Individually they are mighty, but when uttered in unison, a greater force is awoken—this is the mystique of Rune Words. Call upon these archaic forces to transform your ordinary items into a wieldable force of destruction capable of smiting demonic hordes.
We are introducing eight new Rune Words for Ladder and Offline Single-Player play. Our intent with introducing these additional Rune Words to Diablo II: Resurrected is to sprinkle variety into the competitive meta, creating an opportunity for players to forge new strategies as they race to Level 99. The bulk of these Rune Words focus on bolstering resistance bonuses, while the other Rune Words are centered on movement speed, and Assassin and Druid builds.
+25% Chance of Crushing Blow (No longer attached to Mark of the Bear)
+50-80% Enhanced Defense
+10 to Strength
+10 to Vitality
All Resistances +10
Cannot be Frozen
Eight New Rune Words Guides
Bulwark, Temper, and Ground: We liked where they were at and opted for no change.
Cure: Given Cure’s more niche use cases, we opted to strengthen it with the Cleansing Aura. Note that the base Poison Duration reduction on the item went down, but the addition of Cleansing Aura results in a net-buff to Poison Duration reduction.
Hearth: To build on the theme of this Rune Word, we gave it a bit more oomph to solidify it as a go-to gear option when struggling with enemies who deal Cold Damage.
Hustle: Most of the feedback we received was around the armor form. The bulk of our focus was to improve that form, but we also saw improvements we could make to the weapon form. For the Armor, we wanted to add more offensive utility and some defensive stats in the form of All Resistances. For the weapon, we wanted to make using it as a primary weapon a more attractive option to increase its viability beyond its pre-buff utility.
Metamorphosis: We moved in the direction of a slight buff to Metamorphosis. We want this Rune Word to really compete for best-in-slot for Shapeshifter Druids.
Mosaic: We went all-in on increasing the strength of the Mosaic Rune Word. We wanted to add extra flexibility by increasing the chance to not consume charges from 25% percent to 50% so you can either wield one to get that 50% chance or dual wield for that 100% chance of not consuming charges. We also added an extra effect to how not consuming charges interacts with charge maintenance.
The Seven Rune Words and handful of Horadric Cube recipes that were added in Ladder Season One can now be used in non-Ladder Online game modes.