Scaling runes
Does anyone else recognize the value of good scaling rune pages, complimented by well thought out mastery pages? It can change your outlook on balance when you get into it.
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Does anyone else recognize the value of good scaling rune pages
Scaling runes have some serious drawbacks.
What runes essentially offer are item stats when you have no items early-on. If you compare the base stats of someone like Shen to Miss Fortune this is a pretty huge deal - as it can make you a tank from level 1 or a DPS champion from level 1 rather than a champion with no bonuses at all.
If you don't run flat runes, you're going to be at a noticeable disadvantage during the lanning phase: starting with 1/9th the rune stats of your foe.
A noteworthy disadvantage: as gaining a lead early can mean you finish a game before the late-game phase even happens. Gaining a lead early also pushes back late-game for late-game champions (or loosing ground early as a late-game champion), and loosing ground as an early-game champion is a quick path to being dead weight.
Even though scaling runes are twice as powerful as flat runes at level 18 - they're extremely risky, and a major part of being a good choice in a competitive game is reliability.
Generally, a rule of thumb I go by, is if I need a stat in my rune pages but I won't be benefiting from it from the get go, I take Scaling, such as MR Glyphs on a AD Top page. Chances are I'm going to be going against Garen or Gnar or something, but I'm gonna want MR at some point obviously, so I go for the Scaling. However, I want to get a lane advantage as early as possible, so I take Flat Armor Seals and Flat AD Marks, that way I can win my lane and snowball from there on. You need to weigh the advantages, but one is neither better than the other, ya know?
My only exception being CDR Glyphs and Health seals. CDR I take scaling or flat depending on my expected build in order to hit my desired CDR level, usually 40 of course. Health I only use on champs with scaling health abilities, like Nautilus. So I usually opt for Scaling in every situation that doesn't call for Flat Armor seals (jungling) since more health late game plus a stronger shield late game = a worthwhile risk. (... however, I usually take flat armors on Naut, I'm just providing an example)
My understanding is that scaling runes allow you to forgo a certain stat (to a certain extent) in your itemization. E.G., getting scaling health on an AP champion. Now, it won't make you suddenly beefy but it might add a hair more survivability.
Scaling runes are not ideal if it's a stat you would already be building via items.
This however is just my Silver-ish understanding of things I've read on the internet. I am most likely horribly wrong and such you should do the exact opposite.