New Runewords guide for Diablo 2 Resurrected Patch 2.6

Completely fresh runewords are going to be available in the upcoming D2R patch, with the intention to give a wider range of options on how to make use of your mercenaries, level up your character, and also have more gearing options in the endgame. 

Rpgstash.com will have D2R items in its Ladder selection already on day 1. We will be doing our best to let you buy 2.4 ladder items right at the beginning of the season including the new runewords, so you can climb the ladder rankings as fast as possible! 

The mercenaries are about to get a rebalance in the upcoming patch that is about to go live sometime in the next few weeks. There will be no disadvantage of hiring a mercenary in hell difficulty compared to levelling them up from nightmare or normal difficulties. In addition, they are going to receive new skills and abilities.

The Insight runeword (Ral+Tir+Tal+Sol) is about to be updated as well, and now can be used by bows and crossbow, which mean Act1 Rogue mercenaries are now also able to provide very effective mana recovery for both you and your party, so you don’t have to worry about running out of mana and not being able to constantly cast skills at a fast pace. Besides dealing a decent amount of damage, the Insight runeword is a great ladder starter, as the required runes can easily be obtained on normal difficulty, or by doing a few Nightmare Countess bossruns.

The new patch will introduce 7 runewords, each of which can be utilised for various goals. Let’s take a look at how you can take advantage of them!

Runeword: Plague (Cham + Shael + Um)
Base type: Weapons
Stats:
20% Chance to cast level 12 Lower Resist when struck

25% Chance to cast level 15 Poison Nova on striking

Level 13-17 Cleansing Aura When Equipped (varies)

+1-2 All Skills

+20% Increased Attack Speed

+220-320% Enhanced Damage (varies)

-23% To Enemy Poison Resistance

0.3% (0-29.7) Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)

+25% Chance of Open Wounds

Freezes Target +3

This runeword can both be used by Act3 and Act5 mercenaries, and can be used by builds that deal elemental damage, with the lower resist chance when struck reducing enemy monster resistances. The Cleansing aura reduces course duration for the whole party, which is a great survivability boost, and very important if you play on Hardcore. Besides the build supporting features, this runeword deals a great amount of melee damage, freezes enemy monsters, and gives a boost to the mercenary’s skill features.

Runeword: Pattern (Tal +Ort +Thul)

Base type: Claw
Stats: 

+30% Faster Block Rate

+40-80% Enhanced Damage (varies)

10% Bonus to Attack Rating

Adds 17-62 Fire Damage

Adds 1-50 Lightning Damage

Adds 3-14 Cold Damage

+75 Poison Damage Over 5 Seconds

+6 to Strength

+6 to Dexterity

All Resistances +15

This runeword was not intended to be used by mercenaries, as Claw weapons are only available to Assassins. The runeword can be easily obtained on Normal difficulty, and is a great ladder starter levelling item for Assassins, with good damage features and exceptionally good survivability features compared to other normal difficulty items.

Runeword: Unbending Will (Fal +Io +Ith +Eld +El +Hel)

Base type: Sword
Stats: 

18% Chance to cast Level 18 Taunt on striking

+3 To Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)

+20-30% Increased Attack Speed (varies)

+300-350% Enhanced Damage (varies)

+9 To Maximum Damage

+50 To Attack Rating

+75% Damage to Undead

+50 Attack Rating Against Undead

8-10% Life Stolen Per Hit (varies)

Prevent Monster Heal

+10 To Strength

+10 To Vitality

Damage Reduced By 8

+1 Light Radius

Requirements -20%

The Unbending Will runeword is an awesome ladder starter item for Barbarian, Act5 Barbarian mercenaries, but can also be used by other melee class builds. The runes and base items required can be found even on normal difficulty. This weapon deals a lot more damage than weapons which can be acquired during a ladder season start, with it’s high enhanced damage, attack speed boosting, and monster healing prevention capabilities. It boosts your survivability by a very high % of life steal, and also by having a high chance of casting Taunt on enemy monsters that greatly reduces their damage and attack rating. 

Runeword: Wisdom (Pul +Ith +Eld)

Base type: Helm
Stats: 

+33% Piercing Attack

+15-25% Bonus to Attack Rating (varies)

4-8% Mana Stolen Per Hit (varies)

+30% Enhanced Defense

+10 Energy

15% Slower Stamina Drain

Cannot Be Frozen

+5 Mana After Each Kill

15% Damage Taken Goes to Mana

The Wisdom runeword is a good helm option for early-season hell difficulty both for missile amazons and Act1 Rogue mercenaries. The piercing attack will help penetrate through enemy monsters so you can deal damage to more monsters with a single attack, the Cannot be Frozen ability is very useful both for survivability and mobility, and the mana features of the item will help sustain your mana points to allow for continuous attacks. 

Runeword: Obsession (Zod + Ist + Lem + Lum +Io + Nef)

Base type: Staff
Stats: 

Indestructible

24% Chance to cast level 10 Weaken when struck

+4 To All Skills

+65% Faster Cast Rate

+60% Faster Hit Recovery

Knockback

+10 To Vitality

+10 To Energy

Increase Maximum Life 15-25% (varies)

Regenerate Mana 15-30% (varies)

All Resistances +60-70 (varies)

75% Extra Gold from Monsters

30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

The Obsession runeword is a great weapon option for Elemental Caster builds. The Weaken curse improves survivability by reducing enemy damage by 33%, the +4 to all skills, 65% faster cast rate, and the mana regeneration capabilities will help your damage output by allowing for quick attacks that deal greatly increased damage with better mana sustainability to help continuous casting. The weapon also has awesome survivability features by increasing your life, boosting your faster hit recovery and increasing all of your resistances by a huge amount. In addition, it provides some extra magic and gold find which is nice for farming. The runeword is quite expensive, and the runes are close to impossible to find by farming on your own, so your best chance to get this weapon is by trading.

Runeword: Flickering Flame (Nef +Pul +Vex)

Base type: Helm
Stats: 

Level 4-8 Resist Fire Aura When Equipped (varies)

+3 To Fire Skills

-10-15% to Enemy Fire Resistance (varies)

+30% Enhanced Defense

+30 Defense Vs. Missile

+50-75 To Mana (varies)

Half Freeze Duration

+5% To Maximum Fire Resist

Poison Length Reduced by 50%

This runeword is the best helm option for Act3 Rogue mercenaries that deal fire damage. In addition to greatly boosting their damage, it provides the entire party with a Resist Fire aura that boosts fire resistance by 85-106% depending on its level, and the maximum fire resistance by 4-8%. The runeword is also one of the best options for fire damage dealing sorceresses, with the same benefits that are mentioned for the mercenaries. 

Flickering Flame also brought a new opportunity to immensely boost the Holy Fire auradin’s build damage. As the Holy Fire auras from the items stack, with two Dragon runewords, a Hand of Justice weapon and a Flickering Flame helm together provide a level 50+ holy fire aura. Combined with the conviction aura, the area damage dealt by Holy Fire currently one-hits most monsters in the game, and the build is considered as broken due to the ridiculous damage. Most likely with the upcoming 2.4 patch this build is going to be nerfed, so if you want to have some fun, try it on the Public Test Realm.

Runeword: Mist (Cham +Shael +Gul +Thul +Ith)

Base type: Bows and Crossbows
Stats: 

Level 8-12 Concentration Aura When Equipped (varies)

+3 To All Skills

20% Increased Attack Speed

+100% Piercing Attack

+325-375% Enhanced Damage (varies)

+9 To Maximum Damage

20% Bonus to Attack Rating

Adds 3-14 Cold Damage

Freeze Target +3

+24 Vitality

All Resistances +40

This runeword is an amazing weapon option for Act1 Rogue mercenaries and for Bow and Crossbow amazons. The Concentration aura is a great damage booster that will provide you and your party with +165-225% increased physical damage and 20% chance for your attacks not to be interrupted. For mercenaries, other than being a great damage booster for the party, it provides a high amount of damage dealt with each attack, a big survivability boost, and the freezes targets feature immobilises monsters for 3 seconds which is both useful for being able to easily attack them, and helping the party’s survivability by preventing them from attacking. For Bow and Crossbow amazons Mist is one of the best endgame weapons and is comparable to the Faith runeword. Other than the above mentioned benefits, the 100% chance of piercing attack stat is amazing, meaning all your attacks will penetrate through any monster at a big range.  Against dense monster mobs (for example at the Secret Cow level) you will quickly deal an incredible amount of damage.

If you want to get the best items and runewords in the game, check out our D2R Store.