Back in the 2014 preseason we spoke about rune balance changes but couldn't deliver them in time for the launch of the season. The short version: we took a closer look at the rune system after our original announcement and decided that our plans weren't going to get runes where we want them to be. We're still committed to exploring the best way to make runes an interesting and dynamic system for all players, but in the meantime we'll be implementing some basic changes in the next patch.
For starters, we're very aware that rune costs are a pain point for many players, so with the upcoming rune balance changes, we'll be kicking off a 30% off Rune and IP Boost sale that will last from the start of the next patch through the end of April.
As for the balance, we'll be making the following basic changes to runes (we're only showing the Tier 3 changes, but you can assume roughly equivalent changes for the lower tiers). Supplementary changes in other systems will accompany our only two rune nerfs to armor seals and life steal quintessences. All other rune changes are buffs. It should also be noted that we will not be offering refunds (or meeting the price difference) for runes previously purchased or purchased between this announcement and the official sale start.
Values are for Tier 3 seals
 Armor |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER SEAL |
1.41 armor |
1.00 armor |
| PER 9 SEALS |
12.69 armor |
9.00 armor |
| SUPPLEMENTARY |
All champions will gain +4 base armor in compensation |
 Scaling Armor |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER SEAL |
2.7 armor at level 18 |
3.0 armor at level 18 |
| PER 9 SEALS |
24.3 armor at level 18 |
27.0 armor at level 18 |
 Health |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER SEAL |
5.35 health |
8.0 health |
| PER 9 SEALS |
48.15 health |
72.0 health |
| Scaling Health |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER SEAL |
19.44 health at level 18 |
24.00 health at level 18 |
| PER 9 SEALS |
174.96 health at level 18 |
216.00 health at level 18 |
| Health Regeneration |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER SEAL |
0.43 health regen/5 sec |
0.56 health regen/5 sec |
| PER 9 SEALS |
3.87 health regen/5 sec |
5.00 health regen/5 sec |
Values are for Tier 3 glyphs
 Scaling Cooldown Reduction |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER GLYPH |
- 1.11% cooldowns at lvl 18 |
-1.67% cooldowns at lvl 18 |
| PER 9 GLYPHS |
- 9.99% cooldowns at lvl 18 |
-15% cooldowns at lvl 18 |
 Scaling Magic Resist |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER GLYPH |
2.7 magic resist at level 18 |
3.0 magic resist at level 18 |
| PER 9 GLYPHS |
24.3 magic resist at level 18 |
27 magic resist at level 18 |
 Mana Regeneration |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER GLYPH |
0.31 mana regen/5 sec |
0.33 mana regen/5 sec |
| PER 9 GLYPHS |
2.79 mana regen/5 sec |
3.00 mana regen/5 sec |
| Scaling Mana Regeneration |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER GLYPH |
0.99 mana regen/5s at lvl 18 |
1.20 mana regen/5s at lvl 18 |
| PER 9 GLYPHS |
8.91 mana regen/5s at lvl 18 |
10.80 mana regen/5s at lvl 18 |
Quintessences
Values are for Tier 3 quintessences
 Cooldown Reduction |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER QUINTESSENCE |
-1.67% cooldowns |
-2.50% cooldowns |
| PER 3 QUINTESSENCES |
-5.01% cooldowns |
-7.50% cooldowns |
 Scaling Cooldown Reduction |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER QUINTESSENCE |
-2.5% cooldowns at level 18 |
-5% cooldowns at level 18 |
| PER 3 QUINTESSENCES |
-7.5% cooldowns at level 18 |
-15% cooldowns at level 18 |
 Attack Speed |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER QUINTESSENCE |
3.4% attack speed |
4.5% attack speed |
| PER 3 QUINTESSENCES |
10.2% attack speed |
13.50% attack speed |
| Life Steal |
| |
OLD |
NEW |
| PER QUINTESSENCE |
2% life steal |
1.5% life steal |
| PER 3 QUINTESSENCES |
6% life steal |
4.5% life steal |
| SUPPLEMENTARY |
The offensive mastery, Feast, will now restore 3 health on minion kill (up from 2) |
We'll be keeping an eye on runes and may need to make additional tweaks for game health reasons, but we're not currently planning any further significant changes in the 2014 season. We hope you enjoy the upcoming rune sale and take this opportunity to get geared up for the season!
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Posted 3/24/2014 10:54:20 AMWhy are we nerfing flat armor? Do we really need OP Lee, Renekon, KZ, etc to be even MORE powerful early game?
If I am jungling, how exactly do I now have the freedom to take different seals instead? Ah thats right.. I DONT. I just get nerfed.
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Posted 3/24/2014 5:26:11 PMFlat armor actually got a mini buff. But all the rest has gotten better compared to it aswell.
You can always go for the unnerfed quints of flat armor, if you need some for your junglers.
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Posted 3/24/2014 11:07:44 PMI find that the 4 armor buff to all champs and the rune changes have helped junglers in general. Because they almost always need to be tanky, you can actually use scaling armor yellows and flat armor quints. It feels real good, even if you split your quints with AD or AS.
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Posted 3/22/2014 4:10:12 PMRune changes should happen during pre-season... I hate it when Riot makes massive changes like over-hauling Runes/Masteries during an active season...
Tweaking is fine, Balancing is fine... This change is fine, but the next change to runes is going to annoy me if it's big
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Posted 3/22/2014 11:11:36 AMSo basically i spent all of my IP on attemping to buy every single rune 9 times, got all marks and seals, just 3 kinds of glyphs and 6 kinds of quints to go, and NOW they're going to sell runes for 30% less? I feel incredibly cheated out of my IP that they're not even going to refund the difference. It's a Massive amount of IP that i lost which other players wont lose to achieve the same point.
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Posted 3/22/2014 11:38:19 AMWhen did you buy them?
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Posted 3/22/2014 1:02:29 PMSpread out over several months
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Posted 3/25/2014 8:44:03 PMso you used them all this time... time value of money, or in this case runes
a rune today is worth more than a rune tomorrow
In other words, if you had made the effort of not buying the runes, you sacrificed consumption of today in order to get more in the future. But, did you sacrificed consumption today? nope... you bought the runes and profit from them all this time.
Moreover, you bought the runes and won games that otherwise you wouldn't have right? Imagine if you had not had the runes... would you have been able to win all the games you'v won? Every match you played and won due to that extra edge runes gave you, you got extra IP. And that extra IP has certainly surpassed the saving you could make if Riot would give you a refund
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Posted 3/22/2014 9:23:29 PMI bet you're really mad at Walmart too. Putting that item you bought on sale, shame on them!
Price changes happen in every business, including games. You can't expect a refund on every purchase which receives a discount after the fact.
Anyway, if you bought the majority of runes you've already bought every champion which interests you so there's no other use of your IP. QQ for the sake of QQ much?
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Posted 3/22/2014 2:26:57 AMWhy did they decide to buff health seals? They're already pretty good--only slightly overshadowed by armor seals. With the nerf to armor seals already in place, wasn't this overkill?
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Posted 3/22/2014 12:44:20 AMI can't help but think that this is a buff to all tank champions. With 4 free armor, improved scaling armor seals and unchanged flat armor quints, your roadblock champs are spiking in power.
Did no one at rito notice that flat armor seals are almost identical to flat armor marks now?
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Posted 3/22/2014 12:29:23 AMryze with scaling cdr quints and fewscaling cdr glyps could be able to completely ignore cdr item and still get his 40% cdr 20% from runes level 18 + 10 % from q and 10% from masteries (suport masteries rock). Each rod of ages ads 82 damage to his q (with arcangell staff and fully stacked). Going to try out arch +void+3 rod of ages. Or mabe armor/mr is to important and is a must buy. Either way its a must test.
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Posted 3/22/2014 12:40:44 AMRyze? Why would Ryze ignore the Glacial Shroud items? With his ranges so short, there's no reason not to tank up.
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Posted 4/15/2014 8:26:21 AMGlacial shroud items (Frozen heart/Gauntlet) are core for him, mostly Frozen heart for the combination of 20% CDR, mana and armor. It's one of the few must-have items for him
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Posted 3/21/2014 7:10:20 PMto be honest u dont really care the loose of 1 % of the LS runes it really not noticable as soon you got your vamp scepter with a dorans all your early sustain problems are done at all
its a diffrence of like 0.7-0.9 till your get you camp scepter nothing so awefull at all
in my opinion people will still play with 2 LS quints or skip them for Ad or AS runes to make Dorans more worth
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Posted 3/21/2014 6:03:38 PMFlat Armor seals are just nerfed a bit too much. I don't see the point in getting them. If champions need flat armor they'll just use the Quints now I guess. (nerfed to 1.2 per flat armor seal would be okayish)
Lifesteal rune nerf is incredibly unnecessary. There was a good choice between attack damage and lifesteal goldwise:
AD: 360 / 10 * = 81 gold
Lifesteal: 440 / 10 * 2 = 88 gold (new lifesteal = 88*0.75 = 66 gold)
And thus I don't see a reason why people would give up easier lasthitting for a tiny bit of sustain. Just a nerf to ADC's, which aren't in a great spot already. (Maybe make double edged sword + unyielding mastery and dorans blade equal for ranged champs?)
However a spell vamp buff from 2% to 2.5% would have been warm welcomed.
That attack speed buff for quints is way out of line. 4% it should be. Attack speed duelists like, Trynda, Jax, Irelia, Vayne ... will rape so hard now. Probably the best Quints in the game.
(Lifesteal runes will be gone forever in favor of Attack speed?)
Sadly things like Crit runes, Energy , % Health and Scaling quints of: Ability Power, Armor, Magic Resist, Attack Damage (and few other runes) haven't gotten any attention at all so most of them remain very wonky.
On a positive note: I am loving most buffs on the seals and glyphs to bring more variety.
The focus of this 'balancing' seems rather random and unfinished. If you want to overhaul runes do it properly with calculations (gold comparable) and explain WHY scaling runes need to break even at 6 (or 7). Because it all just seems very arbitrary and lacks rational thought behind it.
Balancing should revolve around improving the game quality. In this case the pregame phase.
But this looks more like a rushed business move, so people waste all their IP on different runes so they buy RP for skins and champions.
Thx for reading
Truly yours,
A slightly disappointed fan of balance (including variety and options).
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Posted 3/21/2014 6:44:06 PMarmor didnt get nerfed in any way since every champ got 4 armor in exchange thats a gain of 0.31 if u still play armor runes thats a buff and its better for newcomer in this game since they have more armor
and about the attackspeed runes will be more for Junglers Toplaner that have Passiv Ad steroids and can use Arpen runes in the same time I.E Nocturne got buffed instead of
12 arpen and 10% stkspeed you have noch 12 Arpen and 18.5 (with masteries) +you ad steroids which makes you early trades even a lot stronger i say Noctunre will see more play noc through this minor but usefullbuff
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Posted 3/21/2014 8:19:43 PMI never stated armor got nerfed. I just don't see flat armor SEALS to be worth using anymore after the nerf on seals. Maybe in some rare cases vs Pantheon / Talon lanes.
'Yaay nocturne got buffed' so did ... like all the other auto attack junglers.
And again i'm just talking proportions here.
Where an AD quint is worth 360/ 10 * 2.25 = 81 gold
Armor quint 300/ 15 * 4.25 = 85 gold
New Attack speed quint = 400 / 12 * 4.5 = 150 gold
starting to see the picture of relative rune balancing?
Btw with armor being buffed overall, that's actually a relative nerf to flat armor penetration, but a buff for % penetration. Although it's not much, in a game with the balance fragility like league not much can mean a whole ton.
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Posted 3/21/2014 10:57:33 PMSo you made some fair assessments, but really its completely worthless to say things like "A slightly disappointed fan of balance (including variety and options)." because the post SPECIFICALLY and CLEARLY says this is a small change in preparation for an overall revamp. no one in lane uses AS quints. if they do they were already suffering in lower damage. now using as quints in lane is viable.
Yes all junglers who are auto reliant will be buffed, but the very very very few AS reliant junglers that will gain power will be easy to balance in the greater scheme of things. Again, im not saying you didnt make fair assessments, but it gets on my nerves when people bitch at the balance team. for every single problem you have with this game, there is a specific reason that problem exsists. problems arent just things the design team creates to upset you or to make money. people that fail to acknowledge that are the people that cannot see the whole picture. these rune changes are about completely changing the way people prepare for the games they play, but are not meant to have almost any impact on the game itself. If people are too strong because of the changes, they will get nerfed. that doesnt mean that the changes arent very necessary for the games state of health.
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Posted 3/22/2014 6:55:07 AMNo but if you make AS quints 4% extra for example, it's also a buff, but not one that goes out of line.
If they would nerf lifesteal to 1.75%. It would still be a nerf, but the runes wouldn't be phased out by better options. They would remain a good option, while now they aren't really that viable anymore.
It's a good thing they want to change runes, the amounts they do it with and the areas they focus on are just so random. And like scaling armor seals now break even at level 6 with flat armor seals. But scaling armor quints only break even between lvl 11-12. I don't think everything should be equally gold efficient either, but it could approach each other and the outliners shouldn't be so big.