New League of Legends Runes Let Players Stack Lifesteal, Other Stats

Several new League of Legends runes have been revealed that focus on the mid-game by helping players stack stats that include attack speed, lifesteal, and tenacity.

All the new runes recently discussed fall under the Precision rune path and fill a slot called "Legend" that appears to have three different rune variations to choose from depending on what your champion needs. The first is called Legend: Alacrity, a rune that stacks points to accumulate attack speed.

Legend: Alacrity

• Gain 5% attack speed plus an additional 3% for every Legend stack (max 5).
• Gain Legend stacks for every 30 points earned:
  • 20 points for champion takedowns
  • 20 points for epic monster takedowns
  • 4 points for large monster kills
  • 1 points for minion kills

By killing champions, minions, and neutral objectives like players normally would, they'll find themselves ramping up their attack speed much quicker that'll likely be capped out at five stacks by the time the mid-game rolls around. While the first one shown above focuses on attack speed, the other two offer different stats while following the same point-stacking system as Alacrity.

Legend: Bloodline

• Gain 1% life steal for every Legendstack (max 5).

Legend: Tenacity

• Gain 3% tenacity plus an additional 5% for every Legend stack (max 5).

The tenacity stat is definitely a welcome rune addition that'll grant players a whopping 28 percent tenacity once it's fully stacked. Combine that with the Mercury's Treads boots option and players will have quite a bit of power to reduce incoming CC. Five percent lifesteal maxed doesn't seem like the most attractive option compared to the much larger amount of attack speed that can be gained from Alacrity, but Riot Reinboom mentioned in the Runes Corner post that the two cater to two very different playstyles and that having the option is important.

The Legend mechanic is a way of moving champions' stats further into the game as opposed to loading them up with stats from the start like current runes do, according to Reinboom.

"Legend is our take on making these decisions fully enabled by mid game, while having relevance throughout most of laning phase," the Rioter wrote. "At the same time, they also offer a way to show off your strengths over your opponent and get rewarded for it, speaking to the skillful and precise play the Precision path highlights."

The numbers for the stacking runes are still tentative, as Riot Meddler recently stressed, so their percentages could very well change before they go live.