Yes, you need a zod for breath of the dying.
The change is although in the runeword. The old stat from zod isn´t there (i think it was indestructable) but now you have the stats from the new zod in these runeword included. So the runeword (as weapon) will now have additional damage in all elements and +2% to elemental skill damage.
There are only two runes which had been changed in this mod, additional the um-rune has change to give +22% prisma and +11% magic resis in Shield and Amulet and +15% prisma and +7% magic resis in Armor, Helms and Girdle.