Season 5 - Most Cost Effective Runes

This is according to the top build guides on the top 3 tiers for SoloQue ranked. I just joined league, did a bunch of research on how to get setup, and how to do it at the lowest IP cost. In summary of the points below, the essential runes that you should buy for Season 5 are listed here, with IP Costs:

9X Marks of: Attack Damage 1845 (AD Champs, ADC viable) Magic Penetration 3690 (AP Champs) Hybrid Penetration 7380 (AP Champs) Armor Penetration 3690

9X Seals of: Armor 1845 (Almost All Champions) Health 7380 (Some Champions, but frequent enough to mention)

9X Glyphs of: Magic Resist 1845 (Almost 90%) Scaling Ability Power 3690 (AP Champs) Cooldown Reduction 7380 (Nasus, etc)

3X Quints of: Attack Damage 3075 (AD Champs, Viable on ADCs) Ability Power 3075 (AP Champs) Attack Speed 3075 (ADCs) CDR 6150 (Nasus) Armor 3075 (Supports)

It's hard to start a new game, and league is certainly one of the more complex games I've started. When I hit 20, people were astounded I hadn't bought runes. I had no idea what they were, and they seemed to have very little impact (such small percents compared to the items I could get in game). I'd rather spend my IP on Champs! (6300 on Jinx was my first purchase)

Now that I'm getting acquainted with the game, I'm starting to see the value.

I'm no professional, as my lolskill will tell you. I'm learning the game, and love to look at how best to operate my account efficiently.

I looked at the top tiers (God through 3rd tier) list for soloque ranked, and then used mobafire to analyze which runes are the most popular on these builds (referenced at least one, most times two build guides, including appendix notes on runes), which pages generally work, and who they work on.

As far as this list is concerned, they are not specific to strategy, but to cost-efficiency for the general champion.

Here they are:

The simplest guide is to the ADC.

These champions' guides utilize 4 runes on almost every champion (the only great exception is Kog'Maw).

The general runes are :

9X Marks of Attack Damage (Note: Kog'Maw utilizes Magic Penetration Marks) 9X Armor Seals (Notes: Kog'Maw utilizes Scaling Mana Regen; Some champs split 4X Armor seals and 5X Health seals) 9X Magic Resist Glyphs (Notes: Kog'Maw utilizes Magic Penetration Glyphs; Twitch may build 5X MR and 4X Attack Speed Glyphs) 3X Attack Speed Quints (Notes: This is generally accepted, except for Movement Speed Quints on Kog'Maw. Strategy may dictate the use of Life Steal or Attack Damage quints, or some balance between these, although the general feel I've gotten is that Life Steal has been nerfed since Season 4, and Attack Damage is only for early lane phase (last hitting problems))

Champions who are notably variable on this rune set are:

Ashe (Armor/HP seals, MR/Scaling MR Glyphs, and AS/LS Quints) Sivir (Runs LS Quints, but can work with AS quints) Kog'Maw (Just read his build guides, his variances are large) Quinn (Runs Scaling MR Glyphs, and can run AD/LS quints) Twitch (5X MR and 4X AS Glyphs)

RUNES FROM THIS LANE: 9X Mark of AD 9X Seals of Armor 9X Magic Resist 3X Attack Speed

Next I looked at my main lane, Top.

When it comes to top, you've got a good balance of AD and AP champions. So for this lane I will show 2 sets of runes, and then talk variances. I will not do individual champs for this lane, except for Nasus, as it's pretty generic.

Attack Damage Top Laners 9X Mark of Attack Damage (Same as ADC) 9X Seal of Armor (Same as ADC) 9X Glyph of Magic Resist (Same as ADC) 3X Quint of Attack Damage (Viable on some ADCs)

Ability Power Top Laners 9X Mark of Hybrid Penetration (Or optionally, 9X Mark of Magic Penetration; depending on the champion, this can switch) 9X Seal of Armor (Same as ADC and AD Top) 9X Glyph of Magic Resist (Same as ADC and AD Top) 3X Quint of Ability Power

Variances 9X Mark of Magic Penetration (for champs like Vladimir, etc) 9X Mark of Attack Speed (viable for top laners like Maokai or Renekton, etc) 9X Seal of Health (viable on Irelia, Swain, Gnar, Nasus, etc) 9X Seal of Scaling Healh (viable on Cassiopeia, etc) 9X Glyph of AP (viable on Malphite, etc) 9X Glyph of Scaling MR (viable on Lulu, Wukong, Cassiopeia, etc) 2X Quint of Life Steal (Wukong) 3X Quint of Hybrid Penetration (Lulu) 3X Quint of Movement Speed (Cassiopeia)

The Nasus Variant 9X Mark of Attack Damage 9X Seal of Health 9X Glyph of Cooldown Reduction 3X Quint of Cooldown Reduction (Get those stacks early, 20% cooldown with masteries)

Mid Lane

AD Mid 9X Mark of Armor Penetration 9X Seal of Armor (Same as ADC, AD Top, AP Top) 9X Glyph of Magic Resist (Same as ADC, AD Top, AP Top) 9X Quint of Attack Damage (Same as AD Top, viable on ADC)

AP Mid 9X Mark of Hybrid Penetration 9X Seal of Armor 9X Glyph of Scaling Ability Power 3X Quint of Ability Power

Variances 9X Mark of Magic Penetration 9X Seal of Scaling Energy Regen (Akali) 9X Seal of Health (Viable on some ADCs, Top Laners) 9X Seal of Scaling Health (Viable on Ahri, Syndra) 9X Glyph of Ability Power (or Scaling) (Viable on Akali, Ahri, Vel'Koz, Orianna, etc) 9X Glyph of Scaling MR (Viable on Malazahar) 3X Quint of Energy Regen (Akali)

The Jungler

This role is nothing I am familiar with, but I did the same research I did on the others. The general runes are:

AD Jungle

9X Mark of AD 9X Seal of Armor 9X Glyph of MR 3X Quint of AD

AP Jungle 9X Mark of Magic Penetration 9X Seal of Armor 9X Glyph of MR / Scaling MR 3X Quint of AP (Or AS)

The Support Role

This isn't a role I know well, but I've found success with the following runes (same research as the above roles).

AD Support 9X Mark of Armor 9X Seal of Health 9X Glyph of MR 3X Quint of Armor

AP Support 9X Mark of Armor 9X Seal of Health 9X Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist 3X Quint of Armor

Variances Quints: MS, Gold, AP Glyphs: CDR, AP, Magic Penetration Seals: Armor, Scaling Health Marks: Armor Penetration, Magic Penetration, Hybrid Penetration

If you've gotten this far, thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm always looking for advice on my game, so if you've got some, I'm still trying to learn.