When we first covered runes, the biggest complaints were about the Stopwatch and about Glacial Augment. The Stopwatch, with its build path turning into a Zhonya’s, Stoneplate, or GA, was thought to be monstrously strong, and it has certainly gotten a highlight reel all across Youtube. The Glacial Augment was lamented largely about the potential irritation from a Gnar or Teemo, champs that are already extremely frustrating to lane against. But neither of these have been game changing to the meta. The real star of the runes, more so than any other, is in Aftershock.

Aftershock is a keystone ability out of the Resolve tree that many players overlooked, probably because it was specialized only to immobilizing abilities, and partially because so many players don’t know what immobilizing an enemy even is. From our research, immobilizing effects are basically anything but slows: a knock-up, a stun, a fear, a sleep, etc. That’s a pretty big list, but even with the list’s size, that isn’t what makes Aftershock the biggest game changer of the new season, it’s what it does for tanks.

But first we should clarify its exact abilities. Aftershock does two huge things. The first is that when an enemy champ is immobilized, you gain 20 armor and magic resist +30% for 2.5s. That’s pretty good for an initiator and tank, but it gets better. This ability then explodes, dealing 40-140 (+3.5% of your max health). This is where the ability turns nuts. If you take a champion like Leona, who has become the go-to support, Aftershock can be constantly procced. Every time she stuns – and she is basically a stunning machine – she becomes dramatically harder to kill while also dealing some pretty considerable damage. The same is true for other tanks like Tom Kench and Braum. Any champion that has a kit designed around immobilizing enemies basically got a huge buff to defense and to damage, all in a single keystone.

It’s also worth remembering that tanks have been fairly monstrous already. In just the past competitive season, top-lane Shens could often see themselves finishing games as the second highest damage dealer in the game. Tanks are often the lynchpin of matches, and their ability to out-survive the enemy team means their damage is a constant threat. Couple a tank’s toughness with the threat of a carry mid or ADC, and the enemy team often has no choice but to ignore the tank, letting them freely damage the team while they focus on the carries. It gives the Leona’s of the world the chance to run wild stunning, buffing, and damaging the other team into oblivion all while they wonder why it is they are dying so fast.

While every lane has certainly felt a ‘buff’ from the new runes, it’s hard to argue that any one role has snowballed as hard as supports, and it is one of the reasons why Tom Kench saw so much play at All Stars – more armor, more magic resist, more damage, all from one rune. While the other lanes are still figuring out what’s best for them – Arcane Comet or Electrocute for mid? – support has already found its path, and it is all about Aftershock.