Runeforging

Runeforging
	Runeforging; Level 8 death knight ability; Instant; Allows the Death Knight to emblazon their weapon with runes.;
Properties
Class	Death knight
School	Physical
Cooldown	None/Global Cooldown
Other information
Level learned	8

Runeforging is a skill specific to death knights, involving the affixing of runes to the death knight's weapon. It requires a runeforge, which can be found in five places: The upper chamber of Acherus: The Ebon Hold in the Eastern Plaguelands, the Shadow Vault in northern Icecrown, the fortress structure at Mord'rethar: The Death Gate in southeastern Icecrown, Darion Mograine's runeforge at Light's Hammer in Icecrown Citadel, and the Seat of the Primus in Maldraxxus for death knights aligned with the Necrolord Covenant. After a small quest chain, the Shadow Vault—inhabited by hostile Scourge—can be captured to serve as a questing hub for the Knights of the Ebon Blade, allowing ease of access to the Vault's runeforges.

Process

To engrave a rune on a weapon, open your spellbook to your specialization's tab and click on the Runeforging icon. You'll see a list of Runes that you know. Choose a rune, then click the Engrave button. Your mouse pointer turns blue—use it to click on the weapon you want engraved. It helps to already have your character profile or bags open.

Details

Runeforge enchantments count as permanent, and they overwrite any regular enchantments such as Enchant Weapon - Mongoose or Enchant Weapon - Executioner. Runeforge enchantments can also be placed on Bind-to-account weapons, such as [Bloodied Arcanite Reaper]. Runes are always better than weapon enchantments.

Runeforging requires that the weapon have an item level of 45 or higher (except for BoA items), since any weapon a death knight would encounter will be higher than this. Prior to patch 4.0.3, attempting to apply a rune to an heirloom weapon would result in an error about the item level being too low.

Runes

As of patch 9.0.1, there are eight different runes that can be engraved onto your weapons. A weapon can only have one rune on it at a time, but runes can be freely changed at a runeforge.

Name	Level	Weapon type	Description
[Rune of Razorice]	8	Any	Causes 2% extra weapon damage as Frost damage and has a chance to increase Frost vulnerability.
[Rune of the Fallen Crusader]	8	Any	Has a chance to heal you for 3% and increase total Strength by 15% for 15 sec.
[Rune of the Stoneskin Gargoyle]	8	Two-handed	Increases Armor by 5% and all stats by 5%.
[Rune of Unending Thirst]	20	Any	Increases Movement Speed by 5% and grants healing and extra Haste and Movement Speed on kill.
[Rune of Sanguination]	32	Any	Increases the damage of [Death Strike] based on the enemy's missing health and heals when falling bellow 35% health.
[Rune of the Apocalypse]	44	Any	Has a chance to apply one of four debuffs on ghoul attacks.
[Rune of Hysteria]	46	Any	Increases Runic Power by 20 and has a chance to increase Runic Power generation.
[Rune of Spellwarding]	48	Any	Deflects 3% of all spell damage and has a chance to create a shield that absorbs spell damage.

Removed runes

The following runes have been removed from the game.

Name	Level	Type	Weapon type	Description	Removed in patch
[Rune of Cinderglacier]	55	Frost	Any	Has a chance to increase the damage by 20% of your next 2 spells that deal Frost or Shadow damage. Lasts 30 sec.	6.0.2
[Rune of Lichbane]	60	Blood	Any	Adds 2% extra weapon damage as Fire damage or 4% versus Undead targets.	7.0.3
[Rune of the Nerubian Carapace]	72	Frost	One-handed	Increases Armor by 2% and total stamina by 1%.	6.0.2
[Rune of Spellbreaking]	57	Unholy	One-handed	Deflects 2% of all spell damage.	7.0.3
[Rune of Spellshattering]	57	Unholy	Two-handed	Deflects 4% of all spell damage.	7.0.3
[Rune of Swordbreaking]	63	Blood	One-handed	Increases Parry chance by 2% and reduces duration of disarm effects by 50%.	6.0.2
[Rune of Swordshattering]	63	Blood	Two-handed	Increases Parry chance by 4% and reduces duration of disarm effects by 50%.	6.0.2