Blizzard recently announced two new Runewords will be making their way to Diablo 2 Resurrected in patch 2.4. One of which is called the Plague Runeword.
Well, this Runeword is ‘new’ in a sense. It’s been seen before because it was actually planned to be added to Diablo II Classic years ago in patch 1.11. Unfortunately, Blizzard decided to scrap the item and it never made it’s way to the live server.
Patch 2.4 for Diablo 2 Resurrected is packed full of new changes coming to the game. Plague is just one of the many Runewords that will be coming to the game and will be given as a Ladder season reward. This means users will not be able to create this Runeword in non-ladder.
Plague Runeword Stats and Description
Blizzard did mention that there might be slight tweaks to the Runewords coming in Patch 2.4, but haven’t released details on what those would include. Using old game files though, we can get a good idea of what the Plague Runeword will do.
- 25% Chance to Cast Level 15 Poison Nova On Striking
- 20% Chance to Cast Level 12 Lower Resist When Struck
- Level 13-17 Cleansing Aura When Equipped (varies)
- +1-2 All Skills
- +260-380% Damage to Demons (varies)
- -23% To Enemy Poison Resistance
- 0.3% (0-29.7) Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
- Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
- 25% Chance of Open Wounds
- Freezes Target +3
- +10 to Strength
How to make Plague Runeword
If you’re looking to craft your own Plague Runeword you’ll first need to figure out what weapon base you’ll be wanting it in. While it can be crafted in any white base, it will need to have 3 sockets in it.
If you find a nice white base you’d like to use but it doesn’t have sockets, Larzuk in Act 5 might be able to help out. After you complete Siege on Harrogath quest, speak to Larzuk to have him socket your item. It’s important to note, he will give the maximum amount of sockets to white items dependent on their item level, and that differs depending on the item and where it was found.
Once you figure out what base you’d like to use for the Runeword, you’ll need to gather a Cham, Shael, and Um rune. It’s very important you add the Runes to your base in the specific order. First will be Cham Rune, next will be Shael Rune, and last will be Um Rune. Once this is done you’ll have your Plague Runeword with various rolled stats.
Who uses Plague Runeword
So you’re looking to make a Plague Runeword but you’re not sure who it will actually be good for? That’s still largely up for debate. Not too many people are very excited about it, but many others are deep into theory crafting to figure out how to optimize this item for a build best. At the moment it doesn’t look like it will be best in slot, but will definitely still have some use cases.
- Can be good for Mercenaries as a temporary alternative to Infinity.
- Necromancer Poison Dagger build.
- A decent alternative to +5 trap claws.
- Rabies Werewolf build on a Druid.
- Martial Arts Assassin
We’ll make sure to keep this list updated as we find more use cases for the Plague Runeword. We’re hoping it gets a bit of a buff prior to release to really make things exciting.
Make sure to also check out the rest of our Diablo 2 Resurrected guides!