Making the right call: Runes and Masteries
Riot·8/22/2014, 11:07:58 PM·0 votes·16,425 views
When loading into any League of Legends match, you’ve got to make some serious decisions about your runes and masteries. Where are you going to put those precious 30 mastery points to maximize your champion’s potential? With so many runes to choose from, how do you make your Dr. Mundo a bigger wall of meat than theirs?
The LCS pros face the same decisions every time they step on the stage. At the highest level of play, the smallest advantage can swing a game, and these competitors know they have to prepare their runes and masteries just as well as they prepare for lane matchups and team compositions.
He has to consider what champions he’ll be facing, and which Morgana will help him win his lane. Does the enemy team have more aggression? If so, perhaps some extra health and armor will help him survive the lane. Are the opposing duo lane champions both short ranged? In that case, more damage would help Xpecial win more trades with superior poke.
In the top lane, Youngbuck of the Copenhagen Wolves prepares his runes based on the matchups he expects. “Every champion gets their own rune page, sometimes up to three or four depending on the diversity in matchups I expect.” He added that when he planned on playing Vladimir, he had 5 different rune pages prepared just for the Crimson Reaper. His teammate Sorenxd said that the mid lane operates the same way - “each possible champion, for each possible matchup.”
When playing Akali, Voyboy, mid laner for Curse, customizes his defensive runes by the damage type of his opponent. He prefers to run hybrid penetration marks, scaling health seals, flat magic resist glyphs, and ability power quintessences against magic-damaging opponents. When facing attack damage champions, the glyphs are swapped to ability power, with armor seals.
At the AD carry position, however, Curse’s Cop typically doesn’t make his rune decisions based on his champion. “Most standard marksman pages include attack damage, armor, magic resist, and attack speed.” He said that he’ll sometimes swap in health seals or look to add extra armor and attack damage from quintessences in a tough matchup. “Sometimes an individual champion will receive a rune or mastery page,” he added, “but that’s only on champions like Urgot who require completely different stats.”
The prospect of buying so many different rune pages may seem daunting, but the pros advise to start simple. Sorenxd said that getting a basic rune page for each role should be enough for less experienced players. Unlimited added that versatile runes like attack damage marks, health seals, and magic resist glyphs are a great investment because they can be used effectively on a large number of champions. The advice from Voyboy was to simply make two versatile rune pages, and then tweak them based on your experience and the matchups you encounter.
“The best and most versatile runes that you can pick up are as follows: for marks, flat AD marks and hybrid penetration marks are usable on both AD based champions and casters. For seals, scaling health can be used on literally everything, and then when you are going against AD matchups, flat armor yellows are still great. For glyphs, flat magic resist or scaling AP can be used on any champion. For quints, flat AP quints can be used on any caster and flat AD quints can be used on any AD. As you begin to be able to afford more runes, you can make slight optimizations switching in more scaling or attack speed or lifesteal etc based on the game matchups, but in general you can’t go wrong with any combination of the above runes.”
Once you’ve got the basics down, you can start tweaking and toying with what you prefer to take onto the Rift. And in a game won by taking small advantages, those bonuses can make all the difference.
ALWAYS CONSIDER THE MATCHUP
To the average League of Legends player, a few extra points of health or damage may not feel like a big difference. However, Curse’s support player, Xpecial, says that rune selection can completely change how a champion is played, at least in the early moments of the match. “Morgana is a champion that can be played as a mage or an auto-attacker in the early phase. Some players take full ability power and rely on spells for the majority of their damage. Some will take full armor and defensive stats and hope to simply outlast the opponent. The remaining players will likely take attack damage and aim to trade heavily with both spells and auto-attacks.”
He has to consider what champions he’ll be facing, and which Morgana will help him win his lane. Does the enemy team have more aggression? If so, perhaps some extra health and armor will help him survive the lane. Are the opposing duo lane champions both short ranged? In that case, more damage would help Xpecial win more trades with superior poke.
In the top lane, Youngbuck of the Copenhagen Wolves prepares his runes based on the matchups he expects. “Every champion gets their own rune page, sometimes up to three or four depending on the diversity in matchups I expect.” He added that when he planned on playing Vladimir, he had 5 different rune pages prepared just for the Crimson Reaper. His teammate Sorenxd said that the mid lane operates the same way - “each possible champion, for each possible matchup.”
When playing Akali, Voyboy, mid laner for Curse, customizes his defensive runes by the damage type of his opponent. He prefers to run hybrid penetration marks, scaling health seals, flat magic resist glyphs, and ability power quintessences against magic-damaging opponents. When facing attack damage champions, the glyphs are swapped to ability power, with armor seals.
At the AD carry position, however, Curse’s Cop typically doesn’t make his rune decisions based on his champion. “Most standard marksman pages include attack damage, armor, magic resist, and attack speed.” He said that he’ll sometimes swap in health seals or look to add extra armor and attack damage from quintessences in a tough matchup. “Sometimes an individual champion will receive a rune or mastery page,” he added, “but that’s only on champions like Urgot who require completely different stats.”
MASTER THE TREE
For champions who have a clear strength, the pros recommend going deep into one mastery tree to maximize their potential. Sorenxd described taking 25 points in offense on an assassin like Fizz as “pretty normal”. Voyboy likes to invest heavily in offense on his Akali as well. “I run 25/5/0 taking four additional points in the AD masteries on the offensive tree and forgoing the health and percent health in the defensive tree.” When playing Vladimir, a champion primarily focused on consistent damage, Youngbuck likes to run 21 points in offense and 9 points in defense, emphasizing cooldown reduction. On a strong tank like Braum, Unlimited goes deep into defense, with the extra 9 points in utility. However, some champions require a unique approach. For Ryze in the top lane, Quas prefers to invest six points in offense, 10 in defense, and 14 points in utility. “I see that as the most efficient use per point for him,” he said. Unlike Akali and Fizz, Ryze is a champion who’s damage comes from his total mana, a stat more freely available on items with tank stats (Rod of Ages, Banshee’s Veil, etc). Quas won’t get the same benefit from all the ability power boosts in the offense tree, and so he tailors his masteries to give Ryze everything he needs.SO WHAT SHOULD I DO?
While the pros have spent years testing, theorizing, and practicing different rune and mastery combinations, the concept can be somewhat overwhelming for a newer player. In addition to all the great options, there are a few choices that the top players warn against. “Experience or gold per 10 seconds on runes are a bit of a trap,” said Unlimited. He explained that it is more useful to have additional stats for combat than a little extra income. Youngbuck also noted that the Enchanted Armor mastery is much better in theory than in practice. “Most people pick masteries for early game, making the Recover mastery a lot better,” he said.
The prospect of buying so many different rune pages may seem daunting, but the pros advise to start simple. Sorenxd said that getting a basic rune page for each role should be enough for less experienced players. Unlimited added that versatile runes like attack damage marks, health seals, and magic resist glyphs are a great investment because they can be used effectively on a large number of champions. The advice from Voyboy was to simply make two versatile rune pages, and then tweak them based on your experience and the matchups you encounter.
“The best and most versatile runes that you can pick up are as follows: for marks, flat AD marks and hybrid penetration marks are usable on both AD based champions and casters. For seals, scaling health can be used on literally everything, and then when you are going against AD matchups, flat armor yellows are still great. For glyphs, flat magic resist or scaling AP can be used on any champion. For quints, flat AP quints can be used on any caster and flat AD quints can be used on any AD. As you begin to be able to afford more runes, you can make slight optimizations switching in more scaling or attack speed or lifesteal etc based on the game matchups, but in general you can’t go wrong with any combination of the above runes.”
Once you’ve got the basics down, you can start tweaking and toying with what you prefer to take onto the Rift. And in a game won by taking small advantages, those bonuses can make all the difference.
