Hmm, probably won't do #1. Might expand a few more stats and options into more Rune elements but likely not all stats to all elements.
Definitely looking at doing the second part of #2. (Should note that Grit/Health also has this issue. Health is always better than Grit and it shouldn't be.)
Definitely looking at doing #3. (I'm actually putting together some new Rune Sets for a future patch right now, and we're taking a much harder look at their benefits and power.)
Also running an audit on the entire Rune system and finding some very ... interesting things.
1) There are not enough options for Air, Earth and Water runes. Will have to look at Fire after the AP/SP changes, I think the AP runes might be carrying Fire a little bit.
2) There are not enough options for Brutality, Finesse, Moxie, Deflect, Deflect Critical, Health, Armor, and Shield Capacity runes.
3) Resist runes make me sad.
The steps are sort of a package deal. Doing step 2 w/o step 1 creates an across the board player nerf, or dungeon/raid content buff (whichever way you want to look at it). There needs to be some form of compensation.
I'm glad you will add more options to certain colors (kind of the theme of step 1). As I point out, water runes are effectively worthless to me. I'm strikethrough softcapped, and all they can give me is strike/finesse. But if you weaken AP/SP, don't add AP/SP to each and just expand the color options for brutality (for instance), why do I care? Brutality and AP are effectively the same thing for me, except one is a much better ratio than the other. If you weaken flat AP runes, so they are more comparable, then why do I even care that there are two different runes at all? Why not just have 1 rune? The same goes for Grit/flat HP. I agree that flat HP runes are currently way better, but if you bring them in line with each other, why do I care that there are two rune options? The choice is almost entirely meaningless except for when I'm close to a milestone.
Say you do these things, and make AP runes weaker such that they match up with, or are not meaningfully different than, the normal stat runes AND you also make sets actually have some value. I'm still only going to want those rune colors that give me the AP/brutality versions of the sets I want. There is, for instance, no reason for me to ever prefer a moxie rune of sweet set, over a brutality rune of sweet set so I will always try to get the rune slot colors that give me that. You can't detach the rune sets from AP if AP and basic stats are comparable because everyone uses a different primary stat. I will still salvage gear which should be better than what I'm wearing if it doesn't give me primary stat/AP of sweet set.
At least with my suggestion, Flat AP runes remain a valuable alternative to the valuable sets and I can do something I like with every rune color. if there are no trade offs, I'm going to min/max till the end of time and random rune slots will still be a problem because they create a filthy min value which must be purged from the gear loadout. If AP runes exist (dissociated with meaningful sets), and they still provide me with AP at a much better ratio than brutality runes (which are attached to sets), I have to make a choice between more AP or set. You may reply, "but, Garth, won't you still aim for AP runes or brutality runes of set?" Yes, but in theory, and in my head this is a smaller choice. In my head I'm choosing between AP or set, not AP, primary stat w/ set and secondary stat with set. The set should be valuable enough that the reason I am picking it over AP is because I care about it more that the AP. While AP loss between Flat AP and brutality of sweet set would be better than Flat AP and moxie of sweet set the difference should be small enough that the min/maxing drive in my head let's it go because the amount of work required to get the right color runes on this item are not worth the marginal gain I would get.