The Paradox of Runes and Champions

And items, and summoner spells.

League of Legends has 139 champions to choose from. Occasionally you'll find a couple champions whos kits and functions look oddly similar, like that of Mundo and Shyvana, but then you'll get champions that are wildly different from each other, like Zoe to Maokai or Ashe. Many champions do all sorts of different things in all sorts of different ways. Different approaches suit some, different power ups suit others, some even contradict the natural flow or mechanics of the game, such that no single blanket assessment can really cover all of the champions in League.

This is ultimately where the Rune system fails. One of the key goals to the current Rune system is to promote choice, but when you have runes like Press the Attack which obviously favor some champions, to Aftershock which is effectively unusable by other champions, the League community will inevitably find a best combination and all semblance of choice goes down the drain. Why would I want to experiment with a Precision or Sorcery Gangplank when Kleptomancy exists? Why should any Tank I use not use Resolve when it's the only branch that gives me defensive stats? As long as champions are different and like different things, a catch all system like the Rune system simply can not function to improve champion/gameplay diversity and will always fall into a trap of being shoehorned into one line per champion, and those champions being balanced around that one line.

This issue goes far beyond Runes though. Items fall into similar problems. It can go both ways, items can be too useful for too many champions that everyone else can abuse it once it's balanced for its intended users, or items become so hyper niche that only a small handful of champions would even begin to consider it. It's difficult to buff Juggernaut items when they overlap so much with other classes in the game. Even Marksmen and Assassins consider the Black Cleaver or Sterak's if buffed the wrong way. On the other end of the spectrum, Nashor's Tooth has a really defined pool of uses that only certain champions would ever use, completely defeating the purpose of being an item that's technically purchasable by any champion in the game.

There are a couple ways that these paradoxes and contradictions can be resolved, but that's not the point of this thread. What I want to emphasize is that as long as we have a 139 and growing champion pool of different champions who interact with different things differently, a one size fits all system ultimately will always fail.