The Form Behind the Golden Armor

Rune words were introduced in Diablo 4 with the first expansion “Vessel of Hatred.” We summarize which runes exist and what effects they have here on MeinMMO in a list.

What are rune words? In Diablo 4, there are runes that you can combine into so-called rune words. There are 3 rarity levels of runes: magical, rare, and legendary. The higher the rarity of a rune, the more powerful its effects.

Unlike in Diablo 2, a rune word in Diablo 4 consists of only two runes: a Ritual rune and a Invocation rune:

• Ritual runes: collect offerings under certain conditions
• Invocation runes: consume offerings to grant a powerful effect

You can place two runes in sockets of your equipment and generally only in items that have two sockets (chest armor, leg armor, head armor, two-handed weapons). You can only use rune words if you own Vessel of Hatred.

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Diablo 4: All Runes and Their Effects

The ritual runes set conditions that you produce “offerings” with, which you in turn need for the invocation runes. Invocation runes then consume this offering to activate their effects.

Through rune words, you can use skills from other classes. There are 15 ritual runes and 26 invocation runes.

Ritual Runes

• Yul, legendary:
  • Grants: 50 offerings.
  • Cast a skill with cooldown.
• Cir, magical:
  • Grants: 300 offerings.
  • Cast 5 skills.
• Ahu, legendary:
  • Grants: 10 offerings.
  • Lucky hit: Up to 100% chance against injured enemies.
• Neo, rare:
  • Grants: 200 offerings.
  • Deal damage after not taking damage for 2 seconds.
• Tam, legendary:
  • Grants: 25 offerings.
  • Cast a non-channeling skill.
• Xol, legendary:
  • Grants: 150 offerings.
  • Use the power of another class.
• Zan, magical:
  • Grants: 150 offerings.
  • Cast an ultimate skill.
• Feo, rare:
  • Grants: 1000 offerings.
  • Get injured or lose control. (Cooldown: 10 seconds.)
• Noc, rare:
  • Grants: 10 offerings.
  • Apply a loss of control effect other than slowing or freezing.
• Cem, magical:
  • Grants: 75 offerings.
  • Cast Escape.
• Bac, legendary:
  • Grants: 50 offerings.
  • Move 5 meters.
• Yax, magical:
  • Grants: 200 offerings.
  • Drink a healing potion.
• Poc, rare:
  • Grants: 5 offerings.
  • Consume 5% of your max resource.
• Moni, magical:
  • Grants: 100 offerings.
  • Cast 2 mobility or macabre skills. (Cooldown: 0.25 seconds.)
• Lith, legendary:
  • Grants: 25 offerings.
  • Stand still for 0.3 seconds in combat.
• Nagu, legendary:
  • Grants 100 offerings.
  • Maintain at least 1 summoned creature for 5 seconds up to 6 summoned creatures for maximum benefit.
• Igni, legendary:
  • Grants 25 offerings.
  • Stores offerings every 0.3 seconds. Cast a skill that is not a basic skill to retrieve the stored offerings. (Up to 500 offerings).

Invocation Runes

• Lac, rare:
  • Requires: 800 offerings (excess: increased duration) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Uses Barbarian’s Challenge Call to reduce damage taken.
• Ohm, legendary:
  • Requires: 600 offerings (excess: increased duration) Cooldown: 2 seconds.
  • Uses Barbarian’s War Cry to increase your movement speed and damage dealt.
• Vex, legendary:
  • Requires: 150 offerings (excess: up to +3 on all skills) Cooldown: 5 seconds.
  • Gain +1 on all skills for 10 seconds.
• Gar, magical:
  • Requires: 25 offerings (excess: gain multiple stacks) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Gain a critical hit chance of 2.5% for 5 seconds, up to 25%.
• Xan, legendary:
  • Requires: 700 offerings (excess: casting increases damage by 1% per 10 offerings) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Your next skill cast guarantees a critical hit and overwhelms.
• Que, rare:
  • Requires: 300 offerings (excess: increased duration) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Uses Druid’s Bulwark to grant you a barrier.
• Yom, legendary: Requires:
  • 500 offerings Cooldown: 5 seconds.
  • Uses Druid’s Stoning to stun enemies, grants 100 resource.
• Eom, legendary:
  • Requires: 100 offerings (excess: further reduced cooldowns) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Reduces your active cooldowns by 0.1 seconds.
• Lum, magical:
  • Requires: 5 offerings (excess: increased resource recovery) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Restore 2.5% primary resource.
• Qua, magical: Requires:
  • 50 offerings (excess: increased duration) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Gain 10% movement speed for 5 seconds, up to 50%.
• Xal, rare:
  • Requires: 300 offerings (excess: gain more maximum life) Cooldown: 3 seconds.
  • Gain 20% of your maximum life for 6 seconds.
• Wat, rare:
  • Requires: 100 offerings (excess: increases duration) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Uses Necromancer’s Horrific Aging to slow enemies, reduce their damage and lets you execute them.
• Teb, magical:
  • Requires: 100 offerings (excess: increased damage by 1% per offering) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Uses Abominable Iron Maiden of the Necromancer, which deflects damage from enemies and heals you when they die.
• Qax, rare:
  • Requires: 400 offerings (excess: further increased damage) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Your next skill that is not a basic skill consumes your entire primary resource to deal up to 100% more damage.
• Zec, rare:
  • Requires: 100 offerings (excess: further reduced cooldowns) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Reduces the cooldown of your ultimate skill by 1 second.
• Ner, rare:
  • Requires: 600 offerings (excess: increased duration) Cooldown: 6 seconds.
  • Uses Hunter’s Counter Invisibility to gain evasion chance as well as movement speed, become unstoppable and gain stealth.
• Mot, rare:
  • Requires: 150 offerings (excess: gain multiple shadows) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Gain a shadow from Hunter’s Dark Veil, reducing your damage taken per shadow.
• Jah, legendary:
  • Requires: 250 offerings Cooldown: 2 seconds.
  • Replaces your next Escape with Wizard’s Teleport, allowing you to cover greater distance, deal damage and become unstoppable.
• Thul, rare:
  • Requires: 300 offerings (excess: increased size) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Uses Wizard’s Mystical Frost Nova to freeze your enemies and make them vulnerable.
• Tzic, rare:
  • Requires: 200 offerings (excess: increases damage by 1% per offering) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Uses Spiritborn’s Shattering Stomp to deal damage and knock enemies down.
• Kry, rare:
  • Requires: 300 offerings (excess: increased size) Cooldown: 3 seconds.
  • Uses Spiritborn’s Vortex to deal damage and pull enemies in.
• Tec, magical:
  • Requires: 50 offerings (excess: increased size) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Uses Barbarian’s Earthquake to deal damage to enemies.
• Tun, magical:
  • Requires: 25 offerings (excess: additional grenades appear) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Uses Hunter’s Stun Grenades to stun enemies and deal damage to them.
• Ton, magical:
  • Requires: 20 offerings (excess: additional meteors appear) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Uses Wizard’s Meteors to deal damage to enemies.
• Tal, magical:
  • Requires: 30 offerings (excess: additional swarms appear) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Summons 1 Plagued Swarm of the Spiritborn to deal damage to enemies.
• Ceh, magical:
  • Requires: 100 offerings (excess: summons multiple wolves) Cooldown: 1 second.
  • Summons a Spirit Wolf that attacks enemies for 8 seconds. All Spirit Wolves have the buff effect “unhindered,” allowing them to move through enemies and the player.
• Chac, rare:
  • Requires: 20 offerings (excess: summons more lightning strikes)
  • 220% weapon damage, summons Druid lightning strikes that hit nearby enemies.

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Function, Crafting and Locations of Runes

How do runes work? In Diablo 4, runes work through the resource system “offerings.” You generate them by fulfilling the conditions of the ritual rune. The “offerings” are then used for the invocation runes to activate effects.

Example: With the Bac ritual rune, you collect 50 offerings for every 5 meters your character moves. The Jah invocation rune replaces Escape with Teleport and consumes 500 offerings for that.

You can create an overflow by generating more offerings than needed. Some invocation runes apply a bonus to their effects due to the excess.

Where do I get runes? You get runes of every rarity level as drops from monsters all over Sanctuary. Guaranteed drops are according to Blizzard:

• Boss encounters in the Vessel of Hatred campaign
• Chests from the Tree of Whispers
• World bosses
• as a one-time reward for taking over a stronghold (only magical runes)

In addition, you can craft runes yourself by “exchanging” certain runes with the jeweler. You can also craft Mythics with runes and magnificent sparks. Runes are tradeable and stackable.

The runes were introduced with “Vessel of Hatred” in Diablo 4 and are only available to you if you own an edition of the expansion. Apart from the runes, other items also play a significant role. Where to farm runes, materials, glyphs, and other items for the endgame most effectively, you can find out here: Simple overview for Diablo 4 shows where you can best farm what you need right now

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