Diablo 4’s first-ever expansion, Vessel of Hatred, is scheduled to launch on October 8, and the development team has revealed a surprising new feature for Diablo 4, Vessel of Hatred: Return of Runewords. This system first appeared in Diablo 2, allowing players to give their equipment special abilities by combining specific runes. Although Diablo 4 has updated this mechanic, its core concept remains the same, aiming to provide players with a new way to enhance their characters’ abilities.
This 2.0 patch will be launched at the same time as the expansion, and will be a comprehensive innovation of the game. With the introduction of Runewords in Diablo 4, they will be a new item that can be obtained by killing monsters or trading with Diablo 4 Gold. They enable players to customize their skills. Among them, Ritual runes can accumulate specific resources called offerings, while invocation runes consume these offerings to unlock unique skills, some of which are even borrowed from other classes.
With Runewords in Diablo 4, sorcerers will no longer have exclusive access to battlefield-spanning abilities, Barbarians will no longer be the only class that can roar, and even Stealths will no longer be limited to rogues. This is the first return of Runewords since Diablo 2, and the community has responded enthusiastically, having thoroughly pored over the details of patch 2.0 and figured out all the possible Runeword combinations.
Runes And Runewords Work Mechanism
Runewords will be exclusive to Vessel of Hatred expansion, and only available to players who own that expansion. This is consistent with the strategy Diablo 2 took with Lord of Destruction expansion, which also introduced Runewords to the game through an expansion. Runewords allow players to create their own abilities, including borrowing skills from other classes. This system involves two types of Runes:
- Runes of Ritual - specify an action you must take to trigger
- Runes of Invocation - grant a powerful effect when you meet above trigger
If you slot Bac and Jah Runes into an equipped item, you can activate the effects of BacJah Runeword. This means that every time your character moves 5 meters, they will accumulate 50 Offerings. When the accumulated Offerings reach or exceed 500, their next dodge action will be replaced by Sorcerer’s Teleport.
If you have the legendary Yul and Jah runes, slotting both runes into the same piece of gear will activate a specific Runeword. When you use a skill with a cooldown, you’ll receive a large amount of Offerings from Yul rune. Once enough Offerings are accumulated, your dodge moves will transform into sorcerer’s teleports through Jah rune. This is just one example of the many combinations.
What Is Offering?
Runes rely on a resource called Offering, which is generated by Runes of Ritual when certain conditions are met. Rune of Invocation then consumes these Offerings to unleash its special effects, with the difficulty of the conditions being proportional to the number of Offerings generated by Rune of Ritual, and the more powerful Rune of Invocation is, the more Offerings are required. Sometimes, a player may generate more Offerings than is needed to activate a Rune of Invocation, and this excess Offering can temporarily enhance the effects of multiple Runes of Invocation.
Slotting a Rune of Ritual and a Rune of Invocation into a piece of gear with two slots creates a Runeword. Notably, Helm slot now has an additional slot, allowing it to also hold a Runeword. Runes of Ritual and a Rune of Invocation can be used in any combination. Runes come in three rarity levels: Magic, Rare, and Legendary, with higher rarity giving greater effects.
Players can equip two different sets of runes, but the same rune cannot be used twice. Any extra runes can be traded with other players or used to craft more powerful runes. If you collect enough runes of the same type, they can be fused into an ultra-powerful mythic unique.
Craft Mythic Uniques
At Jeweler, we can also use the following items to craft Mythic Uniques:
- 1 Resplendent Spark
- 10 Legendary Runes of a specific name
- 10 Rare Runes of a specific name
- 10 Magic Runes of a specific name
As is common in Diablo 4, certain combinations will undoubtedly become popular because of their significant effects and eventually become the preferred build of players. Full Patch 2.0 Public Test Realm PTR will be open to all Diablo 4 players from September 6th to 11th. PTR will be divided into two phases, with September 4th to 6th mainly used for character upgrades and testing new systems.
As the community explores and tests the 2.0 patch, there will undoubtedly be many innovative ways to play and theory building in the coming weeks. For players who love Diablo series and are eager to explore new content, now is an exciting time. You will try these new features in the upcoming PTR and immediately get into battle after the release of Vessel of Hatred.
As each player begins to adapt to this new system, the most effective and interesting Runeword combinations will gradually emerge. In addition, if you lack any equipment during the battle, you can pay attention to Giveaway channel in IGGM discord. Be active in the discord group, where product giveaway information will be released from time to time.
