Boards›[ARCHIVED] Gameplay+

The Inconvenience Problem with Rune Pages, and how it discourages optimizing pages for players

TwicePermabanned·12/27/2018, 11:17:07 AM·7 votes·12,595 views

(Sorry if this isn't the right place. I couldn't figure out what would be a good place to put this.)

Rune Pages have some problems that I don't think people are paying enough attention to, and it's less so about their balance, but a problem that shows itself even before a game starts: How players create, obtain, and organize Rune Pages.

To paint a full picture, we need to start with how they used to work. The Mastery/Rune Page system, used prior to the new Rune system coming out, had two distinct elements; Rune Pages were typically just stat buffs - Due to it's simplistic nature, 2-3 pages could cover almost every champion, extremely efficiently. You had to purchase more pages if you wanted different sets, but this was no real trouble, considering rune pages were extremely versatile. On the other note, you had Mastery pages - Mastery pages were much different, each Mastery changing how the Champion would be played on a much more fundamental level. Changing the Mastery pages changed how you'd play a Champion, so you'd require much more Mastery pages if you wanted one for every Champion you played. Thankfully, these pages were given to you free of charge - You could create one for each Champion you owned that required one, for each play-style type you wanted.

Fast forward back to the present - Rune Pages merge the two, providing both stat buffs, and gameplay-changing perks. This means that to optimize your play, you'd likely want to make a rune page for each champion - So that even if they only differ by a rune or two, your games would be optimized for the strategies that feel right for you.
But that's not how it ends up working. Rune Pages inherit the cost that their predecessors had - To get more than 2 rune pages, you need to spend a whopping 6300 Blue Essence. That's the price of a new Champion! Needless to say, if you're a newer player, you're not going to be buying these. Heck, even if you have hundreds of hours in the game, you'd still be hard-pressed to buy a Rune Page. This presents a huge inconvenience that discourages any player beyond those who have spent thousands of hours in the game from actually making Rune Pages that are optimized for a very specific Champion. Having even just one Rune Page per champion is pricey - Let alone if you'd like to have more than one depending on the play-style you're going for.

Many people will claim that you can simply change your rune page per-game, but I say that's a needless inconvenience, that doesn't actually work for all players. If your memory isn't sharp, or you're not the quickest at recalling what runes to have, you might not have enough time in a lobby to re-make your rune pages - Especially if you've gotten a Champion you're not used to. What if you auto-filled support? You know you've played the champ before, and if you could afford it, you could easily turn out some Support Champion-specific rune pages just in case you get auto-filled - But, unless you have extensive game knowledge, you simply won't be able to pick very optimized rune pages without having to tab out and search them up every time you play. But this is further worsened if you don't typically play the meta - What if you're the experimental type? If you go by rune pages that "feel good" for you rather than the hard meta choices, the "change as you go" approach can be even harder - What was that rune setup I played last time? Did it have This or That Rune?" becomes a common problem in a system where you either constantly shift your current rune pages, use a preset, or spend tens of thousands of BE to manage your rune pages.

Simply by removing, or lowering this price, players would be encouraging to be significantly more experimental, or optimized, in their play, without having to take a surprisingly significant amount of time memorizing runes, grinding for rune pages, or contemplating what the best compromise for a "generic" rune page would be. This is how the Mastery system worked, and I think it was done intentionally compared to the page-bought old Rune system. Riot at the time likely knew that Runes of flat buffs wouldn't require nearly as many pages as Mastery, when they made the decision to require the entire rune system to run off of IP. The new system gets rid of a huge chunk of the IP requirement, but replaces it just as fast - Sure, no need to buy runes, but you still need to buy rune pages, in excessive rate now. All it'd need is to be 3000 BE, 1000 BE, or even free to make players more likely to use fun, optimized routes. Players can use their BE on Champions rather than Rune pages, so a player's overall BE spending likely wouldn't be hurt. It's a win-win, right?...

Not quite. Problem #2 has an easy solution too, though: Many would argue having too many Rune Pages is a bad thing, and that people likely would minimize their Rune Page count anyways, since currently Runes are all displayed in a big list and cannot be assigned to a Champion. Many more argue that since they are very situational, assigning them strictly to a Champion would also be problematic, but I think people miss what would be a very simply compromise for this:

What if, you could assign Rune Pages to a champion as a Preferred Rune page? All this would do is re-sort it in your lobby to the top, maybe slightly separate them with a line, and all of a sudden the problem is solved in a very robust way. Assign 2-3 rune pages to a Champion, and they'll be highlighted at the top so you don't need to go through dozens of pages, but all the other rune pages will still be displayed below them incase you need to use a different one, or haven't assigned them to the Champion. If Riot wanted to go an extra mile, they could add an option to default back to the last used Preferred/Assigned Rune Page upon selecting a Champion, so that you can confidently switch between Champions without even really having to worry about going through a list. Click the Champion, make sure it's the right Preferred Page, and go about your day. Sure, it's small - but anyone who plays a Moba should know that small changes really add up. Incorporating all of this could save a ton of frustration and wasted time for almost all players, without hurting anyone who doesn't use the system in any way. There's many plus sides, without many negatives - Players new and old alike could benefit from an overhaul of organizing rune pages. Plenty of people have claimed they should be assignable to champions before, but I don't think enough of them have emphasized that you can have assigned, highlighted rune pages, without having them be restricted to those pages, or automatically selected, like many counter-arguments claim would be a disadvantage.

What do you fellas think? I think these changes have been a long time overdue. I want a LoL where I can get to making fun rune pages that I pick to be stupidly specific to a Champion, that I can easily, and quickly, replace if needed with a more standard one. And I think it's about time we push for that.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

9 Comments

ModUlanopo12/30/2018, 7:27:03 PM1 votes

Approved

Gilgayu12/31/2018, 2:49:05 PM1 votes

One thing you mentioned is the inconvenience of constantly changing rune pages.

As far I'm aware of, new players are actually getting the "preferred rune page" (I remember someone telling me that) because their level is high enough to change those runes on their own. This helps them more or less, but even after they reach that certain level (8? 15? don't know), there are those 4 pages that are previously done by Riot and player can just pick them.

You also mentioned having to memorize the best rune for your champion. Well, guess what, you don't. At the beginning of season 8, Riot said Runes Reforged will open up more off-meta builds (remember those official videos of nasus with flee footwork?). The new runes actually is extremly versatile, and there are many great examples.

Ez can use electrocute, klepto, or DH (2 patches ago anyway). Jax can use press the attack, conquerer, DH, grasp of the undying.

Some other champion's rune page are also way too obvious that you don't really need to memorize them. For example: LB uses electrocute. Zed uses electrocute. Hecturim uses predator.

It would be nice to have a button beside "save" that's something like "Riot's choice" (lol) that gives you the so called preferred rune page. It would be something that quite literally only takes Riot a few day to make, and it would benefit new players a lot. It should also be the automatic choice when you didn't have enough time to save your rune page. I mean, no one want to play evenlynn with klepto right?

Velasan1/2/2019, 1:21:47 AM1 votes

I've been asking for the ability to set rune pages to preferred champions for a long time. It's a lot better than having to try to fit 3x champion names into one rune page title so that I know who it is for.

I already posted that suggestion at least twice before though in previous threads and it never seems to gain any attention. A few upvotes, but no red reply.

Guessing it's not high on their list of priorities, but it sure would be nice.

VoraciousX1/2/2019, 1:32:01 AM1 votes

Why not have rune pages tied directly to champions instead? Previously we used to use rune pages like "Riven vs AD, Riven vs AP", etc. Why can't we just have every bought rune page add one to the champion itself's customized list of rune sets, and the preset pages could be tied to the champion automatically for every non-bought one. This alone would be more than enough imo. Then when you get into the game lobby, you have different rune sets to go through for the champion you pick, after you pick them. It'd give you a little less time to customize a rune page, but since you'd already have one made, plus the preset one for that specific champion, you shouldn't need that much time anyways unless you were making a brand new rune page for that champion in lobby, which you wouldn't need to do.

For example for Ashe: You start with the preset Precision: The Perfect. If you have an extra rune page bought, you can make a rune page for Ashe. Every time you pick Ashe you will have Precision: The Perfect and your customized page for Ashe as choices after picking her.

It would similarly be the same as cheapening the cost on rune pages, since you wouldn't need to buy as many(as one rune page would be +1 to every champion), but I don't think many people buy rune pages anyways so I can't see a loss there. The only issue I can think of would be playing a new champion in champ select. So perhaps you could have one rune page that isn't tied to any champion that you could use for every one as a quick page to select if you're strapped for time.

Leaf on Bush1/6/2019, 8:41:13 AM1 votes

Rune pages are just mandatory clicks you need to do before every match. Rune pages are sold for RP so there is your answer, of course it is inconvenient and of course Riot knows this perfectly well, because it is intentional. Are these changes overdue like you say? I don't know, depends on how greedy Riot is and how much greed the players are willing to deal with.

TakaDama1/9/2019, 11:49:12 AM1 votes

Personally, I have 20 custom rune pages, 1 for each permutation of PDSRI. Sure I have to manually click each rune to swap it, but that is mostly a hassle because of my 2008 prebuilt emachine and poor net

Edit: the only reason I have so many though is I have been playing since before Xin Zhao was released and own every champion except for the currently unreleased Sylas. Not sure what the minimum would be for 1 tricks.

The Bad Touch1/10/2019, 1:00:16 PM1 votes

I don't see a point in having more than 1 rune page. It takes all of 5 seconds to change.

Vlada Cut1/10/2019, 1:14:56 PM1 votes

You have recommended runes for a champion when you start the game or don't change your currebt rune page in time. Say you don't get to change runes for Garen and the game automatically asigns you grasp sorcery pre-set page.

I don't mind changing a single rune every natch, I already memorized what runes champions use...but the problem becomes when I don't save them in time, because then I'm forced to use a pre-set rune page I dislike. Say I didn't take Dark Harvest on Kayn so the game gives me Electrocute and ghost porro(while I preffer eyeball collection.

The only pre-set that is actually good is Precision pre set because it's exactly what some adc's use, or bruisers like Camille or a jungler like Xin Zhao would.

SanKakU1/28/2019, 12:14:17 PM1 votes

I don't know man, I agree with a lot of that, but I still don't see how 20 rune pages is even close to enough. I play all slots on a team. Even if I play only 5 champs in each slot, that's not enough rune pages for each champ to only get one rune page.

I got 4 grasp rune pages, 4 aery rune pages, and 3 aftershock rune pages. I have to just switch out a conqueror keystone for PTA if I want a PTA rune page and that's about all I have time for to work on the PTA rune page other than maybe changing one other rune during a draft. And when I change that one other rune, I might as well say goodbye to the Conqueror rune page because who knows if I'll remember which rune was changed.