Diablo III: An In-Depth Look into Rune & Skill Combinations

Just in case you haven't been following the updates, Diablo III comes featured with an entirely new spell and skill system that incorporates heavy use of "Runes". Not to be confused with the gemstone-like Runes and their associated Runewords in Diablo II, the Runes in Diablo III are items which directly affect the skills to which they are attached.

Simply put, every skill has a slot to which you may affix a Rune, which in turn affects the effects (Haha!) of the aforementioned skill. Based on available screenshots, actual gameplay (at last year's BlizzCon) and painstaking research done by innumerable fans on the official Battle.net forums (as well as myself), here are some of the known skill runes and the affects they are purported to carry. Each rune is expected to have 3 to 4 tiers of quality.

Disclaimer: Please take in mind that all of the following information will likely be outdated and invalid by the time Diablo III is released. It does, however, give us an idea of what to expect from the game's skill system.

Known Skill Runes
Multistrike: Hits multiple targets (Hydra rune)
Power:  adds some damage to the target (Force rune)
Striking: adds an effects such as stun, knockback etc. to the target (Striking rune)
Lethality: adds some effects or power when target is killed (Viper rune)
Energy: alter or adds energy (Energy rune)

Runes have different quality level (which set the power of the rune)


Known Rune / Skill Combinations

Barbarian

Juggernaut Skills

* Bash

• Multistrike - Multiple attacks
• Power - Focused, uninterruptable attack with large defense bonus
• Striking - Wild, devastating attack, with huge damage but zero defense

* Cleave

• Multistrike
  Hits extra targets
  Swings repeatedly in one use
• Power - Adds 30% Crushing Blow

* Ground Stomp

• Power - The stomp releases elemental damage which lingers in the area of effect

* Revenge
* Taunt
* Seismic Slam

• Multistrike - Shockwave is wider and goes farther
• Striking - Adds knockback effect (allowing you to push a monster back to be hit by the wave again and again)

Battlemaster Skills

* Battle Rage
* Hammer of the Ancients

• Multistrike - Hits behind the Barbarian before swinging forward to hit in front of him. Higher level runes hit back and forth repeatedly

* Battle Cry

• Striking - War Cry

* Furious Charge

• Striking - The speed of the Barbarian’s charge forces the air he moves through to move violently, damaging enemies within and around the path of the charge

* Ignore Pain

Berserker Skills

* Frenzy

• Striking - Extra Fury gain from hitting enemies

* Terrifying Shout

• Power - Panic spreads among the Barbarian’s enemies; every fleeing monster who reaches another monster triggers them to flee as well

* Onslaught
* Leap Attack

• Multistrike
  "Bunny hopping" - Allow repeated short jumps to continuously keep moving and make it harder for enemies to target the Barbarian while he attacks
  Larger AoE on landing

* Enrage
* Whirlwind

• Multistrike - Barbarian’s whirling motion causes counter-whirling twisters to form on the edge of the whirlwind, which eventually break off and move randomly away from the Barbarian
  Damages multiple enemies in range per hit-check
• Striking - Larger radius of damage around the Barbarian
• Power - The whirlwind is so powerful as to suck nearby enemies into it

Witch Doctor

* Skull of Flames

• Lethality - Enemies killed remain for a little while as flame-enshrouded spirits which fight for the Witch Doctor
• Multistrike - Bounces, hiting things repeatedly
• Power - Leaves a pool of flame on the ground where it hits

* Horrify

• Power - Instead of running away, enemies are rooted in place by the fear, completely unable to move

* Locust Swarm

• Multistrike - Releases multiple (depending on strength of the rune) swarms in different directions; the swarms stack so that if they spread to the same group the group takes double (or more) damage
• Lethality
  When the swarm kills an enemy, a portion of takes its place as a "locust man", which lasts for a brief time and does melee damage
  Enemies killed by the swarm explode, damaging nearby monsters

* Mass Confusion

• Striking - can target a single enemy, who will be designated as the target of all other enemies in range
• Power - all confused monsters get 100% damage boost

* Soul Harvest

• Multistrike - Soul Harvest becomes a passive Aura, which gradually drains Life from nearby monsters and converts it to Mana for the Witch Doctor
• Striking - attack summon a la Bone Spirit
• Lethality
  Enemies killed with Soul Harvest heal not only the Witch Doctor as normal, but also all allies
  Enemies killed by Soul Harvest have a chance of completely restoring the Witch Doctor’s health and mana

* Summon Mongrel

• Striking - Mongrels have a higher chance of Critical Hit
• Lethality - Mongrels explode much more violently, dealing their enchanted damage as well as improved normal explosion damage
• Power - Mongrel attacks get Knockback and Stun
• Multistrike
  Summons more Mongrels
  Summons Cerberus-like multi-headed Mongrels

* Wall of Zombies

• Multistrike - Zombie Prison
• Power
  Zombies leech health from enemies, which is transferred to the Witch Doctor
  Summons unrooted Zombies.
• Lethality
  Enemies killed by Zombie Wall turn into Zombified versions of themselves, which then attack their former comrades (Kintak)
• Zombies from the wall that die leave behind a pool of acid (Mattyman174)

* Firebats
* Plague of Toads

• Lethality - instead of a large number of small toads, summons a single big toad which can swallow small enemies whole. After eating a certain number, it explodes for poison splash damage

* Spider Statue
* Mirror Image

Wizard

Arcane Spells

* Magic Missile

• Multistrike - Missiles pierce through targets.

* Disintegrate

• Multistrike - Reflect off of walls, allowing the beam to be bounced around corners or to hit the same target repeatedly
• Striking - Target gives off heat, dealing some fraction of the damage it takes to nearby enemies

* Wave of Force

• Striking - Pulls enemies towards Wizard and stuns them for a short duration
• Power - Pushes enemies as far as they can go - taking extra damage if they hit a wall, damaging other monsters they hit, etc
• Lethality - After pushing the target, if it dies, it explodes with a wave of force of its own, allowing chain reactions

* Arcane Orb

• Multistrike - Launches Magic Missiles around it in circles
• Power - On a critical hit, leaves behind a small Slow Time bubble

* Electrocute

• Multistrike - Becomes chain lightning
• Lethality - Enemies killed with Electrocute explode, dealing shock damage to nearby enemies

* Slow Time

• Power
  Instead of slowing time down, increases the speed of time massively, causing enemies within the bubble to age (permanent degradation to movement speed, attack speed, defense, attack rating, damage, max health). If max health goes to 0 within the bubble, the enemy crumbles to dust.
  Larger bubble
• Lethality
  For each second within the bubble, enemies within take the sum total of all damage taken so far within the bubble again
  Enemies killed within bubble explode (Editor's Note: It's like an inertial collapse! Someone's obviously been reading Revelation Space.)
• Striking
  All projectiles that strike the bubble damage everything inside of it evenly for a percentage of the original damage (based on rune quality)
  Everything within bubble when it is first placed takes damage
• Multistrike
  Increases the movement and attack speeds of all allies in the bubble, increasing how often they’re attacking targets within
  Multiple bubbles

* Temporal Armor

• Striking
  After absorbing damage, it deals a percentage of the damage to all targets within an area of effect. At highest rune levels, the percentage would be greater than 100%.
• enemies who strike the armored Wizard are temporarily time-stopped
• Power - Costs less Mana 
• Multistrike - Lowers the cooldown between damage absorption events

* Teleport

• Power - can be cast on self, allies, or enemies. Semi-teleports the target, leaving them temporarily half real. In this they take and deal extra magic damage, cannot use physical attacks, and take less physical damage
• Wizard can teleport into a minor monster, killing them in a violent explosion
• Multistrike - appear at destination with a mirror image
• Striking - damage enemies near destination

Storm Spells

* Charged Bolt

• Multistrike
  Monsters hit with bolts release bolts of their own (a la Lightning Enchanted monsters) to damage other targets
  Bolts get pierce through targets
• Striking
  Instead of a random stream of charged bolts, Wizard instead releases the same number of lightning bolts which hit the nearest N targets.
  Bolts home in on nearby enemies
• Power - Struck enemies glow and deal a fraction of the damage taken to nearby enemies 
• Energy - Bolts travel faster 
• Lethality - Enemies killed with Charged Bolt release bolts of their own to damage other targets

* Frost Nova

• Multistrike - struck enemies release their own Frost Novas. At higher levels, enemies hit by those novas also release novas, and so on.

* Storm Armor
* Ray of Frost

• Multistrike - Splits into multiple projectiles upon striking
• Power - Slowly degrades target’s movement and attack speed as the spell is focused on them; damage is healed slowly over time after spell stops
• Lethality - On death, target releases a nova of frost bolts.

* Tornado

• Multistrike - Tornado spins faster, dealing its damage more rapidly
• Power - Lifts the target(s) and pulls them along with it until it dissipates
• Lethality - Powerful centrifugal forces literally tear the target apart, violently

* Corpse Explosion
* Blizzard

• Multistrike - Adds a swirling vortex to Blizzard, pulling nearby enemies into it and keeping enemies in it underneath the storm
• Expanded area of effect - boring, but powerful
• Striking - Blizzard is centered over the Wizard and moves with him/her

Conjuring Spells

* Spectral Blade

• Multistrike - Hits all enemies around the Wizard
• Striking - Small increase in the range of Spectral Blade

* Stone Skin

• Power - Lengthens duration of armor
• Multistrike - Creates "layers" of armor, which break independently and can be recast independently as well, so that recasts are cheaper

* Mirror Image

• Multistrike - Extra images
• Striking - Mirror images do extra damage

* Meteor Storm

• Multistrike - Meteors fall more quickly (over the same period of time)
• Power - Storm lasts half as long, but ends with a single huge meteor for massive damage

* Acid Cloud

• Power - Degrades attack damage and defense of enemies as they stay within the cloud
• Lethality - For every enemy who dies within the cloud, the damage dealt to those within the cloud increases

* Hydra

• Multistrike
  Hydra breathes arc-shaped fan of fire
  Hydra shoots Fireballs instead of Fire Bolts
• Power - Hydra breathes continuous stream of fire, a la Inferno
• Striking - summons an entire Hydra, instead of just the head, making the beast mobile

* Magic Weapon

• Multistrike - Imbues the weapons of all party members with the magic damage
• Lethality - For every enemy killed with the imbued blade, the damage bonus increases until the effect wears off
• Striking - Instead of imbuing a weapon with magic damage, it instead conjures a floating weapon like Mordenkainen's Sword in D&D.

This list could not have been made possible without the contributions of the following users on the official Battle.net forums, who are listed in no particular order: Mattyman174, Peaceonearth, Dark_blood3, Ukobach, Chanceford3, Drdoom, Sied2, Akaitsuki, Keighvin, Kintak, Craigbeme, Telzents, Asmo45, Schpwuette.