Famine is a Runeword used in Axe or Hammers and comes with Life leech and Magic, Fire, Lightning and Cold damage, making it a possible option for a weapon switch when coming across monsters that are immune to Physical damage.
Requirements:
An Axe or Hammer with 4 sockets
Runes (in order): Fal + Ohm + Ort + Jah
Result:
Level Required: 65
30% Increased Attack Speed
+320-370% Enhanced Damage
Ignore Target’s Defense
Adds 180-200 Magic Damage
Adds 50-200 Fire Damage
Adds 51-250 Lightning Damage
Adds 50-200 Cold Damage
12% Life Stolen Per Hit
Prevent Monster Heal
+10 To Strength
30% Increased Attack Speed
30% IAS is nice, but it is likely that you will require other items with IAS for character to break the maximum breakpoint.
+320-370% Enhanced Damage
A great boost to Damage, but loses out to the damage potential of the Grief Runeword which is much cheaper.
Ignore Target’s Defense
This ability doesn’t work on Champions, Uniques, Bosses or Players. Smite Paladins will find this ability worthless as well, since Smite automatically hits its target.
Adds 180-200 Magic Damage
Adds 50-200 Fire Damage
Adds 51-250 Lightning Damage
Adds 50-200 Cold Damage
Occasionally, while playing Diablo 2, especially in Hell Difficulty, you will come across monsters commonly referred as Physical Immunes, meaning they are immune to physical damage. Therefore, you must find other ways to deal damage, and magic and elemental damage are the two options.
Magic Damage is really nice, because aside from one monster in the whole game, none of them are immune to magic, and even for players, only one single Crafted Safety Shield offers any resistance to magic at all.
The Magic damage and three sources of elemental damage on the Famine Runeword will keep you covered against Physical Immunes, even if they have one or two other Elemental Immunity (it will be a tough fight though!)
12% Life Stolen Per Hit
This is a very decent amount of Life leech, and stands the Famine Runeword in good stead, even when factoring in the reduced return from Life leech on Hell Difficulty.
Prevent Monster Heal
Good in Hell Difficulty due to the increased regeneration rates of the monsters, but doesn’t work on either boss monsters or players.
Summary:
The consensus on the Famine Runeword is that while its stats are decent and it provides a viable weapon switch for those times when you come across a Physical Immune, the Runes required for its creation are too expensive to justify the cost (they can be better used elsewhere). Also, experienced Diablo 2 players prefer other options for dealing with Physical Immunes, and there are two that are considered more affordable and efficient: Gimmershred (a unique stack of axes that can be thrown) and Azurewrath (a unique Phaseblade), both are viable options on Hell Difficulty.