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Are Runes REALLY Being Reworked?

EkyonKun··4 votes·663 views

It seems to me that Masteries are being reworked while runes are being completely removed.

Runes, to me, have always been stat boosters. You get them for more AD, more MR, AD, Armor, Armor Pen, Magic Pen, etc. Most of the things that runes provide you could find in the in-game store. Some exceptions include a few heavily underused quints like 'Time Spent Dead' or 'Bonus Exp'.

Masteries, on the other hand, are combination of bonus stats and unique effects, each mostly with conditional usage. This seems to be more similar to what we are seeing in Runes Reforged. A bunch of conditional stat enhancers mixed with unique effects.

I understand the idea is they're merging the two concepts into a single tree, for simplicity sake I assume, but this seems to be more-so deleting runes from the game entirely.

Riot keeps going on and on about Runes Reforged, reworking runes, runes will be free, runes this, runes that. All the while I'm wondering "What runes are you talking about? Where are they? These are masteries"

An analogy for this situation would be, say: Riot claims they're going to be reworking Death's Dance and will be merging the effects of it with Bloodthirster. They rework Bloodthirster to be similar, but not identical to what it is currently, with absolutely nothing about its rework being Death's Dance related, then they remove Death's Dance from the game entirely.

Am I missing something? Am I stupid?

12 Comments

Critmaster Garen3 votes

runes are nothing but flat stats. the new system will give extra stats depending on which 2 of the 5 pathes you chose, and through some of the runes.

The Cane Train2 votes

Yes, the new tree also gives stat bonuses like Runes did. However, besides that, the new "Runes Reforged" system has WAY more in common with the old mastery system than it does the old runes. I get that they're combining the two, but it's pretty blatant that they are leaning HEAVILY towards the mastery style. I agree with OP that this naming scheme is misleading.

Additionally, their whole "runes will be free" spiel doesn't fly with me, because now that this system replaces runes AND masteries, and pages are still required, they are essentially forcing people to buy pages if they didn't before. Previously, I had a handful of generic rune pages and one or two champ specific ones for my mains. However since masteries had free pages, I had one for every champ I might play, plus they were editable in the champselect screen.

Now, with the old mastery system gone, and all of their gameplay functionality rolled into the new "runes", if you don't fork over a pile of money for rune pages, you're at a huge disadvantage, ESPECIALLY if they don't allow the new "rune" pages to be edited in champ select.

Zezockary1 votes

Picking your runes will be like the current rune system, the effects you are getting are more like the current masteries, the trees are like current masteries.

Runes are more interesting and unique than masteries, so they are keeping that theme. What runes used to do were pretty boring, so they are keeping the mastery's theme for effects.

If I were to describe it as accurately as possible, they are removing the effects from runes, putting the effects from masteries onto the runes, sorting the runes into trees like masteries were, and removing masteries from the game.

EkyonKun2 votes

they are removing the effects from runes, putting the effects from masteries onto the runes, sorting the runes into trees like masteries were, and removing masteries from the game.

That still sounds like they're just renaming masteries. Same mastery tree, same concept, similar effects. (They're even keeping Thunderlord's and Stormraider's in fact) I'm not going to say runes weren't boring, because they WERE as boring as they were necessary (and expensive) to own. But these aren't runes anymore. They're just masteries that Riot is now calling runes.

No more non-situational basic stat increases, no more Marks/Seals/Glyphs/Quints, and no more runepage-styled runepages (9/9/9/3 format)

If either A) They included a "Rune" tree that gave you these basic stat buffs, or B) Called this update "Masteries Remastered" and just so happened to decide to delete runes as part of the Masteries Update, I wouldn't even think once about it. I'd accept the update and move on, but they're being so adamant in calling these runes, that it's driving me crazy.

Crett2 votes

rune trees give you bonus stats based on which paths you go down.

Zezockary1 votes

They chose to keep that name instead of masteries because runes are more interesting. Tons of games have a mastery, talent, or whatever you wanna call it page where you go down the tree and have to learn this to unlock that and what not. Not every game has a rune system where you have slots that only certain things can be put in and you don't have to go down the tree, you just have to make sure that you only have minor runes in your minor rune slots and vice versa and that they fit your theme.

The problem you seem to have is that you are associating "runes" with "base stats" and "masteries" as "buffs that are not base stats". They are just switching it so that "runes" are now "buffs that are not base stats" and removing things that buff base stats.

Lil Ari1 votes

{quoted}

The problem you seem to have is that you are associating "runes" with "base stats" and "masteries" as "buffs that are not base stats". They are just switching it so that "runes" are now "buffs that are not base stats" and removing things that buff base stats.

That's what OP said, and what theyre trying to do doesn't look good.

Zezockary1 votes

Eh, personally I think it is fine. Better than the current system for sure.

Not to mention that they can always add/remove runes later on down the road.

Bunnymap1 votes

Even though they haven't showed off many of them, lots of the minor runes are some form of stat buff, though they might have special conditions to activate.

Catastrop1 votes

The new Rune system is what a Rune system is supposed to be in the first place. Stat bonuses that also add effects that alter your gameplay the more you invest and depending on which tree of the rune you branch off into. As someone who plays lots of GW2, I like it because it's similar in scope to their Rune System.

King of Demons1 votes

MERGED/COMBINED

Tenth Leper1 votes

The "style bonuses" for your particular pair of paths are the new "runes" essentially.

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