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Runes Reduced

GorillazNtheMyst·11/13/2017, 2:42:38 PM·3 votes·247 views

So like many of you, I waited patiently for this preseason update with much anticipation. I was hoping and praying that maybe, just maybe runes reforged would bring something fresh and good to the game. Wrong - per usual. For a system praised for its "flexibility" and "creativity" for players, I feel like I have far fewer options now to spec my character, and more restrictions in place for what I can and cannot have. Whereas before you could put together basically any combination of runes and masteries you wanted in any amount or type or variety, now you are pigeonholed into basically 1.5 camps, where you invest heavily into one rigid playstyle, and sort of reach into the cookie jar of another to gain two, generally less-than-useful, perks. You don't even gain any kind of passive buff from taking a certain secondary tree, so your decision to spec into it is ultimately meaningless compared to the five perks you picked in your main tree/keystone, etc. So for champs that don't easily fit into one category or another (I play a lot of Azir, so I feel particularly poorly about these new runes), there really is no ideal keystone for you, or setup that addresses all of your needs. Whereas before with the old system I was free to make a lot of choices about how I wanted to set up my champ, now I basically get to make one major choice regarding keystone, and... that's about it. Super OP for some champs, utterly underwhelming for others, and overly boring in general. Definitely unimpressed with this massive change to the game that didn't really improve anything, but simply oversimplified the system into this streamlined, reductionist THING that honestly feels like it's just going to do the same thing the old system supposedly did - foster a collection of generic build paths for certain types of champs that remain relatively inflexible and predictable. I'm just not sure we've fixed or improved anything, so much as we've just, as usual, made things different for the sake of making things different. I know Riot wants their game to remain relevant compared to other mobas, but I don't think that means they should constantly sacrifice what actually works in the name of gimmick, which is all I've seen them do since I started playing middle of season 4.

1 Comments

I Do Not Recall11/13/2017, 3:47:49 PM1 votes

Yep, my thoughts exactly! We went from having x9 x9 x9 x3 rune slots with an incredible amount of options for each individual rune slot. PLUS a mastery tree with 45 choices on it.

Now we have 6, read: S I X, one two three four five six rune slots with 5 "trees", each with 3x4 = 12 options. ANd on top of that many of the options are completely useless on many champs so its not really even choice. Like i play AP shyvana and if i go sorcery, i can only take null sphere shield thing. the other two are actually completely useless, as with many other of the "choices" i'm offered in the other trees. It's not a choice if its completely irrelevant to how im going to be playing my champ. It's just there to add filler. Unlike the old mastery system, where nearly everything was universally good on nearly every champ besides some keystones. So the old mastery system actually added options and diversity to how you could play a champ.

In the current system you only have real meaningful choices if you area champ that can proc autos frequently, Grasp, klepto, glacial, fleet footwork, lethal tempo, and press the attack. If your champ relies instead on actually using abilities to do stuff ( you know how most mobas are) then your choices are very much made for you.