Runeword Changes for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred and Season 6
In the Vessel of Hatred Season 6 Livestream, Blizzard announced numerous changes to Runes and Runewords. Although Associate Class Designer Anthony Austwick led us through the Rune changes and the reasons for them, it became a panel discussion between several developers when it came to the reasons why these changes were made. The two main reasons were:
- Legendary Runes were very powerful and resulted in players using a small subset of them.
- Magic and Rare Runes were too underpowered and therefore underutilized.
Going forward, the Devs want to put more emphasis on the utility of Runes. They want every Rune you find to be compelling, something you want to immediately try out. The runes that were removed failed to meet the Blizzard goal to «condense the fun,» defined as taking power from both the top and bottom to achieve the result. The overall goal is to make character progression feel rewarding at all levels.
Diablo 4 Patch 2.01/2.02 Notes Pre-Launch Dev Update Summary
During the Livestream, Blizzard showed a few examples of the changes being made, as shown in the screenshot. Not all of these changes were simple adjustments to damage or duration. For example, the Druid Petrify ability called by the Yom Rune is losing its Critical Strike damage as a default part of the skill, moving instead to the Prime modifier — meaning no other class besides Druid can gain the Critical Strike Damage bonus. To compensate, the Devs have added 100 Resource gain to the base Petrify. Because Yom calls the base Petrify skill, the Rune's damage will decrease, but players will receive 100 Resource instead.
Among the overall changes, the following runes have had their icons updated to match their Diablo 2 predecessors: Ohm, Thul, Vex, Lum, Jah, and Tal. The remaining changes given in the Livestream and subsequent Patch Notes are detailed below.
Runes of Ritual
Feo, Rare
- Gain: 1000 Offering.
- Become Injured or Crowd Controlled (Cooldown: 20 10 seconds).
Kaa, Rare(Removed)
