Which runes and masteries are the pros using at Worlds?
Riot·9/29/2014, 10:12:22 PM·0 votes·49,252 views
If you’re like most summoners you’ve got the basic rune pages and a few sets of masteries you just generically apply across the board to every champion in a role. However, each player in the World Championship has their own individual metas evolved for nuanced roles involving added lifesteal on AD carries, added auto attack damage to help mid laners kill creeps and harass, and hundreds of other possibilities.
At the highest competitive level, the runes and masteries vary from game to game, even with the same champions. They account for everything from their lane opponent, the jungler, if they’ll be ganked often, sustain, if they’ll be tower dove, or dozens of other situations. They have to be prepared for everything. There are so many possibilities and combinations for every situation, so we’ve delved deep into some of the top picked champions in the 2014 World Championship to shed some light on how the professionals think when it comes to setting up their champion!
Mata - Samsung Galaxy White
Support mains know who the real carry is in Samsung White’s bottom lane (Hint, it’s not Imp). Saving Imp left and right, Mata is the single best player out of any support we’ve ever seen on a global scale. The support master has his runes and masteries precise to a point where he has Nami (and every other support) down to a science. Her basic kit is almost entirely built around trading in a lane, and Nami is unmatched by any other support in that regard. Mata puts most of his points into Ebb and Flow in lane and backs it up with hybrid penetration marks alongside a single flat AP quintessence and flat AP glyphs. She can trade forever bouncing heals and poke around while splashing enemies in the face with her blessing buffed auto attacks.
Mata also carries the precision play over into his masteries where, unlike his European/North American counterparts who run more defensive support builds, he goes directly down the support tree all 21 points with only a handful in defence. Mata’s play is so on point in terms of positioning that he doesn’t have to worry about taking an obscene amount of damage in lane and instead focuses on maximizing Nami’s support potential.
Yellowstar - Fnatic
Though less mechanically precise than Mata, Yellowstar has a unique twist to Nami’s playstyle present in his runes. In order to trade more effectively (and make up for possible mistakes) he delves deeper into the defence tree which means less damage taken but also less income and cooldown reduction on items. It might not seem that huge on a grand scale, but 10% cooldown reduction on every activated item is almost a necessity late game with the resurgence in Frost Queen’s Claim and Mikael’s Crucible.
Adding mana regeneration to his glyphs means more Ebb and Flow which translates to an insane amount of sustain in addition to the added damage from the bounces. Not only will this lead to a heartier backline support, but it’s also far less punishing of mistakes overall compared to Mata’s build. The few extra seconds you get might just be the difference between a flash to safety and death!
Imp - Samsung Galaxy White
Credit where credit is due, Mata wouldn’t be able to pull off the insane plays he does without his pocket AD Imp. When Mata lets Imp off his chain he will go buckwild and . Imp stacks up the flat armor and magic resist glyphs to make sure he isn’t nuked to oblivion before he can get all the pentakills. The attack speed quintessences are baseline for Lucian as The Culling becomes insanely powerful with bonus attack speed. All in all, this is a very basic and powerful setup for Lucian.
Zefa - Najin White Shield
Not to be outdone on aggression, Zefa stacks not only armor and magic resist but splashes in a bit more attack speed glyphs instead of magic resist due to the heavy AD nature of the lane. It’s incredibly smart to sacrifice that little edge of magic resist for added late game scaling (where Lucian tends to struggle). Arguably he made a mistake choosing this set against a Corki lane in the recent group stage match against Cloud9 but it actually worked out well for him. An extra 6 magic resist wouldn’t have made a noticeable difference in short laning phase. Granted, he wasn’t be able to make the riskier trades as often, Zefa makes up for it with precise positioning that the Korean’s are known for. There’s no point having resistances when you never get hit!
Cool - OMG
Although it’s rare to see her anymore (considering she’s either banned or the team doesn’t fit her style), she’s still one of the most powerful all around champions in the game. Take displacement, CC, support capabilities, and top it off with a ton of damage and you’ve got a recipe for the best mid laner in the game! Cool tends to focus more on her AP scaling than most other Orianna players, with copious magic penetration marks, AP/level glyphs, and flat AP quintessences. This lends itself to focusing on scaling towards those late game team fights Orianna excels at rather than absolute lane dominance. This basic rune set is built to exemplify Orianna’s strengths later in the game rather than try to cover up her early game weaknesses. Cool might get bullied around in the lane, but he’ll blow up your entire team with one well placed ultimate late game!
Bjergsen - TSM
Compared to Cool, Bjergsen focused more on Orianna’s absolutely brutal lane dominance with an added focus on her passive auto attack damage. Sporting hybrid penetration marks, he will push you out of lane before you can even chant TSM. Although he is sacrificing late game pure magic penetration, the added gold from CS and kills will surely compensate for that should the lane go in his favor. Bjergsen knew this going in when he saw Morning pick Yasuo, and he knew immediately to jump straight into auto attack mode. Morning could barely farm in the lane without Bjergsen smacking him around.
This rune setup can backfire so easily for Bjergsen who designed this page specifically for a lane he can dominate via Orianna’s passive. If he would be playing against a Ziggs who can punish the hell out of Orianna when she tries to throw a clockwork gyroid at his face, the build will not work. Your runes and masteries aren’t just a flat application across every single game - you have to build to counter your opponent as well!
Runes and masteries are essential to every game,professional players have a huge amount of pages set up for nearly every single champion and every single matchup and every single situation. They know how to play to the strengths and weaknesses of each champion and how their runes compliment strengths or patch up weaknesses in all parts of their play. Remember, always play with multiple factors in mind! Never just blanket apply a single rune page to multiple champions across multiple games!
Nami - The Little Support Making a Huge Splash
Mata - Samsung Galaxy White
Support mains know who the real carry is in Samsung White’s bottom lane (Hint, it’s not Imp). Saving Imp left and right, Mata is the single best player out of any support we’ve ever seen on a global scale. The support master has his runes and masteries precise to a point where he has Nami (and every other support) down to a science. Her basic kit is almost entirely built around trading in a lane, and Nami is unmatched by any other support in that regard. Mata puts most of his points into Ebb and Flow in lane and backs it up with hybrid penetration marks alongside a single flat AP quintessence and flat AP glyphs. She can trade forever bouncing heals and poke around while splashing enemies in the face with her blessing buffed auto attacks.
Mata also carries the precision play over into his masteries where, unlike his European/North American counterparts who run more defensive support builds, he goes directly down the support tree all 21 points with only a handful in defence. Mata’s play is so on point in terms of positioning that he doesn’t have to worry about taking an obscene amount of damage in lane and instead focuses on maximizing Nami’s support potential.
Yellowstar - Fnatic
Though less mechanically precise than Mata, Yellowstar has a unique twist to Nami’s playstyle present in his runes. In order to trade more effectively (and make up for possible mistakes) he delves deeper into the defence tree which means less damage taken but also less income and cooldown reduction on items. It might not seem that huge on a grand scale, but 10% cooldown reduction on every activated item is almost a necessity late game with the resurgence in Frost Queen’s Claim and Mikael’s Crucible.
Adding mana regeneration to his glyphs means more Ebb and Flow which translates to an insane amount of sustain in addition to the added damage from the bounces. Not only will this lead to a heartier backline support, but it’s also far less punishing of mistakes overall compared to Mata’s build. The few extra seconds you get might just be the difference between a flash to safety and death!
Lucian - Cullin’ Ain’t Easy
Imp - Samsung Galaxy White
Credit where credit is due, Mata wouldn’t be able to pull off the insane plays he does without his pocket AD Imp. When Mata lets Imp off his chain he will go buckwild and . Imp stacks up the flat armor and magic resist glyphs to make sure he isn’t nuked to oblivion before he can get all the pentakills. The attack speed quintessences are baseline for Lucian as The Culling becomes insanely powerful with bonus attack speed. All in all, this is a very basic and powerful setup for Lucian.
Zefa - Najin White Shield
Not to be outdone on aggression, Zefa stacks not only armor and magic resist but splashes in a bit more attack speed glyphs instead of magic resist due to the heavy AD nature of the lane. It’s incredibly smart to sacrifice that little edge of magic resist for added late game scaling (where Lucian tends to struggle). Arguably he made a mistake choosing this set against a Corki lane in the recent group stage match against Cloud9 but it actually worked out well for him. An extra 6 magic resist wouldn’t have made a noticeable difference in short laning phase. Granted, he wasn’t be able to make the riskier trades as often, Zefa makes up for it with precise positioning that the Korean’s are known for. There’s no point having resistances when you never get hit!
Orianna - She knows how to make the ticking stop
Cool - OMG
Although it’s rare to see her anymore (considering she’s either banned or the team doesn’t fit her style), she’s still one of the most powerful all around champions in the game. Take displacement, CC, support capabilities, and top it off with a ton of damage and you’ve got a recipe for the best mid laner in the game! Cool tends to focus more on her AP scaling than most other Orianna players, with copious magic penetration marks, AP/level glyphs, and flat AP quintessences. This lends itself to focusing on scaling towards those late game team fights Orianna excels at rather than absolute lane dominance. This basic rune set is built to exemplify Orianna’s strengths later in the game rather than try to cover up her early game weaknesses. Cool might get bullied around in the lane, but he’ll blow up your entire team with one well placed ultimate late game!
Bjergsen - TSM
Compared to Cool, Bjergsen focused more on Orianna’s absolutely brutal lane dominance with an added focus on her passive auto attack damage. Sporting hybrid penetration marks, he will push you out of lane before you can even chant TSM. Although he is sacrificing late game pure magic penetration, the added gold from CS and kills will surely compensate for that should the lane go in his favor. Bjergsen knew this going in when he saw Morning pick Yasuo, and he knew immediately to jump straight into auto attack mode. Morning could barely farm in the lane without Bjergsen smacking him around.
This rune setup can backfire so easily for Bjergsen who designed this page specifically for a lane he can dominate via Orianna’s passive. If he would be playing against a Ziggs who can punish the hell out of Orianna when she tries to throw a clockwork gyroid at his face, the build will not work. Your runes and masteries aren’t just a flat application across every single game - you have to build to counter your opponent as well!
Runes and masteries are essential to every game,professional players have a huge amount of pages set up for nearly every single champion and every single matchup and every single situation. They know how to play to the strengths and weaknesses of each champion and how their runes compliment strengths or patch up weaknesses in all parts of their play. Remember, always play with multiple factors in mind! Never just blanket apply a single rune page to multiple champions across multiple games!
