ESEX LoL Rune Rundown: April 2014

Riot Games originally envisioned runes as a way for players to customize gameplay to fit their own unique, individual playstyle. Unfortunately, players failed to customize their runes in a way that Riot approved.

To combat this, Riot has instituted several important changes to runes at the best time possible: right before Playoffs.

Greater Seal of Armor – Armor reduced to 1 from 1.41

Before Patch 4.5, Seals were comprised of solely of flat armor and valuable fur in virtually every rune page. Fortunately, Riot has clubbed this stale meta, forcing players to reevaluate their rune choices. Players are scrambling to discover the new combination of Seals to be overused in every rune page.

Greater Seal of Scaly Armor – Scaly Armor increased to 3 (at level 18) from 2.7

Turns your champion into an armored reptile, making this a redundant rune for Top laners.

Greater Seal of Health – Health increased to 8 from 5.35
Greater Seal of Scaling Health – Scaling Health increased to 24 (at level 18) from 19.44
Greater Seal of Health Regeneration – Health Regeneration increased to .56 from .43

Players who failed to buy these runes by March 31 will be taxed 1% of their IP under Riot’s Affordable Rune Act.

Greater Glyph of Scaling CDR – Scaling CDR increased to 1.67% (at level 18) from 1.11%
Greater Quintessences of CDR – CDR increased to 2.5% from 1.67%
Greater Quintessences of Scaling CDR – Scaling CDR increased to 5% (at level 18) from 2.5%

Although many resource-less champions had defensive steroids, they lacked access to convenient cooldown reduction itemization. The buff to CDR runes will help bring their power back up to match that of mana users.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist – Scaling MR increased to 3 (at level 18) from 2.7

First Ghostcrawler buffed mages uncontrollably, and now he has nerfed them. What a terrible balancer.

Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration – Mana Regen increased to .33 from .31

League analysts, pro players, and fans throughout this community are in uproar over this new change, believing that it had critically altered the balance of the game. “1.8 more mana per second? That’s literally infinite mana,” cried Anivia player Henrik “Froggen” Hansen.

Greater Glyph of Scaling Mana Regeneration – Scaling Mana Regen increased from 0.99 to 1.20

Riot buffed scaling mana regen glyphs, helping the three players who bought them on accident.

Greater Quintessence of Life Steal – Life Steal reduced to 1.5% from 2%
Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed – Attack Speed increased to 4.5% from 3.4%

The nerf and buff to Life Steal and Attack Speed, respectively, marks yet another victory for Attack Speed in the rivalry between LS and AS, also know as the “War of Carries.” Earlier, Life Steal proponents had won an publicity victory when they attack-speeded an elephant to death to demonstrate the dangers of AS.