Opinion: Items and Runes Have Too Much Power

This is my first Gameplay post, and I'm Bronze I, so what I'm saying may be severely uneducated or even just flat-out wrong. But I encourage you to read the whole post first, because this is what I truly think is wrong with League right now.

Honestly, the title says it all. Items and Runes have too much power in deciding a playstyle rather than champions. Champions should be the CORE of a playstyle, rather than just the starting point of one. Let me explain.

Generally speaking, items are supposed to act as a reward to players who get fed and reach late-game, offering cool extra abilities as well. However, they are far too stat-overtuned for their purpose. It's started to reach the point that individual champions are no longer as problematic as certain items or entire classes of champions (which are united by the items that they buy). In my opinion, this is because most items are overtuned in stats: most deal far too much damage than one would expect. Champions should be more defined by their abilities rather than the items that they buy.

Runes, on the other hand, got WAY more powerful with Runes Reforged. While I agree with making runes more interesting and not just straight stat bonuses, the power level of them right now is WAY TOO HIGH. Most of them are way too good at doing what they are supposed to do, and I'm mostly not even talking about keystones! Cut Down makes you deal bonus damage against any tank/bruiser, Nullifying Orb interrupts ANY combo mage or AP assassin's rotation, Ravenous/Relentless/Ultimate Hunter gives you tons of value just for picking up kills (which is what any good assassin/carry should be doing anyway). It's kind of ludicrous when you look closely into it. And while the older Runes were just flat stat bonuses and (personally) not very fun to mess with, they were at a good power level.

Keystones are another can of worms to open, and I honestly feel like most of them are doing their job pretty well. Being rewarded for getting a full combo off (Electrocute/Phase Rush), messing with the base mechanics of the game (Kleptomancy/Unsealed Spellbook), or gaining a buff after a successful engage (Lethal Tempo/Aftershock) all feel pretty good to pull off. However, the reward for pulling off relatively simple skills for experienced players is WAY too high. Keystones mostly need number changes to make them less powerful.

Now, I'm no balance designer, I'm a philosopher, so these next changes I provide may be horrible. But I figured to get my point across, I suggest some things that might help with the power imbalance I mentioned.

ITEM CHANGES: In order to deal with the numbers of the items, we need to go to the core of the problem: the humble starting items. Nerfing these and scaling the power level across item tiers will reduce the power of items as a whole. : 20 AP --> 18 AP. : Unchanged. These are NOT to blame for mobility creep and provide a valuable mobility tool for champions without mobility. Therefore, it stays as normal. : Unchanged. While some may say that Critical Strike as a whole is uninteractive and RNG-dependent, changing the numbers wouldn't help without a full rework of the mechanic itself. Also, making the numbers a value other than 10% just feels wrong to me, so it remains unchanged. : 15 Armor --> 14 Armor. : +12% Attack Speed --> +11% Attack Speed. : Unchanged. : 10 AD --> 9 AD. (Insert 1 AD memes) : 25 MR --> 23 MR. : Unchanged. : 150 HP --> 140 HP. : 250 Mana --> 240 Mana.

Of course, this would require more fine-tuning and testing than my rough suggestions, but you get the idea. As an idea of what a fully-built item would look like after these changes, I present: Duskblade of Draktharr 55 AD 45 AD. [CDR Unchanged] UNIQUE -- 18 Lethality 16 Lethality. UNIQUE -- NIGHTSTALKER: After being unseen for at least 1 second, your next basic attack against an enemy champion deals 30 - 200 30 - 160 (based on level) bonus on-hit physical damage and slows by 99% for 0.25 seconds (ranged basic attacks do not apply the slow). The enhanced attack lasts 5 3 seconds after being seen by an enemy champion. UNIQUE: When spotted by an enemy ward or traps, gain Blackout over a 400-unit radius for 8 seconds (90 second cooldown). UNIQUE – BLACKOUT: You disable surrounding wards, as well as exposing stealthed wards and traps. The effects linger for 2 seconds after you walk away. Melee basic attacks instantly kill wards or traps revealed by Blackout.

Obviously, this would require playtesting and fine-tuning, but I still think it would be a step in the right direction.

Runes, on the other hand, need similar nerfs. Keystones should probably be adjusted to the power level of Arcane Comet: powerful, but avoidable if the opponent plays their cards right. OTHER runes should be gutted to around the level of ABSOLUTE FOCUS. Y'know, the trash Sorcery rune that no one takes? I think that's a pretty realistic power level for the other runes. Example:

Cut Down PASSIVE: Deal 4% 2% bonus damage to champions with at least 150 more maximum health than you. This increases up to 12% 10% bonus damage versus targets with 2000 more maximum health than you.

Like I said previously, I'm no game designer, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt. My overall philosophy on what the game needs, however, still stands.

Please leave suggestions, thoughts, or criticisms in the comments. Hopefully a Rioter comes along and explains why this isn't the case right now, or whether my ideas are reasonable or not.

NOTE: I'm not adding a TL;DR. If you didn't care to read my post, then you wouldn't get the full picture anyway.