Diablo 3 runes

There are going to be runes in Diablo 3, but the are going to be different from those in Diablo 2. The runes will still drop from monsters,  however, they will be used in a different way...

OK, let’s see how runes worked in Diablo 2. There are 33 runes that drop from monsters. Some of them drop often while others drop extremely (e.g. Zod rune). Also, there are items with sockets that are able to take runes (or jewels). Some rune combinations (called runewords) create Runic Items, which are among the most powerful items in the game.

For example, socketing the runes Tal + Thul + Ort + Amn gives your monarch shield a whole bunch of additional stats and it also adds the label “Spirit”.

So what are the changes to the runes in Diablo 3? Runes will still be used to customize your character, however, runes no longer modify items. Instead they’ll be added to skills (each skill has a single rune slot). It looks like the profession "Inscription" in World Of Warcraft.

Also, to make runes easier to use, rune names will be changed to reflect their effect, e.g. Rune of Multistriking. How does this affect gameplay?

For example, a Minor Multistrike Rune attached to the Skull of Flame will make projectile skip along the ground once , but higher quality Runes like the Major Multistrike Rune may raise the amount of bounces and the distance traveled by the projectile. 

Jay Wilson, Diablo 3 Lead designer, expressed his strong desire to make each skill customizable while at the same time retaining the uniqueness of each class. In other words, he doesn’t want the Barbarian to be able to mimic the Wizard by adding certain runes to skills.