Welcome to the second day of Hype Week! Following yesterday’s introduction to Omen Windows, today we will be diving into the world of the Rune of Corruption which unlocks a lot of great potential to alter how you approach items, Idols, and builds.

Rune of Corruption

After successfully defeating the Omen, you will find the all-new Rune of Corruption among your loot. When forging an item with a Rune of Corruption, it can either make the item better or worse than before. Some examples of making the item better can include adding new effects and stats or maximizing the values of some or all rolls of the item. And when the item has become worse, its roll values could be minimized, it could lose affix tiers or turn to a random magic item. Make sure to craft your items to their full potential before corrupting them, as corrupting them makes them unmodifiable!

Similar to using other runes to alter equipment, you start by placing an item in the Forge and selecting the Rune of Corruption. A prompt will confirm if you wish to corrupt the item.

Examples of Corruption Results

Corrupting items could lead to a wide variety of results including, but not limited to, adding affixes, reducing affix tiers, changing the rarity, or converting attributes to something new. The crafting results after using a Rune of Corruption on an item will be shared at the bottom of the Forge window in-game. Also, anytime you corrupt a class-specific item, it remains class-specific. However, its level requirements or subtype could be altered so bear that in mind. Here are some examples of what you will see after corrupting an item:

Corrupted Attributes

When you corrupt an Amulet you have a chance to get an affix which converts one of your character’s attributes entirely. When an attribute is converted this way, it’s base effect no longer applies to the item as the stat has been altered.

Don’t worry about losing out on other benefits of the attribute because the corrupted attributes will still be considered as their pre-converted attribute when it comes to skills and effects like “gain X stat per strength”. For example, when Intelligence is converted to Madness, the base effect of 2% Ward Retention per Intelligence no longer exists, and instead you’ll have the base effect from the Madness attribute. The base effects of these new corrupted attributes are listed below these two example amulet corruptions.

• Vitality: 6 Health + 1% Poison & Necrotic Resistance per point. Converts to:

  • Rampancy:

    • 3% increased effectiveness of Frenzy per point.

    • 0.1% more damage taken while you don't have Frenzy per point.

• Strength: 4% Armor per point. Converts to:

  • Brutality:

    • 0.05% more damage for melee attacks per 1 mana cost (up to max 20%, multiplicative with other modifiers) per point.

    • Globally reduces Health Leech by 0.5% per point.

• Dexterity: 4 Dodge rating per point. Converts to:

  • Guile:

    • 0.3% cooldown recovery speed for movement skills per point.

    • 1% reduced armor per point.

• Intelligence: 4% Ward Retention per point. Converts to:

  • Madness:

    • 1% Spell Critical Multiplier per point.

    • 1% increased bonus damage taken from critical strikes per point.

• Attunement: 2 Mana per point. Converts to:

  • Apathy:

    • 2% increased Mana Regeneration per point

    • 0.2% of Current Health lost when you directly use a skill per point.

Corrupted Subtypes

There are some new item subtypes we are adding to Season 4. These can only be acquired while corrupting items. It isn’t a guarantee, but the risk might pay off. Again, whenever you are corrupting relics, class requirements are taken into account.

For Relics, you might see a few new things such as Bottled Time, a new subtype for Rogue. This comes with increased movement speed alongside increased cooldown recovery speed, but also increases your damage over time taken. For Mages, Aberrant Eye will provide you % of health gained as ward decay threshold while reducing your maximum health.

With Rings, you may come across Corrupted Insignia. This gives you an increased cooldown for your evade in exchange for gaining frenzy with each evade. Deadstar, a subtype for Amulets, will reduce your armor, but grant you less damage over time taken and increase your damage over time.

While corrupted items cannot be modified, they can still be shattered if they would normally allow it. However, the new affixes exclusive to corruption cannot be obtained as affix shards. You can also sell corrupted items to vendors, though they likely won’t offer much for them. Maybe it’s better to keep them in your stash as a reminder of what could have been?

It is up to you to decide if it is worth corrupting your favorite piece of equipment or not. If successful, the payoff may be magnificent, but if the corruption overtakes the entire item, you may be left with a weaker item or ruin it, making it entirely unequippable.

Idol Altars

In addition to the Rune of Corruption, Omens may drop a new type of item called Idol Altars. These can be placed in a new slot above your Idol inventory, immediately changing the shape and properties of your Idol Grid. This unlocks a variety of new ways to optimize Idols in your builds.

Idol Altar affixes may affect the entire Idol Grid, or just idols in Refracted Slots, or have other effects. They may also roll with special Refracted Slots, which have their effects determined by the implicits or affixes of the Idol Altar. These are signified by glowing purple slots in your Idol Grid. Idols placed across one or more Refracted Slots have their affixes amplified or grant additional bonuses depending on the affixes of the Idol Altar.

Omen Idols

Omen Idols are a new type of of 3x1 or 1x3 Idol that drop from Omen Window encounters and are always corrupted. These are more powerful than standard idols of their size, with prefixes and suffixes of the same power as 1x4 or 4x1 Idols, and the potential to roll with modifiers otherwise only available on 1x4, 4x1, or 2x2 Idols.

By default, you may only equip one Omen Idol, but some Idol Altars may drastically increase this limit.

Closing

We hope you’ve enjoyed a glimpse into what the Rune of Corruption and Idol Altars will bring in Season 4. We look forward to seeing all the new possibilities you come up with. Tomorrow, we’ll showcase the new Rogue skills and skill adjustments for other classes. Make sure you’re caught up with yesterday’s Omen Window overview, as well. Until tomorrow, stay safe, Traveler!