“Runeshapes, inscriptions - These are my life's work. The more I studied, the more I began to see similar shapes in the stars above. It was then that I dedicated myself to becoming a Runeseeker.”
As Farrow so kindly explained, runes in PoE 2 are very powerful and ancient inscriptions, and they can be socketed into your items to grant them more power. During the league, inscribing symbols into remnants will let you choose between a bunch of different crafting runes that you can use to enhance your items.
When you come across a remnant, it has a number of slots ranging from two to seven. The more slots, the more powerful the remnant encounter, but the more options you'll have to choose between. At the start of the game, you might find yourself crafting simple damage or resistance runes that are available at a lower level than you would normally be able to get them, giving you a decent power boost. But things quickly get more interesting.
There are 22 runes for adding or modifying the runic ward, a new resource that can protect you from death. Using these runes, you can add an extra defensive layer or turn your runic ward into an offensive weapon using Kalguuran Runic Skills.
There are also 13 runes that add powers specific to weapon types, like the Ancient Rune of Detonation, which gives a chance for grenades to explode a second time. Or the Ancient Rune of Animosity, which gives you a new buff called Druidic Prowess when heavy-stunning enemies.
In addition, there are 22 runes designed to give you power at low levels, like Rune of the Prism, which gives you a bunch of elemental resistances, or Rune of the Blossom, which gives you a ton of spirit. These runes are designed to be powerful, but drop off in value as you level up. They're great for power leveling a second character in the league.
We also have six runes that can be used to expand the pool of modifiers used when doing high-level crafting. So, for example, you can socket Katla’s Gloom into some gloves, and it will enable the crafting of a bunch of new decay modifiers that can be used for damage over time builds. After socketing one of these types of rune, use regular Exalts or Chaos orbs to try and craft the new mods.
There are also several runes that have one of the powerful effects on items, but are bound forever into the socket, like the Greater Body Rune, which allows any item to gain another suffix. Or Cadigan’s Epiphany, which allows you to create a jewel socket.
Or this series of runes that can convert any elemental mod from one element to another. There's even a rune that can upgrade any other rune, allowing you to upgrade them beyond the normal limit.
The last one I want to show you today is Aldur’s Legacy. A special rune that can be socketed into any Kalguuran or Ezomite Unique to destroy it, but create a new rune that takes some of the properties of the unique. So, for example, use this on a Trampletoe to create a Legacy of Trampletoe rune. Socket into any boots and, just like the unique it came from, you’ll deal 10% of overkill damage to all enemies in a two metre radius. Or how about the Legacy of Twisted Empyrean? Destroy a Twisted Empyrean, and you can add cold damage based on your maximum mana to any weapon. With Aldur’s Legacy, you can create another hundred or so runes with all sorts of unique effects.
At this point, you might be thinking, "That's a lot of new runes,” and you'd be right. This is the Runes of Aldur, after all. But we didn't want the old runes to be left behind either. A significant number of the old runes that were not being used are being buffed as well, making this crafting system significantly better. Explore everything runes have to offer in the Return of the Ancients update on May 29th. See you there!
