Blinding Flash (10 Spirit, 15 second Cooldown): Blind all enemies within 20 yards for 3 seconds. Elites recover from blindness faster, but suffer a 30% miss chance instead.
This defensive skill is most effective when you can surround yourself with enemies- which seems counterproductive, but on the other hand, while they’re flailing around blindly, you can keep beating on them.... The most interesting thing here is the modified effect produced by using the skill on the various forms of elite monster (champion, rare, etc.), which while being less effective, is still quite useful and well worth keeping on hand if you prefer to use your Defense spot to prevent damage in the first place.
Self Reflection (10 Spirit, 15 second Cooldown): Blind all enemies within 20 yards for 4 seconds. Elites recover from blindness faster, but suffer a 30% miss chance instead.
Not the greatest of improvements, an added second of blindness (and /or miss chance) can mean a world of difference in the right situation- but the rest of the time it won’t mean anything worth worrying over. Try this before deciding to keep it.
Blinded and Confused (10 Spirit, 15 second Cooldown): Blind all enemies within 20 yards for 3 seconds. Elites recover from blindness faster, but suffer a 30% miss chance instead. Enemies blinded in this fashion have a 25% chance to attack each other accidentally.
If you’re taking advantage of the Blinded effect for anything other than just outright slaying the enemies you’ve flashed lights in the eyes of, then this is a very fun rune to wield. It can easily lead to all sorts of interesting distractions- but alas, they are all thoroughly temporary. The blindness itself remains by far the more significant effect of this skill- you may find you don’t even notice that the enemies attack each other. If that -is- the case, then skip this rune.
Blinding Echo (10 Spirit, 15 second Cooldown): Blind all enemies within 20 yards for 3 seconds. Elites recover from blindness faster, but suffer a 30% miss chance instead. 6 seconds later, a second flash will do the same thing but for only 1 second.
Blinding Echo is best used in protracted fights with regular minions- which really shouldn’t be happening in Diablo III. While the effect is interesting, the rune’s second flash isn’t going to help you much- you should be done with the fight by the time it goes off, and while it may occasionally help in the next fight, it’s not all that likely. If your fights all run long, you may want this rune, otherwise don’t bother.
Searing Light (10 Spirit, 15 second Cooldown): Blind all enemies within 20 yards for 3 seconds. Elites recover from blindness faster, but suffer a 60% miss chance instead.
This is a nice strong rune for this skill, making it much more useful against elite monsters- who are the ones you’re most likely to use defensive skills against anyways, making the rune especially convenient. Definitely a keeper if you decide you like blinding things.
Faith in the Light (10 Spirit, 15 second Cooldown): Blind all enemies within 20 yards for 3 seconds. Elites recover from blindness faster, but suffer a 30% miss chance instead. For the next 3 seconds, your attacks all do 30% weapon damage as Holy damage in addition to their normal effects.
The other most excellent rune for Blinding Flash, Faith in the Light will especially appeal to those who want to increase their defense and offense at the same time. The damage isn’t all that great if your attacks come out slowly, but those using Fists of Thunder, Way of the Hundred Fists, and other fast-attacking skills will greatly enjoy the rune effect here, and may find themselves using it purely for that and taking the blinding to be a convenient side effect.
