New League of Legends Keystone Rune Option Being Explored

A new Keystone Rune option for players is already being explored that should help some champions that lack a go-to rune.

The champions that'll likely benefit from this new Keystone Rune the most will be the juggernauts and the fighters, two champion categories that have struggled after the Runes Reforged release. While many champions opted for the Resolve tree in order to become more resilient and utilize Keystone Runes like Grasp of the Undying, using that path sometimes leaves them without the offensive combat stats they need to succeed.

One way to fix this that was being tested was a change that would make Grasp of the Undying grant damage instead of health, but after testing the changes, Riot Meddler said that they're not going through with that plan.

"After testing changes to Grasp where some of its power was changed to provide ramping AP/AD to help it also serve various champs without sufficient keystone choice at present we've concluded that's not the right way to solve that problem. Disruption to existing Grasp users, and degree that approach changed the identity of Grasp, both being problems. Not surprising, and something we figured was a significant risk going into testing, but worth investigation, given if we had found a way to make it work it would have allowed us to improve things for those champs quicker than we otherwise could."

With Grasp of the Undying being kept the way that it is now, a new Keystone Rune is being looked into that might end up going in the Resolve tree as well, but that remains to be seen.

"We'll be leaving Grasp as is and looking to make a new Keystone instead. It's likely, though not guaranteed, that will also be in the Resolve tree. Release timing, assuming we find something that should be shipped, is uncertain. Unlikely to be in January however, given the holiday break coming up takes out some work time."

Adding a new Keystone Rune is in line with Riot's plan to create new runes based on champions or classes that need them, but it looks as though it'll take some time before more info is revealed assuming their plans work out.