Wisdom Rune Word Guide in Diablo II Resurrected

The Rune Word Wisdom requires three runes, Pul Rune, Ith Rune, and Eld Rune placed in that order. Pul is the highest level rune required, making this Rune Word usable by Players from Level 45.

The table below shows which area the required runes start dropping from normal monsters and containers, any quests, and the Countess Rune drop. The Countess is found on Level 5 of the Forgotten Tower in the Black Marsh.

• Pul - Act 4 Nightmare, Nightmare & Hell Hellforge, Countess in Hell;
• Ith - Act 3 Normal, Normal Hellforge, Countess (All difficulties);
• Eld - Act 2 Normal, Normal Hellforge, Countess (All difficulties);

Pul runes can drop from the Hellforge quest in both Nightmare and Hell, with a 1 in 11 chance in each difficulty, making this quest very useful for getting the highest level rune for Wisdom.

For more information about finding and farming Runes, you can refer to our Rune Finding guide using the link below.

We have a video created by MrLlamaSC discussing the new Rune Word Wisdom.

Like all Rune Words, Wisdom gives additional bonuses to the ones granted by the Runes used to make it. These are all the bonuses Wisdom gives.

• +33% Piercing Attack - This bonus applies to bolts, arrows, thrown Javelins and throwing weapons. It has no effect on spells or melee attacks. This increases the chance of the arrow/bolt/thrown weapon passing through a target, so it can also hit targets behind it. This is a very powerful bonus, especially with skills or items that have an area of effect, like Cold Arrow, Exploding Arrow, and Lightning Fury;
• +20% Bonus to Attack Rating - Higher Attack rating means less chance of missing, always helpful;
• 5% Mana stolen per hit - Mana recovery based on physical damage done. Does not work with spells, but does work with arrows, bolts and thrown weapons, as well as melee weapons;
• %30 Enhanced Defense - Increases the Defense value of the base item. Not a large increase, but still helpful;
• +10 to Energy - Increases Mana total and regeneration rate, especially useful when using skills with high mana costs;
• 15% Slower Stamina Drain - Allows the player to run further without resting. Not a large effect, but still helpful;
• Cannot Be Frozen - Very strong defensive bonus, preventing the slowing effect of cold damage to the wearer;
• +5 to Mana after each Kill - Good amount of additional mana recovery, works with ranged attacks;
• +15% Damage Taken Goes To Mana - Mana gain when taking damage. Not very important, as it is a low amount, and taking lots of damage is not recommended.

The most important bonus on this runeword is +33% Piercing Attack. Only one other armor item has this bonus - Razortail. 2 bows, 5 crossbows and 1 throwing weapon have this bonus, with only Buriza-Do Kyanon having 100%. The Amazon has Pierce as a skill, but needs Skill Level 26 to get 90% Pierce.

Skills or items with an area effect can get a large damage increase from piercing attacks, as the additional hits can trigger additional area effects. An Exploding Arrow fired into a group of closely packed monsters can cause monsters to be hit by overlapping explosions as the arrow pierces. A monster in the middle of the pack can be hit by the explosion from the hit on the monster in front, and the explosion of the arrow hitting it, and again by the explosion from the arrow hitting the monster behind, doing 3 times as much damage as a single explosion. Using skills like this, with a high chance of pierce and a high Attack Rating can devastate groups of monsters.

The Cannot Be Frozen Bonus is only found on a limited number of items, so is also worth noting. The Rune Word Rhyme is one easier to get source of this bonus, but as it is only made in a Shield, cannot be used by all builds, including any character using a bow or crossbow.

Wisdom can be made in any grey 3 socket Helm, including Barbarian Helms and Druid Pelts. As it provides only a small Enhanced Defense Bonus, the defense value of the Helm used is not very important.

Barbarian Helms and Druid Pelts can have a +1-3 bonus to up to 3 different skills, making them a good option if used with those Classes. Checking Barbarian Helms and Druid Pelts that drop for useful skills is recommended.

If a white Barbarian Helm or Druid Pelt drops that has useful skills but no sockets, the Horadric Cube recipe Ral Rune + Thul Rune + Perfect Sapphire can be used to add 1-3 sockets, and has a 4 in 6 chance of giving the 3 sockets required for Wisdom.

Wisdom is usable from Level 45. Although it has some rare and useful bonuses, there are higher level Helms that have more useful bonuses (depending on which build) meaning this is unlikely to be an end game for most characters. The unique belt Razortail also grants +33% Piercing Attack and is usable from Level 32, making it a good alternative, especially if a better helm is available.

Wisdom is useful for almost any Amazon build. Level 8 in the skill Pierce and Wisdom gives a chance to pierce of 98% with any bow/crossbow or thrown weapon. This gives a big damage boost to Bow and Crossbow Skills and thrown Javelin Skills when fighting groups of monsters. For builds that use with high Mana costs like Cold Arrow, the Energy and Mana recovery bonuses will be a big help.

An exception to this is when using Buriza-Do Kyanon, as it has 100% Chance to Pierce, making Wisdom of limited value.

The Dual Throw Barbarian BuildThrow Barbarian is another build which can benefit from the Piercing Attacks. Warshrike is the only throwing weapon that has the Piercing Attack bonus, and it grants 50%. Wisdom and/or Razortail give a significant boost to damage against groups, especially when using a weapon like Lacerator which is has no built in pierce.

One Sorceress build could find Wisdom very helpful - the Ranged Enchantress. This build uses the Enchant skill to do lots of fire damage, and uses a weapon with the Bonus Fires Exploding Arrows/Bolts. The explosions from the Arrows or Bolts apply the fire damage from Enchant. Piercing attacks against groups of monsters can hit many monsters, cause overlapping explosions, and do lots of fire damage. Demon Machine fires Exploding Bolts and gives 66% pierce, so combined with Wisdom, attacks have 99% Chance to Pierce, which can be very effective with high level Enchant.

Act 1 Rogue Scout Mercenaries can also find Wisdom helpful. As Mercenaries have limited equipment slots (Weapon, Helm, Armor for Rogue Scouts) they cannot use Razortail. They have no pierce skill, so Wisdom is one of the few ways to give them piercing attacks. The Cannot Be Frozen bonus will help them, although the mana recovery bonuses do not, as Mercenaries do not use Mana. Wisdom can give a good boost to this Mercenary, and could be a good use of this helm if a different higher level Helm is found for the build being played.