One way I use them is to set fire runes on oil spills. I just like the whole chain reaction when its triggered. It would be better if we could set more then one.

I had an assassin Mage a while back, runes with silent casting and a bow will make you very happy. Find a corridor, place a rune, and soften them up with your bow. Best part is when they get right in front of you then die as your rune goes off:)
Also anyone who says that destruction svcks: use only two handed, one handed, or archery, no armor, no smithing, no alchemy, no enchanting, no sneak, and no block. See what stands out the best, it's all about the mix and match.

Another excellent idea. I'd always had trouble timing the whole bait the draugr, run away, turn around, and set the oil on fire thing. This would make an excellent alternative.

Runes are useful if you have a sneak based magic build. You throw a rune when you have the rune master perk at a wall near an enemy, then they'll walk right into it. Then you fall back and go invisible or cast flame cloak if they get close. Very effective if you spec your character in sneak, illusion, and destruction

Rune are hilarious, and awesome.

Runes are usefull. Just place them in a narrow corridor. Trigger enemies to walk over your. Besides after you placed the rune, your magicka simply regenerates. Wait for it to be maxed again and then engage in combat.
I agree, in straight up combat they are not as effective. But thats why they are created for ambushes.

Thats the point. You watch the enemy detect them then they walk right into it

I use them a lot for the cool factor, but they are fairly useless. =/

If you augment destruction with alchemy, you can make really powerful one hit runes. Love laying runes in doorways and luring bandits over them.

Destruction is one skill they should revamp totally for the game, as it is now it's very useless.

true! runes are useless and only effective at low levels. But ennemy runes do a lot of damage if you watch carefully

I use them at low levels to get enemys off my tail other then that i dont really use them. they are pretty decent to use to level with got from 45-100 destruction in like 40 mins

runes are fun to mess around with but don't have much real use

I hope they add a paralyze rune. That would be fun.

And as I said in the OP, they still lack real punch, so even in an ambush they don't do a whole lot. Now, you let me mine a corridor, I'll start to have some more respect for them.

That's actually kind of a sweet idea. But where's it gonna go? Paralysis is Alteration, and runes are in Destruction? It just wouldn't mesh very well with TES schools of magic system.

They have uses- coffin popping, zone of control, and can be used to herd enemies to line of fire.

It is true they are neutered damage wise in the game- because of no destruction scaling of course- and a silly 1 rune limit.

PC mods to scale destruction and allow multiple rune placement bring them back to glory. They are all i use destruction for with proper modding.

I've been using a runes a lot as a non-enchanting destruction mage in master difficulty setting in my current play through. I tried clearing a few dungeons using just runes alone, and I was mostly successful. I started to use runes a lot after I noticed that killing monsters with runes is the fastest way to level up experience in destruction skill. Much faster than a fireball. The experience gain is perhaps about same as incinerate, but runes are not nearly as expensive and you do not miss with runes as often. Your aiming does not have to be good to use runes well. Weak skeletons, wolves, foxes and bunnies go down with one rune. Mudcrabs and low level bandits go down with 2 runes. Higher level enemies will take more to kill. Some, a lot more. I have killed draugr deathlords and death overlords with runes. You need to cast a lot of these to kill them. So many that you will lose count of how many you cast. Maybe you need to cast 40 runes to kill a boss draugr in master level. But I found it to be generally safe and effortless.

Their damage is not that great, especially after you get damage buffs. But if you think about it, most enemies are quite weak and easy to kill. There are only few occasions where you really feel like you need your best weapon.

The good thing about runes is that your casting rate is quite slow. You only cast after the last one you cast has exploded or is misplaced. You generally do not run out of magicka using runes because you get to regenerate between casting.

How to use runes:

1. Killing them while running away: Say you have a troll following you. As you run away, drop a rune in front of you and run past it. You don't even have to turn around. Keep running and you will hear your rune explode about a second later. Drop the next one. Repeat until the troll is dead. If you open up too much distance, then stop running for a bit and spam runes at his feet. Works well against trolls, bandits, draugrs, dwemer spheres and spiders. Does not work well against bears or saber cats, because they are faster than you.

2. Use it just like a fireball. Just keep casting next to them on the floor or the wall. Runes have very very long casting range after you get the Rune Master perk. You can cast it from one side of the big room to the other, from top of a ledge to the bottom. Weaker enemies will not reach you before they die. This is an AoE spell so you do not need line of sight to hit them. Its 50 damage is not that impressive, but you can hurt 3 enemies with one casting. That's 150 damage for cheap. You can hit your enemies when they are behind a pillar or otherwise don't have line of sight. Sometimes you will remain hidden while you keep casting them and they will just stand there and die. It's quite good at stealth even if you don't have silent casting.

TL;DR Runes are fun to use and great for leveling up destruction quicker.

To add to the post above -

Runes also shine up till the point you get Adept level spells since they're the only semi-powerful AoE destruction spell you get until then. They're Apprentice level so compliment your run of the mill Firebolt and Ice Spike pretty well. They are also the best option for a sneaky mage, at least until you get Quiet Casting in the Illusion tree. Runes are placed instantly instead of having to fly to the enemy and they don't lead a trail leading back to the caster either so they are far less likely to give your position away when sneaking.

Me? I've had a couple of cool moments with runes in the early levels - one in particular was in Shriekwind Bastion when I found myself at the bottom of the large cavern with 3 tiers of Skeleton archers above me. I only had Apprentice level spells and they were almost impossible to hit with Firebolt, so I ended up casting Fire Rune on the walls behind the archers (Rune Mastery is definitely more than 5x increase in range!) and then triggering them using a Firebolt. The blast radius of the Runes is pretty sizable.

I also believe that rune master is beyond 5x range from empirical experience, and it is true- they do level destruction quickly.

With rune master perk - runes are all i use in the destruction tree- have been for a long time.

To correct one of the posts above-

Rune absolutely DO trace back to casters currenr position once an enemy trips them. ABSOLUTELY- every time.

To add info to the thread- runes do make noise- even with quiet casting.

They are mainly useless they are only useful to catch an enemy off guard. But this goes hand in hand in hand with the lacking destruction. This could be remedied with spell creation so perks could be useful traps for a mage.

I think that was one of the things in the game jam vid so it might get patched in one day

They are very useful early on. They become outclassed fairly quickly though.

Runes can also give you a little time. Having a rune in between you and a frost troll or draugr will actually make them hesitant to cross over it. You need to be using them in conjunction with other attacks. Lay a rune, wait for your magicka to regen, hit the baddie with a targeted (non-AOE) spell, make him walk over it... Combined with wall and cloak and several Destruction perks and you'll have them taking a knee and begging for mercy.

i never really use runes at all