Look "runes" are gone, it just revamped Masterys

If you read this please just consider the impact the removal of the rune system has. I really want folks to understand that the "New Runes" are a reworked mastery tree with a condensed power budget. Runes as we have known them are gone, the power budget they provided is being redistributed into Re-forged and other aspects of the game. Comparing them to old is mistake, they are mia and what the provided is mia. If your really struggling with this idea then just pretend riot just called Runes re-forged masteries reformed and killed runes this season.

I am happy to discuss if that's good or bad with folks in the comments but please lets start with getting a consensuses here on if we can agree that runes as we know them are gone. -points to poll-

I feel like thes EUW player gets it. > Naqel (EUW) > Why are they referred to as runes, when they are named and behave like Masteries do/did, and are arranged along forms/paths of mastery?

> Riot Sparkle (NA) This is a good question. When we were looking at Runes Reforged we were really taking pieces of both systems - the paths like you mention are very mastery-like, while we have some individual options that feel more rune-like. In fact, we found in testing that a lot of players really associated "runes" with stat choices and we ended up including more of those in the system (see: Cosmic Insight etc.) because players asked for them. I think we could've gone either way with the naming and had it work, really. One consideration for "runes" came from the art side of it. We've always wanted to visually represent choices/customization in the art of the system - as you may have seen we have a representation of your keystone in both the UI and in the art. The versions of these in the art have always looked more symbolic & reduced compared to the UI icons (at one point we explored like literal glyphic carvings for these, for example). Eventually, after we settled on the runes name we did even more on the UI to make them FEEL rune-y there too - chunky slotting in sounds & slotting in animations, etc. Also, tbh, one thing I like about the decision for "runes" is that there's less verbal overlap with "champion mastery" but that's just a personal thing.