Each League Of Legends Champion Will Get Base Stat Changes With New Runes

Changing Champions' Base Stats

Certain champions need very specific stats to allow them to survive the early game phase, especially those who have a hard time last-hitting minions or clearing jungle camps without blowing all of their health and mana in the process. Depending on what each champion needs, their stats will be changed accordingly, sometimes in more than one area.

"This ranges from attack speed on Tryndamere, Master Yi, and Yasuo, to starting ability power on Ahri," Riot Wrekz said about the stat changes. "Sometimes we'll split this boost between multiple offensive stats, sometimes we'll concentrate it into one. We're going through each champion individually and customizing a package to make sure that they get the stats most crucial to their needs."

Wrekz noted that the internal testing of changes such as these made the champions feel better to play with new runes, but more work still needs to be done when it comes to shaping champions who have multiple build paths combined with the new runes.

Stats That New Runes Will Provide

Despite the Runes Reforged system moving away from having all of the runes being focused on stats, that doesn't mean that it's going to completely leave them behind. Some stats will be making the transition into the new runes/masteries combo format, but not all of them will give straight-up, raw stats. Below are a list of stats that'll certainly be included with the new runes, according to Wrekz:

• Armor/Magic Resist
• Health
• Health Regen
• Attack Speed
• Cooldown Reduction
• AD/AP (by way of Adaptive)
• Mana
• Movement Speed

The runes that give you reduced time being dead won't be making a comeback, and other stats besides the ones above will also likely be left behind. The above list is tentative at this point and could very easily have different stats added or removed.

Creative Stat-Based Runes

When they do incorporate raw stats into the new runes, methods are being explored to make the options creative so that players will have to do a bit more than just start off with a flat damage boost. Some of these runes will change over the course of the game while others will require a trigger to activate.

There have been a couple of rune concepts that fit this bill that have been previewed before, ones that give insightful examples as to how stats will be incorporated. There are expected to be around 60 total runes with players able to bring six into a game, and below are just a couple of examples of the many runes that are being tested:

• Panic!
  • Gain 10% Movement Speed towards nearby allies that are CC'ed or enemies that you CC. Range: 1500
• Essence Thief
  • Gain 1 permanent max health when enemy minions die near you. Range: 1400
• Discipline
  • After 10 minutes gain 10 Armor and 10 Magic Resist, +2 of each per nearby enemy champion. Range: 800 units
• Fortified Mind
  • Gain 5 Magic Resist, +2 per nearby enemy champion. Range: 800 units
• The Third Path
  • +100 Health (permanently). -10% Damage to Champions until 10 minutes

Using Experimental Builds With New Runes

One of the best parts about some champions is the ability to take on different build paths as the game progresses depending on what your team needs. Whether you want to be a tank or a bruiser, a lethality or crit-based ADC, or a tanky support instead of one focused on utility, many champions can be built different ways, and that flexibility is looking to be kept intact with the Runes Reforged system.

"We've seen cooldown reduction, attack speed, and movement speed pop up frequently as they fuel a number of off-builds for different champions," Wrekz wrote. "As mentioned in the previous sections, we're working hard to make sure the new runes have you covered for stat specialization options. But, we're also looking at additional ways to ensure that the system supports creative experimentation through unique effects and synergies combined with stats."

Part of the way these builds and stats are being accounted for are through the secondary rune path, a smaller path of runes that allows players to bring to additional runes with their main rune path, much like the way the mastery trees work now. Four runes from the main path and two from the secondary can be brought in each game, as seen above.

Adaptive Runes For Creative Builds

Another way that balance and flexibility are being explored through the new runes system is through the use of "Adaptive" runes. These runes will allow champions that have mixed damage and clearly differing build paths to be able to take a rune without having to worry about it not being viable if they decide to change up a build mid-game.

"Anything labeled as Adaptive adapts to your champion and in-game item build," an earlier explanation about Adaptive runes read. "If a Rune offers Adaptive Attack Damage or Ability Power, it will grant you one or the other based on whichever of Attack Damage or Ability Power you have more of within your items (defaulting to the stat listed first)."

Below is the first Adaptive rune that was revealed, a rune that allows players to deal more damage as long as they're able to maintain their health.

• Perfectionist
  • While above 80% health, gain up to +14 Attack Damage or +20 Ability Power, Adaptive (based on level)

While these are just a couple of ways that runes and stats will be merged into the new system, there's likely plenty more updates to come soon, especially with a big rune announcement coming in early September.