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How league took the fun out of variety and why the new runes suck.

DaCurtis··122 votes·4,699 views

I'm not even sure where to start on dissecting this mess of an update. Everything is in chaos and everything league stood for is fundamentally broken. Sure an argument can be made that - "dude it's just preseason", but lets be real, old runes aren't coming back, and the diversity and thrill of small changes affecting gameplay will be gone forever.

When runes reforged was first announced, one question worryingly springed to mind, "Is this going to take power away from the player on how they change their gameplay?", and unfortunately the answer to this is - yes.

Let me give you a personal example: I used to play mordekaiser, and if you know anything about this champions base stats, then you know he has incredible low base armor, low hp growth, and he's one of the bottom 5 champions for hp regeneration. With the old rune systen, it gave me the power to slot in say -

  • Armor quints and scaling armor yellows if I'm vsing a bruiser.
  • Or I could slot in ability power quints if I want to play more aggro.
  • Or health regen quints If I plan on sustaining poke damage.
  • Or full magic penetration with quints if I want to play the long game.

Each one of these changes (even though small) affected the game SO MUCH, and the new runes can't even hope to have this much variety. The best part of this was, I MADE THEM, not someone at Riot telling me which runes to pick, because trust me, there will be an optimized rune page for each champion.

The new runes don't cover the variety that old runes had at all. I can't slot in mulitple stats easily, I'm locked into two rune pages, which is incredible restricting in comparison to the 4 sets of Marks, Seals, Glyphs, and Quints that I could use before.

For instance - say my champion only synergised well with 'Press the Attack', I am now locked in that rune page slot, whether I like the corresponding runes or not, I'm forced to pick them. Now for the second page, say I want some damage. I'm now without defensive runes. What if I slot in defensive runes instead? Sorry, you can't have both. There's absolutely no middle ground, and the current system gives you almost no choice on what runes you are playing the game with, it's all rooted around your keystone.

The sad truth is, I can't customise my playstyle at all now, everything seems very linear, and gone are the days of the 1% crit runes being hit. _ Time to take a break._

96 Comments

Xurreal16 votes

Starting a League of Legends account wiyh any intention of getting serious as a newcomer became a highly complicated task.

It needed to be done. These days new players were expected to catch on quick or be left to feel the game is just beyond their comprehension.

It needed change.

69469238DEL14 votes

You know what you have a point

Pierce The Veal15 votes

[{quoted}](name=Xurreal Resolve,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=aO3Q3ypi,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2017-11-09T17:46:39.473+0000)

Starting a League of Legends account wiyh any intention of getting serious as a newcomer became a highly complicated task.

It needed to be done. These days new players were expected to catch on quick or be left to feel the game is just beyond their comprehension.

It needed change.

[{quoted}](name=Goddess Sentinel,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=aO3Q3ypi,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2017-11-09T18:05:29.086+0000)

You know what you have a point

He does,

And so I have been testing it out with a smurf. It is actually somehow EVEN MORE frustrating and banal as a newcomer to the game. The progress in getting champions is actually slower than it was before, to the point where it's doubtful if you will be able to save up for a 6300 champion by level 30. With bad luck you won't be able to.

And yet every game there is no longer the sense of progress— no longer do you say "just another 500, 300, 200, 100 IP left for the new champion!"

RainbowIcee1 votes

Your comments confuse me, are you for or against the new system? I don't think a system full of utility helps a new player out because they don't know or understand the game to make the most use of the system vs raw stats is simple, I do AD damage i may need more. The new rune system were designed for the meta and to be more controlling of what champion get's the god tier treatment so if you don't own a good champion pool you're just stuck eating dirt now. It is also more difficult to gain higher BE champions than before.

Pierce The Veal2 votes

{quoted}

Your comments confuse me, are you for or against the new system? I don't think a system full of utility helps a new player out because they don't know or understand the game to make the most use of the system vs raw stats is simple, I do AD damage i may need more. The new rune system were designed for the meta and to be more controlling of what champion get's the god tier treatment so if you don't own a good champion pool you're just stuck eating dirt now. It is also more difficult to gain higher BE champions than before.

I'm absolutely against it. Reading comprehension yo.

DaCurtis27 votes

When I first started playing league of legends, I was having fun, and when you have fun with a game, you have an instinct to try and learn about the game to try get better at it. Runes for me wasn't the biggest learning curve of the game, the items were. Runes and masteries were pretty transparent. "Oh, putting 9 armor in my runes makes me tanky against attack damage champs? Makes sense."

If you're arguing the accessibility of runes and how they were hidden behind the ip paywall, yeah, I could agree with you. But that could have been easily changed with making all the runes cost no ip.

Heck, riot could have done what they did with the preseason runes and made a rune page for each role so new players didn't have to create a rune page.

Overhauling the runes wasn't necessary.

ModCaptainMårvelous19 votes

Overhauling the runes was necessary for the exact reason you just listed: It was easy and served to change nothing.

While it's like day 2, it didn't take long for runes to get figured out. From around season 2 onward, there was an optimal, singular runepage for every champion. There was also little interesting about runes. The "interesting ones" (Larger energy pools, for example.) were noob traps. So you ended up into homogenized paths that were right for pretty much every champion.

"Oh but-" Cheese builds don't really count either as most cheese builds weren't good beyond one match-up that almost never happened. The idea is to remove raw stat bonuses, make things based more upon the champion you pick rather than the raw statistic bonuses. Are runes good now? Naw, they need tweaking and general keystones are a bit too powerful (Looking at you electrocute) but the idea behind them in giving you runes that buff your playstyle per situation is way more interesting and easier to iterate on than raw stat bonuses.

Terchio6 votes

Overhauling the runes was necessary for the exact reason you just listed: It was easy and served to change nothing.

I thought OP made it kinda clear the impact runes had on build variety and customization. Or are you suggesting change in a different sense?

LightIsMyPath6 votes

You say it yourself.. "make things based more upon the champion you pick". So what 's even the point? The paths are made in a way that you can't create a specific playstyle choosing what you want but you are forced to go by "my champion needs this, wonderful I get a bunch of other things forced into me". The runes itself could be interesting but I hate with all myself the tree structure. The previous one was bad already for lack of many options in certain points and this is even worse for me

PB4UAME8 votes

So, they replaced almost endless variety with next to no actual choices, and making everything extremely linear to the point where you'll use exactly the same page on similar champions, and never ever deviate from that page for that champ. And the removal of all of these options for an even more linear path, rermoving all sorts of diversity, and individual player expression is so that we can. . . Not have all of that I guess, which you're acting like is in some way a good thing?

Despite not actually saying a single advantage that this system has. . .

Or how it is better at anything (other than removing options) than the old system.

ModCaptainMårvelous10 votes

So, they replaced almost endless variety with next to no actual choices, and making everything extremely linear to the point where you'll use exactly the same page on similar champions, and never ever deviate from that page for that champ.

Which was the main criticism of the old rune pages. Almost every optimal rune page was the same. TotalBiscuit actually addressed this in an old video where he played league early on (Like 2010), quit, and then looked up Cho's runepage around 2014. The optimal rune page had not changed in four years. The idea/goal behind these pages is to have a lot of conditional choices rather than one flat out best one.

And the removal of all of these options for an even more linear path, rermoving all sorts of diversity, and individual player expression is so that we can. . . Not have all of that I guess, which you're acting like is in some way a good thing?

You're woefully overestimating how "unique" runepages were originally. The only time there was experimenting was early in League's life around S1/2. After that, it was a solved system. You couldn't iterate on it because it was just flat stats and every champ class would always have the stats they wanted. You could always express yourself by tweaking those invisible stats I guess. I'm certain that 20 armor at level 1 will be quite noticeable by the enemy.

So then we get to the new system. A system we've had for a handful of days on live. But what are the actual advantages?

For one thing, most runes don't give you raw stats like +10 AD or +6 Armor pen. They're conditional. You get <x> after <y>. Are they all like that? No, but most of them are. Power that isn't freely given but requires you to fill a subset. All runes should be like this but eh, Riot's working on it.

The other thing is that (while base stats are out of wack atm), you actually don't have to worry about level one stats. Your first inclination when you lose lane isn't "Shit did I have the right rune set-up?" (Well, it is, but you're focused on the runes and not invisible stats).

But at their core, runes to me represent a thing that can positively change league. Something that (if worked on in the right way) can improve on an earnestly shitty and outdated system. A system with choices tailored to ten different situations, not a system where you have one right choice and the one gimmick page you pick against one match up. If successful, this could absolutely smash what the old system was and make gameplay far more interesting in the pregame. But, as I said, it's day zero. Even so, the runes as an idea are a step in the right direction over raw stats and focusing on numbers.

LightIsMyPath4 votes

They need to remove path restriction, and restriction on the same branch of that path. Tada' unique pages all around. As is now.. I'll just say I constantly used 4 different rune pages on my main. Now after creating the first one I realized the only thing going to ever change is the presence of a stopwatch in the secondary path if I happen to face Zed..

Funkin Dunkin7 votes

Your joking right? Optimal runes didn't change? You could have 5 different viable rune pages for 1 champion based on how you want to play and what the enemy team looked like. On top of that the same champion could have 2-4 viable mastery trees. So that's potentially 20+ types of rune page and mastery page combinations you could have had. Now you've taken the variable and forced people to play 1, maybe at best 2, linear "runes" and forced champions to play very specific roles. You've been forcing champions into role specific categories for years once off-meta people proved their viability. Look at what you did to Skarner and Alistar. The only thing you've done is put the final nail in the coffin for off-meta and variability.

And the removal of runes pretty much focuses primarily on damage and none of the art of sustain. You've turned this game into "well if no one can start with armor, it all comes down to how hard you can hit".

ORRGOG3 votes

Yup, survival is now dead unless were talking lifesteal. It is a pissing contest of who has X rune off CD or if a guy has all his Takedown runes leveled putting them exponentially ahead of the guys they are farming.

Give me Neverwinter nights customization.

hhaavviikk6 votes

{quoted}

Overhauling the runes was necessary for the exact reason you just listed: It was easy and served to change nothing.

While it's like day 2, it didn't take long for runes to get figured out. From around season 2 onward, there was an optimal, singular runepage for every champion. There was also little interesting about runes. The "interesting ones" (Larger energy pools, for example.) were noob traps. So you ended up into homogenized paths that were right for pretty much every champion.

"Oh but-" Cheese builds don't really count either as most cheese builds weren't good beyond one match-up that almost never happened. The idea is to remove raw stat bonuses, make things based more upon the champion you pick rather than the raw statistic bonuses. Are runes good now? Naw, they need tweaking and general keystones are a bit too powerful (Looking at you electrocute) but the idea behind them in giving you runes that buff your playstyle per situation is way more interesting and easier to iterate on than raw stat bonuses.

and no doubt the same ''perfect'' rune setup will be found out and then we're stuck with the same except we now can't even try cheese or out of meta builds anymore because runes are gone, just splendid

ChaddyFantome3 votes

Silly argument. You can just as much make cheesy setups in the new set up even in the worst case scenario where 1 becomes optimal. It still ultimately usurp the old one by not being bogged down by all its other archaic adpects

The Space Cowboy3 votes

I always enjoyed being able to fill a gap in a champs stats. I would start with 20% as on Braum for instance to proc his passive as a jungle to go off meta, or do the same for Jinx to un-nerf her base as. Now that is impossible. I’ll work with the new system but it does suck having that diversity lost.

ChaddyFantome3 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Space Cowboy,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=aO3Q3ypi,comment-id=000200010000000400010000,timestamp=2017-11-10T21:00:05.221+0000)

I always enjoyed being able to fill a gap in a champs stats. I would start with 20% as on Braum for instance to proc his passive as a jungle to go off meta, or do the same for Jinx to un-nerf her base as. Now that is impossible. I’ll work with the new system but it does suck having that diversity lost.

How is it impossible? Just dip into precision, lol

hhaavviikk3 votes

{quoted}

Silly argument. You can just as much make cheesy setups in the new set up even in the worst case scenario where 1 becomes optimal. It still ultimately usurp the old one by not being bogged down by all its other archaic adpects

how? there aren't any masteries to the same degree as the old runes, want to play 20% crit chance garen? 20% crit chance soraka? tough shit.

full AS vayne or skarner? tough shit

full armor rammus? tough shit

full health soraka? tough shit, so many things I could do before I can do no longer

Durfain12 votes

A load or rubbish. Changing runes was not necessary and catering to newer players in this way is exactly the reason so many great games have fallen in the past (WoW I'm looking at you). Complexity does NOT turn newer players away. The reason newer players are put off the game is the toxic player base, the IP grind (which is now somewhat alleviated but could also have been alleviated by making all runes FREE) and the terrible tutorials. We've gone from a possibility of 30 rune slots to modify your base stats in some way and 30 mastery points to modify your base stats + gameplay to 6. We've reduced the amount of customization that you have over your champion by 90% but in reality it's even worse than that because you now only have the ability to modify your gameplay, the ability to customize your base stats has been phased out completely (and no, 5 armor or MR from the resolve tree doesn't count). The only way to customize your base stats is now through itemization. You have shitty itemization? (Tanks, mages I'm looking at you) Too bad! You're fucked.

Semaj3xt4h4 votes

{quoted}

Overhauling the runes was necessary for the exact reason you just listed: It was easy and served to change nothing.

While it's like day 2, it didn't take long for runes to get figured out. From around season 2 onward, there was an optimal, singular runepage for every champion. There was also little interesting about runes. The "interesting ones" (Larger energy pools, for example.) were noob traps. So you ended up into homogenized paths that were right for pretty much every champion.

"Oh but-" Cheese builds don't really count either as most cheese builds weren't good beyond one match-up that almost never happened. The idea is to remove raw stat bonuses, make things based more upon the champion you pick rather than the raw statistic bonuses. Are runes good now? Naw, they need tweaking and general keystones are a bit too powerful (Looking at you electrocute) but the idea behind them in giving you runes that buff your playstyle per situation is way more interesting and easier to iterate on than raw stat bonuses.

So you are a supporter of communism? lol, taking away my choices because you only perceive there being one viable choice? lol thanks man, glad people like you ruined a game I enjoyed that had lots of flavor and customization.... Im with you op, there were several playstyles for different champions, lethality/crit dmg/crit runes with lifesteal/attack speed... I play aram only and have only done so for the last couple years and man I sure am regretting spending any money on the game at this point, its a tough pill to swallow when you can't even enjoy playing the way you want to...

Ralanr14 votes

Why do you believe you can not customize your playstyle now exactly? The new system may not offer things like 1% crit, but it allows for certain options that you can change easily in champ select to better suit your match ups or playstyle.

Vermonster13 votes

What game have you been playing... the runes are trash, they don't work with matchup virtually at all. Half the champions they don't work on at all.

And junglers got fucked yet again.

Ralanr6 votes

I’ve been playing a game that allows me to better act as a splitpusher as Sion (which is one of the ways I like playing him) and that allowed me to really put a foothold in top lane with Ornn through klepto and debt.

Junglers got a bit screwed, but it’s only the first day. Changes are obviously going to be made.

Troll for Trump6 votes

Most mages get shafted by being pigeonholed with supports, Juggernauts/Bruisers get shafted, tanks supposedly got shafted again.

The problem with the trees are that they are heavily specialized.

There's a tank tree, an assassin tree, an ADC tree, and Inspiration.

So champs that aren't purely one of those 3 classes end up being forced to become one of the main 3, and end up doing a poor job of it.

HalcyonDweller1 votes

{quoted}

The problem with the trees are that they are heavily specialized.

There's a tank tree, an assassin tree, an ADC tree, and Inspiration.

So champs that aren't purely one of those 3 classes end up being forced to become one of the main 3, and end up doing a poor job of it.

I concur. Perhaps Riot needs to tone down the Domination tree while also improving the Sorcery tree so that mages don't get shafted.

Troll for Trump2 votes

For the Sorc tree, the problems I see are: Phase Rush has no synergy with any champ that would prioritize the sorcery tree. Is it for AP assassins? It doesn't seem to really fit with them either.

Among the branch runes, the only good ones are the ultimate hat and transcendence. Everything else is just kinda meh.

The third tier as a whole is just awful.

I wouldn't say domination is perfect either.

It's keyrunes, as a whole are probably the strongest of the other branches, but it's still missing things in the branches. For tier 1, sudden impact just overshadows the other options by far Tier 2, the ward utility seems really out of place. Is it for support assassins? Is it for support mages? Tier 3 is fine, it fits the theme, and all 3 are relatively balanced.

ChaddyFantome2 votes

{quoted}

Most mages get shafted by being pigeonholed with supports, Juggernauts/Bruisers get shafted, tanks supposedly got shafted again.

The problem with the trees are that they are heavily specialized.

There's a tank tree, an assassin tree, an ADC tree, and Inspiration.

So champs that aren't purely one of those 3 classes end up being forced to become one of the main 3, and end up doing a poor job of it.

I largely disagree, since elements one would usually associate with other classes are intermingled between the classes.

Dangerous game for exams is in the 'Dps' tree but very little is stopping other classes from dipping into it.

A lot of the ''assassin' masteries work great for any class including supports.

And the 'mage' tree gives stuff that would be great for adcs assassins, fighters even supports.

I think people need to really take time to think outside the box for once.

I've co.e up with at least 3 sets for nearly all my champs thus far via theorycragting

Troll for Trump2 votes

No, it's not thinking outside the box, I've literally tried everything on Darius as is. I haven't done it with every champ, but I'm almost completely certain (this assertion is supported by statistics) that Dar got the axe this patch.

True, ELEMENTS from classes can be intermingled, but not completely.

Again, with juggernauts. They're kinda a mix between tank and dps, but none of them really fit into them.

Because most champs are made from a mix of various classes, they need a mix of keyrunes and masteries from each of them. Just splitting them into two trees isn't enough for a lot of champs, and they'll be pigeonholed into one of the main roles one way or another.

A more accurate way to put it is that the masteries/runes give SOME good stuff to various other classes. However, when you pick that tree, you're also locked into 1-2 other masteries/runes that may have subpar choices, in addition to a keyrune.

So, for the champs that aren't "pure" classes, no matter which way they go, they'll just be shitty. The best way to reduce how much worse they are is to fully commit to whichever one of the main classes you took a keyrune from, and try to align with it. This ultimately creates a subpar version of any champ that is of the pure class.

As for keyrunes. You cannot argue that the keyrunes aren't heavily specialized. They simply are. In fact, the specialization with keyrunes is WORSE than it was before.

I can come up with 3 sets for most of my champs too. However, this will lead to two results:

  1. The champ is a "pure" class, and all of the sets are practically the same with minor adjustments, because you're still forced into the same primary tree
  2. The champ is a non-pure class (Darius) and every set is just wayyy worse than his previous state, as a result of the runes.
Funkin Dunkin1 votes

We're not making the game for you though. We're making this game for a community. I used to play Skarner top religiously until you guys changed his passive. For reasons nobody had any friggen clue why because he was already healthy by that point and you jug handled him straight into the jungle. Sion was never meant to be a split pusher but I'm not a mod so I guess I won't ever get that change back.

Ralanr3 votes

Dunkin, I am not a member of Riot. Me and other Wardens are volunteer mods.

We are not Rioters. We are in the so called community that you just assumed otherwise.

Sona Ping11 votes

{quoted}

but it allows for certain options that you can change easily in champ select to better suit your match ups or playstyle.

Because you could do that before and now you have less options for that. Riot decided to remove a lot of grind burden from the pregame options, a decision that I do appreciate. However, they did so by simplifying the game and removing those strategic options altogether, which I do not appreciate.

Ralanr4 votes

Not really. Split push Sion wasn’t that good because he didn’t take towers as quickly as other split pushers and wasn’t a super big 1v1 threat.

Now he’s an actual tower threat.

Vermonster10 votes

Yea.... because towers are completely ineffective and literally any champion can demolish them now

ModAcademy Kayn3 votes

The never-ending Splitpush Sion is the most fun I've had with Sion, and I can't wait to try him with the new runes. Run away with ult, heal with warmogs, be back in lane as your allies shove other lanes. It's honestly amazing.

Vectros6 votes

{quoted}

Not really. Split push Sion wasn’t that good because he didn’t take towers as quickly as other split pushers and wasn’t a super big 1v1 threat.

Now he’s an actual tower threat.

If we're being honest, turrets are just cheese now. We don't need more ways to wreck them, they practically fall over on their own. Sion is one of my most played champs, and I don't think he's really meant to be a split pusher; all that CC makes him great for team fights.

Funkin Dunkin1 votes

The towers have always been soft as baby shit. There was no reason to add an ability that does 30% of its health in 1 hit. You completely took out safe backs and unless you have teleport, your tower is now gone. I had this happen in a game where I was ahead by a level, 3 kills, and 20 cs. I pushed my wave to their tower for a safe back. By the time I got back my tower was gone in 4 hits. Great job.

Ralanr1 votes

So...what you’re saying is that there is a risk to not take teleport top .

Funkin Dunkin3 votes

Now you're just being coy. I had teleport and it was on cooldown. Now you literally are not safe backing UNLESS it is up. That's just outright stupid.

And there's always been a risk of not taking teleport. Falling so far behind you're irrelevant.

DaCurtis26 votes

The new runes don't cover the variety that old runes had at all.

I can't slot in mulitple stats easily, I'm locked into two rune pages, which is incredible restricting in comparison to the 4 sets of Marks, Seals, Glyphs, and Quints that I could use before.

For instance - say my champion only synergised well with 'Press the Attack', I am now locked in that rune page slot, whether I like the corresponding runes or not, I'm forced to pick them. Now for the second page, say I want some damage. I'm now without defensive runes. What if I slot in defensive runes instead? Sorry, you can't have both. There's absolutely no middle ground, and the current system gives you almost no choice on what runes you are playing the game with, it's all rooted around your keystone.

Ralanr6 votes

So what you want is stats, not playstyle Support?

If you want to excel in a specific area, you accept being weaker in another.

Though if you want a more jack of all trades style, you could go the inspiration tree for klepto and debt to sacrifice some early game stats for easier access to items that provide that stats you want.

LightIsMyPath13 votes

Yeah because if you need resistance you are totally going to trade autos early game, let me autoattack an electrocute Zed as Lux and see what happens. :D

Things go even worse when you want a full damage or full defensive /sustainability because you just can't get them.. Especially as a mage. Say as before I am Lux vs Zed. Old runes I would take full armor in yellows. Blues I don't need magic resist so I can either add more AP,more cdr or even some mana regen since one of the worst things about the matchup is the forced early zhonya leaves you in pain with mana. I look at runes now: The only rune that gives some armor is in a path I literally don't want anything else from. The stopwatch is real nice.. But if you get it no biscuits. Too bad you have mana :p screw you. The other mana option is in the sorcery tree, and would lock me out of probably the best rune out there for me so I can't take it.. See the pattern here? Meanwhile I am stuck with a (for me ) completely useless branch in which I still have to decide which rune is the less useless, but I HAVE to take one of them unless I play without keystone (since only 3 keystones are ok on my champion, one of which I can't take because all the rest of the tree is thrash on my champion). Funniest thing about this is the best rune for my mana management being in the ADC path. So.. Guess what, can't take it. Much choices indeed having to decide your whole setup on ONE rune you need. May as well have scrapped everything and instead of rune pages having us start with one rune

Funkin Dunkin5 votes

In those situations I used to take a flat 13 armor and a scaling 27 armor and put the rest into either AP or cdr. AS if teemo ^.^

Now I lose ALL of that. They took diversity of runes, removed survivability, and added....whatever this is

Sewer Side3 votes

{quoted}

The new runes don't cover the variety that old runes had at all.

I can't slot in mulitple stats easily, I'm locked into two rune pages, which is incredible restricting in comparison to the 4 sets of Marks, Seals, Glyphs, and Quints that I could use before.

For instance - say my champion only synergised well with 'Press the Attack', I am now locked in that rune page slot, whether I like the corresponding runes or not, I'm forced to pick them. Now for the second page, say I want some damage. I'm now without defensive runes. What if I slot in defensive runes instead? Sorry, you can't have both. There's absolutely no middle ground, and the current system gives you almost no choice on what runes you are playing the game with, it's all rooted around your keystone.

Sounds more to me that in game items need more meaningful variety rather than runes tbh.

Old runes are shit anyways, basically you could never go wrong running flats to survive early then grab items and adapt as you need. New runes need tuning but they are far superior at defining gameplay strategies in and out of lane.

Items need more diversity so you can actually manage youe stats in game rather than trying to predict what you need before you even queue.

DaCurtis4 votes

Great points.

I agree, there definitely needs to be more diversity funneled into the items now.

Lethality just destroys magic penetration items right now for instance.

Sraeg20133 votes

With old runes you could go with the basic jack of all trades for AP and AD, or spec for many playstyles.

Now it's the same exact shit as with Keystones except multiplied. You have one maaaaybe two good Keyrunes and you MUST spec into that tree, even if none of "basic" runes are of any use.

Poske2 votes

{quoted}

Why do you believe you can not customize your playstyle now exactly? The new system may not offer things like 1% crit, but it allows for certain options that you can change easily in champ select to better suit your match ups or playstyle.

Because there is a diff between 20 flat armor and 5 flat armor for example

Imagine playing mage vs zed in this meta. He can stat check you wiht R>E>A>A

Funkin Dunkin5 votes

The old rune pages better suited your match ups. You're confusing the old runes with the old mastery trees. What you did is remove runes completely and turn a 30 point mastery tree into a 6. The mastery tree would change occasionally, but it was the actual rune pages that changed most of the time. You completely took that away and forced champions to play a linear system.

Ralanr2 votes

IMO runes were barely changed across a lot of people and Riot hasn’t touched their strength in years. It was an archaic system that seemed like a bunch of extra knowledge to new players that was also a chore to get.

I never made more than my general runes because buying enough runes was about as much as buying a champion, something that’s more fun.

Funkin Dunkin4 votes

The fact that runes were expensive was not a reason to remove them entirely. Either make them less expensive or free.

As for as them never being changed, that is the difference between a casual player and a player who prepares for specific instances. I had 9 rune pages with 20 mastery pages which gave me limitless combinations. Mathematically I had 144 different options to choose from. Now I have 9 options to choose from and I am forced to make generic pages that hopefully multiple champions may be able to utilize. Seriously.....9 pages when there are 140+ champions in this game?

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