I mean just look at the sheer amount of options you have to work with here. Deathfire Touch, Mana regen based on missing mana, SCALING DEFENSES just to name a few. The new runes are ok but they really lack variability, and seem too focused on damage output.
Can we get something like this back in S9?
Agent Corgi66 votesI remember back when we had THESE masteries. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/f/f8/Masteries2015.png/revision/latest?cb=20180331111705
Oh, looks like I need to play a tank... INVESTS ALL 30 POINTS INTO THE DEFENSIVE TREE
SnugglePuggle946 votesMan I remember those! I miss them :(
TheSingularity7 votesGood times
Stephenizgod18 votesCame here looking for someone who remembered the real old masteries, was not disappointed.
This is when the game was at its best imo
Need Gold 4 Tent18 votesI remember back when we had THESE masteries. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/f/f8/Masteries2015.png/revision/latest?cb=20180331111705
Oh, looks like I need to play a tank... INVESTS ALL 30 POINTS INTO THE DEFENSIVE TREE
Try tanking my 30 Offense Kayle l0l
CHAOS0074 votes
ok
PowerSlave9934 votesThose masteries were perfect. I loved them.
Best Ekko NA11 votesI remember back when we had THESE masteries. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/f/f8/Masteries2015.png/revision/latest?cb=20180331111705
Oh, looks like I need to play a tank... INVESTS ALL 30 POINTS INTO THE DEFENSIVE TREE
Kinda my thoughts on the matter, season 3 - 5 Mastery trees were the best. Everything after that was a pretty big downgrade.
Automated Riven2 votesDon't forget 1-3. Those were solid also.
NineTailedMystic2 votesI disagree. These runes were boring and plain and offered very little incentive of changing them for your desired champion outside of sometimes changing your secondary 9 points into defense for Veteran's Scars.
Best Ekko NA3 votesI disagree. These runes were boring and plain and offered very little incentive of changing them for your desired champion outside of sometimes changing your secondary 9 points into defense for Veteran's Scars.
You know, I really want to respond to you positively but it's borderline impossible. lol
Like, what the fuck? Did you even play when they had the old masteries? If you can make a comment like this and actually be serious then you must have been high as shit everyday of your life back then to think something like that. I mean, LOOK AT THESE MASTERY TREES:
If you think what we have now is better than those, then don't even reply because I have to disown you for being part of the cause of this shitty time in League of Legends history.
NineTailedMystic1 votesThose masteries? No, I started in S5. I used the first masteries rework, the ones in the picture you linked the first time with Havoc as the end Offense mastery.
melior sum48 votesRiot will never go back to the old masteries, they are to far deep into runes reforged.
Literally all they had to do to the old system was make all runes free and compensate anyone who bought runes before a certain date. The old system was fucking perfect.
And if they wanted to fucking make masteries different, they could of added a tree or two more without fucking up the entire game.
Marothennan12 votesWould have made too much sense to be something Riot would do
Cavesloth1 votesTrue. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
ZerglingOne1 votes[{quoted}](name=Not Grouping,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=d9NPGokb,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2018-10-01T00:26:14.748+0000)
Riot will never go back to the old masteries, they are to far deep into runes reforged.
Literally all they had to do to the old system was make all runes free and compensate anyone who bought runes before a certain date. The old system was fucking perfect.
And if they wanted to fucking make masteries different, they could of added a tree or two more without fucking up the entire game.
Even now that I don't even play anymore, I still miss my 15% crit chance page. It was the most amazing alternative ADC setup because you traded early game farming (still could easily win trades with lucky-ish crits) for absolute mid and late game dominance.
It was the single highest damage increase available from the rune pages for ranged carries late game ( I did a big ol' math post about it ) and it was still viable mid game unlike crit damage.
BLIGHTBRINGER24 votesI miss the keyrunes mostly, because they all felt diverse/distinctive from one another.
They also felt more interesting and fitting theme wise, the current runes are really basic in name (Electrocute, Conqueror, Predator). I miss...
Then there are a few Runes that are disappointing in general (Summon Aery, Hail of Blades, Arcane Comet, Predator, Lethal Tempo, Guardian).
Summon Aery at release was suppose to be a Support focused Rune that helped with shielding and poking.
Hail of Blades being an unfit Rune in the Domination tree is just the first point, the Rune is just terribly designed. It's a worse version of Lethal Tempo, because at some point in the game both Rune Attack Speed steroids end up close in bonus similarities.
Then we have Arcane Comet that is also a poke oriented Rune for Mages, which serves a similar purpose as Summon Aery (Still no Damage over Time Rune, RIP Deathfire Touch).
Predator is a Rune that barely anyone takes besides the few main champs like (Nunu, Hecarim). It's just more movement speed and bonus damage on a damaging action against an enemy (Ability or Basic Attack).
Lethal Tempo is just bonus Attack Speed, and a cap removal during its duration. That's legit all it is.
Guardian wouldn't be bad if it didn't need you to stand 50 or so units apart from the ally for it to shield them. Not only that but it has an incredibly long cooldown.
XeroKimo3 votesCertain abilities can actually proc guardian from a distance, like thresh W and taric W, I don't know how many abilities will proc it though
My Waifu Vanilla1 votesAny "buffed" ally can proc guardian. Janna/Karma/Lulu E all proc Guardian as well if they take damage.
Beast Brawler1 votesI think Mordekaiser's W works as well but it only happened once and I'm not quite sure.
TheSingularity22 votesI miss the older masteries http://abccbaandy.github.io/league-S4mastery-calc/
Primarily in their point allocation (was far more flexible. 21/9, 10/10/10 30/0 and everything in between
NaturesMayhem2 votesAh, why are those so sexy? By all rights, the new runes with their slick visuals and animations should be cooler. But the nostalgia and crisp design of the old runes is just perfect...
SwiftKitten887 votesI miss the older masteries http://abccbaandy.github.io/league-S4mastery-calc/
Primarily in their point allocation (was far more flexible. 21/9, 10/10/10 30/0 and everything in between
this was the best one by far, no contest at all
Automated Riven1 votesTo be fair. When the OG keystone runes were added that's when damage started getting nuts.
TheSingularity2 votesWasn't here before that point. But damage was still drastically lower then, than it is now. And we had an actual defense tree, with just defense stats not this stupid "tank damage tree".
Less dmg from monsters, tenacity that stacked on top of boots, healing, sustain, less dmg from crit, more resistance in team fights.
And you actually had to trade dmg for beef, now you get dmg no matter what.
KoggyStyle15 votesi remember when wow was like this, they changed it, i quit for league, and was followed by the same asshole who came up with this trash runes reforged.
JoeAnarchy13 votes[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]
mrmeddyman10 votesRunes Reforged isn't that interesting outside of the Inspiration Tree because there are too few Keystones to actually have interesting and variable playstyles because one keystone always "fits" the champion so well that it's just the default option. More Keystones that don't just artificially float damage numbers but actually meaningfully make you play champions more differently would be better.
SnugglePuggle948 votesYes please!! Runes Reforged was never needed at all.
hhaavviikk7 votesI miss runes more, they actually allowed for more diverse options, inb4 ''but there was a optimal choice!!11!!'' yeah at high elo, jst like how there's an optimal choice now, except it's optimal everywhere because there's no experimenting with the current mastery system, previously I could go full armor, full CDR, full AS, or a combo of armor and health, or full magic resist, hell full crit chance, it allowed me to play some champions differently, but now? Just flat damage everywhere, have +20 damage, have +80 damage there, another +15 damage here, that's just boring
Tokogawaruf1 votesI still miss my full crit damage Runes as Draven. 300% Krits (with old IE) were so damn pleasant to hit.
TheSingularity1 votesFull scaling AD illaoi building full ad*[sg-miss-fortune]*
Vampire Diaries6 votesOld runes where much better. The point of new runes was ppls to have more room to work with but cmon... if u go predator katarina for example u are literally trolling. Old runes were much better and had a lot more room work with. I see literally no point in making the new runes like literally.
DuskDaUmbreon6 votesSure. There were a lot of choices. More than there are currently.
There were incredibly few meaningful choices, though.
Did you want burst? You went into the middle tree, invested 18 points, and got Thunderlord's. You then went into the left tree and went 2-2-2-2 or 2-2-2-1. Almost everyone in the game got biscuits, mana regen was on everyone who had mana, and you got bandit if you were a support, or you got the one to the right of it if you were anyone else.
You made a total of 10 mastery choices, as opposed to our live 6. You got less real choices, though, because so many things were just useless on you. One of the damned rows in the left tree was just the choice between physical or magic pen, for fuck's sake. That's not a choice on anyone when that system was around, and now it'd only be a choice on 
.
If you want more real choices, you could look at the older mastery system, but that one was honestly just a convoluted, confusing mess for new players.
The new system doesn't have as many choices as the oldest system, sure, but it's also a hell of a lot more straightfoward.
Basically: System 1: Confusing as fuck, although there were certainly a lot of choices, many of which were meaningful. System 2: More straightforward, but choices were borderline meaningless. System 3: Much more straightforward, a few more options with less choices, but most, if not all, choices are meaningful each time.
Napoleon36 votesi miss the old runes masteries like season 4 and 5 and jungle monsters + items and champions.
rtbf2256182414 votesThey changed the masteries because most of them felt like they had no active effect in the game and you could easily forget about having them.
Most of the people on this thread are just high on nostalgia because there were a total of like 5 setups you could choose from depending on the champion you were playing.
Krully5 votesthey had no active effect
and the game was better for it
Velasan4 votesI like the new ones actually, and I did play on both the old systems (started at end of season 4). Runes reforged just needs more refinement and probably another tree, plus some more rune options per tier.
At the moment we have several basically irrelevant runes because no one uses them. I expect in preseason they will do a pass on all those things and clean up the rune system. Barely anyone uses Hail of Blades or Phase Rush or Lethal Tempo etc.
Do agree though that they could add more interesting runes than just increasing damage output. For example, if it were me designing the runes I don't need Celerity to give more damage. I would rather have Celerity just give 3% move speed, but no damage attached to it. That way if you are taking Celerity you are doing it for the move speed, and not just because you have a character with an MS boost and want more damage.
I do miss the combined Vampirism (spell vamp + life steal) and Precision masteries (the one that gave both magic pen and armor pen). It's hard to get any combination of that on one character. I also miss Deathfire Touch, but I think if they were going to re-add that keystone it would need to be slightly reworked. The way it functioned previously was messy, and they've been slowly removing all DOT's from the game so not that many champions can even use it now.
One thing a lot of people seem to be missing is that the primary reason for a mastery system overhaul is to make the game easier to balance. By taking away the secondary rune system and just having everything in one system where you have to choose by tier it removes a lot of extraneous variables. So, for example lets say a small group of people figure out that a champion is insane with 9% extra attack speed. However, lets also imagine almost no one plays the champion that way. Then you get stuck in this frustrating situation where if you nerf the champion it gets nerfed for everyone even if only an outlier of players were having success with it. The new system is also a lot cleaner when taking internal feedback, because you can see "x players with Electrocute keystone have these statistics" instead of trying to judge it against a gigantic amount of micro decisions on a per stat point change on the old runes. IMO that's a very worthwhile trade off especially for the longevity of League of Legends as a whole.
PaffWasTaken4 votesAh, yes, the time where mages weren't force fed runes related to movement speed
MLDzXnRRR3 votesThese masteries were also very bad/unbalanced compared to older seasons, only a player abusing broken keystones can long for them.
ankoanko192 votesreally this. Why do people miss S6/S7 masteries? S5 maybe were out of placed but they werent as horrible as the keystone change.
O for Orianna3 votesdon't forget about the old runes, they were good as well
Hügö3 votesThe ruens reforged failed in the concept riot intended for them, the so epic "diversity". The only diversity you see is if someone takes nullifying orb instead of the mana reg thing.
Pheobos2 votesreally hoping for some balance changes when it comes to keystone runes. there's some in there that are too situational. I personally see no reason to keep keystones that are crowded out by the other options in the same tree. I personally would love to see Curage of the Collosus to make a return for the resolve tree. Not all champs can effectively run grasp and aftershock is all over the place imo. A keystone that's supposed to increse your tankyness shouldn't have a damage proc on it. Give it a slow for example.
I'd like for a small rework for Guardian, make it more apealing to take outside of the support role.
Lethal thempo and hail of blades are both outshined in their respective tree's because they unlike the other runes, don't increase damage like the others do. Or in Fleet's case, give sustain. Just remove both and make something compleetly new? or install Deathfire's grasp in domination in hail's place. Having both an adaptive ad and ap scaling and for it being in the domination tree, this rune would be pretty appealing imo.
Could Conquerer be reworked into Fervor of battle please? True damage isn't something that should be readily be avaidable for anyone to have. There's champions in the game that are specificly balanced around having it in their kits.
Phase rush; I'm indifferent? I finally get how it works, but if they would be to remove it I probally wouldn't care.
Last one; Summon Aery. Why is it in scorcery? I honestly feel like this should be in Inspiration and also feel like it's shielding could be buffed in trade for it's damge being looked at. This shouldn't be such an apealing keystone to pick for champions without healing or shielding. It shouldn't have a damage proc imo. Or to be more specific, one that's a lock on. it's base damage + scorch is really anoying to face.
-sorry about the little vent, it felt good tho.
DeracadaVenom1 votes[sg-soraka]
ankoanko191 votesalso get free ms & slow resistance cause you burst or free sustain because you build crit or a free thicc shield cause you had the smallest amount of CC in your kit. ''masteries were so great and balanced!'' hehe xd. Maybe in S6 but surely as hell not in S7.
ZT Xperimentor1 votesI'll go farther back, I miss the masteries from season 1-5, you know, back when there was diversity in playstyle per champion without it breaking the game every other patch.
