New 'League of Legends' Runes Let Players Swap Summoner Spells Mid-Game

Summoner Specialist

Below is the description of the new rune as detailed by Riot Stashu as well as the criteria related to swapping out your Summoner Spells.Stashu as well as the criteria related to swapping out your Summoner Spells.

Summoner Specialist:

• You start with 1 Summoner Shard and gain an additional Summoner Shard each time you cast a Summoner Spell.Summoner Shard and gain an additional Summoner Shard each time you cast a Summoner Spell.
• Swap a Summoner Spell to a different one by exchanging 3 Summoner Shards at the shop. Additionally, gain 15% Summoner Spell cooldown reduction.Summoner Spell to a different one by exchanging 3 Summoner Shards at the shop. Additionally, gain 15% Summoner Spell cooldown reduction.
• (You cannot have two of the same Summoner Spells)Summoner Spells)

Just from reading that description, there are likely tons of options that immediately come to mind when using the rune. A jungler could take Ignite as opposed to Flash in the beginning for a level 2 cheese gank and swap back to Flash after Smiting a couple of things and Igniting a laner, or a support could opt for an Exhaust/Ignite combo to get a head start in lane and swap them out later.jungler could take Ignite as opposed to Flash in the beginning for a level 2 cheese gank and swap back to Flash after Smiting a couple of things and Igniting a laner, or a support could opt for an Exhaust/Ignite combo to get a head start in lane and swap them out later.

The Trouble with Swapping Summoner Spells

One of the questions that are currently being worked on is how it'll interact with Smite given the Summoner Spell's low cooldown and the requirement for a champion to have Smite in order to buy jungle items. A special set of rules will likely be put in place for the rune according to feedback from the Rioters.

"We're also thinking of including global chat call outs to let everyone know when a specialist has swapped summoners, so that enemies can prepare themselves and take the appropriate counter-measures," Riot Stashu said. "Lastly, we can always introduce new gates if we have to, like a cooldown on swapping summoners, or if we REALLY have to, we can remove problematic summoner spells from the pool (ie; if everyone takes smite/tp at level 1 with this and we get some weird jungle invade > tp to lane meta, we can fix that)."

The rune might appear pretty overpowered at first glance, but it's important to keep in mind that while you have this power to swap Summoner Spells, your lane opponent will likely have a Keystone Rune that gives them more options such as a huge damage increase on spells or the ability to speed themselves up during engages. Summoner Specialist definitely highlights the power of Summoner Spells, but it also leaves players with much less in-lane power when their spells are on cooldown.

Hextech Freezeray

The second rune that was revealed is a champion-slowing Keystone Rune called Hextech Freezeray, a pretty straightforward rune compared to the last one.

This rune's main purpose is to slow down enemies whether it's to chase them down or to kite slower champions while you escape. It also has another effect, described below, that alters your movement-slowing item actives to spread the slows to nearby champions.

Hextech Freezeray:

• Your first attack on a champion slows them for 1.5 seconds (8-3 second per-unit cooldown).
  • Ranged attacks slow by 25% - 40%
  • Melee attacks slow by 35% - 50%
• Additionally, your active item slows create an icy zone around their target for 5 seconds, slowing all units inside by 70%.

In the gif below, you can see Teemo slow an enemy with in initial auto attack, create a slow field with a Bilgewater Cutlass active effect, and lastly creates smaller slow fields with the AOE power of Hextech-GLP.

Top Laners are Concerned About Hextech Freezeray

One of the first and most-voiced complaints about the Hextech Freezeray in the comments was that beefier top laners like Juggernauts are going to have a rough time against the Keystone Rune. Flashbacks of Frozen Mallet champions like Gnar, Teemo, and Kennen. But like the Summoner Specialist, it's important to remember that champions who take this won't have the benefit of extra damage from other Keystone Runes.

"As a top laner, I sympathize -- I know what it's like to be a melee getting trained on by Frozen Mallet Kennen, and it sucks," said Riot Stashu in reply to Juggernaut concerns. "This rune is an attempt at the healthiest possible version of that. Importantly, the Kennen who takes this will NOT have Fervor Of Battle as they would on live, or any other damaging keystone, so while they get to stick on you a little longer, they'll be doing significantly less damage."

Stashu also points out that those who take this won't likely be building Frozen Mallet as well since they won't stack in their favor. The cooldown and the slow values for ranged champions are also two areas that are being looked at closely and are subject to change at the moment.

What are Your Thoughts on the New Runes?