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Allow me to disillusion you all of something

Kairoptra··5 votes·1,889 views

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/u4t28NkX-runes-paths-overview

For example, we know some of the names feel a little exclusionary and thematically off for some of their core champions (looking at you, “Sorcery”).

Sorcery is not exclusively for mages and was never meant to be.

This goes for all the trees, too.

Domination isn’t just for Assassins; burst and target access on a lot of champions. In fact, the whole reason they added Hail of Blades was to help open up the tree.

Inspiration isn’t just “the utility tree”; the whole idea behind it is that it’s the oddball. The thematic is “creative tools and rule bending”. You take it when you want to try something different.

Yeah, you might say Precision is just on-hit champs, but “just on-hit champs” is way more inclusive than it sounds. You’ve got ADCs, certain fighters, certain assassins, etc. It’s stuff that’s meant to keep you alive and relevant in fights, and a lot of champs would really like that.

Resolve is great on tanks, but is still good on certain bruisers and supports. Its idea is keeping you and your allies alive, while gaining a greater advantage through your defenses.

All that said, we haven’t even factored in secondary trees. Sure, maybe certain runes won’t necessarily be the best choices for those who tend to take a given tree primary, but there’s a whole other demographic who could take it secondary and find great success.

I’m not trying to defend Riot’s new changes. I honestly don’t feel like my game knowledge is adequate to be talking about that kind of stuff. However, whet frustrates me is that a lot of people seem to be completely misunderstanding where Riot is coming from.

6 Comments

Khristophoros5 votes

I think people are just disappointed that Sorcery has a lot of runes for movement speed and very few for resources or abilities.

Imagine if Precision had a bunch of defense and only a few autoattack based things. It would be like that.

Teridax682 votes

This I think is the real issue. People aren't upset simply because Sorcery isn't a tree exclusively for mages, people are upset that the tree most clearly made to cater to mages doesn't do a particularly good job of it in the first place. The promise of the tree is "empowered abilities and resource manipulation", but there is exactly one rune that relates to resources (i.e. Manaflow Band, which doesn't even manipulate resources so much as give mana and regen now), and about three runes that truly add some effect to your abilities beyond some tacked-on amount of AP or AD. Meanwhile, there are four different runes that empower movement, plus an anti-magic rune that's way better on assassins than on other mages, in addition to another entirely separate tree that already does a good job of catering to assassins. It therefore doesn't feel fair to take mage-related stuff out of the Sorcery tree when there is no other tree that really does a good job of helping mages either.

Axzarious1 votes

I think you've hit the nail on the head there, and it was something that was even more apparent earlier in the season before other trees got runes that helped open up their trees to mages with things they'd be interested in as secondaries. Mages are also a very diverse class, and yet It's also the only tree most mages are able to exploit, with Manaflow and Transcendence being rather mandatory with your choice of Storm or Scorch. When you compare Sorcery to Resolve and to a lesser extent Precision, both offer a wealth of attractive options for the classes that are able to make use of those trees as their primary. While Assassins using Domination suffer from the same "Problem" of being limited in their rune choice, the runes that they are limited to are perfect for their role, each assassin makes good use of them, and they're generally always useful and have great uptime.

I also think the other part of it has to do with how many mages would love to make use of Electrocute, yet they wouldn't benefit as much from the rest of the tree. While many might complain that Electrocute in Sorcery would be OP for mages, Thunderlords used to be run quite often, and for more than a few mages, that extra bit of burst to pop an enemy is appreciated. If the enemy survives a mages burst, they don't often have enough damage to finish them off like an Assassin might, and quite often, they'll just get killed in return, since an ADC just has to right click and an assassin can just close the gap and end you in that 6-second span. This is on top of the sheer amount of mobility in League these days, making it even harder to land your skillshots. You can't really afford to miss, since all your damage is tied to your abilities

Sona Ping1 votes

Well, no it wouldn't be like that because many mages made sure to take things that gave them movespeed. The complaints around here, it comes from their considerations being limited.

Kairoptra1 votes

Except I'm not talking about those people. I'm talking about the people who are saying that Nimbus Cloak has no place in a tree meant for mages. There are people saying what I'm telling you they are. I'm not even talking implicitly; I'm talking right-out.

Nyarlathοtep1 votes

Sorcery is not exclusively for mages and was never meant to be.

Indeed it isnt. But you have to keep something in mind, outside of some extreme cases, mages go always sorcery or domination because they cant make use at all of the rest keystones. They increased the ap ration on fleet but they forgot that all mages, barring rumble, are ranged and since they dont build a lot of atk speed, they cant make use of it at all.

So while sorcery is not exclusive for mages, almost all mages have to go sorcery. Some burst mages might go for domination.

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