Runes overhaul idea (large scale)

The problem with runes right now, I feel, is a couple overtuned or necessary runes (namely armor seals and mr blues) are dominating their rune slots leaving little room for diversity. Seriously though do the math on how much gold MR blues are worth compared to other runes... It's sick.

Here's what I think should happen; tier one runes removed. Tier two runes renamed: Lesser Runes. Tier three, renamed: Runes (we can finally drop that annoying "Greater" tag that proceeds every rune) Lesser Runes will be available at Summoner level 1, and have 1/2 the cost and effect of Runes. Lesser Runes can be upgraded into Runes for the difference in IP.

A greater effort should be made to balance scaling and flat runes, in general, scaling need a sizable buff to compensate for the weak start you will have for taking them.

Below, I've outlined exactly how I think runes should be redistributed and while it might seem jarring at first look at how many more options it actually opens up. Without seals and glyphs being dominated by flat armor and mr respectively I think we can create much more interesting options.

Marks (reds): should be primarily offensive and cover AP aswell as AD.

New List of Primary Marks:

1. Mark of Flat Attack Damage
2. Mark of Scaling Attack Damage
3. Mark of Armor Penetration
4. Mark of Attack Speed
5. Mark of Critical Strike Chance
6. Mark of Flat Ability Power
7. Mark of Scaling Ability Power
8. Mark of Magic Penetration
9. Mark of Hybrid Penetration
10. Mark of Spellblade Secondary
11. Mark of Flat Armor
12. Mark of Flat Magic Resistance
13. Mark of Flat Health
14. Mark of Flat Health Regeneration
15. Mark of Flat Mana
16. Mark of Flat Energy
17. Mark of Flat Cooldown Reduction

Spellblade: a new offensive rune which adds a small percent of Ability Power to your auto attacks.

Seals (yellows): should be primarily defensive and include Magic Resist aswell as Armor and Health.

New List of Primary Seals

1. Seal of Flat Armor
2. Seal of Scaling Armor
3. Seal of Flat Magic Resistance
4. Seal of Scaling Magic Resistance
5. Seal of Flat Health
6. Seal of Scaling Health
7. Seal of Percentage Health
8. Seal of Flat Health Regen
9. Seal of Flat Dual Resistances
10. Seal of Scaling Dual Resistances Secondary
11. Seal of Flat Attack Damage
12. Seal of Critical Strike Chance
13. Seal of Flat Ability Power
14. Seal of Scaling Mana
15. Seal of Scaling Mana Regen
16. Seal of Energy Regeneration
17. Seal of Scaling Cooldown Reduction

Flat and Scaling Dual Resistances are new defensive runes which give a mix of Armor and Magic Resistance.

Glyphs (blues): should just be utility and resources.

New List of Primary Glyphs

1. Glyph of Flat Mana
2. Glyph of Scaling Mana
3. Glyph of Flat Mana Regeneration
4. Glyph of Scaling Mama Regeneration
5. Glyph of Flat Energy
6. Glyph of Flat Energy Regeneration
7. Glyph of Flat Cooldown Reduction
8. Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction
9. Glyph of Experience
10. Glyph of Gold
11. Glyph of Movement Speed
12. Glyph of Spell Vamp
13. Glyph of Lifesteal Secondary
14. Glyph of Scaling Attack Damage
15. Glyph of Scaling Ability Power
16. Glyph of Attack Speed
17. Glyph of Scaling Armor
18. Glyph of Scaling Magic Resistance
19. Glyph of Scaling Health

Quintessences, no longer have unique effects, instead their effects are equal to all Marks, Seals and Glyph effects (1 Quintessence equals 3 Mark, Seal or Glyph.) Basically, every single Quintessence is primary.

The following Rune effects should be removed, and no longer appear in the store: Revival, Critical Strike Damage, Scaling Health Regeneration, Scaling Energy and Scaling Energy Regeneration. Summoners who have these runes should have them Removed from their accounts, and reimbursement their IP. Basically I felt the above runes were not able to be balanced, or simply not worth the effort.

Finally, the transition: I think the easiest way to transition would be to move players' Runes around to keep them as either primary or secondary for instance what is now Greater Seal of Gold would become Glyph of Gold. What is now Greater Glyph of Ability Power would become Mark of Ability Power, etc, etc.

This is just my best guess what I think Riot will eventually be doing with runes, probably (hopefully) next preseason. I had a lot of fun pretending to be a dev. Thanks for reading.