For the first time ever, I've decided to dick around with Rune Words in
Diablo 2. Turns out there's a very good reason I've never bothered with them when I was younger, because the mechanics are grade-A bullshit.
So the idea behind it that if you insert a certain combination of runes into an item, you get special bonuses beyond the listed values on the individual runes, some of which are highly sought after such as the
Enigma Rune Word, which allows any character to cast Teleport. Okay, so I just get a socketed item, throw the correct runes in, and I should be good to go, right?
WRONG!
Here is a full list of requirements you need to create a Rune Word:
- You need to put the runes in a SPECIFIC order. Did you socket Ort before Tal? You get nothing.
- The item needs an EXACT amount of sockets as the Rune Word. No more, no less.
- The item must not be enchanted. Found a magic item with a property that adds sockets? That simply won't do.
- The item needs to be of the right type. Try to use a Rune Word for axes on a mace, or Rune Word for shields on body armor? Too bad.
Essentially, the stars and planets need to fucking align in order to take advantage of an integral mechanic of the expansion. If you fuck up at
any point, you just wasted hours of grinding and some
incredibly rare items, because for those who don't know:
sockets can never be undone.
And to top it all off,
NONE of this is explained in the game in the slightest. The best you get is a late-game quest reward where the guy hands you Ort, Tal, and Ral runes, and says he was gonna put it in a shield, but it doesn't explain any of the specifics behind how you're supposed to do it. It is literally impossible without outside information.