored in the new Socketables tab.

Runes of Ritual

Runes of Ritual serve as the 'cause' of the Runewords, and provide a condition you must meet to generate Offering. Once you reach a certain amount of Offering, you trigger the Runes of Invocation. The more demanding the Rune of Ritual (e.g., the more difficult of a condition it is to meet), the more Offering you get in one go.

There are currently 15 Runes of Ritual.

• Yul
  • Gain: 50 Offering.
  • Cast a Skill with a Cooldown.
• Lith
  • Gain: 25 Offering.
  • Stand still while fighting for 0.3 seconds.
• Ahu
  • Gain: 10 Offering.
  • Lucky Hit: Up to a 100% chance against Injured enemies.
• Tam
  • Gain: 25 Offering.
  • Cast a non-Channeled Core Skill.
• Xol
  • Gain: 150 Offering.
  • Evoke power from another Class.
• Bac
  • Gain: 50 Offering.
  • Travel 5 meters.
• Poc
  • Gain: 5 Offering.
  • Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource.

• Neo
  • Gain: 200 Offering.
  • Deal damage after not taking any within 2 seconds. (Resets if Invulnerable.)
• Feo
  • Gain: 1000 Offering.
  • Become Injured or Crowd Controlled (Cooldown: 10 seconds).
• Noc
  • Gain: 10 Offering.
  • Inflict a Crowd Control that isn't Slow or Chill.
• Cem
  • Gain: 75 Offering.
  • Cast Evade.
• Yax
  • Gain: 200 Offering.
  • Drink a Healing Potion.
• Moni
  • Gain: 25 Offering.
  • Cast a Skill after moving. (Cooldown: 0.2 seconds)
• Zan
  • Gain: 150 Offering.
  • Cast an Ultimate Skill.
• Cir
  • Gain: 50 Offering.
  • Cast the same non-Channeled Skill 3 times in a row.

Runes of Invocation

Runes of Invocation are the 'effect' part of the 'cause and effect' of Runewords. Once you meet the required Offering, you trigger the effect of the Rune of Invocation. This can be anything from granting you access to a skill, to increasing skill ranks, to restoring resource or life. Additionally, Runes of Invocation can have Overflow effects. If you provide more Offering than is needed, you can trigger additional criteria for some Runes. This is all detailed in their tooltip.

There are currently 26 Runes of Invocation:

• Jah:
  • Requires: 400 Offering
  • Cooldown: 2 Seconds.
  • Replace your next Evade with the Sorcerer's Teleport, blinking further, dealing damage, and becoming Unstoppable.
• Ohm:
  • Requires: 600 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration).
  • Cooldown: 2 Seconds.
  • Evoke the Barbarian's War Cry, increasing your damage dealt by 15%.
• Vex:
  • Requires: 1000 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration).
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Gain +3 to all Skills for 7 seconds.
• Xan:
  • Requires: 800 Offering
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Your next Skill cast will be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower.
• Yom:
  • Requires: 500 Offering
  • Cooldown: 5 Seconds.
  • Evoke the Druid's Petrify, Stunning enemies and restoring 100 Resource.
• Eom:
  • Requires: 100 Offering (Overflow: Further Reduced Cooldowns)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Reduce your active Cooldowns by 0.1 seconds.
• Lac:
  • Requires: 400 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration).
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Evoke the Barbarian's Challenging Shout, reducing your damage taken by 40% for 3 seconds.
• Que:
  • Requires: 300 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration)
  • Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Evoke the Druid's Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier.

• Tzic:
  • Requires: 250 Offering
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Evoke the Spiritborn's Concussive Stomp, dealing damage and Knocking Down enemies.
• Qua:
  • Requires: 50 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Gain 7% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, up to 35%.
• Xal:
  • Requires: 200 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Gain 20% Maximum Life for 6 seconds.
• Wat:
  • Requires: 100 Offering
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Evoke the Necromancer's Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies by 40%, reducing their damage by 20%, and letting you Execute enemies below 10% Life.
• Kry:
  • Requires: 300 Offering
  • Cooldown: 3 Seconds.
  • Evoke the Spiritborn's Vortex, dealing damage and Pulling In enemies.
• Qax:
  • Requires: 400 Offering (Overflow: Further Increased Damage)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Your next non-Basic Skill cast spends all of your Primary Resource to deal up to 100% increased damage.
• Zec:
  • Requires: 200 Offering (Overflow: Further Reduced Cooldown)
  • Cooldown: 2 Seconds.
  • Reduce your active Ultimate Cooldown by 2 seconds.
• Ner:
  • Requires: 600 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration)
  • Cooldown: 6 Seconds.
  • Evoke the Rogue's Countering Concealment, gaining Dodge Chance, Movement Speed, Unstoppable, and Stealth.
• Mot:
  • Requires: 150 Offering (Overflow: Gain Multiple Shadows)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Gain a shadow from the Rogue's Dark Shroud, reducing damage taken by 8% per shadow, there is a maximum of 5 shadows.
• Thul:
  • Requires: 400 Offering (Overflow: Increased Size)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Evoke the Sorcerer's Mystical Frost Nova, inflicting Frozen and Vulnerable onto enemies.
• Gar:
  • Requires: 25 Offering (Overflow: Gain Multiple Stacks).
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%.
• Lum:
  • Requires: 5 Offering (Overflow: Increased Resource Restored)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Restore 1 Primary Resource.
• Teb:
  • Requires: 100 Offering
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Evoke the Necromancer's Abhorrent Iron Maiden, counterattacking damage from enemies and Healing you when they die.
• Tec:
  • Requires: 100 Offering (Overflow: Increased Size)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Evoke the Barbarian's Earthquake, dealing damage to enemies within.
• Tun:
  • Requires: 100 Offering (Overflow: Increased Grenades Spawned)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Evoke the Rogue's Stun Grenades, Stunning and dealing damage to enemies.
• Ton:
  • Requires: 20 Offering (Overflow: Increased Meteorites Spawned)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Evoke the Sorcerer's Meteorites, dealing damage to enemies.
• Tal:
  • Requires: 100 Offering (Overflow: Increased Swarms Spawned)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Evoke the Spiritborn's Pestilent Swarm, dealing damage to enemies.
• Ceh:
  • Requires: 100 Offering (Overflow: Summon Multiple Wolves)
  • Cooldown: 1 Second.
  • Summon a Spirit Wolf to attack enemies for 8 seconds.

Runeword Mechanics

Runewords come with a few important mechanics you should be aware of.

Creating Runewords

Creating a Runeword is as simple as combining a Rune of Ritual and a Rune of Invocation. Let's take Bac and Jah, the Runes shown above. By placing Bac and Jah in the same item, you've created BacJah, a Runeword. Now, every time you travel 5 meters, you've accumulated 50 Offering. Once you have gone 50 meters and accumulated 400 Offering, you trigger Jah, and your next Evade is replaced with Teleport. Voila!

Offering and Overflow

Let's say you had a Rune of Ritual that generated 60 Offering, and you were using a Rune of Invocation that activated at 400 Offering. This would lead to a surplus of Offering, some extra. This is called Overflow. The bonus applied is proportional to how much Overflow is acquired, so stack as much as you can!

Runecrafting and Obtaining Runes

While Runes can be obtained from drops in Sanctuary while you have the Vessel of Hatred expansion, you can also craft them. You use 3 Runes with the same name (e.g., three Bac Runes) to craft a random Rune. If using non-Legendary Runes, you have a chance to create a Rune of the next highest rarity. The Rune created while crafting is guaranteed to be different than the one used.

Runes can also be used to create Mythic Uniques. Each Mythic Unique requires 2 Resplendent Spark, 6 Legendary Runes of a specific name, 6 Rare Runes of a specific name, and 6 Magic Runes of a specific name.

Summary

• Beloved in Diablo II, Runewords make their appearance in Vessel of Hatred, but this time with a unique twist.
• Runewords are created by combining Runes of Ritual (causes) with Runes of Invocation (effect). With 15 Runes of Ritual and 26 Runes of Invocation, there's plenty of unique new Runewords for you to try!
• Runes of Ritual generate Offering, and Runes of Invocation use that Offering to activate their effects. Try and find the most strategic pairings!
• Runewords can only be slotted in items with 2 sockets (including two-handed weapons), and only two Runewords can be used per character. You also cannot repeat Runes.
• Runes can be used in crafting to create other Runes, and even Mythic Uniques! The sky's the limit for your character!

Credits

Written by pandaglassjaw