Runeglaive champs we won’t see in the LCS

Riot·Jul 17, 2015·0 votes·53,919 views

Ezreal isn’t the only one who takes Smite mid

The recent addition of Runeglaive to League of Legends has catalysed a fresh batch of strange champion picks and unusual strategies in ranked play. It’s been hard to miss Ezreal’s recent performances in the LCS -- his ridiculously powerful synergy with Runeglaive is vaporising champions all over the map. Ezreal’s powerful AP mid-lane build used to take several thousand gold to complete, but Runeglaive helps him hit his power spike earlier, giving him mana refill, bonus damage and AP growth for just over 2000 gold (a lot earlier than the 3000+ gold required for Lich Bane with a mana item).

Q Dodger

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While Runeglaive Ezreal’s LCS viability in a post-5.12 world remains to be seen, other champs are also benefiting from the cheap faux-Lich Bane jungle item -- champions who haven’t made the leap to the LCS stage for one reason or another, but are seeing great success in solo queue.

For example, Gravity’s Lae-young "Keane" Jang has been steamrolling ranked play with his mid-lane Runeglaive Nasus. In many ways the Curator of the Sands’ strengths are similar to Runeglaive Ezreal's. A big chunk of extra damage on his Q makes him strong in the early game, as does AP damage on his E. All of this falls off a bit later on, but before then AP Nasus is a real bully who can harass hard in lane, with enough wave clear on his E to make even Ziggs jealous.

The biggest problem with Runeglaive Nasus is that he needs to be close enough to physically bonk you with his ancient Shuriman god staff, and this means dealing the extra damage from Runeglaive isn't going to be easy. Not without getting right up close and in harm's way, anyhow. This is contrary to Nasus’ normal playstyle, in which getting in among the minions and farming his Q is your main aim. The AP ratio on his E will do more damage than a stacked Q, especially in the early game with some initial AP items, but you’re losing the tankiness that his normal build provides. Which means going toe to toe with your lane enemy is a riskier prospect.

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His ult helps make him a little tankier and the magic damage done to nearby enemies also scales with AP (400AP would chunk off 9% of the max health of anyone standing nearby every second, which is obscene). Despite this, the risk involved with a non-tanky Nasus is what prevents him from being a worthwhile LCS pick when other perfectly good mid-laners are available. (Bard, for example... OK, OK, we’ll let it go.)

Now that 5.13 has squashed the Runeglaive spell effect bug, Nasus will no longer be stealing health with his Q, either.. giving him less sustain in lane and forcing players to rush his E to take advantage of the extra Runeglaive damage. As a result, we’re even less likely to see him in the LCS once the patch goes pro.

This is also true of Keane's other recent favourite solo queue pick. Mid-lane Evelynn with a full AP build alongside Runeglaive is very strong indeed. She does a huge amount of damage once she gets that jungle enchantment, giving her an excellent early-game power spike. Play her right and she'll snowball out of control, clearing a path to the enemy's Nexus. Despite this, it's still unlikely we'll see her played mid in the LCS, if only because Ezreal is just that much stronger.

Crit Happens

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Meanwhile, everyone from Renegades’ Alexey "Alex Ich" Ichetovkin in North America to Najin White Shield’s Young-jin "Save" Baek in Korea and ROCCAT's Remigiusz "Overpow" Pusch in Europe have been playing Runeglaive mid-lane Gangplank, and it’s probably not just because they’re excited about his impending rework.

The trick with Gangplank was that Runeglaive converted his basic attack to magic damage but also allowed it to critically hit. Plus, his passive slowed everyone hit by Runeglaive’s area-of-effect damage, preventing enemies from escaping and giving the Saltwater Scourge even more opportunities to land those devastating crits. Some pros built him with Infinity Edge and Statikk Shiv for full critical hit burst, while others opted for full AP using Luden’s Echo or Rabadon’s Deathcap.

Either way he was doing major damage. Unfortunately, you needed three or four items at least before Gangplank’s full AP strength comes out, which took time. So if you were losing your lane, you were still going to be as useless as mid-lane Bard. (Who are we kidding, mid-lane Bard is probably totally viable. New meta?!)

Build time is probably the reason we haven’t seen mid-lane AP Gangplank in the LCS yet, and alas we probably won’t now, because recent amendments to Runeglaive have made him much less viable. Yarr well.

Editor's Note: Welp. Thanks Cabochard. In Gambit Gaming's Week 8 match against the Unicorns of Love he proved anything can happen and pulled out the scurvy-free Runeglaive pirate. We definitely didn't expect that! And Orianna, too! GG.

Destiny's Wild

So that's a few solo queue champs and strats we likely won't be seeing on the pro stage any time soon. "Thanks Rito!" But there are a few champions bubbling through in ranked games who may have more viability in the mid lane. Both Diana and Twisted Fate have been out of favour for a little while, but have been rising back through the ranks with Runeglaive in hand. Maybe we'll see them in the LCS soon? We wouldn't bet against it.

Let us know what you reckon -- and what else you've been getting up to with everyone's favourite new 'jungle' enchantment.

75 Comments

ZockerStuiJul 17, 201518 votes

People should start playing the things they want to play themselves and not the new lcs shit... LCS is the thing why the community is already fucked up

MaxiemooJul 17, 201510 votes

This is an article about stuff that ISN'T in the LCS but is in Solo queue. Besides that, playing the things you see in LCS isn't all bad. The pro's obviously play it for a reason: it's good (at least in the professional scene). It also lets people discover things that they really enjoy but may not have thought of/seen without LCS to influence them. Maybe the things that people want to play themselves IS the new LCS "shit".

Guza stvariJul 20, 20152 votes

Well you're both wrong, the only difference when you play LCS champions in soloque is that you're all alone it's not your team to cover you up, and do amazing teamfights, so it's just useless, the best way to progress in early leagues(bronze,silver,gold) is to take a carrier like Rengar counter-jungle or yas,kata and many other big burst becouse there is no teamwork in low lvl rankeds

Ghost BearJul 17, 201515 votes

Smite Ezreal Mid is BROKEN, plz nerf it asap!

MyAngelIsEmaJul 17, 20153 votes

Nah just pick Irelia to top lane and rek Ezreal in fights. When Ezreal stands close to the minion wave, ult to the minions, q to the minion which is close to Ezreal. Ezreal will use E to escape, but Irelia can dash with q to hop on Ezreal. If Ezreal has no flash at that time, he is rekt. OR Pick Rengar to Jungle. Snare Ezreal with empowered bola strike and rek him. Late game, just oneshot Ezreal.

HâiLyféJul 17, 20152 votes

H0ly Shiet thats a fcking dream for every Rengar main xD

DrCyanideJul 17, 20152 votes

*Gasp!* It's almost like Assassins were designed to get to and kill high priority targets!

Just don't take Incarnation's Zed as an example and never ult the entire game...

Best Slowpoke EUJul 17, 20153 votes

This is bullshit, if ez buys zhonyas your fucked and if ez has decent teammates with decent peel your fucked as well. Or even worse: if ez's team engages on your team your ultimately fucked

Riftt WolfJul 17, 20153 votes

they have http://www.surrenderat20.net/p/current-pbe-balance-changes.html#balance theyve made the aoe only apply on jungle monsters Enchantment: Runeglaive Unique Passive - Spellblade - AoE damage is now only on monster hit and no longer converts the attack to magic damage. Tooltip now reads: "UNIQUE Passive - Spellblade: After using an ability, the next basic attack deals 100% Base Attack Damage (+30% Ability Power) bonus magic damage on hit (1.5 second cooldown). When directly attacking a monster, the bonus damage is reapplied in an AoE around the target, and 8% of your missing Mana is restored."

RagingRocketJul 18, 20152 votes

In my opinion ,they shouldn't nerf the item because it would make the item useless and no one will play ap junglers because nothing will make them special and no one would be interest of playing them.If the item was to be nerfed it wouldn't have a difference than a lich bane(with the only difference being that runeglaive will clear faster the jungle).If the item was to be nerfed it would destroy a chance of making a new meta that we have never seen before.So,if it gets nerfed we will lose this chance and we are going to stuck at this tank meta that i heard no one likes except tank mains because a big part of league of legends community likes more the assassins(in my opinion they are overrated).It is not like i hate the tank meta is that the game now is more slow and boring.The games are more slow because everyone is tanky and wont die,but if we get at this new meta every role would be played except tanks only.So with this facts it would be wrong to even touch the item at this state because the community will stuck with the slow based tank meta and the game will become slow and boring.Sorry for saying things over and over again but i wont to make my self clear about this item changing the meta,just like cinderhulk.

TheBadassDudeJul 18, 20153 votes

You high man? Tank meta? What the hell? So they can nerf tank items every patch, but the two new jungle items that are completely broken should remain the same (or even buffed???) The tanks have never been so weak in previous seasons.Item options for tanks, and against the sustain of carries are so limited.Riot has made so many options for assasins and adcs that as a tank you can get instakilled with the same ease as a squishy adc.With a tanky team you either win early by means of cc, or peeling hard for your carries, late game tanks are useless (a full blown tanky built champion cannot survive your typical assasiny champion or adc even) .For example a Wukong or a Vi with black cleaver can instantly remove 50% of your armor in a fight -35% from their ADC's last whisper +% damage based on your hp with BOTRK.for every 100 armor you lose ~60-70 armor.They changed AP items to be more accessible, and affordable - with a liandry on their SUPPORT even, you still get burned for the same damage -% of hp, wich means that all your gold that you spent on HP (The only way to deal with mages in the moment because there are so little viable MR items for tanks) goes to the shitter. But the other day me 1/0/0 Shyvanna going 1vs3 and winning with my sated devourer botrk hydra "pro" build is A OK. Ezreal being a champ with infinite hurass, getting his power spike earlier and getting the benefits of ICEBORN and LICHBANE on the same items that's fine too. That's not diversity, Its just items turning champions more Toxic. +Runeglave doesnt work for every ap jungler (try with fiddle for example), its good on APs with low cooldown spells that can proc often/that have sustain/that have shields/that have strong autoattacks, which are already strong junglers- which means this item is polarising the spectrum of AP champs in the junglers - SHIT junglers are still SHIT, good junglers are still good.Did no one test this in pbe???It's clearly broken...

xxSpas96xxJul 20, 20151 votes

The item isn´t nerfed, dmg and efects are still there, u just need to actually HIT the one u want to take down, earlier u just brainlessly used the proc on a minion and harras ppl while farming Now, if u want to hit ppl, u have to land u´r AA or on hit skill on him. It´s also healtier the fact that u can´t waveclear a lane so easy, it´s suposed to be a jungle item, not a lane item,at the end the only champ in a match without smite will be the jungler(red enchantment top, runeglive on apmids/aptops, salted devourer on Vaynes...).

α PepegaJul 17, 20151 votes

I dont see why they made this when its nerfed in the PBE > http://www.newsoflegends.com/index.php/wip-pbe-0907-changes-to-azir-evelynn-elise-and-ezreal-42337/ Spellblade AoE passive now only triggers for jungle monsters Passive no longer converts the user’s basic attack damage to magic damage

Also play Diana and at lvl 6 Ez is free feed.

Really Washed UpJul 19, 20151 votes

Not broken. He essentially gimps his early game to build an item that isn't efficient in lane farming. You shut down his farm and lane early with some targeted ganks - he becomes less scary!

Choose a champion that can lock him down and provide early harrass - Like Annie (for stun and Raw Tibbers damage) , or perhaps Lissandra with her root and free spells every 16(?) Seconds. Lissandra is pretty good as Ezreal's ult has a wind up which is easy to see - very easily avoidable with Lissandra's ult (or if you're good, her glacial path [E]) after 6.

Don't be a noob and say she's broken. You sound as Imaqtpie says "A salty sailor".

Nerfing a champ for an item is stupid. And nerfing an item for one champ is stupid. That's like saying we're gonna lower all AP ratio's cause Veigar has some mad late damage - so GG ap item nerfs.

Don't be that guy.

TèrrìfiĆJul 17, 20153 votes

Enchantment: Runeglaive AoE now only procs against monsters. No more converts improved attack's damages to magic damages. Everybody most be waiting for 5.14

SlurgglarNJul 17, 20153 votes

Smite Ezreal Mid is BROKEN, plz nerf it asap!

Pick Talon vs Ez and you will dumpster him 9.5 out of 10 times.

Earl EulrichJul 17, 20151 votes

the problem with ap-ez in soloq is pretty similar too vayne - it doesn´t matter how hard you stomp them in lane, 9/10 times your team will need more than 40min to close out the game and then they start killing you.

DrCyanideJul 17, 20152 votes

I've been playing AP Ezreal for a year now, and have a spreadsheet with my game info. Granted, I'm a silver level player, but over my 129 games played on him to date, but here are the win rates by game time:

0-25 minutes: Win 68.42% of games (13/19 games)
25-30 minutes: Win 38.89% of games (7/18 games)
30-35 minutes: Win 56.67% of games (17/30 games)
35-40 minutes: Win 59.09% of games (13/22 games)
40+ minutes: Win 45.00% of games (18/40 games)

There's a period of stomping early if I get rolling, a dive in win rates shortly after that, then the period where I'm likely to close out the game and win is 30-40 minutes. After that, the win rate dives again, probably due to teams that aren't quite sure how to close out games.

I'm obviously a biased observer of the rise of AP Ezreal mid, and hope Ezreal avoids nerfs (I'm fine if Runeglaive gets changed, but I kinda like having Smite to help with objectives), but from personal experience I just don't think a late game AP Ezreal is as horrifying as a late game Vayne.

Edit: Is anyone getting the article to load? I keep getting a 404 "page cannot be found".

Earl EulrichJul 17, 20151 votes

i guess that really depends - ez just needs a lot more vision-control to thrive than vayne, so you can savly poke down the opponents (or burst someone from over a wall). With Vayne you can pretty much just wander around and rightclick on anything that comes into vision later on (yea, it´s a little oversimplified). So i guess especially in lower elos you donßt get much vision control form support/jungler, especially if you´re behind and thus you might eventually lose fights before getting a good chance to poke (but i bet you´re still close to dealing the most dmg in the game in those games).

Make me CRINGEJul 17, 20153 votes

why not but ez smite still the best . summoner 11 item 3716

BeatzBoyFTWJul 17, 20153 votes

I can't view the page. "Page Not Found".

DrCyanideJul 17, 20151 votes

Same, I've also notice that most of the people that seem to be on topic are from EUW. Maybe some sort of regional issue?

Earl EulrichJul 17, 20151 votes

doesn´t work for me aswell...so i think either the link doesn´t work or it´s maybe firefox related?

DrCyanideJul 17, 20151 votes

I use Chrome, and I just checked in IE. Neither of them work.

The "Page Not Found" looks like a server side issue. I wonder if they just posted the link on the Boards too early, and the article doesn't exist yet?

lm KuroJul 17, 20152 votes

Waiting for the nerferino

ChaanaJul 17, 20152 votes

Wow, the problem with Nasus/Ez runeglaive is that it converts all their damage into magic damage. Riot is like "we designed magic resistance around cooldowns and mana", well, sure, most people are gated by cooldowns or mana if they do magic damage.. but eh, not really. Doesn't justify why MR items suck so much. So yeah, converts all physical damage into magical -> MR items suck -> talk about glorious game design.

I still have no idea what jungle item to get on Fiddlesticks. I kinda just sit on the smite item without ever upgrading it for now..

FøreignJul 17, 20152 votes

We need better mr items, with these magic dmg items. We already have thormail for ad, please make a variant of it with mr :D

α PepegaJul 17, 20152 votes

What's the point in this article when runeglaive is nerfed in patch 5.14(pbe) and probably it wont be as viable as now. Talking about nerfing jungle enh...have you seen item 3933 on Vayne ? Rito pls.

X1OLyJHt1wJul 17, 20152 votes

man im gay but yolo

hey im fabiJul 17, 20151 votes

pls nerf, he isnt even fed and can oneshot an carry with just an EWQ combo...

YeetusThyFetusJul 17, 20151 votes

Thanks Rito, now im gonna have to put up with mid lane Bards in solo Q item 3070

budaxJul 17, 20151 votes

the smite item is really nice to play on different champs. but its the build in game and the skills that make a player good not onely because off the smite item... for my oppinion they may let the smite item , its fun to play !

HEHEHEHEHEHEHJul 17, 20151 votes

blitzcrank with runeglaive op

TsukishineJul 17, 20151 votes

Dear Riot, can you please stop revealing tactics ? i mean first you tell everyone TOP smite then you nerf it now you reveal MID smite and you nerf it some players "invent" and they dont even need to watch the LCS. Its just unfair.

TutajkJul 17, 20151 votes

Two things I found in the article that seems kinda off:

"Now that 5.13 has squashed the Runeglaive spell effect bug, Nasus will no longer be stealing health with his Q, either" I don't really see the point of this sentence. Nasus couldn't lifesteal with Runeglaive Q before 5.13 either. (unless the player bought spellvamp on him, which probably wasn't the case.)

"Plus, Gangplank's passive slowed everyone hit by Runeglaive’s area-of-effect damage" This is simply not ture. Why would it do that? Gangplank's slow is an on-hit effect, Runeglaive's AoE is just an item proc effect, not an on-hit, nor a spell effect. It doesn't apply an AoE slow now, and neither did before 5.13.

Either Riot wants to spread misinformation for some reason, or the writer is not entirely sure about how the game mechanics work. Anyway, the rest of it was an interesting read.

Champ111Jul 17, 20151 votes

We could also try out runeglaive Fizz

DemophonJul 18, 20151 votes

Now we have actually seen Runeglaive GP and it is decidedly weaker than Runeglaive AS Orianna.^^

thaaone88Jul 18, 20151 votes

DO NOT NERF EZREAL NERF THE SMITE AND JUNGLE ITEM! if you nerf ezreals ap ratio etc you will also nerf him as an adc on botlane!! cus in either case you lower his damage, this is unfair!

KertixJul 18, 20151 votes

dont nerf evelyn with runeglaive Shes so much fun to one shot people with and she is just dfg her self against tanks plus bonus its free elo :D thx riot i love you <3

MoliblueJul 18, 20151 votes

Dont post it. Nerf it.

PickPayJul 19, 20151 votes

Rito fix plz.

Sadisticly fineJul 19, 20151 votes

well I like to play RG Viktor since his q dmg with rg AoE is awesome :D

ItsMeStefJul 19, 20151 votes

Mid Akali Runeglaive OP

BoldsenJul 19, 20151 votes

i personally like Full AP Rengar Top with runeglaive smite

BruceMendigaoJul 20, 20151 votes

U forget viktor '-'

WòòlpòJul 20, 20151 votes

Envoy of MelodyJul 20, 20151 votes

Yes, put it on the frontpage so every unoriginal and unskilled Ezreal amateur can go Ezreal mid and carry with a cheap, pathetic and did I mention unoriginal item that was blatantly added to the game to say FUCK YOU to real AP junglers like Fiddlesticks? Yes, this is a rant. Runeglaive was a mistake, Devourer was a mistake, changing the entire jungle items out of the blunt reason "We wanted to make things harder for jungles, so you people are even MORE forced to obey to our shitty meta that only allows good junglers to remain relevant.". I used to have fun in jungle with Morgana, Twitch, Karthus, etc.. all champions that were relevant before Riot decided to ship more assy updates. And what do we have now? Fiddle who can sell his jungle item at any point in the game because Runeglaive is useless on him, cheap and unoriginal Rengar + Khazix mains that fap to asian LCS players and Ezreals that hog mid lane because they want free elo like retarded vultures.