Choosing Runes? I can help you do that better (X-post from Gameplay) via /r/summonerschool

http://ift.tt/2b294lp Mirror: http://ift.tt/2aVzc0l

Back in November of 2014, I posted a Gold Efficiency table to help people compare runes to each other. Things have changed a little since then (for the more complicated!) and I'm back with an updated spreadsheet and recommendations to help people choose runes better.

The workbook I've posted has two primary sheets on the left; the Gold Efficiency Table and the Stat Efficiency Table. The Gold Efficiency table uses the gold value of stats to compare the stats different runes of the same category gives. The "% Gold Efficient" column can help you choose between an Attack Damage or Attack Speed Mark, or between a Health or Armor seal. It's pretty good at comparing flat runes to flat runes or scaling runes to scaling runes, but isn't nearly as useful for comparing flat runes to scaling runes. You can still compare scaling to flat; my formula for the efficiency considers a scaling rune more efficient than a flat one if it gives more stats by level 6. If you want to compare different rune types, the Gold Efficiency Table can be slightly useful by comparing the raw gold values.

A better choice for comparing between rune types is the Stat Efficiency table. This should help you decide between an AD Mark or an AD Quint. The rune type that gives the most of each stat is considered 100% efficient in this table, and all other rune types are compared to that value.

The rest of the tables show various calculations. "Items Used" shows the items, their stats, and their efficiencies used to calculate the gold values for the Gold Efficiency Table. "Health vs Armor Runes" and "Scaling Health vs Armor" show tables comparing the effective health armor and HP runes give each champion at each level. The associated "calc" sheets show the actual effective HPs each rune gives. "Health Regen Comparison" shows the HP granted by a rejuv bead for each champion at each level, as well as the gold value of each HP5 rune for each champion at each level. "Mana Regen Comparison" does the same for MP5. "Energy and Energy Regen Comparison" shows calculations regarding energy and energy regen runes.

Notable improvements:

1. Better gold efficiency formula than the original. This one considers a scaling rune efficient if it gives more stats by 6, instead of by 9.
2. Corrected Energy and EP5 formulas. Silly mistake lead to completely inaccurate number…
3. Adjusted mana and health regens to account for the difference between flat regen and the percent base now available in the shop.
4. Tables to compare effective HP for different champions with different defensive runes.

BE WARNED:

A Rune being gold or stat efficient does NOT, inherently, make it strong. It doesn't even necessarily make it stronger than a less gold efficient rune. You have to consider how well your champ can make use of the stat and what kind of impact taking the rune will have on the game. For example, if taking 1 AP seal allows you to reliably kill caster minions with a single spell, it's worth taking that rune, no matter what the math says.

The idea behind these charts is to help you avoid low benefit runes (in Red), and to help you choose highly valuable runes (in green) wherever they make sense.

Maximizing Two Stats:

If you find you would like to take two stats, for example, AD and Attack Speed, it may be best to maximize the gold value of the two stats on the runes you intent to take them. To do this, divide the gold values of the two stats for both runes. So, for this example, divide 383/299 (Marks) and 338/236 (Quints) to get 1.28 and 1.43, respectively. Then compare the two numbers. Take runes of the divisor of the smaller amount and the dividend of the larger number; in this case, Attack Speed Quints and Attack Damage Marks.

Maximizing Outputs:

A different way of looking at this is to maximize the end value your runes will grant you. For example, we must decide between armor seals and HP seals. Both of these impact our effective health, so a good way of comparing them is to calculate the effective physical health of our champion with each rune. Note that this calculation is biased, because HP seals increase not only effective physical health, but also effective magic and effective true health. Also, the calculation depends upon your items, so if you expect to build certain defensive items, you should consider that as well. Finally, Armor will be more effective in trades and synergizes with sustain. It increases the strength of each point of health you regen/heal, while health does not. I have run this calculation assuming no items, skills, or masteries, and no other defensive runes, on the sheets Health vs Armor and Scaling Health vs Armor. If you would like to run scenarios with various items, skill bonuses, ect, simply download the sheet. You can input the values you would like considered into the appropriate field(s) in the appropriate "calc" sheet. You can also try leaguecraft's builder, here, or teryd's builder, here. Both of these were extremely outdated the last time I checked, though.

A similar calculation can be done with Attack Damage vs Attack Speed, AD vs Armor Pen, A Speed vs Armor Pen, and AP vs Magic Pen. Note that enemy magic resistance/ armor will be a factor in any comparison containing Pen. I don't have this included in my workbook at this time.

Recommended Runes:

Marks: Hybrid Pen: These are good on many mid laners, some supports, and a very few tanks and bruisers. They are good when your primary source of damage is magic damage, but you also deal some physical damage through auto attack harass or spells.

Magic Pen: These are good on mid laners, a few tanks, some supports, and jungle fiddlesticks. They are better than hybrid pen when you have little to no ability to auto attack, and deal little to no physical damage with your skills.

Attack Damage: These give good early game harass, last hit strength, and decent all in potential to AD and/or ranged champions. They are the best and only real option for most ADCs, and a good option for junglers, bruisers, tanks, and some supports. AD offers strong damage in ganks to AD-oriented junglers, particularly ones with skills that scale well with AD. Bruisers and tanks gain better trade potential and better early last hitting from AD marks. Supports gain higher harass potential with auto attacks, and in the case of all-in supports like Leona, some additional damage in an all-in.

Attack Speed: These give very good early game all-ins, particularly in combination with on-hit effects. They grant junglers (even AP ones) the fastest clear time, and tanks and bruisers like Irelia can make great use of them.

Armor Pen: These can be good on AD mid laners, and junglers can choose to take up to 6 of them. Armor pen scales better into late game than attack damage, and works well with high base physical damage skills. 4-6 armor pen marks will give junglers with high base skills, such as Hecarim, more damage in ganks than attack damage. 4 armor pen marks will give 5 armor pen. 6 armor pen marks will give 7.7 armor pen. Either way, you will gain more damage on ganks but not be quite as efficient in the jungle. Remember that small monsters no longer have any armor, so you're really giving up clear time if you can't kill them quickly.

Armor: Armor marks are a bit of an anomaly. If you look at their gold efficiency, they look very bad (48.9% efficient). However, compare the amount of armor they give to the amount of armor seals give, and you'll get a different story (91% efficient). Considering the higher efficiency of HP seals compared to armor seals, and the lower efficiency of HP marks compared to armor marks, if you goal is simply to have the highest effective physical health at level one possible, it makes sense to take armor marks and health seals. Armor marks can also make sense against certain high physical damage dealers (Fiora) or as Malphite or Rammus. Essentially, they can be an option for some supports, top laners, or junglers under the correct circumstance.

Crit chance: You can take ONE crit chance mark on any champion. I think it's cheesy and would rather have the guaranteed benefits the 1 extra ad/pen/whatever mark would give me, but if you happen to crit on the enemy champion, you can automatically win the trade/lane. Don't take more than 1.

Seals:

Health: These are the strongest level 1 defensive seals for an all-in. If you are going to walk up and instantly fight the opponent to the death without backing off, these are the best thing for it. They are useful against all types of damage. Note that level 1 magic resist is higher than level 1 armor, making these a little stronger against magic damage than physical damage.

Armor: These are the next best level 1 defensive seals for an all-in. They are stronger over time than health, as they scale better into late game. Also, they are better for sustain, poke, and trade lanes. They make your health regen and natural health gain per level stronger. Armor seals help against minions, auto attack harass, jungle monsters, and physical damage spells. These are strongly recommended for pretty much all junglers. When you don't know what seals to take, take flat armor seals.

Health/lvl: These are highly efficient late game and can be very effective when combined with resistance-oriented builds. However, they leave your champion very vulnerable in the early game and are not recommended for melee champions or junglers. It is always a risk to take these seals. They are only advisable if you are confident in your ability to survive lane phase and are capable of not fighting your opponent early.

Armor/lvl: These are also highly efficient late game, and are particularly effective combined with health-oriented builds. Like health/lvl, they leave your champion very vulnerable early game, and should only be take if you are able to avoid early fights. These are actually significantly more efficient against physical damage than HP/Lvl in late game- much more so than you might expect.

Gold/5 These pay off surprisingly quickly, and can be quite good, particularly for supports. Just keep in mind that they don't provide any benefits after you're full build, and they will also make you much squishier early game.

Mana/5: If you choose these, you have just transformed yourself into the squishiest champion on the rift. Be warned, you are now Anivia, sans egg. Dont take damage. I highly recommend against taking more than 3-4 non-defensive seals, and I really recommend against taking anything but the first four seals talked about. That said, these give a decent amount of early game mana regen for more spam in lane, if you feel that is essential. If you MUST take mana regen, though, it would likely be wiser to take 3-4 mana regen glyphs instead of these, especially as a support.

Mana/5/lvl: See the warning above. These provide some very early mana regen, and outscale mana/5 by level 7. I don't know why you would feel the need for these as a mid laner when seraphs, rod of ages, and morello exists, and as another role you REALLY need the defensive stats. But whatever, they're reasonably efficient and it' your champion so…

HP/5 Depending upon your champion, these can be extremely effective. I usually stay away from them in favor of armor (because armor makes each point you regen stronger, essentially giving you %HP regen), but they can be very good on champs like Soraka.

HP/5/Lvl I don't recommend these on most champions. The main reason (apart from the above) is that HP5 actually becomes less valuable with levels. Not only is HP5 a less useful stat, but it actually costs less to get later into the game. This is because all purchased HP5 is percent of base, and your base HP5 increases with level. Still, these could be decent on Soraka. Wouldn't recommend them for anyone else.

Attack speed: Again, see the warning above. That said, these can be entertaining on a couple of champs, they're quite efficient, and have enough impact to not make me gag if you choose them. Junglers like Warwick and Xin Zhao make particularly entertaining use of them.

Glyphs

Magic Resist: This is the most common, most general choice for glyphs. Flat MR will give any champion good early game survivability against mages, some tanks, and many supports. Most champions deal at least some amount of magic damage, so taking at least 5 of these is the most standard thing to do. When in doubt, these are the glyphs to take.

Magic Reist/lvl: These are great when your lane opponent deals little to no magic damage, but the enemy team still has quite a bit of it. An example might be laning top against a Renekton (who deals no magic damage until level 6), when the enemy mid laner is Orianna. Again, these can be useful on any champion or role.

Ability Power: These provide a good early game boost to AP-scaling champion's skills. They also improve wave clear, which can be very important. They are a good choice when your lane opponent deals mostly physical damage and you scale well off of AP. Consider taking 4-5 along with 4-5 magic resist glyphs.

Ability Power/lvl: Most of the time, I find these less effective than flat ability power. They do grant more AP at higher levels, and will improve wave clear more than flat AP in mid game.. However, their early game impact is essentially nonexistent. If you are playing a long range, scaling mage they can be a good choice.

Magic Pen: Most people don't realize that these runes exist. They are actually incredibly effective when combined with magic pen marks on champions with high base magic damage skills. They also scale very well into late game. However, they do not provide any noticeable improvement to waveclear, and you will miss out on magic resist by taking them.

CDR: These can be effective on manaless champions such as Riven or Rengar, but are usually taken on mid laners. They allow more spam and permit you to reach the cdr cap more easily. Unfortunately, you can only reach 7.5% CDR from these, so usually you will combine them with one CDR quint to reach 10% CDR to start the game.

CDR/lvl: These are quite common on mid laners right now. Taking 6 will allow you to gain 10% cdr by level 18, and still give you 3 slots for MR or AP. If you're particularly adventurous, you can take 9 of these and 1 CDR/LVL quint to get 20% CDR from runes alone. Essentially, taking these is useful for hitting the CDR cap more easily. You should already know what CDR items you plan on building when deciding to take these.

Mana/5: Taking these will grant you a somewhat noticeable increase in mana regen early game. If your champion is particularly spammy with mana issues, I suppose they can be okay. Note that you're missing out on magic resist or ability power, though, so it would be better if you could just manage your mana better…

Mana/5/lvl: Similar to mana/5, except weaker early and stronger late. I don't see the need for them when morello/seraph/roa exist, but they're not inefficient, so if you insist…

Attack speed: Taking 4-5 of these can be an option on ADCs. They will provide a slight bonus to your DPS throughout the game, and if your opponent lane doesn't deal too much magic damage they can be effective.

Mana: If your name is Ryze or Blitzcrank, these can be decent.

Armor: Only for ADCs that are really doing weird things and know exactly what they're doing. Specifically, when taking HP seals of one form or another, attack speed quints, attack damage marks, and mixed armor and MR glyphs.

Quints

These are really wide open. Almost all quints are at least okay. Instead of going through all your options, I'll tell you the ones to NOT get.

Anything per level. Quints tend to be less efficient in the per level category than the flat one, and quints are where you get your biggest early game bonuses. Don't take any per level quints.

Crit chance/crit damage: Only gangplanks and trolls take this. Wait, what am I saying, aren't they the same thing?

CDR: If you need cdr, take cdr glyphs. Quints are for combat stats or something you can't get in marks, seals, or glyphs.

HP: See the maximizing stats section above; you should always take your HP in seals and armor in quints, not the other way around.

Mana and mana regen: Not combat stats for anyone but Ryze and Blitzcrank. Even they are better off with other things. If you need mana/regen, get an item or, if you insist on it, a few mana regen glyphs.

Energy and energy/5: Just… no. Please… no.

Bonus experience and minus time dead: Bonus experience is only good for trolling as/with a Zilean, and you shouldn't be planning on dying, so don't get minus time dead.

All other quints can at least be useful situationally.

Usual Rune Strategies

Here I'll list the basic, standard setups everyone can make use of.

Standard ADC and AD assassin: Marks: Ad Seals: Armor Glyphs: MR Quints: AD

Standard Attack Speed ADC and Jungle: Marks: AD Seals: Armor Glyphs: MR Quints: Attack Speed

My Attack Speed ADC: Marks: AD Seals: 7x HP 2x Armor Glyphs: 4x MR 5x Armor Quints: Attack Speed

Standard Bruiser/Tank: Marks: AD Seals: Armor Glyphs: MR/Lvl Quints: AD

Standard Mid: Marks: Magic Pen Seals: Armor Glyphs: MR Quints: AP

CDR Mid Marks: Magic Pen Seals: Armor Glyphs: 6x CDR/LVL 3x MR Quints: AP

Standard Support: Marks: Hybrid Pen Seals: Armor Glyphs: MR/Lvl Quints: AD

Scaling Support: Marks: Hybrid Pen Seals: Armor Glyphs: MR/Lvl Quints: GP5

Customizing Rune Pages:

I've said throughout here a couple times that what a stat actually does for you in game is the most important thing when it comes to choosing runes. But how do I know what a stat is going to do for me? What stats should I want?

This is the heart of situational rune choices. You have to figure out what your champion needs help doing in the upcoming game. I have multiple rune pages dedicated exclusively to surviving difficult matchups. For Example, "Uh-oh" (page 2) is a page designed to deal with Zed- and ONLY Zed. I take this page when playing Anivia against Zed, and at literally no other time. Why? Because not dying to Zed is really important. Specifically, not dying from levels 1-6 against him is very important, because after level 7 or so, Anivia can pretty easily prevent him from engaging using E>R to chunk him out. After 1-2 of these, he either has to base or sit back farming passively, because if he tries to all in you, you can kill him with E>R>Q ignite. So in this rune page, I took flat armor quints, flat HP seals, flat magic pen and flat AP- the most powerful early game setup possible for a lane vs Zed.

Another example is "Try Again" (page 10). This page is designed to deal with Leblanc, and again, the only time I take it is playing Anivia vs Leblanc. Once again, not dying early is critical, but this time I find it slightly easier to accomplish. So I took MR quints and glyphs with scaling HP seals- not quite as strong early, but still incredibly difficult for Leblanc to kill you through. Later into the game, I generally build a Banshee's Veil if she's still a problem, and then I never die to her again.

A third example is Upgrade^Brigade (page 9). Unlike the previous two pages, in this page I don't care about defense. At all. Why? Because it's for Xerath when playing against immobile teams. Specifically teams that have no way of engaging on me in late game. So what do I do? I take mana regen seals, and magic pen everything else. Think that's silly? Think again, this does an insane amount of damage and is WAY more efficient than you think. The mana regen lets me use more spells, which allows me to stay farther away from my enemies and take less damage; the magic pen lets me 100-0 squishies. Oh, and magic resist won't make you not a squishy, because I take Thunderlord's, Sorcerer's Shoes, Void Staff and sometimes even Liandry's. That's 58 flat magic pen and 35%. Until you have 90 magic resist, you actually have 0.

Finally, we can take a look at Kyla Cries Cologne (page 16). Would you believe that this, too, is an Anivia page? It is. This page is for laning against Fizz, Kassadin, and Akali. What do they have in common? They're melee magic damage assassins. So I'm going to abuse the crap out of them with my 600 range auto attacks by taking +15 AD between runes and masteries, and I'm not going to let them kill me by taking a magic resist quint, MR/lvl glyphs, and HP/lvl seals. Why this combination of runes? Because these champions typically can't all-in Anivia until at least level 6. By level 6, the scaling MR glyphs+ flat MR Quint give more MR than flat MR glyphs, and the HP/lvl is almost equal with flat HP. Oh, and I actually take Cull, too. I'm really, really annoying to these guys 🙂

Sadly, this kind of rune page specialization has a cost. 17 of my 20 rune pages are dedicated to mid lane. Even so I don't feel that I have the kind of specialization I'd really like, even in mid. Until Riot decides to change how rune pages work, it simply won't be possible to have THIS situational of runes for very many champions. Still, hopefully these examples give you an idea of what a rune book dedicated primarily to a single lane and only a few champions might look like, and even if you can't use these exact strategies, it should help you come up with strategies of your own.

Disclaimers:

The numbers generated from higher cost items, from items with multiple stats, or generated indirectly (such as energy or energy regen) are less accurate than those generated from low-cost, basic items that only grant a single stat. For this reason, the exact value of Crit Damage, Magic Penetration, Armor Penetration, Cooldown Reduction, Gold Income, Energy, and Energy Regen may not be accurate.

It should be possible to determine how I calculated all the values in the workbook from the formulas and explanations. If you have any questions, corrections, or suggestions regarding my calculations, please let me know.

Health and Mana regeneration values are averages for all champions; wherever possible, you should use the appropriate table from the Health Regen Comparison or Mana Regen Comparison sheets for your particular champion(s) to get more accurate view of the value of these runes.

Again, don't forget that gold efficiency and stat efficiency are just here to help you figure out what's best; don't take hybrid pen on an ADC just because it's worth the most!

Edit 1: Two corrections, thanks to u/aPlayerofGames and u/seredhras.

Edit 2: Added the "Customizing Rune Pages" section.