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Diablo IV

Runewords - Vessel of Hatred

By
Nathan Garvin

Once upon a time, we all lived in darkness, snatching color-coded collections of affixes from our slain enemies, grafting them onto us or using them as cudgels by which to perpetuate the cycle of violence and acquire more loot. It was crude, and primitive, but it was all we knew. Then Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction launched, and it illuminated us with the comforting warmth of runewords. No longer would we scrape about for crude affixes - we would craft our own. Then everybody forgot about runewords for about twenty years until they made their glorious return in Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred! This page will cover how runewords work Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred.

Page Breakdown

Runewords - Quick Look

Runes return in Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, allowing the player to combine up to two pairs of two runes to create two custom runewords:

  • Unlock runes by completing the quest Fundament of Faith
  • Pair a Ritual Rune with an Invocation Rune to create a Runeword
  • Ritual Runes generate Offering when conditions are met
  • Generate enough Offering and the Invocation Rune’s effects will proc
  • Only two Runewords can be equipped at once
  • You can only use one of each rune
  • Unsocketing Runes is free, and doesn’t destroy the Runes or the gear they were in
  • Combine Runes at a Jeweler to randomly create new Runes

Complete the quest “Fundament of Faith” to unlock Runes and Runewords.

Finding Runes

After over a year, runes have finally joined gems as a socketable item in Diablo 4. Complete the main quest Fundament of Faith and you’ll get the tutorial quest Rune Crafting which introduces you to the wild world of runes. There are two ways to get runes - find them via random drops or craft them via the Jeweler. However, since crafting runes requires you to expend other runes and the runes you get via crafting are random, it’s more of a supplemental source of runes… which isn’t to say it’s not worthwhile, burning three excess runes you won’t miss for the chance to get something better can help you accumulate runes that haven’t dropped yet. Speaking of which, runes can drop from pretty much any source of loot, but larger, more generous hauls are your best bets - Helltide chests, Tree of Whisper caches, World Bosses, Uber Bosses, Pit runs, Legion events, etc., may all yield runes.

You can find Runes from almost any source of loot, but targeting Ubers and Tree of Whisper caches are especially lucrative.

Creating Runewords - Ritual and Invocation Runes

Runes are far simplified in Diablo 4 as compared to their debut in Diablo 2 - there are plenty of runes in the game, but it only takes two runes to make a runeword, and there’s no guesswork to be done, no trial and error, no wasting a Vex rune because you put it into a warhammer instead of a flail…

There are two types of runes in Diablo 4, Ritual runes (orange) and Invocation runes (purple), and one of each are paired together to create a custom effect. Ritual runes generate Offering when a specific action is taken - evading, using a healing potion, casting an ultimate skill, using a skill after moving, etc., while Invocation runes generate some effect when enough Offering has been generated. Invocation runes also often have a cooldown, albeit one that’s short enough that it usually won’t matter much.

For example, take the Ritual rune “Cem”, which generates 50 Offering every time you evade. Pair this with, say, an Invocation rune “Ohm” which uses the Barbarian skill War Cry“ when you accumulate 600 Offering. Together they create the runeword “CemOhm”, which will cast War Cry every time the character evades twelve times. The various effects of the Ritual runes and Invocation runes are numerous, giving you access to the abilities of other classes, like the aforementioned War Cry, Frost Nova, Teleport and Stun Grenades, as well as providing other boons like increasing Crit Chance or restory a character’s primary resource. What runes you’ll want to pair can vary greatly depending on your class, build and playstyle.

To create a runeword you’ll need to socket two runes into a piece of armor - helmets, chest armor and pants all work. You can only have two runewords equipped at once, and you cannot reuse any runes - if you use the “Zan” rune in a runeword to generate Offering when you use an Ultimate skill, you cannot use another Zan rune in a second runeword. Offering generated only applies to the Invocation rune it’s paired with and generates separately, so if you have a “Cem” rune for one runeword and a Zan rune for another, Cem would generate Offering for its paired Invocation rune whenever you dodged, while Zan would generate Offering for its paired Invocation rune whenever you used an Ultimate skill, and they would charge and proc at different times.

(1 of 3) Pair a Ritual Rune,

On the plus side, you can unsocket runes from gear by visiting a Jeweler. This costs nothing and doesn’t destroy the runes nor the armor they were socketed in, so you’re free to experiment with runewords as much as you want.

Below you’ll find a list of all the runes in Diablo IV:

List of Runes

Rune Type Rarity Offering Cooldown Effect
AHU Ritual Legendary 10 Lucky Hit: Up to a 100% chance against Injured enemies
BAC Ritual Legendary 50 Travel 5 meters
CEH Invocation Magic 100 Summon a Spirit Wolf to attack enemies for 8 seconds (Overflow: Summon Multiple Wolves)
CEM Ritual Magic 50 Cast Evade
CIR Ritual Magic 25 Cast the same non-Channeled Skill 3 times in a row
EOM Invocation Legendary 100 1 sec Reduce your active Cooldowns by 0.25 seconds (Overflow: Further Reduced Cooldowns)
FEO Ritual Rare 1000 20 sec Become Injured or Crowd Controlled
GAR Invocation Magic 25 1 sec Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25%. (Overflow: Gain Multiple Stacks)
JAH Invocation Legendary 500 2 sec Replace your next Evade with the Sorcerer’s Teleport, blinking further, dealing damage, and becoming Unstoppable
KAA Ritual Rare 2 Lose 1% of your Maximum Life.
KRY Invocation Rare 500 3 sec Evoke the Spiritborn’s Vortex, dealing damage and Pulling In enemies
LAC Invocation Rare 800 1 sec Evoke the Barbarian’s Challenging Shout, reducing your damage taken (Overflow: Increased Duration)
LITH Ritual Legendary 25 Stand still for 0.3 seconds.
LUM Invocation Magic 5 Restore 1 Primary Resource (Overflow: Increased Resource Restored)
MET Invocation Magic 100 1 sec You leave the Necromancer’s Desecrated Ground behind you for 3 seconds, dealing damage to enemies within (Overflow: Increased Duration)
MONI Ritual Magic 10 Cast a Skill after moving (Cooldown: 0.2 seconds)
MOT Invocation Rare 150 1 sec Gain a shadow from the Rogue’s Dark Shroud, reducing damage taken per shadow (Overflow: Gain Multiple Shadows)
NEO Ritual Rare 300 Deal damage after not taking any within 5 seconds (Resets if Invulnerable)
NER Invocation Rare 700 6 sec Evoke the Rogue’s Countering Concealment, gaining Dodge Chance, Movement Speed, Unstoppable, and Stealth (Overflow: Increased Duration)
NOC Ritual Rare 5 Inflict a Crowd Control that isn’t Slow or Chill
OHM Invocation Legendary 500 2 sec Evoke the Barbarian’s Enhanced War Cry, increasing your Movement Speed and damage dealt (Overflow: Increased Duration)
ONO Invocation Magic 25 1 sec Evoke the Druid’s Dancing Bolts, seeking and dealing damage to enemies (Overflow: Increased Bolts Spawned)
POC Ritual Rare 2 Spend 5% of your Maximum Resource
QAX Invocation Rare 400 1 sec Your next non-Basic Skill cast spends all of your Primary Resource to deal up to 100% increased damage (Overflow: Further Increased Damage)
QUA Invocation Rare 400 1 sec Restore an Evade charge and gain 6% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, up to 30% (Overflow: Increased Duration)
QUE Invocation Rare 800 1 sec Evoke the Druid’s Earthen Bulwark, granting yourself a Barrier (Overflow: Increased Duration)
TAL Invocation Magic 100 1 sec Evoke the Spiritborn’s Pestilent Swarm, dealing damage to enemies (Overflow: Increased Swarms Spawned)
TAM Ritual Legendary 25 Cast a non-Channeled Core Skill
TEB Invocation Magic 100 1 sec Evoke the Necromancer’s "Abhorrent Iron Maiden" iconAbhorrent Iron Maiden, counterattacking damage from enemies and Healing you when they die
TEC Invocation Magic 100 1 sec Evoke the Barbarian’s Earthquake, dealing damage to enemies within
THUL Invocation Rare 400 1 sec Evoke the Sorcerer’s Mystical Frost Nova, inflicting Freeze and Vulnerable onto enemies (Overflow: Increased Size)
TON Invocation Magic 25 1 sec Evoke the Sorcerer’s Meteorites, dealing damage to enemies (Overflow: Increased Meteorites Spawned)
TUN Invocation Magic 100 1 sec Evoke the Rogue’s Stun Grenades, Stunning and dealing damage to enemies (Overflow: Increased Grenades Spawned)
TZIC Invocation Rare 250 1 sec Evoke the Spiritborn’s Concussive Stomp, dealing damage and Knocking Down enemies
UR Ritual Magic 10 Your Minion or Companion kills an enemy or dies
VEX Invocation Legendary 400 1 sec Gain +3 to all Skills for 5 seconds (Overflow: Increased Duration)
WAT Invocation Rare 100 1 sec Evoke the Necromancer’s "Horrid Decrepify" iconHorrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them
XAL Invocation Rare 200 1 sec Gain 20% Maximum Life for 4 seconds (Overflow: Increased Duration)
XAN Invocation Legendary 700 1 sec Your next Skill cast will be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower
XOL Ritual Legendary 100 Evoke power from another Class
YAX Ritual Magic 100 Drink a Healing Potion
YOM Invocation Legendary 500 5 sec Evoke the Druid’s Petrify, Stunning enemies and increasing your Critical Strike Damage against them
YUL Ritual Legendary 50 Cast a Skill with a Cooldown
ZAN Ritual Magic 150 Cast an Ultimate Skill
ZEC Invocation Rare 200 2 sec Reduce your active Ultimate Cooldown by 4 seconds (Overflow: Further Reduced Cooldown)

(1 of 2) Recycle redundant Runes at the Jeweler,

Recycle redundant Runes at the Jeweler, (left), for a chance to obtain new, rare Runes! (right)

Rune Crafting

Finding Runes is all well and good, but the rarest Runes are awfully hard to find. You’ll also likely end up accumulating dozens of lesser Runes that you have no use for… if only there was a way to kill two birds with one stone? Fortunately, there is! Talk to any Jeweler and navigate to the “Rune Crafting” tab and you’ll find options for recycling Runes - combine three Runes you don’t need and you’ll get a chance to roll random magical, rare or legendary Runes. Obviously the legendary Runes are the best of the bunch, but trashing junk Runes and creating uncommon Runes that can in turn be used to roll for legendary Runes. Any Rune drop is potentially profitable with a little bit of luck!

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Blizzard Entertainment
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS4, PS5, XB One, XB X|S
  • Genre
    Action RPG
  • Guide Release
    15 March 2023
  • Last Updated
    19 October 2024
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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Diablo IV is the ultimate action RPG experience with endless evil to slaughter, countless abilities to master, nightmarish dungeons, and legendary loot. This guide for Diablo 4 currently contains the following:

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