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Runewords are back inDiablo 4: Vessel of Hatred.These ancient Runes can be socketed into your equipment to evoke wicked powers, ranging from critical chance buffs to classes normally found on other classes. It’s not quite as robust as Diablo 2’s Runewords system, but Diablo 4 lets you experiment with some absurdly powerful combinations.
Use the Sorcerer’s Teleport skill, Barbarian’s various war cries, or the Nercromancer’s hexes to create the ultimate build. Or leverage these Runes to fix up some of your build’s weaker stats like cooldown reduction or critical chance. Regardless of how you use them, Runewords is an incredibly powerful system and something you should be using in every build.
What Are Runes?
Runes are a new type of socketable itemintroduced in Vessel of Hatred. A single Rune on its own does nothing, but installing two Runes onto the same item will create aRuneword. These Runewords trigger powerful effects, ranging from stat buffs to skill triggers from other classes. If you want to use the Sorcerer’s Teleport skill as a Necromancer, Runewords make that possible.
You can find Runes in just about all endgame content—Nightmare Dungeons, Whisper caches, pinnacle bosses, and the Kurast Undercity. Once you have a stockpile of Runes, you can speak with any Jeweler in town to transmute three of the same Rune into a random, new Rune.
How Do Runewords Work?
A Runeword consists of two Rune types: Ritual and Invocation.Ritual Runesgenerateoffering, a resource used in the process of triggering a Runeword. These Runes typically generate offering based on an action you perform, such as drinking a potion or casting an ultimate skill. Rarer variants tend to have easier trigger conditions.
Invocations Runesspendoffering to trigger an effect.Some examples include summoning spirit wolves, increasing your critical chance, or triggering another class' skill. Stronger abilities drain more offering and are usually tied to rarer Invocation Runes.
You may only have two Runewords active at a time.
Creating A Runeword
Creating a Runeword is fairly easy.Socket a Ritual Runeandan Invocation Rune into the same item.Ritual Runes act as your generator, and your Invocation Rune is your spender. If done correctly, an icon should appear above your skill bar with your created Runeword. The icon’s background will slowly fill up as you generate offering. Once full, the Runeword will automatically trigger and reset your offering.
If you want to change your Runeword, you can simply unsocket the runes from your equipment in your inventory; a visit to the Jeweler isn’t required. We recommend placing your Runewords in yourhelmet, body armor, or pantssince they only have stat-boosting gems. Weapon gems tend to have large damage multipliers, while jewelry gems buff your armor and resistances. The opportunity cost of putting Runes on your armor is minimal compared to your other slots.
Every Runeword
Every Ritual and Invocation Rune available in Vessel of Hatred can be found in the table below. Remember thatyou can only have two combinations of Runes active on your gear.
Become injured or crowd controlled (10s cooldown).
Inflict a CC effect that isn’t slow or chill.
Qax
Your next non-basic skill spends all primary resource to deal up to 100% more damage.
Your next skill is guaranteed to overpower and critically strike.
