Runes in Diablo 3

I totally agree. Those Godly items that nobody could ever get their hands on are what set players on different plateaus than the others in the later levels.

The lead designer showed off the Teleport skill with a Striking rune, turning the spell into an offensive skill that can destroy enemies. The Skull of Flame skill was modified by the Multistrike Rune, which split the single fireball into multiple splashing attacks, to the crowd's enormous delight.

This is just going to be fucking sweet. As you said, skills being able to be modified by runes is something that really is going to change the game up a bit as it had in D2, but now it's a little more defined and tweaked.

The Electrocute spell was modified with Multistrike, turning it into a Chain Lightning-esque spell. The Lethality rune added an explosion effect to Electrocute, splattering enemies on contact.

Etc etc. Who knows exactly how things will work, we still don't have all the information of the new game, but the closer the release date comes towards us, the more discussions we can have. I personally can't wait...