feels like a complete watered down version of our past system and its so linear and boring, especially for jungling it makes me so fucking sad. wonder if anyone else feels the same way.
No, not many people do feel the same way.
It's far more varied than the previous rune system. The previous rune system was basically a copy-paste of whatever was best for a champion - you were at a disadvantage otherwise. The best runes on Ahri involved AP, defenses, and Mpen. The only choices I possibly got was whether my defenses were flat or scaling, and whether I spread them out or went all in armor/mr. Masteries were flat, linear, and boring, and the only time you even noticed them was with the keystone. Masteries were basically a copy-paste of each other, as well.
New runes, on Ahri, I can go Comet or Aery; Manaflow, hat, or nullifying orb; celerity or transcendence, and I like to take gathering storm over scorch. And that's just for Sorcery options. You can also grab Electrocute, Unsealed Spellbook is an option, and, hell, you could even try Fleet Footwork. All of those are options.
There are less possible choices, sure, but there are more viable ones, and each choice is more meaningful. Even the smallest runes have an impact on you, whereas some old masteries had basically zero impact, and were only taken because you needed something.
It was not changed to be interesting. It was changed so we didn't have to select 60 different runes and masteries that had little to no impact on the game. The new system provides a bit more meaningful choices than the old system and eliminated a ton of excess clunkyness.
