Rune update requests (RITO plz) :)
Not sure who at RIOT would be a good person to direct this request to, but I have a couple questions/suggestions about a few runes that I at least would like some feedback about. Not necessarily about, like, if you'll DO the things I'm suggesting or not, more about just some general opinions on some things.
Without further ado, here we go:
Inspiration
~~ Unsealed Spellbook.
--------This keystone..... concerns me. At the professional level, with coordination, the effect from the keystone can be devastating, but at most Elos, the rune seems dissapointing due to its low "oomph" compared to other runes. Even if its power is effective, it requires more forethought and game-sense to use, which is fine, but considering it already FELT underwhelming and often was taken on "I don't feel like any other rune really 'fits' me" champions who benefited from the generally overtuned Inspiration tree in general, it's going to feel really bad to continue taking it in those situations. Is there any chance at ALL for the Unsealed Spellbook keystone to play up the "trading summoner spells" effect rather than the "summoner spell CDR" archetype by giving you access to summoner spells that other champions don't have? The ability to swap them out gives you some interesting design space. Look at Clarity
for example. Generally awful on summoners rift because it has nearly zero utility late game, it would be excellent to be able to carry Clarity early and then swap it out later when it was needed. While other old spells like Rally and Fortify were problematic, I don't see a problem with things like the 2 empowered versions of Smite or of Revive or Surge. Thoughts?
~~ Glacial augment.
-------- Honestly... I have a few design complaints about this, mainly that it's awkward and confusing, and with the removal of frost-queen's claim it's even harder to use. That having been said. I actually don't MIND the mastery, I think the biggest problem here is item support, but with GLP, BotRK, and Gunblade, (and Randuins?) I think most champions have SOME access to the secondary portion of this keystone, we just really need spooky ghosts to come back in some fashion, probably an
+
+
or
item to replace the old "Twin Shadows" item (bonus points if it has a phage-like movement speed on spell-damage effect) so that mages that don't like GLP (especially manaless ones) have good access to this. Thoughts?
Domination ~~ The keystones -------- Personally.... I just don't feel like predator OR dark harvest are really balanced to keep pace with Electrocute. I think it's 100% fine that electrocute is the simplest, lowest brain-share and most generally useful of the 3 keystones, it just seems like the other two are SO much more restricted in their usefulness and, unfortunately, when the stars align and they DO become the correct choice, they only barely outperform electrocute at all. Just seems like if they are so much more limited in applicability, they should shine when they are perfect. Just my thoughts. Maybe in your opinion they DO. If so, I'd love to hear why you think this.
Sorcery ~~ Phase Rush -------- Do you feel like this has been successful? It feels, generally, like it's pretty much never taken in place of just the damage of the other keystones. There's Cassio who is pretty much designed for the rune so it's ok on her, but the only time I've really seen it be super good is on singed because of his poison trail, but it's just so unbelievably obnoxious on him because of that one specific character interaction that breaks the keystone wide open (his poison trail does this against other things too, though, like Illaoi's test of spirit. It pretty much instantly makes her drop it, so it's more about singed's poison breaking the rune than the rune breaking singed) In any case, what are your thoughts on it? It seems almost lackluster enough to be a "trap" rune even where it should be effective. Especially considering that there are a lot of mages running unsealed spellbook or Aerie simply because nothing else really "works" for them, what are your thoughts on what is more important right now, tweaking phase rush or finding a new keystone that helps the under-served mages. My impression of the keystone is that the main issue is that since it has the same proccing-mechanism as Electrocute, there's few characters who wouldn't rather have the intense burst of damage from THAT keystone instead.
Resolve ~~ Aftershock -------- EASY win, and simple request here. With he latest update to this ability, Riot said that there was a desire to shift some focus from the DAMAGE output portion of the keystone to the DEFENSIVE portion of the keystone. That having been said, can we get the postgame (and possibly in-game) stats to support that by showing "extra damage mitigated" from the keystone's activation rather than just the damage it dealt.
~~ Bruiser keystone -------- I know there was some discussion of a keystone for melee fighters that was OFFENSIVELY focused, but relied on being tanky enough to be in the fray for a while and wanting to go with a resolve primary. Is something like this still being looked at? It feels like something certain juggernauts, bruisers and skirmishers might really like.
~~ Conditioning vs Iron skin/Mirror shell -------- I'm curious about the stats on this rune family because it really really seems like conditioning is just flat out better AND more applicable in so many situations. I understand the choice your'e supposed to make here: do you want a powerful buff from the rune that won't kick in until after the lane phase is over, or do you want a less powerful buff that you don't have to wait for. The issue I have is that it just doesn't seem to balance out, at least to me. I'm sure there was a lot of testing done on these for balance, so maybe it's just a perception thing, but it feels like, yeah, the slightly better base stats don't amount to much, and the fact that Conditioning gives a bonus to both armour AND magic resist is HUGE, but riskier since it takes longer to kick in seems to be fairly balanced.... but the fact that you add in that both mirror shell and iron skin are ALSO less reliable since not only do they provide only ONE stat but that bonus is NOT always turned on, makes it always feel like I'm giving up so much to take one of those, even in games where I know I only really need ONE of the resistances (physical or magical) to be high. It feels like there's one too many downsides to iron-skin/mirror shell with the only real saving grace for either being that the bonus armour from iron skin at level 1 makes jungling easier. What are your thoughts? Would it be outlandish to combine those runes into one rune and add a "Celestial Body" like alternative that gave you the bonuses PERMANENTLY like conditioning, AND from level 1 like mirror shell/iron skin, but also permanently gave you reduced damage dealt to compensate? Thoughts?
Okay, There's more I could say, I'm sure, but that's my thoughts for now. Obviously I'm fishing for a RIOT opinion on one or more of these, but community opinions are also 100% welcome, and if you disagree with anything, I'd love to hear your side of things; different viewpoints and new ways of looking at things helps us all grow as humans.