Principle is one of the seven rune words of armor that came out with patch 1.11. Each of the seven runic armor words was designed with one of Diablo 2’s seven classes in mind. The principle is the Runeword armor designed with the Paladin in mind. It is the most expensive runic word among the seven due to the fact that it requires a GUL rune, which is an extremely rare rune, and it is the only runic word among the seven that uses such a rare rune. Perhaps because of this, and the lack of mods that appeal to other classes, most Diablo 2 players find Principle not a popular or useful runic word. But is this true?

Requirements:

3 plug body armor

Runes (in order): Ral + Gul + Eld

The statistics:

Level requirement: 53

100% chance to cast Level 5 Holy Bolt on hit

+2 to Paladin Skill Levels

15% slower stamina drain

+ 5% to maximum poison resistance

Fire resistance + 30%

100% chance to cast Level 5 Holy Bolt on hit

Holy Bolt is one of the Paladin’s Combat Skills. Fires a bolt of energy that can damage undead or heal friendly units. The damage dealt by Holy Bolt is considered magic damage and ignores Undead Resistances.

A Level 5 Holy Bolt deals 40-48 magic damage to Undead and heals friendly units for 9-22 hit points.

While a 100% chance to cast Level 5 Holy Bolt on hit looks good because it ensures that you fire Holy Bolt with every successful hit you make, the damage dealt by Holy Bolt, and especially Level 5, is almost worthless considering than most monsters, on hellish difficulty, have thousands or hundreds of thousands of hit points. With the damage it does, Holy Bolt would be nothing more than a cool on-screen graphic animation and a tingle for the monster in question.

As for their role in healing, there are other Skills that heal in much better amounts. And how would you heal your comrades if there were no monsters to attack?

+2 to Paladin Skill Levels

The saving grace of Principle, but only for Paladins.

15% slower stamina drain

At higher levels, stamina shouldn’t be a problem, as most characters put a lot of points on vitality to get more life, and thus stamina increases as well. Even after taking that into account, you can always use a stamina potion and those can easily be found in the game.

+ 5% to maximum poison resistance

The default maximum for all four resistors is 75%. However, there are some elements, including the main runic word, which adds to the maximum limit of the four elemental resistances. The maximum maximum limit for the four resistors is 95%. So you can have very, very high stamina, but never be completely immune.

Fire resistance + 30%

Increases to resistances are always nice, but Principle only offers an increase to fire resistance, which means that the paladin using it would need to shore up all of their other resistances using other gear that provides better resistance coverage.

Resume:

Principle is a runic word that doesn’t have much to offer. Even the class it was designed for might find it disappointing. The +2 to Paladin Skills is good, but is a GUL Rune really worth it? Many players would answer no. Save your GUL Rune for something else.