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League of Legends’ runes and masteries overhaul adds a deadly new tool for Assassins

Runes Reforged

Update July 20, 2017: Riot have been revealing more about the new tools at players’ disposal when Runes Reforged launches. One in particular will strike fear into the heart of guerrilla fighters. 

With the new rune, Assassins will be able to easily chase down and kill fleeing enemies. Bad news for glass cannons. It’s called Hunt of the Blood Moon.

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Here’s exactly what it does, via PvP Live.

“Enchants your boots with the active effect ‘Blood Moon’s Call.’

“Channel for 3 seconds to activate Blood Moon’s Call. Gain 35% movement speed for 15 seconds. Damaging attacks or abilities end Blood Moon’s Call, dealing 60 – 140 per level (+0.2 bonus AD)(+0.3 AP) bonus damage.

“Cooldown: 180 seconds. Starts the game on cooldown and goes on cooldown if damaged or interrupted while channeling.”

That speed boost will give Assassins the tools they need to hunt down AD carries and Mages, so expect a big shift in the meta.

Original Story June 29, 2017: Riot have further explained how its upcoming overhaul of League of Legends’ runes and masteries system, dubbed Runes Reforged, will work when it launches ahead of the November pre-season.

It was announced last month that runes and masteries are being completely revamped to improve player choice and experimentation of playstyles. Among other changes, masteries are being combined with runes, halving the amount of faffing needed to set them up. The rune system is also going to be made entirely free, so all players will get to play with every rune without dropping a load of in-game currency on buying new ones.

In a new blog post, Riot’s revealed that the Runes Reforged system will revolve around five paths: Domination, Inspiration, Precision, Sorcery, and Resolve. Each path focuses on different playstyles – the example given being that precision can be used to bolster attack speed.

Players will pick a primary path with three or four rune slots available (including a powerful Keystone Rune slot), and a secondary path that opens up two. From there, you’ll be able to fill the slots with any rune available to that path.

A number of runes have also been detailed in the post, although these are likely to change in the run-up to Runes Reforged’s launch. Riot give examples of how the Resolved path can be used to boost tankability, early-game ability, as well as how the system can be used to support specific champions.

Interestingly, some synergies between runes may be more detrimental to your champion, such as the Ruined King’s Tribute Keystone Rune halving both your healing and damage if you’re playing as a ranged character.

Riot’s goal with Runes Reforged is to both streamline the currently-cumbersome runes and masteries system, while also allowing for much greater experimentation at the same time. The current system’s always confused me whenever I’ve had to look at it, so the Reforged way of doing things looks like it’s going to be a heck of a lot easier for newbies to get to grips with.