Ladder Season Three for Blizzard’s popular action RPG Diablo II: Resurrected is launching next week. However, the company has already revealed the exciting changes to several new Rune Words that players can expect once the new season goes live.
For those who were not aware, Blizzard added eight new Rune Words that players were able to try out on the PTR a couple of weeks ago. That said, some Rune Words have received adjustments based on feedback.
So, which ones got tweaked? Well, “Cure” now has a level one Cleansing Aura, which reduces poison and curse duration when equipped.
Players who struggle fighting against enemies that deal cold damage can turn to the new “Hearth” Rune Word. That’s because players not only get additional resistance to cold, but they cannot be frozen anymore when they slot Hearth into their helmets.
The company has also made “Hustle” more appealing. It seems that Blizzard wants to punctuate how amazing this Rune Word is in terms of providing attack speed and movement speed.
When slotted into armor, players run and walk 65% faster. That’s not all! Hustle increases attack speed by 40% as well, allowing players to make quick work of the minions of Hell. The increase in evade and elemental resistances might appeal to a lot of people too, especially when they’re tackling higher difficulty levels.
On the other hand, putting Hustle on weapons increases their Enhanced Damage by 180% to 200% (up from 130% to 150%). Although this Rune Word now only grants a 5% chance to cast level one Burst of Speed instead of level nine, it does gain a level one Fanaticism Aura, increasing the player’s attack speed, damage, and attack rating as well.
Fans of the Assassin class in Diablo II: Resurrected might be convinced to slot the “Mosaic” Rune Word into their claw weapons due to recent changes. Instead of giving flat cold damage, Mosaic now increases the damage of cold, lightning, and fire skills by 8% to 15%. The additional 7% life steal helps the Assassin survive even the hardest content in D2R.
But more importantly, Mosaic now gives players a 50% chance for finishing moves not to consume charges. If a finisher is executed this way, it now refreshes the expiration time of the stack!
And finally, the company has buffed “Metamorphosis” slightly so that it can compete with other Rune Words for shapeshifter Druids. Having Metamorphosis gives players access to Mark of the Wolf, which increases attack rating by 30%, quite helpful against monsters with an inherently high evasion rating.
Another significant change here is that the 25% chance to deal Crushing Blow is no longer attached to Mark of the Bear. This implies that players no longer have to activate Mark of the Bear for a chance to deal massive damage equal to a percentage of the enemy’s HP.
Keep in mind that all of the changes mentioned above will only be active once Ladder Season Three begins on Thursday, February 16 at 8 p.m. EST.
So, what can you say about the changes made to Rune Words in Diablo II: Resurrected?
