League of Legends: Grasp of the Undying Rune May Soon Grant Damage Instead of Health

A big change is being tested for the Grasp of the Undying Keystone Rune in League of Legends that would swap out the rune's health gains for damage.

Even before Runes Reforged launched, Grasp of the Undying was a staple rune for many top laners whether they were traditional tanks or fighters. After the new runes were released, it was still a go-to option for many champions, but with fighters struggling so far, significant changes are being considered.

"We're also been testing out a possible change to Grasp of the Undying, where instead of giving bonus health permanently on hit it gives temporary, stacking, adaptive AP/AD," Riot Meddler said. "Primary goal of that testing has been to see whether we can better serve various fighters as well in the Resolve tree, without overly penalizing existing Grasp users."

Meddler added that they're also looking into whether the permanent health is a problem depending on your matchup. In a melee vs. melee champion matchup, for example, you'll end up with much more late-game health when using the rune than if you were up against a ranged opponent.

However, if the plan of replacing stacking health with temporary damage doesn't work out, the next idea is to revert back to the current version of the rune and incorporate a new Keystone Rune later down the road that would give Grasp champions a more aggressive option.

"If that revised version of Grasp doesn't work out we'll then most likely go back to existing Grasp and try testing a gradual stacking Adaptive AP/AD Resolve keystone at some point," Meddler continued. "Some of the interest there is that a ramping power/outlast your opponent approach potentially makes more sense being time based and in the tree about living longer (Resolve), compared to the previous infinite stacking of Press the Attack in the precision tree."

Riot hasn't gone as far as to release any kinds of values on what the new runes stats would look like, so it appears that the Grasp of the Undying changes are just in the ideation phase for now. Regardless, the mini patch coming soon should help put some fighters in a better spot leading up to the potential changes.