One of the reasons many fans prefer League of Legends to Dota 2 is that it has far less micromanagement, or if we want to be honest, it’s easier. Runes and masteries were a step towards complexity, and not always a good one. While masteries were understandable for most players, runes were an entirely different creature. They were expensive to buy, complicated to find the right balance, and often felt very underwhelming. But the new runes have turned League of Legends into an entirely different creature.

As featured in a recent video by Riot, the new runes aren’t just a tossing out the old and in with the new sort of idea. Riot is looking to change the entire game from the ground up. The short example given with Gnar showcases that runes now offer active abilities – something far beyond what runes and masteries previously provided – like a zhonyas-esque ability. This ability also makes it cheaper to build into certain items, essentially allowing players to start planning their item pathing before the game even begins and in response to who they are facing. But more than just that, runes are adding strategy and playstyle at a much deeper level.

 It’s entirely possible for players to now use runes to take out a ‘loan’ to get to their item spikes much quicker. This is perhaps the most interesting of the changes made, a way of changing the game that will either have big payoffs or big costs. Champions like Master Yi take an incredibly long time to reach their power spikes, but this offers a way to reach that spike quicker and attempt to snowball the game much more aggressively. This could also serve as a hint to opponents to play much safer. An aggro bot lane might think twice if a Yi or Nocturne dip into debt to buy heavy-duty items to dive and start pushing the game. This is also reflected in ‘takedown’ skills, a variety of skills that reward champions – sometimes permanently – for taking down enemies.

The new runes also showcase how Riot has begun to view the game. Players have long known there are a variety of ways to play a champion, but runes now reflect this. One of the biggest ideas is splitting the traditional skill tree into five parts instead of three. Previously, many abilities were lumped together, but now, they are much more specific. The roles reflected are much more about sustained damage, burst, magic damage, tanks, and support champions. While this shows the biggest focuses of a character, the secondary tree option also shows that Riot still wants players to build how they want and have a huge variety of options.

For professional play, it also has interesting applications for brawling oriented teams. While a lot of the traditionally top-tier teams have been great strategists, these new runes could allow a team to build entirely around getting far more kills than their enemy and pushing it into an advantage that map mechanics might not be able to overcome. This would especially be true for hyper carries or assassins, giving them much more potential to dominate a game.

While we are super excited for what it means for the game, we’re also excited to see how the professionals are going to respond, and if this is going to breed a more defensive or aggressive style of play on the pro scene.