Spirit Rune Word

Spirit is the rune word  for swords or shields in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction''.

Spirit is an excellent end-game caster Rune Word that can even be used by low-to-middle level characters. It is fairly inexpensive considering the +2 to All Skills bonus that comes with it. It is a Ladder only runeword.

For many end-game builds, Spirit is often made in a Monarch and is rolled many times to get 35% Faster Cast Rate, which is designed to allow most characters to reach a new breakpoint when using standard caster items.

Spirit Monarchs are also used as a switch shield to help increase the amount of life and mana the player gets when casting Battle Orders when using the Call to Arms Rune Word, due to being the only shield that bestows +2 to All Skills. In this case the Faster Cast Rate bonus is completely neglected.

Creating Spirit in a weapon is less common as there are many other better options (such as ), but it can be constructed in a Phase Blade to help Trapassins increase their speed when using  and increase their trap damage at the same time. This is a very popular option when not dual-wielding claws. Lower levelled Wind Druids can also benefit from the skill bonus and Faster Cast Rate, not having Staves or Wands to adequately fill their weapons slot.

The level requirement is misleading for every class except Paladins. While the runes are easy to obtain, getting a shield with 4 sockets may be challenging: the only non-Paladin shields that can roll 4 sockets are elite Monarch, Ward and, none of which can drop early in game and all of which require relatively high character levels. Building this runeword in a weapon is easier, for 4-socket swords can be obtained in early Nightmare quickly.

Result:

Swords only:

Shields only: