Balancing Runes/Rune Pages
Ok, so I have this itch to make a big long post about the issues that I have found are prevalent in League of Legends. There's a LONG list, and it'll be a VERY long post, but seeing as I'm a tad sleep deprived, I'll make this a short "teaser" post for the kind of thoughts I'll have when i get around to doing my big post (I still have a bit more research and prep before I make my big post.)
Here we go.
Runes are something you put together prior to playing a game of League of Legends (LoL), so I find that they are perfect for tackling first in this rampage of a thought that my brain is having. "What's wrong with the runes?" Nothing, but that's the problem. Nothing is "wrong" with the current setup we have for our runes, which means Riot will, very likely, never take a look at them and make them better.
One of the problems with Runes, is Tier 1 and Tier 2 runes. When I started playing, I got a lot of T1 and T2 runes so I could trounce the enemy as hard as possible. My friends had all warned me to save up my IP and only get T3 runes, but I didn't listen, and I regret my decision. Why? Because T1 and T2 runes are nothing more than a noob trap. Hate to use the strong wording, but if the shoe fits.
The T1 and T2 runes feel like a portion of an RPG, where you have to grind through lower gear before you can get the best gear. The problem here, is that A) you will never get the majority of T1 or T2 runes by the time you start getting T3 runes, and B) LoL is NOT an RPG; so why bother having an RPG element like this? I say we should scrap the T1 and T2 runes to avoid people getting them and being all depressed once they find out that they set themselves back from getting a full T3 rune page by a good deal of time (IP doesn't come that quickly unless you're playing 8+ hours a day with IP boosts).
The next issue I have with runes, is that they're very bland, and they make for relatively readable game-play. If you see a Fizz rocking Hybrid Pen reds, Mana Regen yellows, and AP blues and quints? You KNOW exactly what he's trying to play as, and it makes the game somewhat less interesting when he lvl 2 allins you and comes close to killing you (or actually does kill you.) The runes, currently, are broken up into 4 different categories:
- Physical Attack (mark)
- Defense (seal)
- Magic (glyph)
- Utility (quint)
Some basic issues with this current setup would be that Magic Penetration is a "red (mark)" attribute, despite it having nothing to do with Physical Attack. Magic Resist is also weird, considering that's definitely a defense stat, yet it is a blue (glyph) attribute. There are various other anomalies that exist in this manner, and I feel it should be streamlined somewhat to A) make more sense, and B) provide less stale rune pages (let's face it, try making 20 rune pages for 20 different champions and not having ANY of them be duplicates, while ALL of them are great).
What I would suggest is:
Make the Marks (red) be the primary Offensive rune, giving the best stats for Armor Penetration, Magic Penetration, Attack Damage, Ability Power, Critical Chance, Critical Damage, and Attack Speed (did I miss any?).
Make the Seals (yellow) the primary Defense rune, giving the best stats for Armor, Magic resist, Health, Health Regen, and any of those four in their scaling form (did I miss any?).
Make Glyphs (blue) the primary Ability Use rune, giving the best stats for Cooldown Reduction, Mana, Mana Regen, and any of the scaling versions of them (...).
Finally, Make the Glyphs the Swing rune. Make every available rune have a Quintessence, while maintaining the "utility" quints of Move Speed and Gold/10.
In addition to this, I would suggest changing Lifesteal and Spell Vamp (as far as the runes are concerned) to "utility". Not only is the Spell Vamp/Lifesteal Mastery in the Utility Tree, but the argument could be made that it has more of a utility/defensive use, rather than an offensive one, I see no reason that the runes should have Lifesteal or Spell Vamp as "Offensive" primary.
Now that I've stirred the pot a bit, let's discuss my thoughts behind doing this as far as "more interesting rune pages" goes. One of the biggest problems I have with Rune Pages, is that you can almost literally build a single rune page that would work well on any champion (barring a FEW champions 
...):
Hybrid Penetration Marks Armor Seals Magic Resist Glyphs Move Speed Quints
This rune page is good enough, and has enough of everything, that it would work on almost every champion, barring the ones that would make literally no use of the Hybrid Penetration.
Since Rune Pages are primarily used for Laning/early game (let's face it, the stats you get from Runes are completely dwarfed next to the stats of your full build), I don't understand why you can get the "primary stat bonus" on so many different things that should be in the same category (AP/Magic Pen, Armor/MR etc). This change could even push some champions into being viable that were otherwise not viable (not naming any, but the possibility is there).
That's all for this installment. Thoughts? Opinions? Next time I'll tackle Masteries (briefly) and Itemization.
Thanks for reading all the way through.
♥♥FyshinaTux♥♥
