Why does Gathering Storm exist when in most games you'll only get one or two stacks?

For the low elo matches where the game somehow manages to run to 40 min until one of the teams manage to kill baron and then win.

So you have an excuse when you vote No

For the late game kappa

A) 2 stacks is amazing. 24 AP from a single rune? Yes please.

B) It's up to the player who takes Gathering Storm to MAKE the game last long enough. I do this with Nunu by securing dragons and heralds to make sure the enemy team can't snowball out of control. I still lose a lot of games but I at least have 80 AP when i lose.

Some games do go 30 minutes or more. Even 2 stacks gives comparable gold value to other runes.

Not all runes necessarily fit into the current meta (which right now is full fiesta 15 minute snowball fests that rarely go to 30+ minutes), but it's certainly possible the meta in the future might stabilize into something with longer games, in which case it'll make for some rather spicy late games if people can drag things out to 40+ minutes.

it will be better when everyone figures out whats good and stops feeding the asses off.

I am more bothered by the fact that Riot wants snowball to be exponentional

its meant for teams to stall out as long as possible for people like veigar

Currently it feels weak because of the game being as fast as it is now, however in a meta where games take longer the rune would be taken on just about everybody who could take it.

I take it on Evelynn sometimes because you simply don't get like any AP in the mid-late game (Runic Echoes and LB are fairly low AP and then you are generally stuck with a utility item like Zhonya's or Protobelt which again has very little AP). The rest of the options are pretty medicore since Scorch is only good on laners and Waterwalking is so situational and mediocre it isn't worth considering.

So Riot can say "look, we're trying our best to emphasise the late game as well!"

Pro tip: They're not. They like short games because it means shorter tournament games, which means less money spent on arenas.

For when Ryze's team lasts for at least 30 minutes.

I'm not salty that assassins are running around everywhere and killing my bot and top lane even when I went 0/2 in lane and Talon comes back 5/0/1

I'd like to believe its a step Riot took toward looking to bring back longer games. We'll just have to see how Preseason plays out.

Noob trap until we get longer games. Than it will be busted when we all start playing the long game.

I stopped taking it. Games dont last past 25m.

[{quoted}](name=Seto Kaìba,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=h4Ao1fYj,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-11-12T20:04:16.229+0000)

Just wondering :^)

Only reason I get it ever is because when I take sorcery tree the other two options are too shit.

With your username I feel like you have to run Klepto every game and type in all chat "Screw the rules, I have money!"

I take it about a third of the time as a no-one-else-will-end-the-game-so-I-will contingency.

We mainly have it since many players had some sort of ap or ad runes before preseason. It is a sort of compensation for that as the 10 and 20 minute bonuses although minute are close to what bonus ap and ad people had in runes.

Other than compensation, it is also there as a late game option to take if you feel you can use it to its fullest potential.

It's not that bad at any elo. The consistent 24 AP at 20 minutes is usually better than the River AP (sometimes) or the Burn (which is tbh really low damage later in the game).

Play her wave clear and range can stall games very easily however, thats assuming the rest of your team will follow along.

It's there to give you the illusion of choice.

Don't worry even in this game state I'm sure the pros will sure show us how they can stagnant the meta with resident sleeper waveclear and well scaling ranged carries beside their pet front line punching bags and take this rune into safe lanes.

Definitely will be much better than last season already though. Assassins will probably get some consistent play but definitely not lower access fighters. Heavy tanks will still be great but sometimes ap characters will bully them hard in top lane due to the low hp/mr situation which no melee got either of. Tanks will probably flourish in the jungle with their cc tools. It's gonna be like s4 I think which is a breath of fresh air. That time when Xerath mid was popular and Rumble and Lissandra were common top laners and both solo lane ap made crossing death zones in teamfights.

The main thing this season is defense runes are less optimal or just flat out worse when they are which disadvantages dps types that need more exposure to risk. Assassins can pull of their "cheats" but can still fail spectacularly when we're talking high level play

In Bronze and low ELO in general, where games are dragged 20-30 minutes over what they should be due to bad playing, this is a BEAST of a rune to take. Granting that guaranteed infinite scaling is huge in certain situations, not just in Bronze.

I always take this rune in non-Ranked because the bonus gets quite high after 30 - 40 minutes, and games usually (usually) last longer when people aren't playing super seriously. Got over 1200 AP on Cassiopeia with this.