League Of Legends LXVII: "MY PICK'EMS!"

[Recaiden]

Why are they called runes if they're so much more like the current Mastery system than the current Rune system?

• Free for everyone
• Keystones
• Changeable in pregame
• Special effects (mostly) instead of small stat increases

'Rune' is a cooler word, but it seems a little confusing.

[Dienekes]

This rework removes both runes and masteries and replaces them with a single system. So there won't be a Keystone Mastery, just a Keystone Rune.

Ok, that makes more sense. So, instead of having 9 Keystone Masteries and you have to pick one and they all sort of fit into 3 categories. It's more like you can just "buy" a Rune (except these runes are free) and put them on your keystone/mastery sheet.

I actually like that, a lot, it even fits the word "stone" better. Especially if they change the Keystones to not be connected to Mastery trees. I want to go straight down the Ferocity tree and still pick Thunderlord's Decree, for example.

The only real potential problem I can think of, is that early and mid-game champions that kind of use their rune stats more efficiently to give them that boost to stomp until items balance everything out. I think there are a couple champions that are balanced around that. I don't know how they're going to combat that, but I'm willing to see what they're going to do.

[Ashen Lilies]

Oh, real question/concern:

Most of my current rune pages are boring min-max garbage that just give me more stats that my champion already wanted (attack speed and AD on a marksman, you don't say?), but there are some rune set-ups that you can currently tweak that have a more distinct impact on the way you play the game. The most obvious ones are scaling vs. flat runes impacting how you play for lanes vs. midgame, or the existence of CDR runes meaning you can branch out your item paths. There's also a few more niche things you can do with stat bonuses, like running attack speed on mages like Annie or Karma in order to have better wave control with purely auto attacks, letting you save spells for lane harass.

Are these kinds of choices still supported with the new system? Are the stat changes going away completely?

[Maryring]

So... essentially from now on you should not buy runes, and you should make sure to spend your IP on champs before the prices increase. Am I understanding it correctly?

[Olinser]

Runes Reforged and Honor Update (youtube)

Been working towards runes reforged (replaces both runes and masteries) for... a very very long while (jan 2016).

I'll soon be able to be a lot more responsive here. :P

So do you actually appear in this video?

[thracian]

It appears to be only New001.

Other names show up (friends list, game lobby, etc.) but none of them are a name I recognize as being Reinboom.

[Olinser]

It appears to be only New001.

Other names show up (friends list, game lobby, etc.) but none of them are a name I recognize as being Reinboom.

Reinboom photobomb 2017. It needs to happen!

[Reinboom]

Why are they called runes if they're so much more like the current Mastery system than the current Rune system?

• Free for everyone
• Keystones
• Changeable in pregame
• Special effects (mostly) instead of small stat increases

'Rune' is a cooler word, but it seems a little confusing.

Rune is a cooler name. Runes are in the lore. It'd be odd to have Runeterra without Runes, etc.

Ok, that makes more sense. So, instead of having 9 Keystone Masteries and you have to pick one and they all sort of fit into 3 categories. It's more like you can just "buy" a Rune (except these runes are free) and put them on your keystone/mastery sheet.

I actually like that, a lot, it even fits the word "stone" better. Especially if they change the Keystones to not be connected to Mastery trees. I want to go straight down the Ferocity tree and still pick Thunderlord's Decree, for example.

The only real potential problem I can think of, is that early and mid-game champions that kind of use their rune stats more efficiently to give them that boost to stomp until items balance everything out. I think there are a couple champions that are balanced around that. I don't know how they're going to combat that, but I'm willing to see what they're going to do.

That's not quite right, but I won't be able to provide many systemic details until later this week when we actually tell everyone what it's like.

Oh, real question/concern:

Most of my current rune pages are boring min-max garbage that just give me more stats that my champion already wanted (attack speed and AD on a marksman, you don't say?), but there are some rune set-ups that you can currently tweak that have a more distinct impact on the way you play the game. The most obvious ones are scaling vs. flat runes impacting how you play for lanes vs. midgame, or the existence of CDR runes meaning you can branch out your item paths. There's also a few more niche things you can do with stat bonuses, like running attack speed on mages like Annie or Karma in order to have better wave control with purely auto attacks, letting you save spells for lane harass.

Are these kinds of choices still supported with the new system? Are the stat changes going away completely?

There will be stat changes, though the context for them has changed. There's a lot of "necessary to function" types of stats which will merge into champions themselves. These are all the "not really choices" types of stats, really.
There's also still stats in the system, but those are precisely the type of stats that there are interesting decision making around. Old Runes wasn't completely without merit, as you pointed out.

So... essentially from now on you should not buy runes, and you should make sure to spend your IP on champs before the prices increase. Am I understanding it correctly?

We never mentioned a champion price increase. Also, we'll have plenty of exact details in the coming while way before any changes hit. We don't want anyone to feel screwed over by this.

So do you actually appear in this video?

Nope. I don't show up on screen very much, and tend to not opt into those types of events.
I went on stream with scarizard a few months before he left, but that's about it for as far as my appearances.

[Joran]

Nope. I don't show up on screen very much, and tend to not opt into those types of events.
I went on stream with scarizard a few months before he left, but that's about it for as far as my appearances.

That stream is no longer available on Twitch, so you're safe!

[Ionbound]

So Yasuo is a Dark Souls boss now...

[Vogie]

Most of my current rune pages are boring min-max garbage that just give me more stats that my champion already wanted (attack speed and AD on a marksman, you don't say?), but there are some rune set-ups that you can currently tweak that have a more distinct impact on the way you play the game. The most obvious ones are scaling vs. flat runes impacting how you play for lanes vs. midgame, or the existence of CDR runes meaning you can branch out your item paths. There's also a few more niche things you can do with stat bonuses, like running attack speed on mages like Annie or Karma in order to have better wave control with purely auto attacks, letting you save spells for lane harass.

I could see the Runes being replaced with something more like sliders, that would be similar in execution, but easier to change on the fly.

Jungle |------------| Lane
"Red"
AD |------------| AP
Raw Stats |------------| Penetration
Critical Strike |------------| Attack Speed
"Yellow"
Armor |------------| MR
Utility |------------| Durability
Mana Regen |------------| HP Regen

Et cetera, down the line.

[Ivellius]

Rune is a cooler name. Runes are in the lore. It'd be odd to have Runeterra without Runes, etc.

Grognardic griping: masteries are also part of the lore, and it's really odd to play League of Legends that no longer has the League of Legends.

[Dienekes]

Grognardic griping: masteries are also part of the lore, and it's really odd to play League of Legends that no longer has the League of Legends.

And it sucks to play a Spartan who is really a parasitic space *******.

But I think we've lost these arguments a long time ago.

[Ashen Lilies]

So I haven't played for a while.
What are the current default 10 or so rune pages I should set up to work with most characters now?

Relevant video

[mrcarter11]

and it's really odd to play League of Legends that no longer has the League of Legends.

That one still gets me.

[Reinboom]

Grognardic griping: masteries are also part of the lore, and it's really odd to play League of Legends that no longer has the League of Legends.

It's not within the scoped-in from summoners part of the lore, rather.

The old mastery loose justification also wouldn't work with the new system anyways, since there won't be substantial power difference at summoner level 1 anymore within the new system.

[Anarion]

My main curiosity with the new system, broadly speaking, is whether there will still be niche things. Not just "should I set up vs. a magic damage vs. physical damage lane" but options for something like "this specific champion matchup is going to be a lot of back and forth spell clearing, so even though I'd normally never do this, I really want bonus mana regen here to stay in lane." Or similar things like that.

[Vogie]

7.11 Patch notes are up

I'm really looking forward to the Rek'Sai change, the Kindred changes & Malz changes we were expecting... I've been trying to do Malz mid, and he just drops off midgame and usually can't recover. Hopefully these will help. Also, any Yasuo nerf is a good Yasuo nerf.

In addition, there's friggin' SINGED BUFFS ON THE PBE. This patch could've only been better if it came with a slurpee.

[thracian]

I actually really like the Yasuo nerf. It's really quick to build up to tornado once you have an ASpd item and the threat of having it available is really strong. It's similar to the Kennen mark nerf from ages ago.

[Ivellius]

It's not within the scoped-in from summoners part of the lore, rather.

The old mastery loose justification also wouldn't work with the new system anyways, since there won't be substantial power difference at summoner level 1 anymore within the new system.

I'm not really sure what you mean here, considering the implementation of runes was tied heavily to summoners. You're limited in rune slots because of the power of the summoner, runes were a concentrated manifestation of that summoner's power used to augment a champion (so were masteries, to be fair), and the whole "rune pages" thing was that those are actual pages in your summoner spellbook. ("Loose" is really an unfair way to describe the old lore; it was quite cohesive unless a person doesn't buy the central conceit, in which case that person just didn't get it.) I guess you mean runic magic is a thing because Ryze exists?

Also, now that we've passed 1000 days since the retcon was announced (that would be yesterday, actually), is it going to actually be completed someday?

You don't have to respond to any of these things; I'm griping at you because you're here and the actual people to blame ignored my posts on the official forum. It's not your fault they ruined the lore.

[Anarion]

It's not your fault they ruined the lore.

It's especially not Reinboom's fault since I don't think the lore is ruined.

[Dienekes]

It's especially not Reinboom's fault since I don't think the lore is ruined.

Yeah, all told they sacrificed narrative and gameplay cohesion to instead focus on easier, more generic storytelling and worldbuilding. Which allowed them to make more character driven stories.

Which honestly, I wouldn't have much a problem with, except I think some of the new lore pretty much sucks.

[Recaiden]

It's especially not Reinboom's fault since I don't think the lore is ruined.

You can't deny they literally threw out the in-universe League of Legends and all the lore.

Whether the new partial replacements are themselves in ruins is a matter of opinion.

[Ivellius]

Yeah, all told they sacrificed narrative and gameplay cohesion to instead focus on easier, more generic storytelling and worldbuilding. Which allowed them to make more character driven stories.

Which honestly, I wouldn't have much a problem with, except I think some of the new lore pretty much sucks.

I'm not even sure what I'd consider a "story" that they've put out. "Burning Tides" comes the closest as a narrative for Gangplank, but there's rarely much conflict or resolution in the little bits they put forward. They still don't follow up on things, so almost everything is just a "Chapter 1" to a world that will permanently remain in stasis. Runeterra is far less dynamic than it ever was with the League of Legends--but that was their chief argument for removing it.

I'd be much more okay with the current state of things if they did a good job with it, but they sacrificed all of their lore for something that still has the supposed problem they wanted to fix.

[Ashen Lilies]

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/new...runes-reforged

Okay, Overcharger is my new favorite rune. I overcap on CDR all the time. Like, all the time.

Edit: I also really like it because it makes you feel less bad about buying Ionian boots because they're only 600g and you want that 10% cdr NOW, but you know you'll overcap in your build later (Karma and Riven do this frequently).

[Dienekes]

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/new...runes-reforged

Okay, Overcharger is my new favorite rune. I overcap on CDR all the time. Like, all the time.

Ahh, so in the end, the new runes are really just Masteries. But with very simplified Mastery pages, that only go 3 rungs deep instead of the current 6.

That's a little disappointing, honestly, but I'm interested to see what new abilities come from it. Really, as long as there remains some way of starting the game with around 10-15 damage (without buying an item) to funnel into throwing spears at people, I'm good.

[Vogie]

Ahh, so in the end, the new runes are really just Masteries. But with very simplified Mastery pages, that only go 3 rungs deep instead of the current 6.

That's a little disappointing, honestly, but I'm interested to see what new abilities come from it. Really, as long as there remains some way of starting the game with around 10-15 damage (without buying an item) to funnel into throwing spears at people, I'm good.

I like them because instead of being straight up strong or weak, they're all Niche. I also like the "takedowns" as an metric rather than "kills", so supports and non-bursters don't get the shaft

[Dienekes]

I like them because instead of being straight up strong or weak, they're all Niche. I also like the "takedowns" as an metric rather than "kills", so supports and non-bursters don't get the shaft

Bit early to say that, isn't it? We don't even have the list of abilities yet. Money's on when they're released within a month everyone will realize that there are clearly options that are just better for what they're trying to do for a good chunk of the champions and some that pretty much no one takes.

Because that always happens when they make grand sweeping balance changes. Stuff falls through the cracks, that's ok. It is pretty much inevitable.

Because the whole customizable options to fit a niche was already tried once. And I remember when basically everyone and their uncle picked Thunderlord's because it just did damage better.

I however totally agree on replacing kills with takedowns. It's just more fair, and offers the benefit of not having the team scramble over each other.

[mrcarter11]

I'm not even sure what I'd consider a "story" that they've put out. "Burning Tides" comes the closest as a narrative for Gangplank, but there's rarely much conflict or resolution in the little bits they put forward. They still don't follow up on things, so almost everything is just a "Chapter 1" to a world that will permanently remain in stasis. Runeterra is far less dynamic than it ever was with the League of Legends--but that was their chief argument for removing it.

I'd be much more okay with the current state of things if they did a good job with it, but they sacrificed all of their lore for something that still has the supposed problem they wanted to fix.

The last part I've said something similar to, a number of times. Their announced chief argument for why the old lore had to die falls flat when it's been, 1000 days I suppose, and it has almost nothing to it. Characters seem almost entirely unaffected by anything, with most pointing to GP and Burning Tides as an example of where Riot did it right, but honestly BMB was the only thing I liked about that whole event, and that was what, 2 years ago now? We've never seen anything related to it since then I don't think, no progressed storyline since then, no characters adjustments. It just all falls flat.

[Maryring]

We never mentioned a champion price increase. Also, we'll have plenty of exact details in the coming while way before any changes hit. We don't want anyone to feel screwed over by this.

Huh. You're right. My fault. I took the mention of reworking the rewards to mean that it'd end up being even harder to get champs in the future, now that you're no longer buying runes with IP. But that'd probably just affect future IP rewards, rather than the actual price of champs, if my suspicions of champs being harder to get even pans out as a thing.