Diablo 2 – The Best Runewords

This list of the best Diablo 2 Runewords will cover what is considered to be the best through the leveling process. With the new release of Diablo 2 Resurrect and the surge of new and old players entering the game. It’s a good time to refreshen our memory of the original runewords that are key to the higher difficulties of the game.

Note: It is important to keep in mind that some runewords are ladder only runewords in the original game. However, as of recently there is a fix for this. ladder Runewords are available by default in Diablo 2: Resurrected on all game modes including non-ladder and singleplayer.

Visit the Diablo 2 Mastery Guide and Diablo 2 Farming Guide

Early Game Diablo 2 Runewords

Easily attainable and cheap runewords are a great way to have a strong start in the beginning. Which can also allow you to take on the game at higher difficulties which equate to more loot. Some key early items and stats are Faster Run/Walk, items with high Increased Attack Speed & Life Stolen Per Hit for melee and anything with +1 to skills such as the Spirit sword and shield combo.

NOTE: Runewords such as Leaf are a great early level runeword for a sorc or a fire druid. Can also be used on a assassin, due to the effectiveness of fire damage in the normal difficulty. Many players tend to run fire builds until they gain some levels and enough skill points to reach their most powerful abilities.

Melee characters will generally have the hardest time and therefore are the most gear dependent. Requiring to have healthy levels of resistance, decent health pools and decent Faster Hit Recovery. In addition to high resistances to cold and items that give immunity to being frozen.

Mid Game Diablo 2 Runewords

Mid game in Diablo 2 can be considered to be 30-50 or the Nightmare difficulty. How quickly you reach midgame is dependent on your own individual pace, build and experience. This is simply a rough guideline to help build some sense of structure. And help you understand what is available to you at this stage of the game. It is also important to remember that once you enter NM difficulty. Unique items of value begin to drop so the best gear setups will be in combination of uniques, rares and runewords.

Insight is a huge item for all casters that can be used on the Act II mercenaries. The Meditation Aura regardless of level adds huge mana regen, while adding some solid damage stats to the item and therefore to your mercenary. It’s reactively cheap and easy to build, even in singleplayer. And the additional 23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items is added to yours, while the mercenary is actively attacking and killing enemies.

Late Game Diablo 2 Runewords

At this stage of the game, runewords begin to get phased out to the the uniques that will inevitably drop. But naturally luck and RNG has a huge factor and it can take awhile to find what you’re looking for, especially if in singleplayer. So it is still great to make use of the higher level runewords to fill in missing slots. These are especially good for mercenaries, chests, shields and main weapons.

Note: In this final stage of difficulty you need to begin to plan ahead and learn the games mechanics at depth. You will need to stack resistances, have high survivability. And understand what the different modifications of the weapons and items mean. Your gear needs to hold up in the different situations that you find yourself in and enemies will often have duel resistances. So having multiple damage options, through your own gear and that of your mercenary becomes important.

Items with auras come in handy when used correctly. And the runewords Infinity & Pride become very useful in helping taking on hell difficulty.

More Relevant Posts:
Diablo 2 – PvM / Singleplayer Mastery Guide
Diablo 2 – Strongest Singleplayer Builds
Diablo 2 – Farming Guide