Rune System - Suggestion

Runes could be some sort of fossilized, whiteish/grey very old gems (aka tears of maji). If these got that way from being extracted of old corpses or due to other natural proccess its unclear as of now =D
Discovered and added in a future update.


How it would work:

A rune takes a slot to be equipped, however it can be of any color. (color restriction may be used/needed to better optimize/balance rune system, more on that if this idea interests)
High level runes are supposed to be powerful, rare and expensive.


And what would a rune do?

Runes provide the bonus of existing nodes in the passive skill tree, "as if" (with restrictions) character had activated a specific node using a skill point.

Simple and most basic runes provides the bonuses of the most cheap and basic nodes, like 4% cast speed, 10% increased melee damage, 30% defenses from shield, 6% to lightning resist and so on.

Mid range runes refer to better nodes, like the 8% increased effect of auras, 2% phis attack leeched as mana, 30% more evasion.

Over the top (rare/expensive) runes grant the bonuses from some of the more valuable nodes: Discipline and Training, Charisma, Chaos Inoculation, Phase Acrobatics, Unwavering Stance, Ancestral Bond, etc. (or maybe runes avoid one or other potentially game breaking nodes)


Now there are different ways to go about adding it in the passive tree, the restrictions mentioned before.

Basic restriction - If its not game breaking that a character could acquire 1 or + nodes (via runes) very far from actual skill tree position, then only basic restriction is needed: the node activated by a rune is in "borrowed state", its activated however you cannot start tagging nodes from that position, and you cannot "cross over" that position either, because its not activated legally, but by a rune instead.
http://postimg.org/image/qt0xg0mz5/
(refer to image for clarification. IMO that would be the best case scenario for rune system as it allows bigger diversity, however the node "Mortal Conviction" - botton left of tree, would have to be ruled out, as that node alone is too powerful)

Enhanced restriction - If it proves game breaking (and too cost effective to balance) that some builds are given access to nodes far away in the skill tree, more restrictions could apply: Rune grants the node bonus only if the current path at skill tree is standing adjacent to the node. (this is a less effective/powerful rune scenario, since it needs proximity to node at the skill tree to activate it, so in a way rune works as an "additional skill point" for specific nodes, simpler to calibrate and balance, however remeber you can't ever "cross over" to the other side of a node activated via rune, this still makes high level runes the most valuable, as those are usually the end of a section, or a standalone option in the passive three.


Theres also rune variety and/or level(optional), further explanations on how to go 'borrowing' nodes around the passive tree and also a "timed lifespan" option for runes, some extra concepts I have thought for this system, can comment/go on at those if theres enough interest and the idea seems feasible :)

Also my english can be bad sometimes, so please let me know if at some point it was confusing or made poor sense.

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/933495 (part 2)

The main difference here is that you're going after specific passive nodes, to include keystones in some cases. I'm not sure about that; I went with "runes" that gain levels instead. In any case, good idea, but I don't think it's going to happen in this game; if we're lucky, perhaps in a sequel.

+1

I like this idea...

I was thinking of something very similar.

The idea of accessing Key Stone Passives without having to do cross county passive tree running is very attractive indeed but also could be very broken. It would all depend on which Key Stone Passives GGG would allow us to gain access to in this manner.

Example: The Mind over Matter Key Stone is in the worst possible place in the skill tree I dont know any build that spends that many points to trek down to duelist to get it when u can just get a Cloak of Defiance.

With that being said it would also mean that u could combine things like lightning coil with mind over matter and become extremely tanky. Therefore the Rune that would gain u access to MoM would have to have its effectiveness reduced by maybe 50%.

This brings us to another issue with Unset Rings. Having a Key Stone Passive without taking up a slot in ur 4L,5L,6L would make it very easy to obtain without sacrificing anything. Unset Rings would have to be removed but still extremely rare to obtain through a vaal orb. Dont want to completely take the fun out of it.

With that being said im sure there are a lot more variants to consider before this could be implemented if at all, but if at any point GGG decides to do so, here are a few ideas on Rune Words and how they would function.

1. The item would have to have the right colors of sockets.
2. The Item has to be linked.
3. The item cannot have extra sockets (if u have a pair of gloves with 4 sockets u would not be able to use it for a 3S3L rune Word it would have to be 3S3L only)
4. Item type requirements (gloves with armor, evasion, ES or hybrid)
5. Item level Requirements
6. Once the rune word is complete the item cannot be augmented in any way. That includes any masters. (you would not be able to roll the 3S3L gloves to get 4S and so on). (Unless stated otherwise from a completed rune word).
7. The item can be corrupted after making the rune word. (allow to get white sockets for more flexibility, also take a risk at loosing the rune word but gain new rune word properties and be augmented by vorici).


Different Types of Rune Words
1. White item Rune Words (Would allow you to get an item with certain stats/properties/abilities, would allow you to make a unique, but more powerful and better suited for certain builds).
2. Magic Item Rune Words (Would allow you to retain the stats of the magic item).
3. Rare Item Rune Words (Would allow you to retain the stats of the rare item and apply them to the Rune Word).

Im sure there are a million ways to make this work, i think this is a good start.

Yeah, this may be asking for too much. I'm tempted to say "think smaller." As it sounds like you're putting pressure on reducing the importance of already existing systems.


For others thinking about concepts like runes, and D2 gems, I'd also point out, in some ways, a Herald (like Ice) might be a little similar to say a couple D2 passive gems that in total adds say 53-70 cold damage. The mana reservation then is just an extra little balancing mechanic, but you also get the shatter/lightning strikes/overkill extra effects from heralds.

So, sometimes I think POE doesn't have the D2 gems and runes, but then sometimes I realize they are doing things a little differently, and better while they are at it.

It's mostly the point where runes do keystones that I'm mixed. Runes doing smaller passive effects I'm ok with.


But on another front, what if gems had 1-2 extra affixes (on top of quality). Or, what about runes in the nature of D2 rune words. With a total of 10 Acts planned, I'm quite certain that just about anything could be possible.

Honestly, it sounds like some of you would be happier playing another game. PoE has some core mechanics that run counter to Diablo's rune mechanic (and a bunch of others too), so forcing runes into PoE would be a total mess. Rune words are in a similar position.

Lets examine rune words with some more detail:

In diablo 2 a rune word consisted of a specifically socketed white item and specific runes. Combining them rewarded you with (essentially) a unique item. The resulting unique item was often extremely powerful considering how easy to obtain the runes were (Leaf, Rhyme...), often beating out regular uniques available at the same level, and sometimes completely breaking the game (enigma). The only intrinsic downside (if you want to call it that) to rune words compared to regular uniques was the lack of available sockets for further improvement.

In poe the story is different since nothing like runes currently exists and sockets are used for all kinds of skills (active and passive). If one was to replicate the D2 process as closely as possible, where you end up with an unsocketable unique item, the balancing would be a complete nightmare. The cost of loosing sockets on an item is quite high and it depends on the slot the item occupies, the power of runewords would therefore have to be related to the number of sockets lost, or else the whole system is ripe for abuse. Chests for instance would have to be roughly on par with a Kaoms Heart (6 lost sockets = very powerful item), boots would naturally compare to Kaoms Roots (4 lost sockets = significantly less powerful) and if you follow this logic every 1handed weapon or shield would probably be garbage (3 lost sockets = meh, every puncher does this with no real issues). Adding more very powerful chest pieces/bows/2handers also smells of power creep.
One could imagine a sort of "runeword lite", where some (even harder to balance) or all of your sockets remain available, but at that point the whole mechanic basically becomes a guaranteed chance orb -> unique. Guaranteed selfcrafted uniques could conceivably work, but for them to fit into PoE the cost vs. reward ratio would have to be completely reworked (=made much more expensive) and they would likely have to be limited to relatively low level/mediocre items, again, because of power creep.

There is no need for GGG to go out of their way to copy another games mechanics either, since there are already ways to replicate the same kind of passive bonuses to gem slots, as Gregoriel pointed out. It is almost certain that the variety of such bonuses will rise as the game develops too.

TL;DR: People are conflating Diablo and PoE because they both have sockets in gear without regard for the actual mechanics that those sockets support. It is not possible to combine the two systems without a complete overhaul.

Thanks for stating the painfully obvious.