League of Legends Almost Had a Rune That Executed Champions

League of Legends boasts a few abilities and effects that do more damage based on how much health [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

Urgot
(Photo: Riot Games)

League of Legends boasts a few abilities and effects that do more damage based on how much health an enemy is missing, but it also almost had a rune that would straight-up execute low-health champions.

The never-before-seen rune was discussed by Riot Games in a recent Ask Riot post that covered Bilgewater, balance, and more. Riot's focus when answering one of the questions wasn't on the Runes Reforged system, but the details of a scrapped rune called "Reap" were still revealed, a rune that let players get rid of enemies if they so much as fell below 20 percent of their health.

Riot Blaustoise answered a question about whether Riot works with pro players when making balance decisions, specifically when it comes to nerfing a champion, when he shared news on the would-be Keystone Rune.

"We playtested Runes Reforged with pro players from the LCS and LCK almost half a year before the changes actually shipped," Riot Blaustoise said in the Ask Riot post. During these playtests we had a Keystone called "Reap" that would execute an enemy champion if you got them below a certain threshold of health (the pros played with the very over-tuned 20% version). Huhi (CLG) and Froggen (then on Echo Fox) both played Karthus in a mirror-match mid, and would R on cooldown and watch as everyone else became a pawn in their game of quadra/penta kills. There's a reason this rune never saw the light of day…"

Different iterations of the rune weren't discussed, so the 20 percent health version is the only one that is known to have existed, but the wording implies that there were multiple versions of Reap that were tested, none of which made it into the game. A rune patch wasn't mentioned either to explain where it'd fit into the Runes Reforged system, but it sure does sound like a Domination rune seeing how it's essentially just a massive burst of damage.

The rune would've been a particularly unique one in League of Legends since true execute abilities are so rare. While there are runes and abilities that deal more damage based on low health levels – the Coup de Grace Precision rune and Evelynn's Last Caress ultimate come to mind – Urgot and Pyke are the only champions with abilities that'll always execute an enemy if they fall below a certain threshold. Those abilities are already formidable enough to go up against, but imagining that same power in the form of a rune on champions like Zed who are already prone to bursting enemies makes it seem like scrapping the rune was a smart idea.

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