I mean...By level 6 or 7, the scaling runes already surpass the flat runes. And move on to have around/nearly 3x as much as power by end game. Such as armor or AP. Armor -> 9 flat or 27 scaling. AP -> 10.71 or 27.54. So on and so forth. I could have 70 AP late game on my AP page...or...what..25?
the higher rank you get, the more people will try to abuse anything they can. people will push just to get level 2 fast so they can try killing you and if you have flat runes, you are even more behind in the start and can be zoned away from minions even. from there, they will keep getting a bigger lead as much as they can while holding you down. if you are an early game champ with scaling runes, you aren't going to snowball as much as you could have with flat. so either way, your early game hurts a lot. runes are also mostly for the early game, not saying though that they aren't helpful late game. only some scaling runes more reasonable than others.
bot lane i wouldn't recommend scaling unless it was mr glaphs. top lane it really depends on the matchup. mid is also matchup a bit. if you go 6 flat and 3 scaling, that wouldn't be too bad (still wouldn't recommend; late game won't feel different really), so that would be up to you.
as for cait, her early game is fairly strong until people go back to buy (unless you get ahead somehow which you need with cait) and then she is strong again at full build. some adcs outscale and stay stronger, so you need to make the most of the early game and even with scaling runes, your late game won't change barely at all (but again with the runes, missing 3 isn't as big as missing 9).
i should add that if you are playing a late game champion and want more scaling and you know you can handle the early game, then that would be perfectly fine.
Should I even bother with glyph/seal AD or AP? Scaling ones give a total of 17 or so at level 18, flat ones are at 9.
Or should I just make every yellow/blue rune flat armor and flat magic resist respectively?
What I'm concluding/seeing is that -I guess bot lane is just plainly a bad spot for scaling runes, except for magic resist. -Top/Mid lane, depending on your matchup, should call for scaling or flat. I assume flat magic resist for AP mid, armor for AD mid, and likewise for top. Scaling AP for mid, maybe flat damage/ap for top. Unless it's a farming game, (hey Sion) in which case, scaling AD/AP top seems fine too.
I also use armor pen runes. Are those fine these days? I never see anyone use them.
I usually can handle my lane(s), but since Lucian is a terror in this current patch at bot, early-mid game is becoming somewhat more of a recurring problem, considering one combo (no ult) of his does ..like I said, around half my hp.
