This is a strange patch, indeed. It seems Riot has enabled the champion changes and new runes slated for this patch, but Ahri and the Snowdown Showdown skins won’t be in the game until tomorrow.
I’m not sure how I feel about the numbers on the new runes, with the exception of the hybrid penetration runes. Those seem fine. The spell vamp and lifesteal quints come in at 2 percent a piece, which means players can start the game with as much as 12 percent lifesteal with the added health from a Doran’s Blade or 9 percent spell vamp. Honestly, I think the lifesteal will just contribute to the current sustain problem on bottom lane. Giving a ranged carry 12 percent lifesteal on top of a healer will just be insane. Now, it could potentially help the non-sustain supports become a bit more viable, but I would bet non-sustain versus sustain will still be a losing battle.
The gold-per-10 seals grant .25 GP10, for a total of 2.25 from seals. It’s now possible to get 5.25 GP10 from runes alone. With another 2 GP10 from the utility tree, support characters can pull 7 GP10 at level one. That’s a serious amount of gold. By the 20-minute mark that’s almost 800 gold for just standing around.
Check back later today for a gallery of the Snowdown Showdown skins.
It looks like the next patch for League of Legends will indeed include the Ahri release. Along with the new champion, Riot is introducing a variety of new rune options. This patch will also see dodge runes headed the way of the Wooly Mammoth (although, I hear those guys may be making a comeback).
Among the new runes will be some gold-per-10 seals. I can’t say I’m excited to see more options for passive play in lane, though it will make my GP10 builds even more interesting. There will also be Lifesteal, Spell Vamp, and hybrid Armor/MR shredding runes.
I’ll be interested to see the numbers on the Lifesteal and Spell Vamp. You’ll notice from the Patch Preview that Morello isn’t worried about the runes becoming sustain problems. I hope that’s truly the case. Personally, I’ve been having a lot of fun with flat AD runes on my carries with the new masteries. I would hate for Lifesteal to suddenly trump that decision.
I always loved saving up a bunch of IP and then dropping it all at once on some new runes. There was only one part of the process I didn’t like: individual purchases. Clicking that “Buy” button and watching Katarina dance nine times in a row has always been painful. I haven’t purchased runes in months, so you can imagine my surprise when I noticed a new feature today. Bulk rune purchases are now built into the PvP.net client. Unfortunately, the feature isn’t working yet.
As you can see above, the rune purchase screen now has a quantity field. For the time being, the quantity can’t be changed, but it is a sign of good things to come. Well, it’s a sign of good things to come if you haven’t already maxed out your runes. I was surprised today when I noticed I didn’t have crit chance runes. I wanted to try out a couple different pages for a laning Master Yi so I bought some. I can’t say I’ll be buying others in the near future, but who knows. Maybe Riot will release something awesome. When they do, I’ll be buying in bulk.
