Inscription

Inscriptions are a type of salvagable weapon upgrade. They were introduced with the release of the Nightfall campaign and replace some of the inherent weapon modifiers used in the Prophecies and Factions campaign, which are not salvagable.

Acquisitions

There are no crafters or traders for inscriptions. They can only be obtained from loot.

You can salvage an inscription from any drop that has one. The inscription is a guaranteed salvage with Expert Salvage Kits, however, the item has a chance of being destroyed in the process.

Inscriptions have an intrinsic value of 25 gold when sold to a merchant so it is generally worth using an Expert Salvage Kit to salvage the inscription from a cheaper object and selling it separately. An Identification Kit can also be used to reveal the actual value of the inscription which is often higher than the cost of identifying the inscription.

Note: Items from Prophecies and Factions, and from the Realms of the Gods have not been converted to the new system, which means their weapon modifiers cannot be salvaged as inscriptions!

Usage

To attach an inscription to a weapon, first double-click on the inscription (mouse pointer look will change), then double-click on the item that you want to attach it to.

The target item must be of the designated type given in the description. Furthermore it must have an inscription slot. This slot can either be free (in which case the description reads: "Inscription: None") or taken by an other inscription. In the latter case the old inscription will be overwritten. If you want to keep the old inscription you may salvage it to free the slot, but at the risk of the target item being destroyed.

Note: Items from Prophecies and Factions, and from the Realms of the Gods have not been converted to the new system, which means they never come with an inscription slot!

Inscription Types

Item type	Color	Icon
Weapon	Green (Silver)
Martial weapon	Blue
Spellcasting weapon	Yellow (Gold)
Focus item or Shield	Red (Bronze)
Focus item	Yellow (Gold)
Equippable item	Yellow (Gold)

In detail:

Name	Bonus
Inscribable weapons
"Brawn Over Brains"	Damage +15%, Energy -5
"Dance with Death"	Damage +10..15% (while in a Stance)
"Don't Fear The Reaper"	Damage +12..20% (while Hexed)
"Don't Think Twice"	Halves casting time of Spells (Chance: 5..10%)
"Guided by Fate"	Damage +10..15% (while Enchanted)
"Strength and Honor"	Damage +10..15% (while health is above 50%)
"To the Pain!"	Damage +15%, Armor -10 (while attacking)
"Too Much Information"	Damage +11..15% (vs. hexed Foes)
"Vengeance is Mine"	Damage +10..20% (while health is below 50%)
Inscribable Martial Weapons
"I Have the Power"	Energy +5
"Let the Memory Live Again"	Halves Skill Recharge of Spells (Chance: 5..10%)
Inscribable Spellcasting weapons
"Aptitude not Attitude"	Halves casting time on spells of item's attribute (Chance: 10..20%)
"Don't call it a comeback"	Energy +5..7 (while Health is below 50%)
"Hale and Hearty"	Energy +4...5 (while Health is above 50%)
"Have Faith"	Energy +4...5 (while Enchanted)
"I am Sorrow."	Energy +5..7 (while Hexed)
"Seize the Day"	Energy +10..15 Energy Regeneration -1
Inscribable Focus Items or Shields
"Cast Out the Unclean"	Reduces Disease duration on you by 20%
"Fear Cuts Deeper"	Reduces Bleeding duration on you by 20%
"I Can See Clearly Now"	Reduces Blind duration on you by 20%
"Leaf on the Wind"	Armor +5..10 (vs. Cold damage)
"Like a Rolling Stone"	Armor +5..10 (vs. Earth damage)
"Luck of the Draw"	Received physical damage -5 (Chance: 13%...20%)
"Master of My Domain"	Item's attribute +1 (Chance: 20%)
"Not the face!"	Armor +5..10 (vs. Blunt)
"Nothing to Fear"	Recieved physical damage -1..3 (while hexed)
"Only the Strong Survive"	Reduces Weakness duration on you by 20%
"Pure of Heart"	Reduces Poison duration on you by 20%
"Riders On The Storm"	Armor +5..10 (vs. Lightning)
"Run for your Life!"	Received physical damage -1..2 (while in a stance)
"Sheltered by Faith"	Received physical damage -1..2 (while Enchanted)
"Soundness of Mind"	Reduces Dazed duration on you by 20%
"Swift as the Wind"	Reduces Crippled duration on you by 20%
"The Riddle of Steel"	Armor +8..10 (vs. Slashing)
"Sleep Now in the Fire"	Armor +7..+10 (vs. Fire)
"Strength of Body"	Reduces Deep Wound duration on you by 20%
"Through Thick and Thin"	Armor +5..+10 (vs. Piercing)
Inscribable Focus Items
"Be Just and Fear Not"	Armor +5..10 (while hexed)
"Down But Not Out"	Armor +5..10 (while health is below 50%)
"Faith is My Shield"	Armor +5 (while enchanted)
"Forget Me Not"	Halves Skill Recharge of Spells for Item's attribute (Chance: 18..20%)
"Hail to the King"	Armor +4..5 (while health is Above 50%)
"Ignorance is Bliss"	Armor +4..5, Energy -5
"Knowing is Half the Battle"	Armor +5 (while casting)
"Life is Pain"	Armor +4..5, Health -20
"Live for Today"	Energy +10..15 Energy Regeneration -1
"Man of All Seasons"	Armor +5 (vs Elemental)
"Might Makes Right"	Armor +5 (while attacking)
"Serenity Now"	Halves Skill Rechage of Spells (Chance: 9..10%)
"Survival of the Fittest"	Armor +4..5 (vs Physical)
Equippable items
"Measure for Measure"	Highly salvageable
"Show me the money!"	Improved sale value

Trivia

• "Be Just and Fear Not" may be a reference to Shakespeare's play Henry VIII.
• "Don't call it a comeback" is the first phrase in the LL Cool J song, Mama Said Knock You Out.
• "Don't Fear the Reaper" is a likely reference to the Blue Oyster Cult song of the same name.
• "Don't Think Twice" is likely a reference to Bob Dylan's song, even if the line occurs as well in Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean".
• "Down but not out" is likely a reference to the song 'Nobody knows you, when you're down and out' - various artists, originally Jimmy Cox (1922).
• "Faith is My Shield" is a reference to a quote from Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War, --Audio response to a command given to units in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.
• "Fear Cuts Deeper" is a reference to a quote from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, "Fear cuts deeper than swords".
• "Hail to the King!" is a likely reference to the Bruce Campbell line from Army Of Darkness.
• "I am Sorrow." is likely a reference to Isabeau from Ladyhawke.
• "I Can See Clearly Now" is a likely reference to the R Kelly, Bob Marley or Johnny Nash song of the same name.
• "I have the power!" is a likely reference to He-Man.
• "Ignorance is Bliss" is from the proverb by Thomas Gray.
• "Knowing is Half the Battle" was quoted at the end of every episode of GI Joe.
• "Leaf on the Wind" is likely a reference to the Firefly movie, Serenity.
• "Let the Memory Live Again" is likely a reference to the song Memory from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats.
• "Life is Pain" is likely a reference to the Princess Bride (or Buddha, take your pick). This could also be a reference to Jeremy from Pure Pwnage in Episode 10.
• "Like a Rolling Stone" may be a reference to Bob Dylan's song of the same name.
• "Live for Today" may be a reference to a quote by Albert Einstein. “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
• "Man for All Seasons" is probably a reference to the play and movie A Man for All Seasons about the life of Sir Thomas More.
• "Master of My Domain" and "Serenity Now" are references to the Seinfeld episodes "The Contest" and "The Serenity Now!", respectively.
• "Measure for Measure" is the title of one of Shakespeare's works.
• "Not the Face" is probably a reference to the cartoon The Tick. Arthur's battle cry was Not in the Face or Not the Face. It could also be a reference to a line near the end of Blazing Saddles, where the director of the musical in the last fight scene screams out "Not the face!" before being hit - his attacker slugs him in the gut instead.
• "Nothing to Fear" is most likely a stab at Underdog's catch-phrase, "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!" It could also be a reference to either the Oingo Boingo song "Nothing to Fear", or the Depeche Mode song of the same name. The phrase "Nothing to fear but fear itself" is also a frequent misquote of Franklin D Roosevelt's speech where he said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself".
• "Only the Strong Survive" could be a reference to the song Only the Strong by Flaw.
• "Riders On The Storm" is a song by The Doors.
• "Run For Your Life!" may be named after the Beatles song of the same name.
• "Seize the Day", originally a phrase from a Latin poem by Horace ("Carpe diem!" in Odes 1.11) is also the title of a Saul Bellow novella which deals with the idea of living for the moment vs. worrying about the future.
• "Show me the money" is the 25th most famous cinema quote voted by the American Film Institute, originally from 'Jerry Maguire'. This same reference was also used as one of the cheat codes in the famous PC game 'StarCraft'.
• "Sleep Now in the Fire" likely refers to the Rage Against the Machine song of the same name.
• "Strength and Honor" is a blessing Roman soldiers said to each other before battle commenced and could specifically be referring to the film Gladiator.
• "Survival Of The Fittest" is a commonly-used metaphor for natural selection.
• "The Riddle of Steel" is probably a reference to the central theme of the movie Conan the Barbarian.
• "To the Pain!" is likely a reference to The Princess Bride.
• "Too Much Information" is possibly a reference to Duran Duran's song Too Much Information.
• "Vengeance is Mine" is from Deuteronomy 32:35. It is repeated several times throughout the Bible and in popular culture, as well as Diablo.