Sorry to ask such a fundemental question but is there any difference in gameplay between unranked and ranked other than runewords?

Diablo 2 Ladder Only Unique Items

Although we still do not know which items may be added, we can get a preview of the ladder only items from the original Diablo 2 ladder mode as below, which will surely be added in D2R ladder mode in the upcoming seasons.

Andariel's Visage (Unique: Demonhead)

Cerebus' Bite (Unique: Blood Spirit, Druid-only helm)

Darkforce Spawn (Unique: Bloodlord Skull, Necromancer shield item)

Death Cleaver (Unique: Berserker Axe)

Death's Fathom (Unique: Dimensional Shard, Sorceress-only weapon)

Demonhorn's Edge (Unique: Destroyer Helm, Barbarian-only helm)

Djinn Slayer (Unique: Ataghan)

Executioner's Justice (Unique: Glorious Axe)

Gheed's Fortune (Unique: Grand Charm)

Griffon's Eye (Unique: Diadem)

Heaven's Light (Unique: Mighty Scepter)

Kira's Guardian (Unique: Tiara)

Leviathan (Unique: Kraken Shell)

Mang Song's Lesson (Unique: Archon Staff)

Metalgrid (Unique: Amulet)

Nature's Peace (Unique: Ring)

Rune Master (Unique: Ettin Axe)

Seraph's Hymn (Unique: Amulet)

Shadow Dancer (Unique: Myrmidon Greaves)

Shadow Killer (Unique: Battle Cestus, Assassin only)

Stoneraven (Unique: Matriarchal Spear, Amazon only)

The Reaper's Toll (Unique: Thresher)

Thunderstroke (Unique: Matriarchal Javelin, Amazon only)

Tomb Reaver (Unique: Cryptic Axe)

Tyrael's Might (Unique: Sacred Armor)

Warshrike (Unique: Winged Knife)

Widowmaker (Unique: Ward Bow)

Wraith Flight (Unique: Ghost Glaive)

Note: Some of these items have been incorporated into the non-ladder version of Diablo 2 Resurrected.

ty i believe i found deaths fathom in unranked but it sucks to know that you cannot find some items on unranked.
Are monsters stronger and or faster on ranked and do we get same amount of exp?

to my knowledge there is no difference to that.

found this as well, might be outdated in d2r:

Unique items can be upgraded to exceptional base types in any game mode, but can only be upgraded to elite base types in Single Player or on the Ladder of Battle.net.