Boards›Gameplay

runes reforged - forcing your playstyle

farmwolf·10/1/2017, 3:48:42 PM·6 votes·2,135 views

I have a very bad feeling about runes reforged.

I wonder why nobody sees that the new runes don't give us more choices, more customization for our individual playstyle. In fact, they greatly limit our choices, just like the current masteries do.

With past masteries, one could go 30 points in offense or defense according to his playstyle. Then they introduced keystone masteries where you can only spend 18 points in one branch, less choices part 1. You are forced to take a certain path because certain keystones are OP for certain champions, forcing you to choose a certain palystyle - not customize anything according to YOUR playstyle. Less choices part 2.

With runes reforged it's even more so, we loose even more choices. This makes lol way easier to belance. They dont have to make both

  • a full-def-runes, 0/0/30 tank Fizz and
  • a full-ap-runes 30/0/0 burst Fizz balanced, but only the one "keystone-X Fizz" because no other keystones are viable.

"Runes Reforged: Picking your playstyle" "...to customize your playstyle". Tthe only one choice we will have left is what keystone we want to use. This keystone is then ENFORCING a certain playstyle.

I hate all that trash talk about giving us more choices. Am I the only one feeling lied to?

to point one thing out: I am not talking about playing the most efficient meta - runes/masteries/build - combination, I'm talking about trying off-meta bilds / playstyles or playing different roles / champions. Back in sason 3 I used to play squishy champs with 0 / 30 / 0 masteries and ar/mr/health runes into difficult matchups. And yes, it affects mostly early game, but it did help me through a rough start.

I miss being able to influence the game on a meta-level, instead of being FORCED to choose my masteries around some keystone that is just to good to miss..

14 Comments

ModWulf Helhammer10/1/2017, 4:10:30 PM5 votes

You’re confusing playstyle with how you build. Build is by and large not going to change much for a champion game to game. Playstyle however is how you individually play that champion. Myself, for instance, on ADC, I play a very safe laning phase, such that I always take warlords, and often get lifesteal as my third big item (at least a vamp scepter). With the new runes, I can double down on that, with a lot more options of sustain built in. So while I won’t be doing as much damage as others, I value survivability over that upfront damage, because if I’m alive, I’m still doing damage, and I like staying alive.

That’s what playstyle is: how you customize your experience and fine tune the way you play.

The Cane Train10/1/2017, 4:55:37 PM4 votes

The biggest problem with the proposed new system is how they're pushing it as "runes reforged", but it has almost nothing in common with runes, and borrows heavily from Masteries. Additionally, their whole "runes will be free" spiel doesn't fly with me, because now that this system replaces runes AND masteries, and pages are still required, they are essentially forcing people to buy more pages. Previously, I had a handful of generic rune pages and one or two champ specific ones for my mains. However since masteries had free pages, I had one for every champ I might play, plus they were editable in the champ select screen.

Now, with the old mastery system gone, and all of their gameplay functionality rolled into the new "runes", if you don't fork over a pile of money for rune pages, you're at a huge disadvantage, ESPECIALLY if they don't allow the new "rune" pages to be edited in champ select.

GrievousFetus10/1/2017, 3:53:14 PM3 votes

But lots of champs have multiple viable keystones so I don't see a problem.

Magi Mayvin10/1/2017, 3:54:21 PM2 votes

But they do give us more choices, old runes were barely noticeable so your playstyle was the same most of the time, with these runes you can actually empower the playstyle you want to play on your champion so yes they do give us more choices.

Just because you changed some random red mark from ad to armor it doesn't mean that you changed your playstyle, you just changed your stats a little bit.

Nick Da Chip10/1/2017, 5:27:24 PM2 votes

Hmmm these comments are just wrong. Maybe they are riot fanboys but it is undeniable that the new rune system has far less choice in it. The current rune system has 30 slots that you can change each stat for. It would be a little lack luster if you didn't bulk up on the same stat but still, technically it offers a lot more choice.

As far as playstyle goes I would say it's hard to tell. I try and have at least 4 rune pages for each champ I play and depending on which one I pick it really changes what I'm doing early game. Will new runes offer a diverse setting of playstyles? Honestly it doesn't look like it but we will have to wait and see.

It's too early to tell exactly how the runes will effect everything though. Maybe riot is onto something. Is this the start of the casualization and eventual downfall of league? Probably. Are runes gonna be even more stagnent and stale? You bet.

farmwolf10/1/2017, 8:18:27 PM1 votes

to point one thing out: I am not talking about playing the most efficient meta - runes/masteries/build - combination, I'm talking about trying off-meta bilds / playstyles or playing different roles / champions. Back in sason 3 I used to play squishy champs with 0 / 30 / 0 masteries and ar/mr/health runes into difficult matchups. And yes, it affects mostly early game, but it did help me through a rough start.

I miss being able to influence the game on a meta-level, instead of being FORCED to choose my masteries around some keystone that is just to good to miss..

The Last Ballad10/1/2017, 10:50:46 PM1 votes

to point one thing out: I am not talking about playing the most efficient meta - runes/masteries/build - combination, I'm talking about trying off-meta bilds / playstyles or playing different roles / champions.

I'm not really feeling forced. Sure, some champs will only want the stuff from certain runes for their main things, but for all of my champs that I regularly play(Janna, Soraka, Zyra, Tahm, Rakan, with the occasional Nami/Lulu/Taric) each has a few choices for their Keystone.

Janna - 6 for support, 10 off meta(off meta is pretty much any keystone that I can think of a _reasonable _ build where they could use it, like for Janna it includes adc/onhit, mage, and support Janna)

Soraka - 4 support, 9 off meta

Rakan - 6 support, 9 off meta

Zyra - 5 support, 6 off meta(Zyra support is pretty much Zyra mid but with a item 2301 thrown in, still 1/3rd of the keystones isn't that bad.)

Tahm - 4 support, 7 off meta,

Nami - 8 support , 9 off meta,

Lulu - 7 support, 11 off meta,

Taric - 4 support, 8 off meta

But then again, supports are usually versatile, or stolen from another role in the first place. So it may not be as good for other classes/roles. Though I did notice that all of them reach between 4 and 5 subpaths being potentially useful.

I agree that the fact that you can no longer go for full tankyness/utility/damage or equal of all is in a way restrictive, but it also frees up people from "this x amount of each thing is necessary to play y champ" because riot is planning on adding the "x things" for each champ(hopefully correctly for what mains want) in the preseason.

Tthe only one choice we will have left is what keystone we want to use. This keystone is then ENFORCING a certain playstyle.

Is it bad that a keystone enforces the playstyle that you picked it for? Or are you saying that some keystones are too good to pass up, and then from there you have to play in a way that that the keystone enforces?

Again, not sure how it impacts different champs/roles/classes, but with Janna support you can take an aggressive keystone(electrocute or meteor) to have a more damaging early, you could take Guardian for a more defensive focus, Aerie for a more balanced between the two, or you could go Kleptomancy for extra gold & consumables to have better ward coverage & denial(it can give normal stealth wards and a short term oracle's elixir). Or you could enforce her peel centric playstyle and go for Glacial argument(combined with cosmic insight, a item 2045, a fully stacked Ingenious hunter and a item 3030 will have a 18 second cooldown while a item 3069 would have a 27 second cooldown). Then there is Summoner Specialist and whatever reason you would take it. I personally wouldn't(unless they reintroduced Clarity and clairvoyance with the summon specialist) because I really don't see the benefit of it, though others do.