Runes and Masteries in LoL
Runes: If you are just starting with the game or are still relatively new, runes are not very important for you at first. Tier 1 & Tier 2 runes are nice to have, but definitely not a “must”. Starting at summoner level 20, however, tier 3 runes become available for purchase. Tier 3 is the highest tier for runes and by summoner level 30 a full rune page is an absolute “must”!
Runes provide you with additional defense or offense that is significantly noticeable.
At the beginning, you have 2 rune pages that you can fill with runes. If you are unsure which runes to equip for a champion or a role, it helps to search for guides for a champion or a role online. There are various websites specialized in such guides.
You will quickly notice that there are 4 different rune types:
- Red = Marks
- Yellow = Seals
- Blue = Glyphs
- Brown = Quintessences
From red, yellow, and blue, you can place 9 runes per rune page. Quintessences are limited to 3 per rune page.
If the 2 rune pages are not enough for you because you like to play several different champions, you can equip your account with additional rune pages through the shop. Important: Rune pages cannot be edited in champion selection or in-game, only outside of the game. For this reason, it is important to have various rune pages in case you decide to play a different champion than you originally planned in champion selection – because switching between different rune pages is possible during champion selection in LoL.
These Runes You Should Buy as a Beginner
If you, as a LoL beginner, want to buy runes but are unsure which ones to get, you can consider the following as basic runes:
- Quintessences: AD or AP (pure – not per level) – depending on whether your champion scales with AD or AP.
- Marks: Armor penetration or magic penetration – also depending on whether your champion deals physical or magic damage.
- Seals: Armor (pure – not per level). Always beneficial to fend off physical damage.
- Glyphs: Magic resistance (pure – not per level). With magic resistance, you stay alive longer against magic damage. In addition to armor, you thus have good defensive values.
Masteries
Unlike runes, masteries do not need to be purchased. You can also freely upgrade the various mastery pages and even switch and edit them in champion selection. But what can these masteries do in LoL?
For each summoner level you reach, you gain a mastery point. You can then use these points to “skill” masteries in the 3 different trees “Ferocity”, “Cunning”, and “Resolve”. These trees are structured to provide more damage, more endurance, and better support abilities. By summoner level 30, you will have 30 points available, which you can distribute to strengthen your champion and adapt them to the role.
You may have seen this principle in games like World of Warcraft. If you are looking for guides for a champion, masteries are usually also explained there. Just like with runes, you can play different champions with the same masteries. For example, if you have 2 heroes that benefit from the enhanced shield or enhanced auto-attacks, you can of course keep those mastery points and do not have to reallocate them. But you can also try out which abilities you like best.
Not only improved shields or offensive abilities can be improved through masteries, but the entire playstyle can be adjusted using these 30 points. For example, if you are a tank who wants to get from A to B as quickly as possible and wants to have more movement speed in the river that separates the two halves of the map, you can distribute points there.
If you are a tank who buys items with a lot of health, you can use that health to deal damage to other players by regularly dealing damage with auto-attacks equal to a percentage of your maximum health. Masteries are therefore very useful for you – the lower points in a mastery tree (Keystones) are particularly effective and very important. Always make sure when creating a mastery page that you have assigned a Keystone. Only one of the Keystones can be active per mastery page.
