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Runes Corner: Stormlord's Mandate and Spellslinger's Surge

RiotWrekzzz·8/2/2017, 5:56:50 PM·1 votes·128,955 views

Hello! Welcome to another Runes Corner! In the past we’ve talked about new runes with new gameplay effects you haven’t seen before. However, on top of building new content we are also looking for opportunities to bring back some of the keystones you love and see if we can make them even better.

Today, we will be discussing how we’ve built off of Thunderlord’s Decree and Stormraider’s Surge to create two new keystone Runes, Stormlord’s Mandate and Spellslinger’s Surge. Those names are temporary and will almost certainly change. We’ll cover Stormlord’s Mandate first.

Stormlord’s Mandate: http://i.imgur.com/GB9W0oT.jpg

Hitting a champion with 3 unique attacks or abilities within 2 seconds deals bonus magic damage. Damage: 40-220(+25% Bonus AD)(+20% Ability Power) Cooldown: 50 seconds

http://i.imgur.com/vqxDyUF.gif

We mentioned a while ago that we’ve been testing a Thunderlord’s replacement and this is it! Stormlord’s Mandate takes Thunderlord’s and increases its power and cooldown in order to focus it more on all-ins.The keyword unique is key to binding this to all-in plays. At face value, Thunderlords seems like it encourages you to commit to dangerous all-ins and rewards you with burst damage for doing so. On live, however, we have to balance Thunderlord’s damage around champions that can trivially activate Thunderlord’s on cooldown with a single ability. By changing the trigger to require unique spells or abilities we can re-focus this on providing greater burst damage in actual all-in situations.

So, how does unique work? Each spell, ability, or individual attack counts once towards triggering this. Sounds pretty simple. Let’s look a some examples. Start with an easy one: Mystic Shot. You fire it and it hits your opponent. That’s one. Attacks work the same way. The biggest change is how it works with damage over time effects. For example, Miss Fortune’s Make it Rain. When you cast that on an enemy it deals damage rapidly for 2 seconds but it still only counts as one spell. With the “unique” flag Stormlord’s Mandate won’t be instantly triggered by Make it Rain the way Thunderlord’s was. If you would like to actually play and experiment with the unique keyword, check out Maokai’s passive for a better idea. Overall, the unique keyword allows these keystones to bind more to all-ins and intense fighting rather than specific champion abilities.

Spellslinger’s Surge: http://i.imgur.com/FCuaxSz.png

Hitting a champion with 3 unique attacks or abilities within 2 seconds grants 30%-60% movement speed for 3 seconds. Additionally, Melee champions gain 75% slow resistance while active. Cooldown: 15 seconds

http://i.imgur.com/hojeKu7.gif

Spellslinger’s Surge is a modification we’ve been testing to the Stormraider’s Surge keystone mastery. Many players find the movement speed granted by Stormraider’s exciting. However it was hard to predict when you would do enough damage to trigger it. We saw an opportunity to use the “unique” keyword to provide that same effect in a more understandable way while also creating a parallel rune to Stormlord’s. Spellslinger’s Surge lets you get a reliable burst of movement speed in the middle of your all-in, allowing you to decide whether to disengage or continue chasing down that enemy.

Thanks everyone for reading. We’re really thrilled to be bringing back some of the fan favorite keystones. Let us know what you think of the changes down below, we will also be around to answer questions and discuss with you.

You can check the previous Runes Corner posts here: Runes Corner: Runes Content Development Peek Runes Corner: Meteor Sneak Peek Runes Corner: Hunt of the Bloodmoon Sneak Peek Runes Corner: Domination Major Slot Sneak Peek

422 Comments

GradeADegenerate8/2/2017, 7:48:52 PM96 votes

Is it just me or do these names sound like the Walmart brand versions of Stormraider's surge and Thunderlord's decree?

RiotAD Yuumi8/2/2017, 8:18:51 PM35 votes

You get a 3-hit passive and you get a 3-hit passive!

Weathered8/2/2017, 6:09:14 PM17 votes

Could you change Spellslinger's Surge to a more general name? I feel like it implies that you need to cast spells in order to activate it, or that you need to be a spellcaster to pick it, even though attacks are also part of the unique three damages.

Sinful Sorcerer8/2/2017, 6:26:33 PM13 votes

I would just like to inform you that the new Spellslinger's Surge will be a huge blow to the majority of Veigar players. I know he's not the most popular champion, but the majority of Veigars run Stormraiders at the moment due to its ability to offer him more safety (which is something he otherwise lacks in his kit). Mobility is something very good on him, yet hard to build for, so stormraiders makes up for that, it's also very easy to procc with him at the moment thanks to his enormous damage numbers.

Spellslinger requiring 3 spells to procc it (3 unique spells), means you'll never procc it unless you land your entire combo, so your mobility will be entirely bound to your stun (which is a huge change from the current Stormraiders). No longer can you procc it while kiting, and you'll be entirely bound to your stun cooldown to make use of your rune. You will also have a much harder time escaping ganks since Q>Ring the opponent to procc stormraiders and running away won't be an option anymore.

It seems you want Spellslingers to be a melee assassin rune, but please know that some immobile mages will miss Stormraiders greatly.

Thank you for your attention.

King of Demons8/2/2017, 6:15:15 PM11 votes

Why would you EVER take this version of Thunderlord's when the Spellslinger is straight up better at all times? 50 second cooldown makes this almost useless, while Spellslingers will get you out of trouble at all times essentially

Kobold8/2/2017, 6:00:59 PM7 votes

If i am reading this correctly 3 autos still proc it so nothing changed except for making it worse for over time abilities. Guess people forgot Jayce's Ranged W exists.

LostFr0st8/2/2017, 6:03:15 PM6 votes

Oo I like these. The low cooldown on Spellslinger's Surge seems kinda nutty though. Have you guys had any problems with that during testing?

Might lead to low-counterplay lanes like new Ryze shield MS at release.

Wolfeur8/2/2017, 9:50:57 PM5 votes

When you say unique, how does it work with:

  • Multiple-casts abilities (Camille's Q, Ahri's R)
  • Basic attack modifiers/on-hit (Camille's Q, Yorick's Q, Leona's Q, TF's W/E)
  • Item damage (runaan's bolts, sheen's proc, gunblade's active)
  • Pet damage (tibbers, the maiden, voidlings)
  • Non-damaging spells (Lulu's W, Trynd's W)
  • Poison damage (Twitch, Cassio)
  • Azir's soldiers
  • Aurelion's stars?
Gotenokaru8/2/2017, 6:26:35 PM4 votes

why does stormlords only have 25% bonus ad ratio on it meanwhile it got a 10% ap buff? Even thunderlords has a 30% bonus AD ratio, isnt it supposed to be stronger?. Did you nerf ad and buff the ap ratios because you want mages to use it more?

Yuyiyo8/2/2017, 6:37:13 PM3 votes

What tree are these keystones in?

Carrie Pigeon8/2/2017, 6:06:05 PM3 votes

3 Unique attacks or abilities. So if I understand this right it means say a Cass won't be able to proc Spellslingers by using 3 E's?

Rito Staff8/2/2017, 6:39:46 PM1 votes

We'll have both the two masteries and two runes? Why 'Stormlord' though? is he not the same 'Thunderlord' guy lul, just keep Thunderlord, Thunder in this particular case sounds a lot more "Bam" than Storm does.

It's (almost) like having Lord Dominik Regards offensive item aswell as Sir Dominik Compliments armorplate or something xD