Rune Word
BasicsRune Words can be a very important and useful part of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. There are many different varieties of rune words to choose from that can benefit your character, depending upon the class and play style. Some rune words are very easy to create, while others use runes that are extremely rare. Some also require very specific item types, or even class-specific items. It is important to note that the bonuses from the runes themselves are always included in the final rune word, as well as several other modifiers, some of which can be very powerful indeed. The level requirement of the highest rune used in the rune word is usually the level requirement which your character must meet in order to use the item, but if the level requirement of the base item used is higher than the level requirement of the highest rune, then that level is used instead. This means that the level requirement of a rune word is dynamic, possibly changing with the base item used, and is therefore usually not listed in any rune word listing. Use caution in creating lower end rune words in elite items, as the level requirement of the base item may be pretty high. In order to create a Rune Word, you must have an item of an appropriate type (as required by the Rune Word), quality (Cracked, Crude, Damaged, Low Quality, normal quality, or Superior) and with the correct amount of sockets (equal to the number of runes required by the Rune Word), and you must insert the required runes in exactly the right order. This is needed in order to "spell" the rune word correctly in the item. You cannot use an item with more sockets than the number of runes required, and you cannot use magic, rare, set, unique, or crafted quality items. In many cases, the use of an ethereal base item for a rune word is not encouraged, as its use on your character will usually lead to the item permanently breaking. However, since items equipped on mercenaries do not experience durability loss, ethereal items can be very useful and highly sought-after. For example, elite ethereal body armor with 3 or 4 sockets, and elite ethereal polearms with 3, 4, or 5 sockets. Ethereal Bone Visage and Diadem are also sometimes desired, for certain mercenary setups. It should also be mentioned that the costs for repairing the base item will generally skyrocket the moment you insert the full rune word into the item, therefore you WILL want to ensure that the base item is repaired prior to creating the rune word (ethereal items being exempt from this rule, of course). An ethereal rune word cannot be repaired, nor can any spell charges on an ethereal item be recharged.
Ethereal ItemsWe've already discussed WHY you may want to create an ethereal based rune word, but not the effects of doing so. An ethereal armor gains a bonus of +50% to it's base armor level, which is already added into the armor. This is before any other effects, including rune word bonuses that are multiplicative in nature. An ethereal armor also has a bonus of 10 less strength required to equip the item, before any other effects are added as well (like a Hel rune, with -15% requirements). Ethereal weapons are affected in a similar manner, in that the weapon's base damage is given a 50% boost, before any other effects, and it's strength and dexterity requirements are reduced by 10. Ethereal items cannot be repaired by any legitimate means, though a bug once existed that allowed you to repair an ethereal item by having it personalized by Anya, in act 5. As an unintended side effect, the item was repaired. It is also advantageous in the extreme to create a runeword in an ethereal item when the runeword bonuses give indestructibility or self-repairing to the item. And, as mentioned previously, items equipped on a mercenary never lose durability - they may as well be indestructible once placed there.
Defense Bug (Ethereal)The creation of "bugged" ethereal elite armors is considered to be bad manners by some players, and ok by others. The Amazon Basin is split on this particular game glitch, though it seems that the game creators do not intend to fix this issue. You will have to decide for yourself whether you want to take advantage of this bug or not. The glitch takes place when sockets are added to normal quality ethereal armor (helm, body armor, or shield) with the use of a Horadric Cube recipe. The recipe adds 1 to 6 sockets randomly (depending on internal item level, which is equal to the level of the source that dropped the base item). The number of sockets is also limited by the max possible sockets the item type can attain, so for a 4-socket max armor, you have a 1 in 6 chance each of a 1, 2, or 3-socket armor as a result, and a 1 in 2 (50%) chance of a 4-socket armor as a result. The glitch that takes place for ethereal armors is that the ethereal +50% armor bonus ends up being applied twice, before whatever rune word bonus you wish to apply. As you may expect, the possible armor bonuses available from using this glitch are phenomenal. Again, it is up to the players to decide for themselves whether to use this glitch or not, and if not, this information can assist you in NOT replicating this game bug accidentally. Items of this nature are commonly referred to as "bugged" or "eth glitched" armors.
ListAll 78 complete Rune Words are listed alphabetically in the table below, although they can also be sorted by number of sockets, minimum required level, Ladder and patch.
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