Trade-Offs Coming With New League Of Legends Runes

The past two weeks have been filled with League of Legends news, announcements that included more rune reveals, a new Darkin champion called Kayn, and the reworked version of Urgot. All of this was going on right around the same time that the new Rift Rivals tournament was happening, so it's easy for details to slip through the cracks, such as the apparent trend of trade-offs coming with the new mastery-runes combined system called Runes Reforged that's in the works.

In the current runes and masteries system, the choices that players make are purely advantageous, and the only tough choices that players have to make is whether they need magic penetration over straight up ability power or whether they need Deathfire Touch or Thunderlord's Decree. With these new runes though, there are clear setbacks that players will have to work through when taking certain runes, setbacks that are removed as the game goes on in order to grant more power from waiting.

One of the first runes that we saw that showed off this trend was a rune within the Inspiration path called The Third Path that grants 100 health permanently while taking away 10 percent damage until 10 minutes into the game. This rune wasn't a Keystone Rune like the new Ruined King's Tribute will be, but the lesser rune still offered a weaker early game for those champions who look to survive the lane until they can group up with teammates.

Another trade-off rune shown was the creative Store Credit rune, a rune that works well for players who need those bigger items a bit quicker or for those players who are terrible at managing their money. The rune allows you to take out a loan from the item store. The debt limit is 150 + 5/minute with a lending fee of 50 gold per item, so don't expect to pick up a Deathcap right off the bat though.

The most recent trade-off rune that's been revealed is one that looks at the longstanding requirement of buying boots. Where boots are usually bought within the second or third recall and upgraded later, the Magical Footwear rune prevents you from purchasing boots for 10 minutes, but after that, you get a free Boots of Speed item that come with a bonus 10 movement speed to later be upgraded.

With three runes that offer distinct trade-offs in the open so far, it certainly looks as though the trend will continue. Given that far fewer runes will be able to be brought into the game with the new Runes Reforged system, these trade-offs and decisions will look to be much more impactful in-game than the current choices.