They are a terrible idea and clearly impossible to balance properly. Keep the ones that improve the unfinished specs in vanilla, such as crusader strike for Paladins. Scrap the rest.
Go back to proactively collapsing layers instead of leaving them open, implement retail style sharding for PvP event zones.
Focus on new quests, new dungeons and new raids. Try Classic + approach. The approach in SoD was a nice experiment but it has clearly failed.
Runes sucked because:
1)some classes get really interesting runes, and some classes got complete garbage
2)runes outperforming any other vanilla abilities, for example - shadow priests not using mind flay, literally one of their signature ability because it is bad compared to runes
3)overtuned runes are the reason PvP now is beyond retarded
Having vanilla+ with new dungeons, quests, raids, events would be much better, than this sh1tshow we have
ahh yeah classic + aka warrior+
Rogue/Warrior mains crying again. Just go play classic era. Stop bothering people
Wtf are those ideas? 
Everything u said sounds terrible! No thanks!
SoD might be unbalanced but it’s still awesome af… only issue is botting
Runes are a great idea in concept.
The execution is terrible.
They’re overtuned in contrast with normal abilities that require ranks.
(they all need to be nerfed to be more in line with base abilities, the whole idea of us feeling powerful is clearly just creating massive issues with how the base game is designed to be played, either we’re overtuned or we’re undertuned because we aren’t choosing the “correct” runes)
They can be badly positioned from one another.
(Just move them around, how difficult can it possibly be? Make already exisiting rune engravings N/A)
There’s lack of synergy.
Some specs get bugger all for runes.
(Demonology and Affliction locks and Surv Hunters on the chest as examples)
Some runes are so laughably more powerful than others that there is no real choice.
(That was the case for Hunters P1 which I argued against the entire time and moved on to Tank Lock when I realized that Blizz ain’t doing anything about this)
The unlock method for some of these runes are not worth the rune power.
(See nearly all P2 runes, never do that again Blizzard)
Some runes are just flat out badly designed.
(Everlasting Affliction for locks, Invigoration for Hunters and two slams for Warrior are examples)
Some runes WERE good then the devs decided to kneecap them.
(Explosive Shot and Dance Of The Wicked, revert these back to their original state as it was better than the godawful “fix”)
And a lot of these things could have been complete non-issues if they had had a 1 month PTR to iron these things out or if they took a more proactive approach towards overhauling the runes to make sure these issues were addressed.
Let me be explicitly clear about this @Blizzard if a CM is reading this: Minor tunings ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. A major overhaul is needed, the issues with the runes ARE NOT going to be fixed by compounding the issue with future phases and you cannot minor tweak your way out of this hole.
I still find the game fun on my tank lock.
But I wonder how many others do.
Keep the runes but massively overhaul them. Don’t be scared of QQers whining that they’re not overtuned anymore. Tune everyone way down and make all runes viable and no spec left behind. Simple as. Basic game design 101. Balance and viability.
The rune concept was a legitimate one, just that it wasn’t thought out correctly. The runes need to be better assigned to your talent tree instead of the gear or items. Placing a shield rune in one’s helmet doesn’t make sense… The rune system in general needs to allow players to customize the rune placement and NOT be held in just one item or area.
Classic wasn’t balanced either. What makes you think removing runes would make the game balanced?
Also, this is classic+, even if many like to deny it, so this is the classic+ approach.
I have a couple of friends playing SOD right now that wouldn’t touch classic with a 10 feet pole. The reason they are playing is because the runes make it feel less like classic and more like an interesting fun to play game, where you don’t just watch auto attack/wand attack animation half of the time.
Its almost like they are tackling these things in seasons to adjust things accordingly before everything could break at once in Lv60 content.
That aside. What makes you possibly think runes are a bad idea? If anything, they’re the best addition in a long while. People get to enjoy classic as a DPS paladin. A tanking warlock. As a healing mage!
I’m sorry but if you dont like it go play WOTLKC or wait for the new Classic HC season in a few days.
Naah, the idea of runes is awesome, they made it in the wrong way and didnt think stuff through tho, some of the “balance” work needs a serious overhaul
There was no balance in Vanilla to begin with. Idk what you’re even on about. Its like you’re asking them to tackle something even the retail developer team hasn’t successfully mastered.
Play classic?.. thats litterally SOD without runes, lol
Gota love all the armchair developers that think they know everything 
i have been loving SoD for what it is and some of you might not agree with me at all on this but here goes.
SoD is ment to be experimental and part of that is going to be jank, since blizzard wants us to discover the runes and such on our own when the new phase comes out there is no testing and this is fine. it does however mean that not everything is going to be balanced from the get go but as we have all seen so far they have been pretty much on the ball when it comes to patching things down to a more realistic power level when they seem to strong.
remeber that it costs a fair amount of time to come up with solutions for things and not nerf them into the ground.
sure there are runes that could use some help and with time i am sure they will be adressed as wel.
runes feeling as they dont fit wel together i dissagree on, having leveled most classes i can say that most rotations feel well rounded and sure some runes might not look exciting like the invigoration rune for hunters but its a mana fix for those that want to play beastmaster and dont want to use aspect of the viper. there is 2 slam runes for 2 different specs one for arms and one for fury. and for survival hunter you have aspect of the lion, wich sure it might not sound epic but 20% more stats? thats strong.
i would much rather see them come out with more runes for diversity within specs then them removing runes.
at the moment its pretty much every spec has one set of runes they use and some slightly cover more then one spec.
make runes for each spec that compete in the same rune slot so that you have a choice of how to play your character, ofcourse you would need to balance them vs eachother but like i stated before i think blizzard has been pretty much on the ball when it comes to that.
for all of you that dislike the runes i would suggest you play classic era since that seems more to your liking.
I love how you worded it Iluminar. Season of Discovery. No Testing. Of course there won’t be balanced gameplay. And thats okay.
That is something we all signed up for. That sense of wonder. The excitement of finding something that wasn’t there in the vanilla experience.
I think the most amazing and wonderful thought process is that they want every type of player to have a place this time. No more warrior alone dominating the charts. New tank styles, new healers.
Please don’t take that away. I would instantly stop because then it just becomes the “Optimized” experience where everyone knows everything and it’ll drive people away.
Classic is not balanced, but it is infinitely more balanced than SoD.
You also ask me to accept that this is the Classic + route. Okay, sure. No one asked for this route. No one wanted this route. And this route has failed, there is hardly any new content in either phase and the spells etc are not even new, they are just from the retail version of the game.
If this is Blizzards version of classic +, it is lazy and very poor, as demonstrated by the total lack of interest from most of the community after the first few weeks.
All Blizzard need to do for classic +, is make new raids, new quests and perhaps a couple of zones. It would be a success. SoD ain’t it.
Okay, then go back to playing Hardcore classic or whatever floats your boat. We like this and will see it to the end. Its an experiment and if you don’t like that (even though its been advertised like that) then scram.
yet there is people even within this treat that have told you they do enjoy SoD for what it is
just because its not for you doesnt make it so that it has failed i know plenty of people that play it and enjoy it.
and each phase had a new raid in it wich is what you get with any mayor content patch in any wow expension.
Yes some people, like you will like it. That is fine. You say it is a test and has been advertised as such, but you also say this is Classic + and to get used to it. Which is it ?
If it is a test and experimental, then those of us taking part in the experiment can give feedback. The playerbase is collapsing and the “experiment” is facing many problems. We can give feedback on this and express our dissatisfaction. How do you know what people think of your “experiment” if they don’t tell you? I am glad you enjoy it, but many are finding it somewhat bland if outright not enjoying the experience. It is up to the players to feed this back to Blizzard.
You also say each phase has one raid which Is good for a content patch. Well, I am glad it is enough for you. But it is not really classic +. Majority of content in each phase is normal vanilla content. Even the “new raids” are just dungeons that already existed, which have been tweaked slightly.
Imagine how much better SoD would have been if they have implemented good content and planned it ? Imagine phase 1 had been 1-40 and had 3 or 4 instances to run, such as BFF, Gnomer and perhaps two new dungeons or raids that did not exist previously at all? Perhaps with a new questing zone, such as the Highlands reimagined for vanilla wow (Twilight in Retail). It could have been a 25-40 zone with vanilla style quests and some “alternate” vanilla lore.
Which would have been better ? What we have now which is some retail abilities and 1 10 man or actual new content that would keep people occupied?
I’m not going to play imaginary world with you. The developer team specifically for SOD is small. Manage your expectations. The fact that they are even trying this is a huge victory for the developer team as a whole. And great for us fans as well.
There are no “problems”. An experiment is just that. They’re messing around, trying things that are outside of the norm and we get to enjoy it together as a community.
Its the whole point of Season of Discovery that things aren’t publicly tested and we get to see what they prepped for us.
With how you’ve imagined things would be, you’ll never be happy and I hope you feel better soon.