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Runes and Masteries - Is there a "wrong" way?

Nova Skye·9/25/2015, 3:12:12 PM·1 votes·761 views

As I stated in another post, I am starting to break away from "Meta", or at the very least play around within it. I am very tired of the "standard". That being said, I feel like I am on the brink of hurting myself more than helping.

I have been looking at runes and masteries and how I might do different things. I have been doing the standard 21/9 combination in any of the 3. But then I got to thinking - why not go either straight defense with like 5 points in utility and straight offensive runes? I played with this with Ahri - I am now playing her with straight AP runes (+26 AP I think), and a 27/3 defense/utility mastery tree. I love the early game this offers, and decided to try it on ADC Cait - and had a blast with it. I feel safer to poke early and still hit just as hard level 1-6.

But my knowledge of scaling ends there. What I'm worried about is that I've traded early game for any sort of scaling. This has helped me in confidence and learning to harass/poke, but is it beneficial? I started really reading the mastery trees and realized that the point scaling on those trees are from early to late game - meaning the more points in the tree, the later the game stats affect. At least that's what is looks like.

This is my question then: Is it really up to preference how you combine your runes and masteries? Standard build seems to be a little bit of defense and offense on both, but is it equally beneficial to dedicate one set to offense and one set to defense? I'm guessing this is where the different types of flat/scaling runes come into play, now that I think about it.

9 Comments

Hiryuu169/25/2015, 5:32:35 PM3 votes

For runes, keep in mind the 4 types are not interchangeable. Some types are better at some stats than others. Let's look at those AP runes: Marks: 0.59 x 9 = 5.31 Seals: 0.59 x 9 = 5.31 Glyphs: 1.19 x 9 = 10.71 Quints: 4.95 x 3 = 14.85 Total: 36.18

So you get 36 AP, but the Marks and Seals contribute very little to that total. Compare that to Health runes: 3.47 x 9 = 31.23 8.00 x 9 = 72 2.67 x 9 = 24.03 26 x 3 = 78 Total: 205.26

Here, Seals and Quints are close, but Marks and Glyphs are terrible. Meta builds mix offense and defense because offense Seals are terrible, and some defensive Glyphs and Quints are good.

If you want "pure aggression," I would suggest Magic Pen Marks, Health Seals, and AP Glyphs + Quints. You get a bit less AP, but better trading power overall.

FarRockBF9/25/2015, 3:14:25 PM1 votes

When I go Annie mid I do FULL AP Masteries and a mix of AP and Magic pen for Runes. Without any items I can all in and 100-0 any mid lane opponent. It's hella fun.

Professor Ward9/25/2015, 3:15:43 PM1 votes

Here is my argument on flat/scaling runes ill leave the rest for others to debate though my views are that some rune setups will lose you lane completely.

Runes are most beneficial when items are scarce and gold is nil. And the only time this is true is early game. Therefore making scaling runes flawed from the start. While yes you will have better stats post level 6, Most games are (sadly) already decieded by this point,(sorry riot i know youre trying) making flat runes the obvious choice 90% of the time.

as for masteries, I see almost anyone who is competitive run some combination of 21/9, I have hated that this was really the only way to go for some time and have always wanted to be able to effectively spread the points into multiple trees, but it just doesnt work as the current meta of maxing one tree and taking a little utility is honestly the best way to go mathematically in most cases

sometimes i do like to tell myself that you can survive with only 5 into the utility tree though

Khell DarkWolf9/26/2015, 11:16:54 AM1 votes

Its really about personal Preference. Do what works for you.

Stuff you're talking are things I've already been doing. There are some weird combinations of runes I use and some are standard or more meta like.

But I have this luxury cause I've invested all my energy and time to experimenting with all the champions, max 20 rune pages w/ 85% - 90% of all the runes (yes you read that right).

Just like others have said though on scaling and the various runes that gives more yields compared to each category. They are pretty much spot on, telling you why some of the things the way they are and how they work.

So my piece of advice is just saying, use your personal preference and be aware of what trade offs your giving away for the advantage or leverage you want in ur runes/masteries.