New ladder-only patch 2.4 Runewords speculation and discussion

As you guys will have noticed from the latest 2.4 patch announcement it is now officially confirmed that the Resurrected ladder in 2022 will have completely new and original Runewords never seen before in the game.

Blizzard wrote:

For the first time, players will have the chance to unlock a host of new Rune Words in the Ladder system!

To be clear, these Rune Words have never existed in the game before, and they will not be accessible in non-Ladder play like the previous set of Ladder-only Rune Words in the original Diablo II experience. At the end of a Ladder season, players who successfully made these Rune Words will have their Ladder characters be moved into a “non-Ladder” version of the game. Then at the beginning of the next Ladder season, players will make a new Ladder character and start all over again to earn new rewards. Currently, we don’t have specific new Rune Words to showcase, but if you tune-in to our Developer Update Stream (more details below) hosted by content creator MrLlamaSC, you’ll be able to receive a glimpse!

I'm sort of hoping that they took some inspiration from @Krythic's Create your own Unique items thread where there were some really cool ideas and creative things happening. Blizzard dev team lurkers show yourself! Ah if only we were that lucky...

What are your guys thoughts? From the sounds of it we may get a 'glimpse' at some of the new Runewords on Llama's twitch channel tomorrow night which will be cool to share here and discuss. What do you really not want to see in terms of new Runewords, and are you guys hoping for more powerful gear or simply more unique gameplay changing gear?

They should buff some mele unique weapons so they could compete with Grief, so many glorious looking weapons that are just

Charsi food because of runewords gear that look like base gear

So when characters are moved to "non-Ladder" the Ladder-only runeword items in that characters possession are not usable anymore? I thought that bit was not completely clear.

Sounds like you cant make the rune words in non ladder but any rune words made during the season will be transferred at the end. Just like legacy

Thorgyn wrote: 3 years ago

So when characters are moved to "non-Ladder" the Ladder-only runeword items in that characters possession are not usable anymore? I thought that bit was not completely clear.

Already created items will remain, but it will not be possible to create them on non-ladder. So the existing ones will be worth A LOT.
At least it wrought that way in legacy D2.

Trang Oul wrote: 3 years ago

Thorgyn wrote: 3 years ago

So when characters are moved to "non-Ladder" the Ladder-only runeword items in that characters possession are not usable anymore? I thought that bit was not completely clear.

Already created items will remain, but it will not be possible to create them on non-ladder. So the existing ones will be worth A LOT.
At least it wrought that way in legacy D2.

So as far as I understand will be new runewords added each ladder season which will become available for all non-ladder players when the season ends. But once the season finished can those runewords be made in non-ladder games then?

Because from your answer I understand that those rw's can only be made in ladder seasons. Well that's crap and another reason why I hate ladders and never agreed to this idea.

wakE wrote: 3 years ago

So as far as I understand will be new runewords added each ladder season which will become available for all non-ladder players when the season ends. But once the season finished can those runewords be made in non-ladder games then?

It depends if after one ladder ("season") ladder-only RWs will became non-ladder or remain ladder-only.
If the former, players will be able to create those RWs on non-ladder.
If the latter, creation of new ladder-only RW items will be impossible (you'll create, say, a sword with poison, cold and lightning damage instead of Spirit). The existing ones will not be deleted, but their supply will end, so their value will skyrocket.

wakE wrote: 3 years ago

Because from your answer I understand that those rw's can only be made in ladder seasons. Well that's crap and another reason why I hate ladders and never agreed to this idea.

IMO it'd be worse if there were no differences between ladders. What is the point of deleting your characters you put countless hours of time into, and starting exactly the same game from scratch?

Oh great. More runewords I'll never have the opportunity to enjoy... >.<

ISlayGnomes wrote: 3 years ago

Oh great. More runewords I'll never have the opportunity to enjoy... >.<

It's okay, they're only going to introduce one that's BerJahSurBerZodBer and is required to do the build you want to do. Not you, in general, but specifically you.

I'm excited for this, whatever it ends up being! I remember when runewords were first introduced right at the end of my D2 playtime the first time around, and this feels like a welcome addition.

ISlayGnomes wrote: 3 years ago

Oh great. More runewords I'll never have the opportunity to enjoy... >.<

lol right? i hope they dont JUST add endgame runewords but also add more diversity to lower level runewords as you level up.

If anything, the announcement makes me want to quit the game. Knowing in a month or 2 everything I’ve farmed so far will be worthless makes me realize again what a waste of time this game is..

I think this is fantastic news! I’m excited. Bringing freshness to a twenty year old game is most welcome. I’m hoping for some mid to high level ones that are challenging to achieve but not top tier expensive. A little

Cham love would be sweet

they are all going to be

Spear and

Dagger runewords

Now this is epic!

nhackett wrote: 3 years ago

they are all going to be

Spear and

Dagger runewords

I hope they will add some runewords from the polearms section to spears.

Numarun wrote: 3 years ago

nhackett wrote: 3 years ago

they are all going to be

Spear and

Dagger runewords

I hope they will add some runewords from the polearms section to spears.

Right? Spears are so underpowered and never utilized atm.

I'm going to predict that New rune words will make use of almost "useless" HR such as

Zod and

Cham, it'd be so dumb and ridiculous of them to not do so.

Just you guys wait, the

Standard of Heroes will do something eventually with a patch.

ichorus wrote: 3 years ago

If anything, the announcement makes me want to quit the game. Knowing in a month or 2 everything I’ve farmed so far will be worthless makes me realize again what a waste of time this game is..

that was kind of my curiousity too. im curious to see if

Cham will get any love and become a viable rune for runewords. also, would like to see low to mid level runewords.

ISlayGnomes wrote: 3 years ago

Oh great. More runewords I'll never have the opportunity to enjoy... >.<

"Players wanted shorter ladders", they said... -.-

ichorus wrote: 3 years ago

If anything, the announcement makes me want to quit the game. Knowing in a month or 2 everything I’ve farmed so far will be worthless makes me realize again what a waste of time this game is..

Same here. Maybe not quit, but take a break until the ladder begins.