Once the skill is unlocked, five runes will be unlocked for it one by one, every few levels. A skill rune may be changed at any moment when out of combat and while the skill is not on cooldown, free of charge. However, changing a rune counts as changing skill, therefore canceling all current ongoing effects. Prior to the pre-expansion patch, changing runes triggered a cooldown if not in town, dependent on the difficulty setting. Each rune is visually distinct from others: textures and graphics change with every rune compared to unmodified skills and to other runes of the same skill.