The New Keystone & Runes Have Broken League of Legends

I've said over and over again how much damage on Runes is breaking the game, but here is yet another aspect currently breaking this specific champion - Zed. Before I start ranting, let me throw this out there: I never once used to think Zed is a broken champion. I actually didn't understand all the posts I've seen about how broken Zed is, and not many of them actually gave me a good reason as to what made him too strong. I've been playing against quite a few Zeds recently however, and some of the things I've been seeing actually have turned my opinion around a whole 180 degrees.

The first problem right now with Zed is (and most Assassin's, Tanks, and Damage Dealers in general), the damage on runes makes him stupidly strong. In the past you basically had minor things like small damage adjustments (similar to the runes under keystones), flat stat increase (i.e. 50 health), or percent increase (3% armor). These are things that basically benefit any champion, and doesn't necessarily break any of them. Now that we have damaging Keystones, this makes outliers especially strong. Much stronger than their counter parts. What exactly do I mean? Well first look at Sion for an example.

Sion, a low damage champion. Has a nice shield, which can do some work, and some nice CC in his kit coupled with his passive which helps him make up for his low amount of damage by allowing him to still attack after he dies. Previously, not much of a problematic champion. After the start of Season 8, suddenly he's one of the most broken champions in the game. What happened? In Season 8 suddenly runes were added that gave him damage he never had previously. His E becomes a god tier AP poking tool without Sion sacrificing his crowd control or his ability to front line and tank. The additional damage on a single rune (Arcane Comet), turned Sion better than all other Tanks simply because he was an outlier and had a form of ranged harass in his kit. This same thing applies to many other champions, now look at Zed.

Zed on paper, looks like a normal and actually balanced champion. His abilities use a lot of energy, making missed skill shots hurt him during lane. His ultimate has a similar or higher cooldown than a lot of other assassins, such as Riven. His damage numbers, without additional factors, actually don't seem like anything impressive. A champion who doesn't seem like anything special, suddenly becomes a nightmare once the new keystones are added. Why?

With Zed in particular, there are so many different factors. To start, the new damage on Keystones improves Zed in ways that it just simply can't on other champions. Since his ultimate factors in all damage sources, he gains a boost in damage that other champions do not. Zed's previous design of requiring energy is broken because now even if Zed misses his spells, he can simply auto attack people and proc his keystone to make up for his mistakes. The Lethality boost from Sudden Impact factors into Zed's ultimate, giving him free damage for no skill whatsoever. Ultimate Hunter makes Zed's ordinary ultimate cooldown begin to look like something straight out of URF. Simply by adding these keystones and not adjusting Zed to compensate, he instantly breaks and turns into a champion with little counter play for the rest of the champions in his lane. All of this simply because he's an outlier in his class of champions. From Runes Zed gains massive damage, negates his one weakness of using energy, and can suddenly build 50 - 55% CDR on his ultimate, without trading off anything.

This concept really applies to multiple champions, but I felt like talking about Zed because he is the one I've seen the most broken by the new Keystones and Runes. 55% CDR on an ultimate is a lot. Why is this even allowed to be a thing? It breaks so many champions, such as Zed, being able to have this much CDR on their ultimate (If you are wondering how, Ultimate Hunter & Cosmic insight gives you an additional +10% Ultimate CDR + 5% Maximum CDR for a total of 55%). Not even to mention that most high damaging champions do not need more damage from runes, because they were initially balanced around not having that additional damage.

Broken, broken, broken. These new Keystones and Runes only benefit some champions Riot. The rest of us who don't play those champions are left in the dust dragged along by this ever shifting meta you change up every two weeks. Only the champions you break with patches (i.e. Kha'zix cough cough) can compete with the outliers that became ridiculously strong from these new runes. I really pray for next season you guys give up on this current system and hit the drawing board again to make up for what you are putting your players through this season (and last season for that matter).