Runeglaive champs we won’t see in the LCS
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.
on 
? Rito pls.
since his q dmg with rg AoE is awesome :D
