The new League of Legends Keystone Rune that’s expected to launch in Patch 8.6 was discussed in greater detail in a recent post on the League boards to help players understand how best to use the new rune.
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For those that didn’t see the first reveal of the rune, the Keystone Rune is being called Conqueror, a rune that’s said to fit squarely in the Precision rune path. When triggered, the rune’s effect gives its wielders a temporary attack damage buff and causes a portion of the user’s magic or physical damage to be dealt as true damage instead. It’s activated by staying in combat for a certain period of time, a trigger that Grasp of the Undying users will be familiar with.
In the League boards post, Riot Meddler said that it operates much like Grasp of the Undying with champions having to stay in combat for at least 4 seconds. This means that in addition to staying in combat with enemy champions, players can also prep the rune by attacking minions or using aura effects like Bami’s Cinder to keep the effect primed for the next trade.
As for the actual effect of the rune that deals true damage, Riot Meddler said that, contrary to early speculation, champions like Darius and Fiora who already make use of true damage might not be the ones who can make the best use of the item.
“The true damage conversion it offers is somewhat anti synergistic with champions who build pen or have it on their kits, or have true damage already,” Riot Meddler said. “Converting a % of your damage to true is much more valuable when that damage was previously getting mitigated at a high rate. If you’re got significant % pen/shred already (e.g. Darius with BC and his E armor pen) and/or deal a lot of true damage regardless (e.g. Fiora) you’ll be getting less of a damage amp than champs without either. Might still be a good choice, especially if you’re facing really tanky enemies, but less likely to be the strongest use case.”
The Rioter also compared the rune to previous effects like the one that Fervor of Battle offered while saying that the rune’s unique true damage output as well as it’s Grasp of the Undying-esque delayed effect both add to the decision-making process that goes into picking your Keystone Rune.
“The delay and the true damage are both there in part to create more distinction from other keystones. To get meaningful choice between runes they need to be offering significantly different things, which can be tricky when their output is just damage. That means creating distinction between damage runes through things like when in the fight they offer damage (e.g. up front versus after a delay), who they’re good against (e.g. squishies versus tanky targets versus low health enemies etc), whether they’re pure damage or also include some other effect (e.g. healing) etc. Lack of that sort of distinction was one of the big issues with Fervor, given it switched on almost immediately (most of its users could rush its ramp up significantly) and then stayed on while being equally effective against whoever (given it was raw AD).”
The new Conqueror Keystone Rune is expected to launch in Patch 8.6, but expect to see it on the PBE first.
