Locust Swarm (196 Mana): A cloud of locusts launches in the direction or towards the foe you select, gathering around an enemy and dealing 45% weapon damage as Poison damage to that enemy each second and lasts 8 seconds. If the target dies while the locusts are swarming it, they may jump to one or more nearby enemies instead of vanishing and start their effect over again.
While the mana cost on this skill is immense, the effects are similarly huge. The nature of the locusts makes them akin to an improved Haunt- the damage is slightly greater, the time it takes to deal the damage is less, and the ‘jumping’ is more effective. At the same time, the cost is more than twice that of Haunt, so some players will prefer the ghostly spell (which also does a different type of damage from Locust Swarm). Against large groups of enemies, Locust Swarm is at its greatest effectiveness, since it can spread to more than one additional enemy at a time. Against single foes, however, Haunt will usually turn up the superior damage effect.
Pestilence (196 Mana): A cloud of locusts launches in the direction or towards the foe you select, gathering around an enemy and dealing 45% weapon damage as Poison damage to that enemy each second and lasts 8 seconds. If the target dies while the locusts are swarming it, they will jump to two nearby enemies instead of vanishing and start their effect over again.
A very direct improvement on the effect Locust Swarm has on a group of enemies, Pestilence ensures a much higher rate of spread from the skill, and thus more and faster damage.
Devouring Swarm (196 Mana): A cloud of locusts launches in the direction or towards the foe you select, gathering around an enemy and dealing 45% weapon damage as Poison damage to that enemy each second and lasts 8 seconds. If the target dies while the locusts are swarming it, they may jump to one or more nearby enemies instead of vanishing and start their effect over again. Each time an enemy is first hit by this skill, you regain 36.75 Mana.
Devouring Swarm is the mana-refund form of Locust Swarm, and in the right situation can get you back more Mana than you put into it. This makes it an excellent opener against a crowd of demons, funding your other skills to ensure the effect can reach out to new targets, powering more skills to make it reach more targets.... Yeah. Not a rune to use in a boss fight, though.
Cloud of Insects (196 Mana): A cloud of locusts launches in the direction or towards the foe you select, gathering around an enemy and dealing 36% weapon damage as Poison damage to that enemy each second and lasts 10 seconds. If the target dies while the locusts are swarming it, they may jump to one or more nearby enemies instead of vanishing and start their effect over again.
Cloud of Insects improves the duration but not the damage of Locust Swarm. While this does mean less damage dealt each second, it also means that you are granted a lot more time to try and make sure the enemies suffering under the effect die and spread the locusts even further. Again, not worth using in a boss fight- but devastating against most groups of mobs.
Diseased Swarm (196 Mana): A cloud of locusts launches in the direction or towards the foe you select, gathering around an enemy and dealing 45% weapon damage as Poison damage to that enemy each second and lasts 8 seconds. If the target dies while the locusts are swarming it, they may jump to one or more nearby enemies instead of vanishing and start their effect over again. Any creature killed by this effect leaves behind a cloud of insects that lasts for 3 seconds and deals 25% weapon damage as Poison damage to any enemy that enters or passes through it.
While not the most damage-effective modification to Locust Swarm, Diseased Swarm can quickly litter a battlefield with small damaging zones, further increasing the ability of Locust Swarm to spread and dish out ongoing damage to everything you can see. As with most Locust Swarm runes, pretty much useless in a boss fight, but very very handy otherwise.
Locust Swarm (196 Mana): A cloud of locusts launches in the direction or towards the foe you select, gathering around an enemy and dealing 58.5% weapon damage as Fire damage to that enemy each second and lasts 8 seconds. If the target dies while the locusts are swarming it, they may jump to one or more nearby enemies instead of vanishing and start their effect over again.
If you like Locust Swarm fine as it is and just think it needs to deal more damage, this is your rune of choice. Upping the total damage from 360% weapon damage to 468%, the only thing really hindering this rune is that Fire is a frequently resisted type of damage. On the upside, this is still more useful for many boss fights than the base form of Locust Swarm, so if you insist on using the swarm in a boss battle, you want this rune.
