Rune Arm



The Rune Arm (or Arm Cannon) is a kind of equipment implemented with Update 11 and the Artificer class. It goes into the secondary weapon/off hand slot and requires Artificer Rune Arm Use feat (Artificer level 2 class feat) to use.

Overview
Rune Arms are off-hand weapons that can be wielded with one-handed weapons and all crossbows. The Rune arm has unique magical properties:
 * Rune Arm Imbue: Your main-hand weapon will deal additional damage. This also applies to glancing blows with proficient Dwarven War Axe or Bastard Sword.
 * Rune Arm blast: Rune Arms can blast enemies with magical damage as a free action (not restricting the users ability to cast or attack). The weapon uses Charges with five tiers, and these charges increase in damage the higher the tier (Rune Arms have a max tier level). Charges can be added standing still or while moving limited by the "Stable Charge Tier".
 * Just like normal magic items, Rune Arms can have several magical enchantments. For some rune arms, these can be modified via the Cannith Crafting system.

Sources:
 * Rune Arms are currently only acquired by finishing certain quest chains, or in certain chests already known for dropping named and/or rare loot, such as the three dragon chests in Gianthold Tor. The complete list of known Rune Arms, as well as their location, are below.
 * DDO Store has a couple rune arms.
 * Randomly generated rune arms do not exist.
 * Some pawn vendors purchase some Rune Arms, for example the Armor/Shield vendor in Eveningstar. Some BtAoE /BtCoE Rune Arms can be sold and only via the auction house/shard exchange.

Interaction with other classes:
 * Rune arms uncenter Monks
 * Rune arms break Druidic Oath
 * Rune arms can be used with Single Weapon Fighting. Bards can take the appropriate enhancement to make rune arms compatible with Swashbuckling.
 * Rune arms are their own unique type of off hand. They do not qualify for any bonuses that pertain to shields, orbs, or off hand combat styles. Only specific benefits that state, "while wielding a Rune Arm" or "Rune Arm DC" apply.

Crafting
The enchantments on some Rune Arms can be modified using Cannith Crafting. This applies to Rune Arms with the the Craftable Rune Arm enchantment - see Craftable Rune Arm for details.

All craftable rune arms can have one suffix and one prefix enchantment. Rune arms with minimum level 11 or higher also can have the extra slot added to them (aka Mark of House Cannith Slot). Rune arms have their own set of enchantments that can be applied to them (similar to but more restricted than trinkets).

Unlike the rest of Cannith Crafting, Minimum Level Shards are not required to be applied to the rune arm before adding enchantment shards. In fact, Minimum Level Shards cannot be applied to rune arms because the minimum level of the Rune Arm is set by the item itself, and crafting enchantments onto the rune arm will not change the minimum level. The listed "Minimum Level" can never be changed when crafting Rune Arms; this is working as intended.

Note:
 * The minimum level shard seems to control the property of turning an item from BtC into BtA, and so rune arms which are BtC will remain BtC even after having CC effects applied, since minimum level shards cannot be applied to them (Any CC effects applied are instead set to the ML of the rune arm itself).
 * Some rune arms list Absolute Minimum Level. This applies to legacy Cannith Crafting, it used to be possible to reduce the minimum level of rune arms by two using . This is no longer possible, but old Rune Arms with reduced minimum level still exist and function.

How it works

 * Can be worn together with one-handed weapons and crossbows (not bows) along with scrolls.
 * Rune Arms will give bonus damage to the weapon in your main hand.
 * Tapping the Alt button will start charging it up, tapping it again fires it. You can keymap a different button if you wish.
 * You can Toggle the Rune Arm Use feat on while on an action-bar to make it keep auto-charging.
 * Damage will be affected by Artificer level and charge tier.
 * Moving or blocking with a charge reduces the charge to its maximum stable tier.


 * This doesn't seem to match the in-game DC, see.

Increasing damage

 * Items and enhancements that increase spell damage or create spell criticals also affect rune arm damage.
 * Rune Arm shots scale with 100% Spell Power.
 * Rune Arms don't benefit from items with a bonus to caster level on Evocation (Infused Chaosrobe, Might of the Abishai).
 * Rune Arms don't benefit from Prestige Bonuses to caster level (Radiant Servant will not boost Candlelight/Coronach/Tira's Splendor, for instance).
 * Rune Arms do benefit from the Spellsinger's Song of Arcane Might.
 * The DC of Rune Arm blasts is: 10 + Current Charge Tier + INT modifier + Max Charge Tier + Evocation Feat Bonuses
 * In addition, items with Rune Arm Focus enchantment increase the DC. Artifact bonus to Rune Arm DC is available on Renegade Champion set.
 * Different Rune Arms can be resisted with different saves (Fortitude/Reflex/Will).

Rune Arm-related abilities outside of Artificer
Most rune arm-related abilities are concentrated in various Artificer enhancements. A few abilities exist elsewhere:
 * Machrotechnic epic destiny grants the feat Rune Arm Use to all characters as a Tier 2 ability. Note that this is the only way non-Artificer characters can currently equip a Rune Arm.
 * Swashbucklers gain +1 Imbue Dice while Swashbuckling with a Rune Arm in your off hand.
 * Vile Chemist's extra damage and multiplier also apply when using a Rune Arm.

Named Rune Arms
They most commonly appear in the end-reward lists in chains or quests. They may also be found in named loot/wilderness encounter/raid chests.

Additional rune arms are available from the DDO Store. ML5 and ML13 variants exist, e.g. or. All are craftable. The following elements are available: Ice (Cold Bolts), Acid (Acid Shot), Fire (Fire Blast), Lightning (Electrical Blast), Radiant (Light Spirals), Force (Force Shot).