WoW Classic: Season of Discovery – How To Equip Rune Engravings

Arguably the biggest change to vanilla World of Warcraft in the Season of Discovery is the inclusion of Runes and Discoveries. Runes are new class-defining abilities that turn the classic WoW meta on its head, but can only be slotted on to gear once players have found and learned them.

Still, the process to equip SoD Runes, and to find the SoD Rune menu, is not explained in-game. Follow this guide to understand how to find the Rune Engraving menu, how to locate Rune abilities once learned, and how to equip Runes onto gear in the Season of Discovery.

Though Runes take up an inventory space once located, after being consumed, they seem to just disappear. Runes don’t automatically equip to the correct armor slot once unlocked, instead, players must find the Rune Engraving menu and equip Runes from there. It isn’t immediately obvious where this menu can be found, as the game doesn’t explain much, but it’s actually relatively simple.

After right-clicking on a Rune in the inventory to learn it, open up your Character/Equipment screen with the C key. Here, a new menu can be found on the right-hand side containing every Class Rune that can be equipped. Once a Rune has been slotted into a piece of gear, the associated abilities will appear in the spellbook (and automatically fill the first empty hotbar slot).

Players can’t use Rune abilities tied to gear that isn’t currently equipped, as they will not appear in the spellbook.

How To Equip Runes In WoW SoD

After finding a Rune, and Learning it, open the Character/Equipment screen to find the list of known Runes. After a Rune is selected, all equipment slots except the one that the Rune can be engraved on will grey out. Select the piece of gear to be engraved, then wait a few seconds for the process to finish. New Runes will replace existing ones on gear, as only one can be engraved onto a piece of gear at a time.

For example, Shadowstrike is a Gloves Rune for Rogues. When players who know the Shadowstrike Rune select it in the equipment menu, the only highlighted option will be Gloves – engraving essentially works the same way Enchanting works, as Runes can’t be put onto gear that doesn’t match its equipment restrictions.

Players can change out their Runes in WoW SoD as much as desired, as there is no cost to engrave Runes onto gear. Unlike the respec cost, which increases every time players want to reallocate Talents, Runes can be slotted anytime out of combat. Runes will persist on gear in the inventory, too, so players can have multiple sets of armor for different situations and take advantage of all the new Runes their class gets.