Poison

The Poison rune applies 1 Poison damage per second for 5 seconds on each hit, adding a reliable damage-over-time component to every weapon strike. The tick damage is modest individually but accumulates quickly when combined with high attack frequency, and the 5-second duration means rapid attackers can maintain near-permanent poison on a target. Against enemies with high HP pools, the cumulative tick damage becomes a meaningful fraction of total damage output.

Poison is available from Small size onward and upgrades through the standard rune chain using five runes of the current size plus five Runalit crystals at the Rune Crafting Station. Each upgrade tier increases the poison damage per tick, the duration, or both, making higher rune sizes significantly more impactful than the base Small version. Farm the upgrade components alongside Runalit crystals using the Harvest potion for maximum efficiency.

The Poison rune synergizes well with the Doom rune in a dual-socket setup: Poison gradually reduces enemy HP over time until the target crosses below 20 HP, at which point Doom instantly executes them. This combo accelerates farming speed significantly in mob-dense areas by converting the DoT into a finishing mechanism. For the Arcanist who uses Spellbook of Freeze to immobilize enemies, the Poison rune continues ticking damage during the frozen duration, compounding the effectiveness of the crowd control window.