Runes Discussion, Everyone welcome :)

Note this was originally typed up prior to the Mage update PBE patch, and have just gotten around to posting it so the wording may be off.

A few Seasons ago Riot had stated they wanted to take a look at Runes and The rune system and make some changes, They eventually did get around to reducing the price of some runes and doing minor balance changes to some of the more common runes.

Now Since the last changes to runes nothing has been done to them, Bring us forward to now where we have the removal of Spellvamp from all but Gunblade leaving us with only it, Masteries, and the Spellvamp runes for the effect. This allows us the perfect time to do a overhaul of the present Rune system.

Lets take a look at the current Rune Effects:

Format I will use is >1. Rune Effect 2. My thoughts on the Rune 3. A question to Riot about the rune

Energy Runes: Both Max Energy and Energy/5 Both of these at present are a IP sink and (correct me if I am wrong) have never been used in competitive or High level play for the last 3 seasons. What reason do these runes still exist and what was the initial reason for creating them?

Gold per 10 Runes Earlier on in the game gold per 10 was much lower so there may have been a reason for using a few of these runes in certain builds (Gold gen builds (RIP Bankplank)) What is riots current stance on the Gold gen of the game? Is there a reason that these runes need to remain?

Death Timer Reduction Runes Before the increase in gold gained on each consecutive death there may have been a reason to take these runes on suicide builds or Proxy builds. With the changes to death timers these may have a use but are not competitively viable as a rune atm. What is Riots current thought on these with the Death timers at present?

Health Regen Runes: Both Flat and Scaling I have seen these runes used sparingly by higher tier players but have seen more opt into flat HP instead, stating the sustain isnt worth as much as the Flat HP gives with the amount of sustain that is granted by pots and easy itemization for the stat. What is Riots view of the use of Hp/5 runes atm? Would a Change to make the runes Base HP/5 or a percent increase like the items have be positive or detrimental?

Mana Regen Runes: Both Flat and Scaling Pros and high tier seem to rarely use these runes but are used (from what i have seen) more frequently that HP/5 runes. With the upcoming Mage changes this would be a good time to do some investigation into what you want these runes to do, from possibly making base mana regen runes instead or possibly like I said in the HP/5 runes section and make them like items. Has Riot thought on the effects of the mage changes regarding these runes? What are the consequences of making them Base instead of flat?

Attack Damage and Ability Power Runes: Flat and Scaling The most common runes used in the game, I believe a good change for the runes (almost all runes really) is a standardizing of the numbers of the runes values like what was done for armour previously. This also Plays partly into My Part 2 suggestion of the Runes system which will follow after the runes listing. Would Riot like to change AD/AP runes to not need to have all have extra float values or not?

Movement Speed Runes Somewhat used from what I have seen but very infrequently, Would like to see some more variation on them such as base MS runes or flat MS runes. Why are there no Flat MS runes?

HP Runes: Flat, Scaling, and % Usually used to augment the health of a champion early game to survive laning phase better, Have not noticed people using either Scaling or % based runes for a while could possibly be being used on Sion but not many champions besides him, Shen, and Mundo benefit well from them. Would Riot be willing to change the way some of the scaling worked on them?

Mana Runes: Flat and Scaling Not sure how often these are used , Ryze or some Singed builds might be the only champions who actually use Mana pages but there are better options for Singed. Might make an appearance more with the mage update but would most likely require further changes to champion stats. What is Riots feelings on Mana runes are they too weak or just not useful with the Mana regen that is available in game at this time?

Critical Chance Runes The biggest one or two rune use in the game, Used to be used more frequently on Yasuo but is now ignored with his current build path granting 100% Crit chance while being tankier. Would like a Numbers Standardization on these so they are not all decimals. Where do Crit Chance Runes stand at the moment?

Critical Damage Runes Sometimes called Low elo Fun Runes by some people I used to play with they are not a great choice even with 100 crit chance as your early game suffers too much for them to become effective unless you are able to stall the game out or get fed. From what I have seen they are at present a IP dump Style rune. What changes could be made to make them better or should they just be deleted?

Armour, Magic, and Dual Pen Runes Dual Pen Runes were/are frequently used by top and mid laners to augment their laning harass or all in. Single pen is used on one damage type champions in their stead or on test builds from what i have seen. What are peoples thoughts on the runes? Would like to see a more standardization of the numbers and rebalance on the ratio of Arm to MR pen.

Cooldown Reduction Runes: Scaling and flat Please standardize the numbers on these runes people have been asking for it for a while. No question, see above.

Attack Speed Runes: Seem to be in a decent usage and balance space though a Standardization pass would be good. No Questions, Same as above.

Armour and Magic Resist Runes: Flat and Scaling The previous Standardization of armour runes helped to ease the burden on players for rune builds, This should be taken further and should be completed for all variations of the runes, as well as MR Runes. Where is the balance of AR/MR runes atm?

Experience Runes I feel if these were improved that they could potentially be used in certain comps to get the edge on your opponent but at the same time if they are made too good then they crowd out other options. Which makes me believe that they are not good for the game in the long run as they would be a constant balance issue if they were made to have decent xp gains. What use cases does Riot believe are good for these runes?

Part 2 : Rune Page Overhaul

With Runes as they are divided by Type (Quint, Glyph, Seal, Mark), and each supposedly specializing in different stat types this makes doing a standardization of numbers more difficult due to each needing to be better than the others in a given stat line. My suggestion to ease balancing of Rune numbers is to have them be instead of the 9/9/9/3 Split we have now instead change it to 10/10/10/3 and have the numbers be based off .25/.5/1 base values for runes (speaking of flat stats like AD/AP/Armour/MR). This removes the post decimal numbers from the runes giving it a cleaner look but also allows it to be tuned much easier with the change to have 10 runes, this also allows players to not have partial stats that are rounded either up or down in game.

My thought was to have every 10 levels the player would be given a choice what to unlock (Mark, Seal, Glyph) and then are given the remaining to choose from at 20 and are given the last at 30.

What are some player and Rioter thoughts on the runes system overall?

Please be as critical as you want I want to understand what people think on the matter, the good, the bad.