League of Legends May Get New Domination Keystone Runes

With Conqueror now available in League of Legends, Riot Games says that more Keystone Runes are [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

League of Legends Rune
(Photo: Riot Games)

With Conqueror now available in League of Legends, Riot Games says that more Keystone Runes are being considered, particularly for the Domination rune path.

In the latest segment of questions answered in an Ask Riot post, the first question that was asked was whether or not more Keystone Runes should be expected in different rune paths. Riot Fearless, senior designer for game systems, addressed that question and said that more Keystone Runes are being explored at the moment that may entice some players and champions to set Domination as their primary rune path.

"Yes! Generally, we've been using new keystones to open up paths to users that should like most of the rune options, but didn't have a keystone that was a solid fit," Riot Fearless said in response to a question about adding the runes to different categories. "We have some keystones we're exploring to get some new champions into Domination, and we'll likely continue to add keystones where we find gaps in player or champion needs. That being said, we don't think we have infinite space for new keystones."

This means that players who already have a few Keystone Runes they're comfortable with won't have to worry about their rune options growing out of control, but there should eventually be enough runes to satisfy every champion's needs.

While the minor runes in each path have already gone through numerous changes as some have been renamed, rebalanced, merged, and removed entirely, the Keystone Runes haven't gone through nearly as many changes. Conqueror, a Precision option that deals true damage in a similar fashion to how Grasp of the Undying is activated, is the first Keystone Rune to be added after the preseason update that introduced all the new runes. Riot Fearless referenced the Keystone Runes' impact they have on games compared to the other runes as a reason why they don't get added or overhauled quite as quickly as non-Keystone runes.

"There are some practical considerations around how well the interface can handle large numbers of keystones in a path. Also, each new keystone requires players to understand a new set of mechanics as well as audio and visual effects. This means that we'll likely hit a cap where we'd have to add new paths or focus on replacing existing content that's not adding enough to the game."

No release timeframe was given on when players can expect those new Keystone Runes, but look for more info from Riot in the future before they head to the PBE, assuming the internal exploration goes well.

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