An appeal to any Rioter who will listen

Im wondering if at some point in the near future we can look at re-balancing runes as a means to improve the game. This season introduced some radical changes that have stirred a lot of player concerns and balance issues. I believe that taking a look at runes could help alleviate some issues without having to micro fix everything in the game. Ill outline my topics here and delve into them below: 1. Player style and choices 2.Outdated or under performing stats 3. General game play and balance. 4. Reinvigorating the game and its player base.

1. Looking at runes right now there is not really much strategic diversity or personal preference that goes into rune selection. Basically, we are forced into the optimal choices for a champion. I miss the days where I could experiment on which runes would work well and how you could play a champion "this way" or take them the "that way". My biggest example here was the nerfing of lifesteal runes back in the day. I remember when I could play an adc with lifesteal quints, ad quints, or attack speed. Nowadays your pretty much stuck with the only thing that works per champ basis (that may be a bit binary but you get the point). I understand we dont want specific abuse cases but specific cases are easier to fix than some of the huge balance messes we see already.

2. This ties into my first point in that we have sooo many choices in runes and yet half of them aren't even viable because they dont work as well as the main choices. For example, we just removed spell vamp items from the game but those spell vamp quints I have are next to worthless. Ive tried it on champs such as fiddlesticks, swain, and ryze and found that you are WAY better off going ap. This is one small example of a big problem with runes. Essentially what runes have become, is just a mandatory standardized IP sink, when it should be a means for player style choice. I want to have the stats that I want, not the most optimal setup. It's like saying "do you want this plain sword that every other person takes to battle because its sharp and effective, or do you want custom built weapon that wont even be sharp."(the choice is obvious considering ranked play requires everything be optimal) If runes continue on the way that they are, they should not exist or should just be free (not all of us own every champ and have 100k ip sitting around)

3. So its no secret that there is a portion of the community that does not like the way things are going so far this season and I believe runes are an easy way to tweak balance and effect the game. A little while back we nerfed armor seals, which was fine in that meta. Now we have games that feel so stompy and one sided that make the game feel like its over in minutes. I feel that reverting the armor nerf may help players survive a little better in this meta where everyone does so much damage. Now I know that tanks are a bit op right now but that dosnt mean that everyone else cant use the armor. Sometimes all you need is a little more reistance to stay alive and possibly scale into the late game. We dont need to stop at armor seals necessarily but we need to re analyze all runes that may help to create a more healthy game based on the new season. Riot did a great job with the masteries this season to make the game more engaging and have options; however the rune system looks like a steaming pile of dung next to this accomplishment.

4. To summarize my argument, if we tweak runes and make more viable options players will have a another great tool to influence the game the way they want to. This season has taken a huge jump forward (for good and sadly for bad) if we keep moving forward (say with matching mastery choices with rune choices) the game will reach more balance and player satisfaction. I want to feel that feeling again, when I could experiment and find how I wanted to play. I want to feel like my runes actually mean something and aren't forced on me because "I need the damage to last hit" "I need the attack speed to proc on hits" "Sellvamp or Magic pen arent viable" "I move vary fast so I need more mobility." If we think outside the box like we did with mastery's we can make its so these un-viable runes are viable without over-buffing them, but rather changing them to work different ways or have an new stat pinned on to the existing one. I dont claim to have much knowledge of how exactly runes impact the game or how they can be fixed but it is plain to see that runes do not do what they should do and there is room for improvement.

To any who made it this far I thank you for taking the time. I hate long winded posts and this could certainly be (and should've been) more concise (and I didnt even cover a portion of all the things I wanted to convey). Anyway, if you agree or have suggestions/ comments I hope you will up-vote this and hopefully a rioter can help shed some light, and be champion for a rune overhaul! [zombie-brand-mindblown]