Rune (game resource)
- For other uses, see rune.
Runes are the primary resource system used by death knights.
Most death knight abilities cost runes. Spending runes will in turn generate Runic Power as a secondary resource to power certain other abilities. Runes will slowly regenerate over time, while Runic Power will quickly decay outside of combat.
Runes
Before using any abilities, the death knight has six runes. Different abilities and spells consume different amounts of runes and, when used, will place one of the used runes on cooldown. Some abilities are able to refresh certain runes; 
[Empower Rune Weapon] will refresh all of them simultaneously; 
[Blood Tap] will refresh a single random fully depleted Rune; 
[Runic Empowerment] and 
[Runic Corruption] gives a chance to refresh a rune when using runic power.
Rune cooldowns
Runes have a base cooldown of 10 seconds, which is then reduced by haste (for example, 25% haste would give your runes an 8 second cooldown).
Rune abilities by cost
Single rune abilities
[Blood Boil]
[Death's Caress]
[Heart Strike]
[Howling Blast]
[Rune Tap]
[Scourge Strike]
[Soul Reaper]
Multi-rune abilities
Origin and idea
Developers stated at BlizzCon 2007 that they didn't want the new class to use the traditional resource systems because they wanted the death knight to have a different style of play. They stated their intention was for the death knight to use a mixture of spells and melee in close combat. Because of this, a system that didn't specifically rely on either mana or rage was more appropriate. In early design, the Death Knight was intended to be able to customize how many runes of each type they wished to have in their 6 rune slots. This was eventually removed and replaced with the two-of-each-type system due to concerns about balance and complexity.
This is how the original icons looked: 
(Blood), 
(Frost), 
(Unholy).
During the 2008 Worldwide Invitational, it was noted that the original runes were replaced because they were too complex to show them refreshing inside the character's portrait bar.
This is how the replacement icons looked: 
(Blood), 
, (Frost) 
(Unholy), 
(Death). The death rune was originally described as chromatic during the alpha but this was changed to "death" later in the alpha.
Gallery
Blood spec (10.1.0)
Unholy spec (10.1.0)
Blood spec (7.0.3)
Unholy spec (7.0.3)
Runes recharging, frost spec (7.0.3)
- Pre-patch 7.0.3
Old rune system with 2 of each Unholy, Blood and Frost rune
Blood rune
Frost rune
Unholy rune
Death rune (acted as any of the rune types)
- Beta
The death knight character portrait with the beta runes as seen at BlizzCon 2007
The three rune types' original icons, BlizzCon 2007
The death knight character portrait with the beta runes as seen in the Wrath of the Lich King beta
Patch changes
Patch 10.1.0 (2023-05-02): UI updated. 
Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19): Unholy, Blood, Frost, Unholy, and Death Runes have been consolidated into a single Runes resource. 
Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): The way in which runes regenerate has been changed. Rather than each rune type (Blood, Frost, Unholy) regenerating simultaneously, they now fill sequentially. For example, if you use two Blood runes, then the first rune will fill up before the second one starts to fill up. You essentially have three sets of runes filling every 10 seconds instead of six individual runes filling every 10 seconds. This allows the death knight rotation to be more forgiving so that the player can take advantage of things like ability procs or respond to movement. This system makes it a little easier to get back on track without six separate runes now "out of sync" from the standard rotation. 
Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Added.
See also
- TCG cards
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