Runes Remastered Review - A Nastily Exhausting and Overly Serious Analysis of EVERY SINGLE NEW RUNE

Precision – Improved attacks and sustained damage on a single target.

Keystones

• Press the Attack – Near infinite scaling seems ridiculous even with the reset on target switching. Seems like it would absurd on champions like Yi. Not in a fun synergistic way but in a, “Oh my God Yi is one-shotting everything after stacking up on the tank.” Sort of way.

• Lethal Tempo – Seems Fun and balanced.

• Fleet Footwork – Seems fun and balanced. It does damage? Claims none to monsters but no damage is listed. Is the heal value a health steal then?

Greater Runes

• Overheal – This is the first of many runes that makes me think there are much larger game changes coming that inexplicably haven’t been included in this post.

• What does this mean for Bloodthirster? Or can normally squishy champions get themselves absurd shields easily now?

• Triumph – Why does this give extra gold?

• Presence of Mind – I suppose auto attackers don’t need a ton of mana but focus caps at FIVE?!?!??!?! There’s hardly any point to this at all, especially when choosing amongst the runes of this tier.

Legend Runes

• Alacrity – Annoying name, but overall seems fine and I suppose is one of those runes that offsets old runes power budget now missing.

• Tenacity – Alright, but seems out of place in the precision tree. And for auto attackers, not a good choice over the other two. I suppose there may be some situations in which Tenacity would be good if “precision” is your secondary concentration.

• Bloodline – I Like it.

4th Runes

• Coup De Grace – Like it.

• Cut Down – Final numbers on this may not be ready, but even in detailed view it’s not specific beyond 8% increased damage. I suppose that doesn’t matter all that much.

• I would caution situations in which, even situationally, one rune provides a much larger damage amplification than others. This is the only one that gives 8% while the other two of this tier give 5%. Also, I find that this seems like “the choice” of this tier. If this is the “marksman” tier primarily, they’ll probably be doing enough damage to squishies that the other two don’t matter and this just seems like too logical a pairing with Lord Dominik’s Regards.

• Last Stand – I just don’t like this one. I suppose you can never bat a thousand but I can’t really imagine when I’d want to take this. I mean sure I can, but over either of the other two? And then this creates a situation in which it’s optimal to play at lower health? Not sure I like that.

Domination – Burst damage and target access. Hunt and eliminate prey.

Keystones

• Electrocute – Still a good compelling choice. Can a rioter clarify what “adaptive damage” is supposed to mean? Also, how will Azir be affected by the “unique attacks” limitation? Will one soldier attacking repeatedly count? Why wouldn’t it? Will multiple soldiers count uniquely?

• Predator – WOW! Uh…certainly a Keystone. Fitting you demoed this using Hecarim because this seems absurd on him. I’m going to assume the numbers are just straight up going to be adjusted. Lol.

• Dark Harvest – This doesn’t even feel like a viable choice in this tier. And it’s precisely because it obnoxiously teeters on the edge of not being able to store up stacks for too long, but also having potentially too small of a window to use it. If anything, this could be more interesting for melee champions in late game teamfights because they might be able to consistently stack off dead champions and clean up. But early game, I can’t see a situation in which a burst champion would want this over the other two. It doesn’t scale as well, and its late game base damage isn’t as good either. And you’re playing a minigame of keeping track of how many stacks you do have and for how long you have them.

Greater Runes

Let’s play a game of, “One of These Things is Not Like the Others!”

• Zombie Ward – Killing an enemy ward raises your own.

• Ghost Poro – Entering a push “places a ward.”

• Eyeball Collection – First of all, what the hell is that name? Anyway, champion and ward takedowns give ability power or attack damage PERMANENTLY.

These vision runes seem out of place in this tree. On one hand, I can see how the champions that would primarily choose domination benefit from these. On the other hand, I find it hard to imagine them choosing them over Eyeball most of the time.

If any runes regarding vision should be in this tree, it should be some form of “Blackout.”

3rd Runes

• Cheap Shot – This feels like “Oppressor” all over again. Does Riot believe that Oppressor is suddenly a good idea? I don’t feel strongly one way or the other I just wanted to point this out.

• As far as this rune, seems lackluster. Doesn’t deal appreciable damage. But being true damage, you probably don’t want it over tuned.

• Taste of Blood – I like it. Does seem perhaps a bit odd on assassins though. And could be rendered a none choice on many due to “Sudden Impact.”

• Sudden Impact – I love this! Although like Oppressor, this feels like it will give certain champions an even greater advantage.

Not sure how I’d work out the specifics, but I could almost see this and “Dark Harvest” swapping places. At least in terms of defining a playstayle. Not sure if Dark Harvest should be a lesser rune.

4th Runes

• Ravenous Hunter – I like it.

• Ingenious Hunter – I like this but it’ll probably be crowded out by the other two in this tier.

• Relentless Hunter – I like it.

Sorcery – Empowered abilities and resource manipulation. Unleash Destruction.

Keystones

• Summon Aerie – Sure, Pix is hardly the defining trait of Lulu’s kit but, come on. This keystone takes some of Lulu’s identity away from her in my opinion. As for the keystone itself, eh. Obviously not your choice if you want damage. And not sure who else would want this.

• Not to mention the visual clutter of who’s been Aeried and who’s not. And don’t even get me started if a Lulu takes this and you have two floating things around you. I do not like this.

• Arcane Comet – This is one of the more interesting additions I’ve seen thus far. But it seems to be something that could be difficult to play around late game, but also not really doing much damage either. Perhaps again I need to remember that these are also rune changes and not just mastery changes so there is that power budget in these. But for a keystone this just feels…eh.

• I can’t say I like it but I also don’t dislike it. It just feels odd. Hard to explain.

• Phase Rush – I like it.

Greater Runes

• Nullifying Orb – Hate it. HATE IT. I’m sorry but I do. Every 60 seconds anyone can have a magic damage Blitzcrank passive? And we’re just throwing all this survivability into the SORCERY tree? If you’re going to do something like this, why not put it in the LIVE FOREVER tree? God I hate this. Or at least hate it in Sorcery. Almost as bad as the wards in Domination.

• Manaflow Band – I like it but combined with Lost Chapter mages will be able to spam spells forever in mid lane.

• The Ultimate Hat – Interesting. I like it. I feel like there could be some abuse cases like Kass and Lux who already has a CDR augment. But this and Manaflow are two compelling choices as is.

3rd Runes

• Transcendence – Okay.

• Celerity – This doesn’t fit into Sorcery either. Makes more sense in Domination. Otherwise, seems fine.

• Absolute Focus – I like it.

4th Runes

• Scorch – Why in the hell would I ever choose this over either of the other runes in this tier? Insignificant base damage, on a cooldown, with no scaling. Drop Aerie, make Scorch a keystone, make it not suck and the sorcery tree is significantly more compelling.

• Waterwalking – I really like this. This is interesting and has potential on certain champions. However…

• Gathering Storm – This just seems ridiculous on so many levels. First, I’m not eagerly anticipating the, “Choose Draven, stall for 60 minutes, and one shot everything” strategies that could come of this. I also think that Waterwalking probably needs to be more relevant late game to be an actually choice between these two.

I get that these runes are probably meant to be, early game power, mid game roaming power, and late game power split. But I’ve already discussed that Scorch is irrelevant here. And I doubt a lot of people are good enough to win a game before 30 minutes to prevent the out-scaling of Gathering Storm. Not to mention that GS is forever power not just situational.

Resolve – Live forever. Durability and crowd control

Keystones

• Grasp of the Undying – I still like it.

• Guardian – I love it. The video shows you being in melee range. Is that necessary or not? If not, this is amazing. If yes, then it’s less amazing but still solid.

• Aftershock – This is fine until the damage. Stop. Don’t. Stop fucking doing this. Courage of the Colossus was fine. Why are we changing this and giving tanks SURVIVABILITY SCALING DAMAGE?

Greater Runes

• Perseverance – I can see where this can be powerful. It just seems so situational that it’s not very compelling of a choice. Especially when compared to the other two choices.

• Demolish – HOLY FUCKING SHIT. First, what does this have to do with staying alive? Second, HOLY FUCKING SHIT! That’s potentially a lot of damage. And this seems to be a situation of strange identity. I do like the idea of tanks being pushed towards anti-towers and/or tower aggro soaking. But this might be way too much power. Especially late game.

• Font of Life – I love Stoneborn Pact and I like Font of Life. I do wish it was elevated back up to keystone status and power.

3rd Runes

• Iron Skin/Mirror Shell – Why would I ever choose these over…

• Conditioning? Like a point I made a bit ago, late game scaling will almost always beat early power.

Iron Skin and Mirror Shell combined could be a compelling choice but aren’t right now.

4th Runes

• Overgrowth – So this is Strength of the Ages all over again except shitty or ludicrously powerful based on how long you power farm. I guess I won’t say good or bad. I’ll just ask if Riot suddenly thinks that’s a good idea again.

• Revitalize – Sounds like a good Sorcery heheh… Anyway, I like it. Windspeaker’s weaker and without extraneous strengths.

• Second Wind – Wait so…does this just not have a cooldown? I guess it’s over 10 seconds but…fucking seriously? Seems a bit much.

Inspiration – Outwit mere mortals. Creatives tools and rule bending.

Keystones

• Glacial Augment – Okay.

• Summoner’s Specialist – Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? Summoner Spell Cooldown reduction, fine. Maybe odd as a keystone but fine. Swapping summoner spells? When would this be a good idea? Especially over keystones in other trees?

• Coming Soon – Or…just not.

Greater Runes

• Hextech Flashtraption – If the designer behind this wanted to create a rune that is the best and worst idea in League history, good job! Probably a running theme of this tree is going to be, this seems like a decent idea I guess but how often will I really take these over other runes?

• Biscuit Deliver – What the fuck? I just…what? This is nice and compelling but…it’s such an odd assortment of…what the fuck? Also, just sounds annoying though if the other lane gets a biscuit and now is regening a lot of their missing health back though.

• Perfect Timing – It only works…once? Remove it.

3rd Runes

• Magical Footwear – Again, interesting, but choosing this over serious rune trees?

• Future’s Market – Again, interesting, but choosing this over serious rune trees?

• Minion Dematerializer – Again, oh for fucks sake forget it.

4th Runes

• Cosmic Insight – THIS IS ACTUALLY FUCKING GOOD! HUZZAH!

• Approach Velocity – WHAT THE FUCK SO IS THIS!

• Celestial Body – Okay, phew, a bad egg. Could be interesting if the benefit were more even with the negative. Also, isn’t this more of a Resolve rune?

Perhaps I’m taking the Inspiration tree too seriously. I just doubt a great many of these are worth it most of the time. Sure, it gives players choices. But…well… maybe I don’t know. I suppose there are a lot more people who just play League for shits and giggles and to have fun. Perhaps to them, this will be a dream come true.

But I doubt this tree sees much pro-play. And only .001% of people will get to above Platinum using this tree consistently.

Unaddressed Concerns

• Armor and Magic Penetration – These changes have nothing for the loss in penetration runes and masteries. Is this deliberate? Will armor and magic resist be lowered to compensate? Will everyone be gaining a degree of innate penetration?

• In-game User Interface – These changes also add a lot of things on cooldown that a player will want to track but will be a clusterfuck too. Is Riot okay with that or will they find a better way to display these things?

I also think that it might be cool if you were allied a primary rune tree, a secondary rune tree, and a third rune tree. Split as 4-2-1. This might allow for some of the zanier Inspiration ideas to see more play.