Three trees dedicated to damage, and no Spell DPS Keystone?

Anonagon·9/25/2017, 9:45:55 PM·135 votes·6,124 views

Nearly every keystone from the existing system has some kind of parallel in the new Runes system, or at least something that fulfills a similar purpose. The sole exception is Deathfire Touch, which was the keystone which explicitly catered to Spell DPS and/or DOT based champions like Malzahar, Karthus, and Swain.

That's not to say there are no options in the new system for those champions (though the TLD and Stormraider's parallels have been directly nerfed for DOT champions). It's just there is no option that is a direct "I want to have absurd DPS" for them the way Press The Attack functions for ADCs.

153 Comments

Brascus9/25/2017, 11:59:48 PM39 votes

The new runes should have explicitly avoided adding damage, no parallels of the current system should have gone through for things like Thunder Lords, Death Fire etc

Chembaron Yamada9/25/2017, 10:10:56 PM21 votes

Well, Deathfire Touch kinda is there, but in a way weaker form. The rune "Scorch" is doing something similar. But it's cooldown makes it less effectiv for DPS.

SweedishGunner9/25/2017, 11:54:24 PM15 votes

Exact same thing crossed my mind. Some of the new runes are basically just copy pastes of current masteries (with a few changes) but DFT is nowhere to be found and I'm not sure why?

Naalith9/26/2017, 2:39:46 AM12 votes

I think the problem with Deathfire Touch is that it is literally a must take on a super small subset of characters, and completely useless to everyone else (with some edge cases like Jhin where he might spec into it or Warlords). I'm glad Deathfire is gone, they can just buff the DoTs on the champions who require it and that opens up the ability for them to actually deviate into different Rune builds, rather than every single person taking the same stupid keystone.

Shepherd o Souls9/26/2017, 10:33:47 AM7 votes

inb4 Teemo is throwing rocks across the map everytime you step on a shroom kappa.

LazyW0lf9/26/2017, 2:08:32 AM5 votes

During their stream, Phreak stated that the Keystone "Press the Attack" will be adaptive so champions who build AP can still get AP from it.

Red Wreckage9/26/2017, 5:42:39 AM3 votes

Wait, I just read:

"We’re combining runes and masteries into a single, streamlined system that you can use to adapt and customize your playstyle in champ select...."

does this mean there will be no masteries at all? Only runes? earlier I thought only runes system will be changes and we'll get to have runes and masteries separately like before

XIII Vanitas9/26/2017, 11:25:01 AM3 votes

There's still Scorch, which is a normal rune (not a keystone).

DeathBurst9/26/2017, 4:34:25 AM3 votes

I'll venture a guess and say that it's probably on purpose. DFT was absolutely non-interactive and a bad design for a Keystone in that new system, and Riot probably doesn't want AP reaching the same DPS as ADC, because they want the different classes to still feel distinct enough.

I think Aerie or Phase Rush are decent Keystone for the class of Mages you have in mind, but yes, they are not huge DPS boost like Press the Attack can be.

lykkelas9/26/2017, 8:17:18 AM2 votes

there's no crit options either. and only like 2 MR things and like one armor thing

YuGiHo9/25/2017, 10:39:25 PM1 votes

Maybe the Coming Soon rune will be the one

Sir Fuzzi9/25/2017, 11:43:16 PM1 votes

I want numbers readouts on DFT because I've never been convinced it's any good on anyone except Jhin, who honestly doesn't really care about anything else when his DFT clocks out like 300 damage on its own.

Everyone else is lucky to run 100-150 off a full proc. I was never sure if it was even a good option because you could rely on TLD a lot easier than DFT.

Maybe it's time to evolve the concept for runes.