The runes system is TERRIBLE, prices need to be lowered.

I know I'm definitely not the first, nor will I be the last person to talk about this. I just feel that it needs to be said, and said over and over again until something is changed, because the system is just that terrible. I will just list reasons/issues in no particular order.

1. 2/3's of the runes are completely useless.

Tier 1 and 2 runes are completely garbage. They provide so little to the player that they are a complete waste of their hard earned IP. These runes have no longer term value, and negligible short term value. Let's just think about this logically if 2/3's of a store's merchandise was completely useless, and didn't sell because of their notoriety of being useless, why would they continue to sell them? It all just seems to be a ploy to get new players that don't know any better to blow IP so that it take longer to buy something actually valuable making RP seem more appealing.

2. They are WAY TOO EXPENSIVE.

Alright let's add up all of the IP it cost me to make one full rune page of tier 3 runes. Keep in mind that it's probably not the best rune page, it probably sucks, but it's content is fairly simple, and nothing fancy, just armor, magic resist, and AD.

http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/65570138#runes

Doing the math:

Flat AD quints - 1025 IP x 3 Flat Armor seals - 205 IP x 9 Scaling MR glyph - 205 IP x 9 Flat AD marks - 205 IP x 9

So in total for just ONE rune page it cost me 8610 IP. That could have bought me any champion in the game, and or many other ones if I was being frugal. Keep in mind though this is just ONE rune page for one play style, one should have several. So just think about having three rune pages, one for tanks, ADC + Assassins, and mages, probably not the best idea, but not too unreasonable. Using the previously found number the cost comes out like this:

8610 IP x 2 (plus the original rune page) 6300 IP (for the additional rune page which is absolutely INSANE for how critical rune pages are)

In the end for just really plain jack of all trades rune pages it cost a LUDICROUS 32,130 IP! That is realistically MONTHS of games worth of work just to get oneself enough runes to get average pages. The could buy me ALL 450 IP champ, AND ALL BUT TWO OF THE 1350 IP CHAMPS. This is terrible. A new play could be having fun with 31 different champions, instead of buying runes. That's the cost of runes 31 different champions and MONTHS AND MONTHS OF WORK.

Let look at the impact of this huge cost on new players. I can speak about this personally being fairly new to this game myself. First and foremost buying runes SUCKS. It's suck a boring thing to have to being, there isn't anything to gratifying about spending crap tons of IP just to watch numbers go up slightly, and the worst part is if I want to be competitive in the game I HAVE to buy them. Every time I have bought them I've gritted my teeth, because I know that instead of being something fun and exciting like buying a new champ with new interesting mechanics to learn, I'm buying stats instead. This leads me to my next point.

3. Runes make the game a lot harder to get into for new players.

New player before they even get into the game are at a competitive disadvantage before they even get into the game because they don't have the necessary runes to be competitive. Buying runes sucks as I previously mention because it is boring and keeps player from expanding their champion pool. So players are now limited in the amount of champions they can get because they have to buy rune pages. So new players are forced to choose between having fun and expanding their champion pool, or having the necessary stats to be competitive. This leads me to my last point.

4. The cost of runes limit the complexity of the game.

As previously mentioned the incredible cost of runes ruins the complexity of the game because it limits champion pools buy forcing new players to choose stats over champs. This limits the amount of champs seen in game, because it cost IP to buy champions they want to try, or have tried and like through free week. But it also limits the complexity of the within the rune pages itself, because new players have to build broadly in their rune pages because the only get two to start with and they cost 6300 IP to get another one, so new players can't experiment with the more niche ruins, like gold production, or movement speed, etc.

These are only a few problems I have experienced, and as a new player I have to say runes are the worst part of league. That isn't to say they don't add anything to the game. I like the idea of building ruin pages to make more diverse builds, but it's implementation and cost prohibitive nature makes runes the bane of my existence both limiting the complexity and most importantly the FUN of game.