Do we really only get 2 Rune Pages?

My IGN Sucks·Oct 19, 2014·36 votes·9,572 views

So I'm just now getting around to working on runes (been playing almost 4 months now) and was shocked that we only get 2 rune pages without having to shell out money for more (or spend a large amount of time grinding for 6300 IP). For something that has such a major impact on the game, this is kind of a let down from Riot. The runes themselves already cost a large amount of IP.

I suggest that we receive 5 (or 4 or even 3, just more than 2) rune pages to begin with. That is sufficient enough to where we won't be at a disadvantage (solely from the lack of available rune setups) to other players that have been playing a lot longer or have paid money to unlock more, yet it also keeps the option for Riot to make their money because most players will still purchase additional pages.

42 Comments

Sailor MintOct 19, 201421 votes

They have 2 for 1 rune page sales several times per year. We may finally have an actual rune system rework in pre-season 5.

JustMyBassCannonOct 19, 20144 votes

I hope you're right, because we desperately needs runes rebalanced.

MasterOfTheOrderOct 20, 20142 votes

I hope you're right, because we desperately needs runes rebalanced.

I'd also like more than 10 runes slots. I don't particularly WANT to spend money on them, but I definitely would anyway. 10 isn't enough variety when you have all the champions, and play more than half.

KãtãrinãOct 20, 20141 votes

Dude, i have 20 rune pages. that is double the amount you said. lmao.

ZarxisOct 20, 20142 votes

They have 2 for 1 rune page sales several times per year. We may finally have an actual rune system rework in pre-season 5.

Riot had a camera angle solution in the works back during Season 1. It's been reworked as part of the Blanker's Rift/SR visual update, and we're about to hit Season 5. Riot mentioned reworking the Rune system earlier this season... It's unlikely that we'll experience a true rework before S7 or S8, considering what evidence we have of Riot's ability to promptly follow up on things they're aware of. :^)

Melee/fighter rework, anyone?

Sailor MintOct 20, 20141 votes

Unlike the things you've mentioned. It can be a fixed simple numbers adjustment without impacting the rest of the game, if they choose to.

The biggest issue with runes is that it sits in an awkward spot between gameplay and sales.

BurungeruOct 20, 20142 votes

Just changing numbers would be a band-aid solution to the problem, not an actual solution.

OyddAWqJ5rOct 20, 20146 votes

I think Rune Pages should scale their cost with how many you have going by champions costs. 3rd Rune page is 450, then 1350, 3150, 4800, and then 6300 for the 7th and onwards. Because honestly you need at least 5. This way that 5th will only cost 3150. Dunno how this will work with double page sales though.

EDIT: IP compensation for those with max rune pages if this happens? :O

RaptameiOct 20, 20143 votes

I think Rune Pages should scale their cost with how many you have going by champions costs. 3rd Rune page is 450, then 1350, 3150, 4800, and then 6300 for the 7th and onwards. Because honestly you need at least 5. This way that 5th will only cost 3150. Dunno how this will work with double page sales though.

EDIT: IP compensation for those with max rune pages if this happens? :O

Rune pages should cost 0 and runes should cost 0 because both are a huge barrier to entry. The only reason people even bother to take up this game and face the grind wall is because it's the biggest MOBA.

OyddAWqJ5rOct 22, 20141 votes

The climb from level 1 to 30 is alot longer than you probably remember. They will have had plenty of time to have earned more than enough IP for those pages and runes. I had an AD, AP, Jungle and Support page once I hit 30. All fully fledged with their own runes. But it took me another 2000 games to get the other 16 pages and runes.

Desmond LawOct 19, 20145 votes

Runes and run pages were designed back in a time where games gave you way more ip per game :(

NoMonkuOct 19, 20144 votes

Your best bet is to wait for a 2 for 1 sale and buy then.

CoolKnightSTOct 20, 20144 votes

Their are enouge runepage sales to ballance it out. Still I can agrea it's a issue when starting ranked. Having 2 pages is extreemly difficult to be able to play all roles effectly.

You need an AD page and an AP page. Good for top, mid even jungle & adc if you really have to. But than comes the support role. With AP supports you can get away with an AP page but more tanky based support require something else. This is the 3th that everyone needs.

I think riot has to concider to start with 3 pages. One more page can really help to popularity of supports for new players. Their are so many supports that new players can pickup but will require a different runepage: "Blitz, Alistar, Taric". This is what new players now pick because that can work without runepage if they really have to: Soraka, Annie, Morgana, Janna, Zilean, Lux, Sona, Karma.

But it's not only supports, just think about tanks, asp carries, etc... You basicly say to new players: Don't play tanks, don't play aggressive supports, don't play carry champions. Just play AD/AP champions. Let's look to the cheap champions that are verry attractive for a new player:

Sivir: From all adc casters, sivir is probaly one of the most rune depended champion.
Master Yi: Require special runepage but can work with regular AD still no ASP hurt him a lot.
Ryze: Require special runepage
Poppy: Require special runepage
Kayle: Require special runepage (ap asp scalling mr)

Can work with only AP & AD

Soraka
Ashe
Annie
Garen

Jungle Tank (asp): ms asp ar cdr/mr

Warwick
Nunu

So in theory a player starts ranked with only 2 runepages and plays with his starting pool. Only 4 champions will acutaly perfectly work with his runepages. That's really limited. Their is not even room for a jungler based on this list.

This is what I would do:

Tier 1 & 2 runes are removed, tier 3 runes are now unlocked on level 10.
You now unlock "runepages" on level 10 (the level slots unlock still exists).
The 3th runepage you buy only cost 1575 ip
The 4th runepage you buy only cost 3150 ip
The 5th and higher runepage cost 6300 ip

UPfreelyOct 19, 20143 votes

its been discussed time again but riot wont respond to any threads on it because it might affect their bottom line.

B3EROct 20, 20143 votes

As a jungle main, I have 4 pages I need for the different plethora of jungle champs. On top of that I need 4 more for the other roles.

FarRockBFOct 20, 20143 votes

This is definitely a huge problem. You can't just have an "AP and AD" rune page...for support those are useless early on and similar for any tanky position. I would argue 4 is the sweet spot we should have for free:

AP AD Tank Support

Pretty much every champ can really gain from any of these. I know if would be better to have a "Mana" or "AS" rune page as well but that you should have to pay for.

It's a pain in the rear redoing my rune page just cause I decide I want to play support...

QuephaOct 19, 20142 votes

yuuuuuuup

SilverFlashIIOct 19, 20142 votes

I remember when you could only buy rune pages with RP...

Arch Mage MagnusOct 20, 20142 votes

The purchasing of Rune pages and runes are Riots version of pay to play. If you are a new player, you really can't collect champions, AND runes. People you play against that have bought more runes, or that have just invested much more time have a better advantage considering they are more versatile in what role they go depending on your champ or lane because of rune setups.

I've been playing steadily for a year now, and maybe it's my own fault, but I like to buy new champs as I look to find what lanes I like the best. This has resulted in having an "AD" run page and "AP" rune page. That's all I can afford while still buying new champs (because honestly, playing new champs in this game makes the game entirely new, and I love that feeling).

Sucks they are so expensive, and also confusing for a new player. They really should just incorporate one more indepth mastery system.

Bear SalamanderOct 20, 20143 votes

Runes are actually anti-pay-to-play and are more play-to-win. You have to pay IP to buy runes, not RP. IP is only obtainible through playing. So the more you play, the more IP you get. Aside from the fact that you have to buy rune pages, it's a pretty good idea.

I have an AD and an AP rune page too. You can always switch up your pages before you queue if you pretty much know what champions you would want to play. They aren't TOO expensive. Assuming you don't buy too many champs with IP, by the time you reach lvl 30, you'll probably have almost enough IP to buy two full pages of tier 3 runes.

Runes were actually kinda confusing for me at the beginning....

KonidiasOct 20, 20141 votes

I've been playing steadily for a year now, and maybe it's my own fault, but I like to buy new champs as I look to find what lanes I like the best. This has resulted in having an "AD" run page and "AP" rune page. That's all I can afford while still buying new champs (because honestly, playing new champs in this game makes the game entirely new, and I love that feeling).

I feel like if you've been playing steadily for a year, a small investment for some rune pages is not too much to ask. You've probably gotten thousands of hours of entertainment and paid Riot nothing for it.

Maybe shell out $50 just to help support them and pay for your entertainment? Then you could have more rune pages than you know what to do with.

Renegade Angel95Oct 20, 20141 votes

You mean people who invest more time in the game are better and have more things unlocked?!?!? That's so unfair.

I think runes are fine. I have 4 pages. "Attack Damage" with flat AD some armor and mr and lifesteal. "Ability Power" with flat AP Quints scaling ap glyphs, scaling health and Magic pen. "Jungle" is flat ad, scaling health, mr and ms quints and support is armor marks armor seals and mr glyphs with gold quints.

Each rune page has a mastery page the works extremely well with the rune page. I limit myself to 4 pages of funds and masteries and I'm happy with that. Attack damage helps with ad carries and jungle is ad casters or tanks. I own all those pages and runes. I bought 2 extra runs pages but I could easily afford them normally. Just take 2 6300 ip champs out of my pool of 70 something champions. I'd love to own all the tunes and have 20 pages but I don't need them that bad. Not at my level of play anyways. I've never felt cheated by the runs system. When I set my pages up I feel powerful and they fit my plays type.

I had bad pages before this and re did my runes completely. Got lucky with the combined and now I have no excess runes. As long as you manage IP properly it's not an issue. Or it shouldn't be. But I think it's a fair system that give you just a slight edge on if you wanna cover a champions weakness or enhance its strength. I have 4 generic pages and I think that with those 4 pages I am set to play any champion in this game.

Earthlord JazzOct 20, 20142 votes

One for each lane (and jungle) would be nice

I am MadlifeOct 20, 20142 votes

To be compleatly honest, A lot of rune pages aren't really needed. They might be WANTED for a player, but not needed for sure. Take a look at Faker for example. He got to Challenger with only 2 Rune Pages. It's not how many rune pages you have, it's what you do with them. Having like 10 AP, 2 AD, 3% AS, 1% Crit, 6 Armor, 3.5 MR, or something like that is not really a good use of your rune pages.

I'm just saying.

Nucleophilic atkOct 19, 20141 votes

I agree. I don't know about 5, since that is a bit much for a new person. Especially considering the price of runes, it would take awhile to fill up anyway. I do think they should give three or four. I mean, at least three so you can have your basic AP, AD, and Tank. You can then get more that you want to go all crazy on after that.

GunpointOct 20, 20141 votes

This is a tricky fish to fry as, many people have already purchased runes/runepages, and to change them, could mean that those who paid for the rune pages/runes wasted their RP/IP. Honestly though, there's no reason to be intimidated by this fact, the longer you wait to change the rune page/rune system, (preferrably to make at least the rune pages free) the more people who are going to have their money wasted. Even if they wasted their money on something they could get for free in the future, nothing negative has happened, nobody took away the rune page they bought, they just gave them to everyone.

ceaselessphantomOct 20, 20141 votes

This is a tricky fish to fry as, many people have already purchased runes/runepages, and to change them, could mean that those who paid for the rune pages/runes wasted their RP/IP.

Oh how do you think I felt when they changed bundles so that they got a reduced price when you already owned things in them? I did not complain it was unfair because me having lost rp in the past does not justify not having a much needed change.

Edit Giving that it is was sort of my fault for not being more careful about buying the champions in the bundle but still.

Lord Graves IIIOct 20, 20141 votes

No, they won't buy additional pages. Because they had enough to start with.

Just play things you have runes for or use more generalized runes.

MorikTheMadOct 20, 20141 votes

Do you really only get one champion + 10 freebies? :-D

HandsomeStreamerOct 20, 20141 votes

You should be grinding on normals as a new player. This makes sense. If you are complaining about this issue AND you are playing RANKED, then you should probably stop playing ranked until you've had enough experience in norms to work on your champ mechanics and gameplay and THEN purchase pages and runes and champs with the IP from games you've learned from. Not go directly into ranked because reasons.

hOrnnOct 20, 20141 votes

i own 5 and thats good enough for me, but at times i wish i had about 7, i have a ton of quints and hybrids, spell vamps, etc.

apuigOct 20, 20141 votes

they give you two and probably should give you one. They can also be purchased with IP, what do you expect to have all the content available at low IP cost?

jmaishereOct 20, 20141 votes

No, stop complaining just save up ip like the rest of us or get it at the 2 for 1 sales

RaptameiOct 20, 20141 votes

Usually, old products get cheaper due to competitive pressure.

Due to very strong scale effects in online gaming, there is no competitive pressure so Riot keeps the prices high.

Pudii PudiiOct 20, 20141 votes

While rune pages are a lot I feel that most people only end up using 2-4 of them. Most people who play ranked have pretty small change pools that don't really require different sets of runes.

While in the beginning it helps I suggest you just setup an AD page, AP page and a Jungle/ADC page. That should be more than enough to get you around.

I never really understood the big debate about different runes because rarely do they decide the outcome of a game. They are useful but customized pages like move speed or health Quinn's give you advantages. I have a friend that always uses the excuse that if he has the wrong runes he can't play properly.

Drunk RummateOct 20, 20141 votes

well now that I've finally scrounged up the IP to get some nice season 4 runes I expect they'll be changing the meta runes for season 5 so that I can use the outdated season 4 ones for an entire year.

MrBuffingtonOct 20, 20141 votes

I've heard from a few Reds that there's going to be a rune and rune page sale before the end of the year, so there's that. I think you can get pretty far with just two rune pages, but I'm definitely feeling the limitations of where I'm at right now; currently saving IP for the sale :3

Jen KaihuaOct 20, 20141 votes

You can buy another rune page for 6300 IP our buy the bundle. You can look at the rune page in the store.

yellowbricksOct 20, 20141 votes

Runes are such trash. Riot keeps blabbing that x doesn't feel good, y is anti fun, blah blah blah. Buying runes is antifun. You buy a champ, you got a new playstyle, you buy a rune, whoopie, I now have 0.004 extra ad at level 18 but oh wait I need a runepage to put in my mark of overwhelming strength, another load of ip sunk into something as exciting as taxes. That's what it is, a tax to play the game. But oh no, that's perfectly fine to riot because they need that money guys. It's "customization", never mind that the price just encourages everyone to put together the same boilerplate pages the pros show us lest we rot in our own filth with 0.00005 more energy regen per hour.

ZaikyoOct 20, 20141 votes

As someone who purchased the rune page bundle once, and then grinded out the rest of the runepages...I have to wonder why I had to do that at all. No joke, they wouldn't need to give everyone 20 pages to make base account rune page options more acceptable.

Let's say the increased it to 3 "total" pages, but there is now a new way to select your pages in champ select. Instead of selecting a rune page, you select a marks page, seals page, glyphs page, quint page (all of which you had made prior) to create the page you want for that particular game. So, Riot could effectively add a lot more customization to base account (a more acceptable amount imo), while still allowing people to deepen their options if they so choose.

K, you can all go ahead and tell me I'm stupid now. Am Ready.

yellowbricksOct 20, 20141 votes

I can't believe people actually think the rune system is fine lol. It's downright baffling. I'm actually jealous, riot has these people dancing in the palm of their hand, accepting the terrible rune system. They probably could just make this game pay to win like that ubisoft guy said and these people would still be all like "oh man, a person pays more money is better than you? Go figure, pleb". They could easily retire to an island paradise with that kind of money.

Ch0c0lateJesusOct 21, 20141 votes

I think its time to add at least one more default rune page. There are over 120 Champs in the game, its getting to the point where those with less time to spend on videogames, and those that don't want to spend money for power are at a significant disadvantage.

Runes become very important very quickly the higher you go in elo. Only having 2 pages available is going to put even good players at a disadvantage against those with too much time on their hands. Its getting to the point where buying rune pages is buying power... bad bad situation.