Skills are a core part of the RUNE II: Decapitation Edition experience. In addition to your weapon's intrinsic move set, you'll have the ability to unlock, upgrade, and master a suite of 29 powerful and versatile God-themed skills.
There are currently three types of skills that players can learn and use: Core Skills, Specialized Skills and Ultimate Skills.
- Core Skills can be unlocked and upgraded no matter your God affiliation - or lack thereof (in the case of the Path of the Heathen.)
- Specialized Skills can be unlocked no matter your God affiliation, but cannot be upgraded beyond a certain point without the player aligning themselves with the specific God (or path) that offers that skill.
- Ultimate Skills cannot be unlocked or upgraded unless you are aligned to the God or path that offers that skill.
Each skill functions in one of four ways: Inherent, Active, Blessing or Bloodlust.
- An Inherent is always active and there is no need to equip it.
- Once an ctive Skill is learned, it must be equipped in your Skills Bar, and must also be activated by the Player in real time to be utilized.
- A Blessing, must be equipped in your Skills Bar for its passive affect to take effect.
- A Bloodlust Skill, once learned, must be equipped in your Skills Bar. When you land enough hits on an enemy and enter Bloodlust, these skills add additional effects.
There are currently 29 skills to choose from. Multiple skills and blessings can be equipped to your skills bar simultaneously, offering a multitude of possible Skill combinations and character build opportunities!
INHERENT SKILLS
- Health – Your character’s vitality. When this hits 0, you succumb to your wounds.
- Stamina – Your character’s available physical energy. Stamina is consumed when you perform certain exertive actions, such as dodging and heavy attacking. When your stamina dips below 15%, you become exhausted and your actions are less effective.
- Bloodlust – Landing blows on enemies fills your heart with bloodlust! When your bloodlust meter is full you become Bloodlusted and your attack speed increases for a short duration. Bloodlust is a temporary enhanced condition, onto which several other Skills can be added.
CORE SKILLS
Core Skills function at the lower end of character specialty and are among the most frequently used. They cover basic special actions like using less endurance, stunning, healing, and granting increased critical chance
Core Active Skills
- Invigorate – Heal like a god! Increase health regeneration for a short duration.
- Sonic Blast – Shriek like a banshee! Scream in rage, staggering and damaging enemies within a cone of effect emanating from your character.
Core Blessings
- Endurance – Possess the vigor of a god. Stamina consumption is reduced.
Core Bloodlust Skills
- Berserk – Add precision to your rage. While Bloodlusted, gain a chance to land critical hits.
THOR SKILLS
Disciples of Thor can output very high area-of-effect damage. His emphasis on lightning-based crowd control related combat skills is not for the uncertain, as conversely pledging to Thor offers no survivability skills.
Thor Active Skills
- Smite (Specialized) – Pound the ground with the might of Mjolnir! Leap forward, smashing the ground at your destination, dealing damage on impact and staggering all nearby enemies.
- Ball Lightning (Specialized) – Launch a concentrated storm sphere at your foes! Fires a charged ball of lightning that continuously damages all nearby enemies.
- Hammer Throw (Specialized) – Manifest and hurl a storm hammer at enemies. Throws an elemental hammer imbued with lightning. Impacted enemies will be stunned and take damage.
- Summon Boar (Specialized) – Combat a chore? Summon a boar! The boar the merrier! Call the mythical boar Gullinbursti to aid you in battle.
Thor Blessings
- Charged Weapon (Specialized) – Channel Thor’s might. Enhance all attacks with lightning damage.
Thor Bloodlust Skills
- Chain Lightning (Ultimate) – Be like Thor himself and harness the power of lightning. While bloodlusted, attacks deal extra electrical damage and have a chance to chain lightning to the nearest enemy
HEL SKILLS
Hel’s empowers her assassins to strike first, strike hard, steal the very lifeforce from their enemies, then vanish into the shadows – or if no shadows are available – get the Hel out of there in a hurry.
Hel Active Skills
- Hel’s Call (Specialized) – Your enemies hear the whisper of death. Stun nearby enemies and reduce their attack speed for a short period of time.
- Quick End (Specialized) – Move and strike like death herself. Gain bonus movement speed. Your attacks cannot be blocked, dodged, or parried for a short time.
- Frost Shards (Ultimate) – Summon barbs of ice from the ground to perforate your foes. Ice spikes erupt from the earth, knocking down and heavily damaging all enemies
Hel Blessings
- Vampiric Attack (Specialized) – Imbibe your enemies lifeforce with every attack. All hits grant a lifesteal heal for the player.
- Death Dealer (Specialized) – Hel’s frigid aura surrounds you. Deal low, continuous damage to all nearby enemies.
Hel Bloodlust Skills
- Raise Dead (Specialized) – Necromancy becomes you. While Bloodlusted, summon a draugr from Helm’s realm to fight by your side.
ODIN SKILLS
The Allfather blesses all those who fight by his side, thus warriors who pledge allegiance to Odin are gifted with the ability to pass his blessings on to others, supporting and buffing teammates and allies alike.
Odin Active Skills
- Radiant Soul (Specialized) – May Odin’s breath revive you and those who follow you. Heals yourself and all nearby allies.
- Summon Wolf (Specialized)– The howl of the wolf summons an ally. Call one of Odin’s wolves to aid you in combat for a short time.
- Spear Throw (Specialized) – Your targets well get the point of these fire javelins. Throw a holy spear at your target, dealing damage and setting them on fire.
- Raven Call (Ultimate) – Great Odin’s Raven! A swarm of ravens swirls around you, damaging enemies and healing allies.
Odin Blessings
- Odin’s Blessing (Specialized) – Odin offers you his protection. Grants additional defense to all nearby allies for a short period of time.
Odin Bloodlust Skills
- Odin’s Favor (Specialized) – It’s good to have friends in high places. While Bloodlusted, all nearby ally units are granted increased attack damage.
HEATHEN SKILLS
The way of the Heathen is to reject the gods and their offerings, and to walk the path of a mortal who serves no master. The Skills of the Heathen are focused almost entirely on endurance and survivability, and with good reason: things can get rocky when you have no god in your corner.
Heathen Active Skills
- Denounce The Gods (Ultimate) – Tanks but no thanks, gods! Fully heals you and increases your max HP for a short period of time.
- Reinforcements (Specialized) – Allies follow, waiting in the shadows for your word. Summon a mercenary to aid you in combat.
Heathen Blessings
- Stoneskin (Specialized) – Your flesh hardens. You have a chance to deflect light attacks automatically, provided you are not attacking.
- Strength of Conviction (Specialized) – Mind over matter. Grants passive resistance to all elemental damage.
Heathen Bloodlust Skills
- Focused Rage (Specialized) – During blood lust, life regeneration also boosts damage resistance. While Bloodlusted all heal functions grant extra defense
- Frenzy (Specialized) – Gain the sturdiness of a Jotunn. While Bloodlusted, you cannot be staggered or knocked down.
While you can refund your spent skill points at any time, aligning yourself to a god is a permanent choice. Mixing and matching active skills, bloodlust skills, and blessings within RUNE II is encouraged.
Will you be a Thor player with high damage output but low survivability? Or will you pledge yourself to Hel and her legion of combat rogues? Perhaps Odin is more your style, with enough healing and buffing powers to support a team. Maybe instead you’ll walk the path of the Heathen and become an unstoppable tank?
Whatever you choose, you’ll make your enemies know your name. We can’t wait to see the combination of skills that you imagine.