Boards›Gameplay

Rune strategy feels limited

OrangeMarine·4/12/2019, 10:49:44 PM·57 votes·15,678 views

I remember when they were promoting the rune rework, they touted the new system for its customizability and how players can make unique choices to cater to their own playstyle. Honestly though, when I think about it, it feels like most of the runes and your choices simply revolve around

Make X champion do MORE DAMAGE. (pick the damage runes that synergize best with your picked champion)

it feels like 3/4 of the runes are just, DAMAGE in one way or another. Even the vision runes have DAMAGE slapped on to them now. The most interesting runes imo are the ones that don't simply increase damage. Runes like glacial augment, unsealed spellbook, predator, hex flash, dematerializer, approach velocity, overheal, nimbus cloak, demolish. These are the fun and interesting runes that add more flavor to the game. Not just simply, DAMAGE.

I rarely pick these runes; however, because it feels like you're kneecapping yourself for a fun rune instead of just picking whatever DAMAGE rune synergizes best with your champion and is just a flat power buff, worded differently.

honestly the entire rune system feels pretty cookiecutter at this point. I basically pick the same runes on a particular champion every time I play them, because the best rune synergy for a given champion is usually pretty obvious. The most choice/strategy I feel that comes from runes is the recent mini-runes. For example, if I'm rammus i'm probably gonna take 2x armor and attack speed. If i'm vs. zed/talon, I take armor (possibly 2x armor). If i'm vs Leblanc, I take MR.

funny how the most strategy from runes is actually a mini version of the old rune system.

47 Comments

Syrile4/12/2019, 11:12:04 PM31 votes

Yep. It is all about finding the optimal way to do more burst damage while having as much sustain as possible. Notice, not defense, sustain. Keep mobility super high, burst to auto-kill, and sustain so you can hang around and keep doing it while BMing your opponent. The perfect mixture for making a toxic environment.

Lovelle4/13/2019, 1:10:08 AM9 votes

I agree and it is incredibly boring. I'm a big fan of defensive/utility builds and playstyles, but sadly the damage options are just far superior all of the time. Ranged champions make better use of the defensive options than melee champions that actually like prioritizing defense.

I really wish we could go back to the old mastery and rune system.

AnotherFeeder4/13/2019, 1:16:53 AM8 votes

Ya, its pretty dumb how much less you can do with the new system compared to the old. I honestly hoped they were gonna scrap runes reforged for the longest time, but i fear we're in to deep now so theyre just gonna keep trying to force balance it unsuccesfully. Almost every time a champ is legit broken now is because it just synergizes with a rune to well, but u cant change the rune without effecting everything else.

Beacon Academy4/13/2019, 1:00:58 PM7 votes

Runes & Masteries (The old old ones before league of thunderlords) used to supplement champions

Now the roles are reversed and how well champions do are determined by keystones.

Change my mind.

Flawless Fetus4/13/2019, 2:36:21 PM5 votes

Duh. Runes reforged removed all rune diversity. If they wanted runes to be free, they could have just made runes free and editable in champ select.

LiberalWithFacts4/12/2019, 11:04:19 PM2 votes

the issue with any system that has option is there will still be the "best option" even though i feel the new rune system does have plenty of options that work for the same champion i still go with the strongest option because why wouldn't you?

Ash Lockheart4/13/2019, 2:31:38 PM2 votes

{quoted}

I remember when they were promoting the rune rework, they touted the new system for its customizability and how players can make unique choices to cater to their own playstyle. Honestly though, when I think about it, it feels like most of the runes and your choices simply revolve around

Make X champion do MORE DAMAGE. (pick the damage runes that synergize best with your picked champion)

it feels like 3/4 of the runes are just, DAMAGE in one way or another. Even the vision runes have DAMAGE slapped on to them now. The most interesting runes imo are the ones that don't simply increase damage. Runes like glacial augment, unsealed spellbook, predator, hex flash, dematerializer, approach velocity, overheal, nimbus cloak, demolish. These are the fun and interesting runes that add more flavor to the game. Not just simply, DAMAGE.

I rarely pick these runes; however, because it feels like you're kneecapping yourself for a fun rune instead of just picking whatever DAMAGE rune synergizes best with your champion and is just a flat power buff, worded differently.

honestly the entire rune system feels pretty cookiecutter at this point. I basically pick the same runes on a particular champion every time I play them, because the best rune synergy for a given champion is usually pretty obvious. The most choice/strategy I feel that comes from runes is the recent mini-runes. For example, if I'm rammus i'm probably gonna take 2x armor and attack speed. If i'm vs. zed/talon, I take armor (possibly 2x armor). If i'm vs Leblanc, I take MR.

funny how the most strategy from runes is actually a mini version of the old rune system.

I miss the old runes, and Mastery because when I picked a tank support for my adc, I was able to take the damage for my adc to get the kills. Once this new rune system came to the game, and I picked a normal support tank. I died so fast that I thought there was a glitch with the champ I was playing. I even asked my team to report me for feeding because me, and my adc give double kills 3 times in under 10 mins of the game. I couldn't understand why the tank I picked was dieing so easy. Once I looked at the stats in the game. I notice every one started with no armor or MR. That's when I knew I could no longer play tanks. I had to pick a damage dealer in order to survive the first few mins of game play.

The only champs that feel like tanks still when starting a match are Malphite Leona Nautilus The reason why I say these 3 are because there starting spells give them defensive stats at the start of the match. Braum Does not count because his spell you wouldn't normally pick at level 1, and his defensive stats he gets from his W are a joke. The spell does not even last long to notice, and you normally use his w to engage or to escape, plus Leona W last longer and you can feel the stats when you click it. Plus it does damage, but just like Braum there stats from the W don't stay up like Malphite

Kídá4/14/2019, 4:04:36 PM2 votes

When they first mentioned customization and unique choices I though it was going to be a Rune Pool where you could pick your Keystone and any 5 minor runes instead of the tree system we have now

ITZ ICY4/13/2019, 8:15:38 AM1 votes

Almost nobody will pick vision runes or use them if you don't slap damage on them. Change my mind. If you give an actual good vision rune into the game only supports and a few other players are going to use it. Some people already feel that using their trinket is too much and are stuck in pre ward rework days where support walked around with 15 wards.

Edit: many support players will pick that rune just because they might get flamed if they don't.

ProfDrDeath4/14/2019, 6:26:57 AM1 votes

The reason for that is that most champions have a set of runes that synergizes the most with their baseline playstyle. This set of runes can be played without (majorly) changing your playstyle, leaving the player free to concentrate on the other aspects of their game.

Going for different set-up requires changing your playstyle, playing more conciously towards the strengths of your rune choices. Compared to the most synergistic runes, this requires a bigger mindshare and has a learning curve, meaning that you might lose some games before figuring out a way to get good use out of your runes.

Ragnaveil4/13/2019, 1:52:59 AM1 votes

Strategy: Go whatever works best as a keystone, then go Inspiration secondary with Time Warp + Biscuits.

Eonslegacy4/13/2019, 3:44:45 PM1 votes

Its because ANY of the runes that were FUN or EXCITING are ALWAYS OP or UP because of the champions that use them well or bad. In a game where the difference in hp lvl 3 can be as high as 200 points and the difference in in kit damage can be as high as 300, a rune that adds raw damage or %damage healing will always benefit one more than the others. Runes that add utility benefit those whose kits lack that utility as the way to balance them. (mordekaiser) Imagine if there was a rune that said your first basic ability against an enemy every 30 seconds would stun for .8 to 1.5 seconds based on level. Who would benefit more from that, morgana or alistar, zed or fiora. Mordekaiser or illaoi.

Naono4/13/2019, 6:03:03 PM1 votes

I once went glacial augment with Darius in Aram, I picked the boots that speeds you up too. It was fun. Doubt it will work in Sr though lol.

Not even sure it was supposed to do well in Aram.

After that though, I tried a some other champs with it. Ezreal, I remember was one of them.

Honestly, I don't think there's any strategy in picking runes. It's sorta go with what works best with the champ or else.

Speckleton4/13/2019, 6:34:03 PM1 votes

Yeah, I used to be able to change up what runes I take depending on my matchup, whether I wanted some early game damage, or early game defense, or even scaling defense if I think I can tough it out until later levels

now its just people abusing whats broken to see who can instakill eachother the fastest

doesn't help that Riot also hates defensive playstyles they might think its boring not dealing or taking damage, but I like feeling invincible, thats my power fantasy, haha

SeaWeaboo4/13/2019, 10:49:00 PM1 votes

You can take armor and mr depending on the matchup. I mean that's a lot of options right?

Handy Sandy 4/13/2019, 11:54:37 PM1 votes

I find myself switching runes almost every single game because I have a different goal or plan depending on my team and the enemy team.

Aside from demolish, very few champions actually want those other runes. They're so specific to 2 or 3 champions and everyone else couldn't care less about them unless they op.

Velasan4/13/2019, 11:58:15 PM1 votes

Glacial is my absolute favorite keystone in the game right now. I do need to be careful about picking it though, because if I go Glacial and my enemy goes Conqueror and I land up dueling them a lot can make things hard.

But it's great for catching and chasing, and it's fun how it interacts with items.

Exin04/14/2019, 1:05:07 AM1 votes

{quoted}

I remember when they were promoting the rune rework, they touted the new system for its customizability and how players can make unique choices to cater to their own playstyle. Honestly though, when I think about it, it feels like most of the runes and your choices simply revolve around

Make X champion do MORE DAMAGE. (pick the damage runes that synergize best with your picked champion)

it feels like 3/4 of the runes are just, DAMAGE in one way or another. Even the vision runes have DAMAGE slapped on to them now. The most interesting runes imo are the ones that don't simply increase damage. Runes like glacial augment, unsealed spellbook, predator, hex flash, dematerializer, approach velocity, overheal, nimbus cloak, demolish. These are the fun and interesting runes that add more flavor to the game. Not just simply, DAMAGE.

I rarely pick these runes; however, because it feels like you're kneecapping yourself for a fun rune instead of just picking whatever DAMAGE rune synergizes best with your champion and is just a flat power buff, worded differently.

honestly the entire rune system feels pretty cookiecutter at this point. I basically pick the same runes on a particular champion every time I play them, because the best rune synergy for a given champion is usually pretty obvious. The most choice/strategy I feel that comes from runes is the recent mini-runes. For example, if I'm rammus i'm probably gonna take 2x armor and attack speed. If i'm vs. zed/talon, I take armor (possibly 2x armor). If i'm vs Leblanc, I take MR.

funny how the most strategy from runes is actually a mini version of the old rune system.

until they remove all damage runes and make whole system utility you don get any strategy or choice.

FrozenFitzgerald4/14/2019, 4:17:07 AM1 votes

I feel like a part of the problem is that all the damage stats are generally put in as adaptive force. I get why, you don't want to just restrict people and have X secondaries give AD and Y secondaries give AP because then there's not a lot of choice there either. Plus if someone or some client screws up and you end up with AP runes on a champion who does not have a single AP ratio, it's not great fun. But really with so many secondaries giving damage, and so many giving it through adaptive force it has just cemented into "these are the best runes if you want damage, and you do want damage" for an outlandishly large portion of the roster.

MasterDClone4/14/2019, 5:46:35 AM1 votes

well i guess it depends which champs you play lol, because I one trick shaco and i find myself switching rune pages quite often and when go on other champions i do need to think about it like for sion do i go grasp or hob, teemo do i go DH or leathel tempo, and on shaco himself i go commet, aery, fleets, hob, elec, dh, glacial, and even grasp. IMO the ones i keep the same almost every game are the mini ones lol, they are pretty basic and have no thought process behind them

floo4/13/2019, 10:30:35 AM1 votes

You can play basically any adc with Keystone Triumph Legend Alacrity or Bloodline CDG

Celerity Gathering Storm

If you have more variety in the 3 additional stats, there's something wrong..

xAcidik4/13/2019, 12:27:54 PM1 votes

For a response that isn't as cynical and predictable as everyone else's...

I agree, in that it does limit your choices. The issue is, as the game, for every champ that isn't an enchanter support, the key to winning is doing more damage than your opponent.

The only way, then, to mitigate the issue you have with runes is to not offer damage or tank or healing etc. as an option.

But then you mostly have things like CC and mobility left, and the few gems like Demolish.

I dunno what fix I'd propose, because no matter what, I can think of ways people will have similar complaints to yours.