League of Legends Runes Guide

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Dominikas Pupkevicius

Dominic is a writer that specializes in gaming content. He loves playing various genres, from survival horror to MOBAs. Recently he discovered his passion for playing League of Legends again and has grinded to reach Diamond 2. However, Dominic has experience in various gaming franchises like Call of Duty, Witcher, LoL, RuneScape, New World, and more! Outside of gaming, Dominic loves to play basketball and walk his dogs.

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Rune pages are a vital part of Champion Select because they determine your character’s bonuses during the game. However, choosing between keystones, rune paths, and stat shards can be a confusing process if you’re unfamiliar with how to set up runes correctly. 

Once you grasp the fundamental concepts, creating a rune page for each character will become a fast process. All players will receive 2 rune pages that they can customize, and additional pages cost 6,300 blue essences or 590 RP. Therefore, players often create a new rune page before starting the game to save money.

Selecting the wrong runes can put you at a massive disadvantage, so learning the system before playing is crucial. Therefore, we’ve created an in-depth guide to help players know what runes are and how to use them effectively.

What Are Runes?

Runes are enhancements that are used to improve champion abilities and statistics. Players can customize their rune pages before the game starts and cannot redo them once the loading screen begins. However, if you don’t finish your runes in time, the system will automatically load a default preset for you.

All rune pages consist of a keystone, which provides the most benefits to your champion. The main tree has 4 sub-runes giving small bonuses like life steal, more AP/AD, cooldown reduction, and more. Moreover, the rune page features a secondary tree that doesn’t have a keystone but will allow 2 sub-runes to be picked. This gives variety and lets players adjust the runes to their champion and playstyle.

League Of Legends Types Of Runes 

Now, let’s go over the different rune keystones League of Legends has to offer. They all provide different benefits that complement a specific playstyle. Therefore, it’s crucial to select the correct runes for your champion to gain the most bonuses. All rune keystones have 4 options, and sub-runes have 3 options each:

Precision

Rune Keystones

• Press the Attack: Hitting an enemy champion with 3 consecutive basic attacks deals 40-180 bonus damage. Also, the rune makes the enemy vulnerable, causing them to take 8-12% more damage from all sources for 6 seconds.
• Lethal Tempo: 1.5 seconds after damaging a champion, your character gains 40-110%  attack speed for 3 seconds. Attacking a champion extends the effect to 6 seconds. Also, Lethal Tempo lets your character exceed the attack speed limit temporarily.
• Fleet Footwork: Moving and attacking builds energy stacks that will cause your next attack to deal bonus damage and heal you. Also, the rune will grant 20% movement speed for 1 second, and healing from minions is 20% more effective.
• Conqueror: Spells and attacks that damage enemy champions provide 2-6 adaptive forces for 2 seconds. The rune can stack up to 5 times to deal more damage. Moreover, Conqueror will deal true damage at maximum stacks and heal you for the damage dealt.

Sub-Runes

Slot 1:

• Overheal: Excess healing will provide a shield.
• Triumph: Takedowns restore 12% of your missing health and provide 20 gold.
• Presence of Mind: Takedowns restore 20% maximum mana and reduce your ultimate cooldown by 10%.

Slot 2:

• Legend – Alacrity: Takedowns grant permanent attack speed.
• Legend – Tenacity: Takedowns grant permanent tenacity.
• Legend – Bloodline: Takedowns grant permanent life steal.

Slot 3:

• Coup de Grace: Deal more damage to low health champions.
• Cut Down: Deal more damage to champions with more maximum health.
• Last Stand: Deal more damage to champions while you have low health.

Domination

Rune Keystone

• Electrocute: Hitting an enemy with 3 separate attacks or abilities in 3 seconds deals an electric strike that deals adaptive damage.
• Predator: Provides an effect on your boots that significantly boosts movement speed towards enemies when activated.
• Dark Harvest: Damaging a champion below 50% of their maximum health deals adaptive damage. Also, the rune will harvest their souls, permanently increasing the damage by 5.
• Hail of Blades: Gain 110% attack speed when attacking an enemy for 3 seconds.

Sub-Runes

Slot 1:

• Cheap Shot: Deal bonus true damage to enemies with impaired movement.
• Taste of Blood: Heal when you damage a champion.
• Sudden Impact: Gain a burst of magic penetration and lethality after using a teleport, leap, dash, blink, or when leaving stealth.

Slot 2:

• Zombie Ward: A zombie ward will spawn after killing an enemy ward.
• Ghost Poro: When your wards expire, a ghost poro spawns in its place. Opposing players can scare the ghost poro by revealing its location.
• Eyeball Collection: Killing an enemy champion will grant eyeballs that provide an adaptive bonus of 1.2 AD or 2 AP.

Solt 3:

• Ravenous Hunter: Unique takedowns grant permanent healing from ability damage.
• Ingenious Hunter: Unique takedowns grant permanent item cooldown reduction.
• Relentless Hunter: Unique champion takedowns grant out of combat movement speed.
• Ultimate Hunter: Kills grant permanent cooldown reduction on your ultimate.

Sorcery

Rune Keystones

• Summon Aery: Auto-attacks and abilities send Aery to a target damaging them. Also, the Aery can shield allies for 5% of their maximum health.
• Arcane Comet: Hitting a champion with an ability sends a comet crashing down on their location, dealing magical damage.
• Phase Rush: Hitting an enemy with 3 separate attacks grant a burst of movement speed and slow resistance.

Sub-Runes

Slot 1:

• Nullifying Orb: Receive a magical shield from magic damage when your champion gets low health.
• Manaflow Band: Hitting an enemy with a spell increases your maximum mana by 25 permanently with a cap of 250. Once you reach 250 increased mana, the rune will restore 1% missing mana every 5 seconds.
• Nimbus Cloak: After casting an ultimate ability, gain a burst of decaying movement speed that lets you pass through units.

Slot 2:

• Transcendence: Gain 10% ability haste when you reach level 10.
• Celerity: Movement speed bonuses are 7% more effective.
• Absolute Focus: Champions gain extra adaptive damage if above 70% health.

Slot 3:

• Scorch: Your first ability hit on enemy champions will burn them for 10 seconds.
• Waterwalking: Gain movement speed and AD/AP while in the river.
• Gathering Storm: Your champion gains more AD or AP throughout the game.

Resolve

Rune Keystones

• Grasp of the Undying: Your champion will deal bonus magic damage to enemies every 4 seconds. Also, the rune will heal you and permanently increase your health.
• Aftershock: After immobilizing an enemy with a CC ability, gain defensive stats and deal a burst of damage around your champion.
• Guardian: Using abilities on allies provides a guarded status, which grants a shield and movement speed.

Sub-Runes

Slot 1:

• Demolish: Charge up a powerful attack against a tower when close by.
• Font of Life: Impairing an enemy’s movement marks them for your allies that heal when damaging them.
• Shield Bash: Gain bonus magic resistance and armor when your champion has a shield. Also, your next basic attack deals bonus adaptive damage.

Slot 2:

• Conditioning: After 10 minutes, gain +9 armor and magic resistance. Conditioning also increases defensive stats by 5%.
• Second Wind: Heal yourself a small amount after taking damage from an enemy champion.
• Bone Plating: After an enemy hits you, the following 3 spells or attacks do 30-60 less damage.

Slot 3:

• Overgrowth: Gain permanent health when monsters and minions die nearby.
• Revitalize: Shields and heals are 5% stronger.
• Unflinching: After casting a summoner spell, gain slow resistance and tenacity for a short duration.

Inspiration

Rune Keystone

• Glacial Augment: Your first attack on an enemy slows them briefly. However, if the champion has active items, a freeze ray will be fired.
• Unsealed Spellbook: You can swap your summoner spells when out of combat.
• First Strike: Deal 10% extra damage for 3 seconds when you first engage the enemy. Also, you’ll gain gold based on the damage dealt in this period.

Sub-Runes

Slot 1:

• Hextech Flashtraption: While flash is on cooldown, it’s replaced by hex flash. This ability is similar to flash as it lets you charge up a dash.
• Magical Footwear: After 12 minutes, your character receives basic boots that cost 300g. However, by using this rune, you no longer gain the option to purchase boots pre 12 minutes. Also, each takedown reduces the boots cooldown by 45 seconds.
• Perfect Timing: Receive a free stopwatch at the start of the game. After 14 minutes, the stopwatch can be activated to provide a status effect. Also, takedowns reduce the timer by 2 minutes.

Slot 2:

• Future’s Market: You can enter debt to purchase items.
• Minion Dematerializer: Start the game with a Minion Dematerializer. Using them on the minion will instantly kill them and provide bonus damage to the unit type in the future.
• Biscuit Delivery: Gain a free biscuit every 2 minutes 3 times. Eating or selling the biscuit permanently increases your maximum mana.

Slot 3:

• Cosmic Insight: +10% item haste and +15% summoner spell haste.
• Approach Velocity: Gan bonus movement speed towards ally champions or enemies that you impair.
• Time Warp Tonic: Potions and biscuits immediately grant 50% of their health and mana.

How To Choose Rune For Your Champion

Selecting the correct runes for your champion is essential to give yourself the best chance at winning. League of Legends has multiple playstyles, and runes can complement them very well. First, you need to know your champion’s strengths and play to them. For example, Zed relies on quickly killing targets and running away. Therefore, he needs runes that help with burst damage and movement speed.

All champions are unique and require different runes to improve their play style. Unfortunately, finding the correct combination is time-consuming because it requires multiple games of testing. Therefore, players can look at champion guides to find the most optimal runes instantly. 

The Best Beginner Runes In League Of Legends

The preset rune pages available to new players are more than enough to get started. However, as you play League of Legends, you’ll want to tinker with some of the choices available. We’ve put together a handful of great builds for each role to get started. While they are not optimized for a specific champion, they are excellent in general and better than the official rune presets.

Runes for Movement Speed Champions

Champions like Udyr, Hecarim, and Singed rely on movement speed runes to close the gap between them and squishy targets. The Predator keystone is the core rune of this build because it delivers a burst of movement speed towards enemy champions. It’s brilliant for engaging during ganks or before a team fight begins. However, Predator only becomes available after buying boots.

Moreover, the Sorcery tree provides out of combat movement speed, making it perfect for roaming. This build is perfect for junglers because it improves their gank success rate and additional damage when in the river.

Main Rune Page – Domination

Rune Keystone – Predator

Sub-Runes:

• Taste of Blood
• Eyeball Collection
• Relentless Hunter

Secondary Rune – Sorcery

Sub-Runes:

• Celerity
• Waterwalking

Runes for ADCs

This ADC build is considered the best because it grants bonus movement speed and survivability. It’s centred around the Fleet Footwork Keystone, which gives excess healing and movement speed. This lets you close the gap between enemies and make you more difficult to kill as you’ll be moving faster.

As for the second path, there are several options that you can choose depending on your champion. These sub-runes can offer healing, more damage, utility, or survivability. We recommend using Domination to provide a mixture of DPS and healing, which is brilliant for ADCs.

Main Rune Page – Precision

Rune Keystone – Fleet Footwork

Sub-Runes:

• Triumph
• Legend – Alacrity
• Coup de Grace

Secondary Rune – Domination

Sub-Runes:

• Taste of Blood
• Ravenous Hunter

Runes for Tanks

Champions like Ornn and Maokai require runes that provide durability and sustain to become an unstoppable force in team fights. Their primary focus is taking damage for the team, holding the front line, and protecting the carries. Tanks go best with Resolve as their main rune path to fit this playstyle since it focuses on giving sustain over time.

Grasp of the Undying is the core rune for tanks, as it increases your overall health during the game. The next rune is Demolish, which allows you to take tower plates early in the game by dealing devastating damage every 4 seconds.

Also, tanks choose Precision runes as their second option because it delivers healing during fights. Triumph restores 12% of missing health for an assist or kill, making it brilliant for tanking team fights.

Main Rune Page – Resolve

Rune Keystone – Grasp of the Undying

Sub-Runes:

• Demolish
• Bone Plating
• Overgrowth

Secondary Rune – Domination

Sub-Runes:

• Triumph
• Legend: Tenacity

Runes for Bruisers

Bruisers require runes that help deal more damage and take lane control through trading. The Precision rune offers precisely this with the Conqueror keystone. During fights, it sustains you while increasing your damage output to get more favourable trades. Also, the rest of the path helps with durability by providing tenacity and healing.

Moreover, the Resolve secondary runes increase your health when minions die nearby. Also, bruisers opt for a split pushing strategy to pressure the opponent. Bone Plating compliments this playstyle well because it helps take down objectives much faster. 

Main Rune Page – Precision

Rune Keystone – Conqueror

Sub-Runes:

• Presence of Mind
• Legend: Bloodline
• Coup De Grace

Secondary Rune – Resolve

Sub-Runes:

• Bone Plating
• Overgrowth

Runes for AP Burst Mages and Assassins

Burst AP mages and assassins require a mixture of sustain and damage output with their runes. The First Strike keystone lets your champion deal 10% more damage within a 3-second window after hitting an auto-attack or ability. Also, it grants bonus gold, allowing you to buy items much faster.

The Domination tree focuses on sustain with Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter. It lets champions with small health bars sustain during the early game and team fights. Also, the Perfect Timing rune gives a free stopwatch after 14 minutes and builds into a Guardian Angel or Zhonya’s Hourglass.

Main Rune Page – Inspiration

Rune Keystone – First Strike

Sub-Runes:

• Perfect Timing
• Biscuit Delivery
• Cosmic Insight

Secondary Rune – Resolve

Sub-Runes:

• Taste of Blood
• Ravenous Hunter

Runes for AD Mid Laners

AD mid champions like Yasuo and Yone need a mixture of burst and healing to be viable. The Electrocute rune lets your champion burst enemies after 3 separate attacks. Also, most AD mid laners have dashing abilities, which synchronizes well with Sudden Impact by giving a burst of lethality.

Moreover, Legend: Bloodline and Ravenous Hunter grant permanent healing. When combined with items like the Shieldbow and Bloodthirster, killing you becomes a daunting task. 

Main Rune Page – Domination

Rune Keystone – Electrocute

Sub-Runes:

• Sudden Impact
• Eyeball Collection
• Ravenous Hunter

Secondary Rune – Precision

Sub-Runes:

• Legend: Bloodline
• Coup De Grace

Runes for Tank Supports

Your ADC will be grateful if you pick a tanky support to protect them during the early game and team fights. Runes that fit champions like Leona, Nautilus, Blitzcrank, and Braum fall under the Resolve path because it strengthens engaging abilities.

The Inspiration path contains runes that have healing and let you take more trades during the early game. Approach Velocity delivers bonus movement speed to champions that are impaired. Therefore, you can quickly get to a helpless teammate and shield them from incoming damage.

Main Rune Page – Resolve

Rune Keystone – Aftershock

Sub-Runes:

• Font of Life
• Bone Plating
• Overgrowth

Secondary Rune – Inspiration

Sub-Runes:

• Biscuit Delivery
• Approach Velocity

Runes for AP Supports

AP supports like Morgana and Zyra are excellent for dealing damage and dishing out crowd control abilities. These champions rely on zoning out the enemy ADC and making them miss farm. Therefore, AP Supports need a mixture of damage and utility when selecting their runes. The Sorcery page improves damage, increases mana pool, and shields allies.

Moreover, Inspiration grants a free biscuit every 2 minutes that heals your champion and increases mana pool by 25. Lastly, Cosmic Insight reduces the cooldown on support items, making you more useful during trades.

Main Rune Page – Sorcery

Rune Keystone – Summon Aery

Sub-Runes:

• Manaflow Band
• Transcendence
• Scorch

Secondary Rune – Inspiration

Sub-Runes:

• Biscuit Delivery
• Cosmic Insight

Runes for Jungle Bruisers

Jungle champions like Jax, Kha’Zix, and Vi want to deal as much damage as possible in a short time frame to pull off successful ganks. Therefore, this playstyle requires taking the Electrocute keystone to burst down enemies. Also, most jungle champions have dashes, so taking Sudden Impact will improve the damage output.

Furthermore, Relentless Hunter and Waterwalking improve movement speed, letting you run around the map much faster. This enables you to gank more often and get to objectives quicker.

Main Rune Page – Domination

Rune Keystone – Electrocute

Sub-Runes:

• Sudden Impact
• Eyeball Collection
• Relentless Hunter

Secondary Rune – Sorcery

Sub-Runes:

• Nimbus Cloak
• Waterwalking

Runes for Jungle Tanks

Those who rather protect the backline and be an unkillable force can play tank junglers specializing in Resolve. This makes under-tower fights easier and increases the chances of pulling off a successful gank. Also, tanks use Inspiration as their second rune tree because it provides free boots and reduces the cooldown of summoner spells.

Main Rune Page – Resolve

Rune Keystone – Aftershock

Sub-Runes:

• Font of Life
• Conditioning
• Overgrowth

Secondary Rune – Inspiration

Sub-Runes:

• Magical Footwear
• Cosmic Insight

League of Legends Rune Tips

Tip 1 – Set Up Runes Beforehand: It’s vital to set up your runes before matchmaking because you may not have enough time to complete them during Champion Select. If the page is incomplete, League of Legends will automatically apply default runes that are most likely not great for your champion. Also, rushing the rune page can lead to mistakes, so it’s much better to take your time and complete your setup before looking for a match.

Tip 2 – Look At Champion Guides: Champion guides showcase runes tailor-made for your character. It takes out the need to guess and test your champion’s best runes because other players have gone through this process. Also, guides show you the best builds, abilities to level, and best matchups for your character.

Tip 3 – Name Your Rune Pages: Default rune pages are named “New Rune Page” with a number at the end. Using the default names can make it challenging to remember which rune pages are specific to a champion. Therefore, we recommend putting a unique name to prevent you from choosing the wrong page.

Tip 4 – Scan Your Enemy: At the start of the game, check the runes of the enemy players. This lets you see the playstyle they’re going to play. For example, if the enemy jungler has Predator, you know they will focus on ganking rather than farming.

Tip 5 – Take Advantage Of Runes: Runes are there for a reason, so make the most out of them. Adapt your play style to make the runes you’ve selected more useful. For example, if you choose Electrocute, make sure to get 3 separate hits within 3 seconds.

Tip 6 – Selecting The Wrong Runes: If you’ve selected the wrong runes, you’ll need to change your play style. This is because incorrect runes place your character at a significant disadvantage since you won’t deal as much damage. Therefore, you’ll need to play safer and take favorable fights.

Tip 7 – Buy Rune Pages: After buying all the champions you want, save up your blue essence to purchase rune pages. All players receive 2 free pages, which can become limiting if you play multiple positions. Buying multiple pages lets you set up runes without needing to do them during Champion Select. 

Tip 8 – Combine Summoner Spells: Runes and summoner spells can synchronize well if they share the same attributes. For example, Ghost and Predator increase movement speed massively and let you charge at the enemy quickly. This gives them less time to react and let you pull off successful attacks.

Tip 9 – Combine Items: Runes can compliment item builds exceptionally well and add additional bonuses. Items like Shieldbow can receive increased shields and improve your champion’s durability. However, Shieldbow is only one of the items that can gain benefits. There are plenty of other items that benefit from runes and provide significant advantages during fights. 

FAQs

League of Legends Runes Guide: Final Thoughts

That concludes our guide on League of Legends runes. We’ve covered how runes work and the best builds to set up for champions. Runes are essential to maximizing your damage output, utility, or durability. All characters benefit from a unique set of runes based on their abilities. So test out different rune pages for your champion and see what works best for you.