How To Know Which Runes To Use In League Of Legends

Still not used to the new Rune system yet? Looking for a handy guide on what each Rune does? Whether you’re a newbie or a returning veteran, we’ve got you covered. In this guide, we’ll show you everything you need to know to get you started with using the Runes in League of Legends

Introduced in Season 8, Riot’s new ‘Runes Reforged’ system caught a lot of players off-guard. After years of using the old runes with the mastery tree, it’s safe to say that everyone playing the game had a new learning curve to master when it comes to the new Runes. But luckily, Riot’s new Rune system is actually a better, more optimized version of the runes and masteries we’ve seen so far. It may seem a little daunting at first, but trust us, with enough time, these Runes can be easily mastered.

What are the new Runes?

Runes were initially introduced as another layer of customization. It allows players to alter or enhance certain aspects of their champion’s playstyle. Thanks to a handful of improvements, the new Runes are the best iteration of its kind. The new Runes can be categorized into five paths: Precision, Domination, Sorcery, Resolve, and Inspiration. All of them are tailored to a certain role or playstyle. 

Each path is composed of a set of 4 keystone runes and three sets of lesser runes. On each Rune Page you have, you’ll get to take a Primary Path consisting of a keystone rune and three lesser runes and a Secondary Path consisting of only two lesser runes. Mixing and matching them can unlock the hidden potential in each champion. Thankfully, you’ll initially have a set of premade Rune Pages designed to help beginners get used to the new Rune System.

With that said, let’s take a closer look at each Rune Path.

Precision – Improved attacks and sustained damage

This rune path is meant for ADCs or Duelists in the game. It focuses mostly on enhancing attack speed and empowering basic attacks. 

Keystone Runes

Press the Attack

Hitting an enemy champion with 3 consecutive basic attacks deals 40-180 bonus adaptive damage (based on level) makes them vulnerable, dealing bonus damage and causing them to take 8-12% more damage from all sources for 6s.

This is best used on champions who can dish out a lot of damage in three basic attacks like Vayne, Tristana, and Lucian.

Lethal Tempo

1.5s after damaging a champion, gain 40-110% Attack Speed (based on level) for 3s. Attacking a champion extends the effect to 6s.

This also allows you to momentarily exceed the attack speed limit which is perfect for champions like Jinx, Twitch, and Kog’Maw.

Fleet Footwork

Attacking and moving builds Energy stacks. At 100 stacks, your next attack is Energized. Energized attacks heal you for 3-60 (+0.3 Bonus AD, +0.3 AP) and grant + 20% movement speed for 1s. Healing from minions is 20% effective for Ranged Champions.

This is best used on scaling champions who need early sustain so that they don’t get bullied out of lane like Jax, Kassadin, and Corki.

Conqueror

Attacks or spells that deal damage to an enemy champion grant 2-6 Adaptive Force (based on level) for 2s (8s for melee). Stacks up to 5 times. When fully stacked, 8% of your damage is converted to True Damage and heals you for that amount.

This keystone is best used on champions who like to duel a lot and will benefit from the sustain whenever they fight like Irelia, Fiora, and Samira.

Lesser Runes

Overheal

Excess healing on you becomes a shield, for up to 10 (+10% Max Health).

Takedowns restore 12% of your missing health and grant an additional 20 gold.

Presence of Mind

Damaging an enemy champion increases your mana regeneration by 1.5-11 (80% for ranged) mana per second for 4 seconds. All energy users gain 1.5 energy per second, instead.

Takedowns restore 15% of your maximum mana or energy.

Legend: Alacrity

Gain 3% attack speed plus an additional 1.5% for every Legend stack (max 10 stacks).

Legend: Tenacity

Gain 5% tenacity plus an additional 2.5% for every Legend stack (max 10 stacks).

Legend: Bloodline

Gain 0.6% lifesteal for every Legend stack (max 15 stacks).

Coup de Grace

Deal 8% more damage to champions who have less than 40% health.

Cut Down

Deal 5% to 15% more damage to champions, based on how much more max health they have than you.

Last Stand

Deal 5% – 11% increased damage to champions while you are below 60% health. Max damage gained at 30% health.

Domination – Burst damage and target access

This rune path is meant for Assassins and Burst Mages in the game. It focuses on enhancing the damage you deal in a short amount of time.

Keystone Runes

Electrocute

Hitting a champion with 3 separate attacks or abilities within 3 seconds deals bonus adaptive damage. 

Best used on champions who rely on spell combos to deal damage like Zed, Dianna, and Ekko.

Predator

Enchants your boots with the active effect ‘Predator.’ Gain increased Movement speed while chasing enemy champions. After ramping up, damaging attacks or abilities to champions end this effect, dealing bonus adaptive damage.

This is perfect for champions who like to gank and need that extra boost of movement speed like Nunu, Udyr, and Rammus.

Dark Harvest

Damaging a champion below 50% health deals adaptive damage and harvests their soul, permanently increasing Dark Harvest’s damage by 5.

Champions who have a lot of long range, spammable poke spells are perfect for this keystone like Varus, Sivir, and Nidalee.

Hail of Blades

Gain 110% Attack Speed when you attack an enemy champion for up to 3 attacks.

This is best on champions who need an attack speed buff to deal a lot of damage in a short span of time like Draven, Kai’Sa, and Ashe.

Lesser Runes

Cheap Shot

Damaging champions with impaired movement or actions deals 10 – 45 bonus true damage (based on level).

Taste of Blood

Heal when you damage an enemy champion.

Sudden Impact

After exiting stealth or using a dash, leap, blingk, or teleport, dealing any damage to a champion grants you 7 Lethality and 6 Magic Penetration for 5 seconds.

Zombie Ward

Takedowns on enemy wards caused friendly Zombie Wards to sprout from their corpses. Gain adaptive bonus damage for every Zombie ward spawned.

Ghost Poro

When your wards expire, they leave behind a Ghost Poro, which grants vision for 90 seconds. Nearby enemy champions scare the Ghost Poro away. Gain adaptive bonus damage for every Ghost Poro spawned and when your Ghost Poro spots an enemy champion.

Eyeball Collection

Collect eyeballs for champion takedowns. Gain adaptive bonus damage per eyeball collected.

Ravenous Hunter

Gain 1.5% Omnivamp per Bounty Hunter stack, which are earned the first time you get a takedown on each enemy champion.

Ingenious Hunter

Gain 10 Item Haste plus an additinoal 5 Item Haste per Bounty Hunter stack.

Relentless Hunter

Gain 5 Move Speed out of combat plus 8 per Bounty Hunter stack.

Ultimate Hunter 

Your ultimate gains 6 Ability Haste, plus an additional 5 Ability Haste per Bounty Hunter stack.

Sorcery – Empowered abilities and resource manipulation

This rune path is best utilized by casters who often use spells to deal most of their damage. It is focused on dealing additional damage with spells and sustain in the form of mana regeneration.

Keystone Runes

Summon Aery

Damaging enemy champions with basic attacks or abilities sends Aery to them, dealing 10 – 40 damage based on level. Empowering or protecting allies with abilities also sends Aery to them, shielding them for 35 – 80 based on level.

Great for champions with long range damaging skills or supportive shield spells like Malzahar, Lulu, and Janna.

Arcane Comet

Damaging a champion with an ability hurls a comet at their location, or, if Arcane Comet is on cooldown, reduces its remaining cooldown.

Similar to Summon Aery, most champions with long range abilities are best suited to this rune like Karma, Lissandra, and Lux.

Phase Rush

Hitting an enemy champion with  attacks or separate abilities within 4 seconds grants 15 – 40% Move Speed based on level and 75% Slow Resistance. This is increased to 30 – 60% Move Speed for Melee champions.

This rune is tailor made for champions who could use the movement speed buff to easily kite or chase their opponents like Viktor, Ryze, and Skarner.

Lesser Runes

Nullifying Orb

When you take magic damage that would reduce your Health below 30%, gain a shield that absorbs magic damage based on level for 4 seconds.

Manaflow Band

Hitting an enemy champion with an ability permanently increases your maximum mana by 25, up to 250 mana. After reaching the bonus mana cap, restore 1% of your missing mana every 5 seconds.

Nimbus Cloak

After casting a Summoner Spell, gain a Move Speed increase that lasts for 2 seconds and allows you to pass through units.

Transcendence

Gain +5 Bonus Ability Haste at Level 5 and Level 8. Once you reach Level 11, reduces the cooldown of basic abilities on champion takedown.

Scorch

Your next damaging ability sets champions on fire and deals bonus magic damage based on level after 1 second.

Waterwalking

Gain 25 Move Speed and adaptive bonus damage when in the river.

Gathering Storm

Gains bonus adaptive AP or AD every 10 minutes.

Resolve – Durability and crowd control

This rune path is best used by tanks or duelists who like to get up close and personal with their opponents. It focuses on increasing your defensive stats to help you deal and sustain damage.

Keystone Runes

Grasp of the Undying

Every 4 seconds in combat, your next basic attack on a champion will deal bonus damage equal to 4% of your max health, heal you for 2% of your max health, and permanently increase your health by 5.

This is great for tanky champions who need sustain whenever they duel in a solo lane like Sion, Dr. Mundo, and Camille.

Aftershock

After immobilizing an enemy champion, increase your Armor and Magic Resist by 35 + 80% of your Bonus Resists for 2.5 seconds. Then explode, dealing magic damage to nearby enemies.

This rune is best used by champions who need to be close to enemies when they use their crowd control spells like Thresh, Alistar, and Leona.

Guardian

Guard allies within 350 units of you and allies you target with spells for 2.5 seconds. While Guarding, if you or the ally take more than a small amount of damage over the duration of the Guard, both of you gain a shield for 1.5 seconds.

This is a rune better suited for Support champions as it requires you to be with an ally for it to work. Champions like Braum, Rakan, and Taric.

Lesser Runes

Demolish

Charge up a powerful attack against a tower over 3 seconds, while within 600 range of it.

Font of Life

Impairing the movement of an enemy champion marks them for 4 seconds. Ally champions who attack marked champions will heal you for 5 + 1% of your max health over 2 seconds.

Shield Bash

While shielded, gain bonus Armor and Magic Resist based on level. Whenever you gain a new shield, your next basic attack against a champion deals bonus adaptive damage based on your bonus health and new shield amount.

Conditioning

After 12 minutes, gain bonus Armor and 9 Magic Resist. It also increases your current Armor and Magic Resist by 5%.

Second Wind

After taking damage from an enemy champion, heal for 4% of your missing health over 10 seconds.

Bone Plating

After taking damage from an enemy champion, the next 3 spells or attacks you receive from them deal less damage.

Overgrowth

Absorb life essence from monsters or enemy minions that died near you, permanently gaining maximum health. When you’ve absorbed 120 monster or enemy minions, gain an additional 3.5% maximum health.

Revitalize

Gain 5% heal and shield power. Heals and shields you cast or receive are 10% stronger on targets below 40% health.

Unflinching

Gain 10% Tenacity and Slow Resist. These values increase based on missing health.

Inspiration – Creative tools and rule bending

This rune path is meant to increase flexibility and versatility on certain champions. It focuses mostly on giving you bonuses, cooldown reduction, and sometimes even gives you certain items for free.

Keystone Runes

Glacial Augment

Basic attacking a champion slows them for 2 seconds. The slow increases in strength over its duraion. Ranged attacks slow by up to 30% – 40%, while melee attacks slow by up to 45% – 55%. Slowing a champion with active items will also shoot a freee ray through them, freezing the nearby ground for 5 seconds, slowing all units inside by 60%.

This is best used by champions who need another form of crowd control like Senna and Neeko.

Unsealed Spellbook

Swap one of your equipped Summoner Spells to a new, single use Summoner Spell. 

While this rune may seem overpowered at first glance, there really isn’t much use for it on most champions. In some cases, Ornn and Nasus can benefit greatly from this rune.

Prototype: Omnistone

Periodically grants a single use of another random keystone. 5 – 3 second cooldown between using a keystone and gaining the next. 

Like Unsealed Spellbook, this rune looks powerful but isn’t really all that useful. Not all champions can run with every keystone rune. As far as we know, Sett and Twisted Fate are the only ones who manage to do well in extended periods of time using this rune.

Lesser Runes

Hextech Flashtraption

While flash is on cooldown, it is replaced by Hexflash, which channels for 2 seconds and then blinks you to a new location. It has a cooldown of 20 seconds but goes on a 10 second cooldown when you enter combat.

Magical Footwear

You get free Slightly Magical Footwear at 12 minutes, but you cannot buy boots before then. Slight Magical Footwear grants you an additional 10 Move Speed.

Perfect Timing

Begin the game with a Commencing Stopwatch that transforms into a Stopwatch after 14 minutes. Stopwatch can be used for a one time 2.5 second Stasis effect. Can be used to build into Guardian Angel and Zhonya’s Hourglass.

Future’s Market

You can enter debt to buy items. The amount you can borrow increases over time. Lending fee: 50 gold. Debt limit: 150 + 5 every minute.

Minion Dematerializer

Start the game with 3 Minion Dematerializers that kill and absorb lane minions instantly. Minion Dematerializers are on cooldown for the first 180 seconds of the game.

Biscuit Delivery

Gain a Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will every 2 minutes, until the 6 minute mark. Biscuits restore 10% of your missing health and mana. Consuming or selling a Biscuit permanently increases your mana cap by 50.

Cosmic Insight

Gain +18 Summoner Spell Haste and +10 Item Haste.

Approach Velocity

Gain 7.5% Move Speed towards nearby enemy champions that are movement impaired. This bonus is increased to 15% Move Speed for any champion that you impair.

Time Warp Tonic

Consuming a Potion or Biscuit grants 50% of its health or mana restoration immediately. In addition, gain 5% Move Speed while under their effects.

Which Runes do I use?

Picking runes are entirely situational. There are a lot of factors to consider such as the champion you’re using, your preference in playstyle, and your lane matchup. Fortunately, the game has pre-made rune pages that you can use and run with most champions. However, if you’re looking for different rune sets, we’ll be showing you what are the most common sets used in all the roles. Remember, these are just guides. We encourage you to experiment and try out different builds to see what’s fun and what works for you.

Top Lane

Since you’ll mostly be by yourself in the Top Lane, you’ll need a lot of sustain. Conqueror and Grasp of the Undying are the most common keystone runes you’ll be seeing in this role. Most Top Lane champions like to fight so a combination between the Precision and Resolve path would be great for them.

If you’re a tank, go with Resolve as your primary path and Precision as your secondary path.

Resolve: Grasp of the Undying, Demolish, Bone Plating, Overgrowth

Precision: Triumph, Legend: Tenacity

Rune Shards: Adaptive Force, Armor, Magic Resist

Grasp of the Undying will help you sustain whenever you duel with your opponent plus it increases your health. Demolish will help you push turrets, Bone Plating will help you tank damage, and Overgrowth will help you gain more health. On the other path, Triumph gives you additional sustain when you take down your opponent and Legend: Tenacity makes it harder for you to be slowed down. Best used on champions like Sion, Maokai, and Shen.

If you’re a fighter or a bruiser, go with Precision as your primary path and Resolve as your secondary path. 

Precision: Conqueror, Triumph, Legend: Alacrity, Last Stand

Resolve: Bone Plating, Unflinching

Rune Shards: Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, Armor

Conqueror greatly increases your dueling power while letting you heal back the damage you deal. Triumph provides you with sustain, Legend: Alacrity helps you hit faster with attack speed, and Last Stand will help you win those all-in trades by actually having you hit harder when you have less health. On the other path, Bone Plating helps you get through damage thrown at you and Unflinching will help you stick to your opponent. Best used on champions like Fiora, Riven, and Irelia.

Jungle

For this role, you’ll need a lot of damage and sustain to help you clear jungle camps. You’ll also need Movement Speed to help you gank lanes and catch your opponents off guard. Phase Rush and Predator are great for a lot of junglers. Some Tank Junglers will also do well with Aftershock. 

If you’re a fighter jungler who relies on movement speed and spell combos to dish out damage to their opponents, go with Sorcery as your primary and Precision as your secondary.

Sorcery: Phase Rush, Nimbus Cloak, Celerity, Waterwalking

Precision: Triumph, Legend: Tenacity

Rune Shards: Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, Armor

Phase Rush is perfect for your spell combos as all the damage you deal will proc the rune’s effect giving you a lot of movement speed. All the lesser runes complement Phase Rush as all of them grant or enhance the movement speed you receive. On the other path, Triumph gives you sustain, while Legend: Tenacity will prevent you from being slowed down. Best used on champions like Udyr or Skarner.

If you’re using a champion who would rather have a burst of movement speed in the Jungle, go with Domination as your primary and Sorcery as your secondary.

Domination: Predator, Cheap Shot, Eyeball Collection, Ultimate Hunter

Sorcery: Nimbus Cloak, Waterwalking

Rune Shards: Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force, Armor

Predator will give you that quick burst of movement speed you need to surprise your opponents with bonus damage to boot. Cheap Shot helps your crowd control to deal more damage, Eyeball Collection will give you bonus damage, and Ultimate Hunter allows you to use your Ultimate more often. On the other path, Nimbus Cloak and Waterwalking will both enhance and grant you additional movement speed. Best used on champions like Fiddlesticks or Nunu.

If you’re a tank jungler, you’ll need to mix the defensive capabilities of the Resolve path plus the complementary traits of the Sorcery path.

Resolve: Aftershock, Font of Life, Bone Plating, Unflinching

Sorcery: Nimbus Cloak, Waterwalking

Rune Shards: Adaptive Force, Magic Resist, Armor

Aftershock helps you get tankier whenever you use your crowd control to gank and also adds additional damage. Font of Life will help you sustain in ganks since it marks opponents, Bone Plating makes you tanky, and Unflinching makes you unstoppable. On the other path, Nimbus Cloak and Waterwalking gives you additional Move Speed. Especially Waterwalking, since you’ll be walking through the river a lot of times if you’re a jungler. Best used on champions like Rammus and Amumu

Mid Lane

Since Mid Lane has a very large champion pool, you’ll find a lot of rune sets available for use in this role. For this guide, we’ll only show common rune sets for Assassins and Mages.

If you’re a mage, you’ll benefit heavily from the mana regeneration provided by the Sorcery path and the damage provided by the Domination path. 

Sorcery: Arcane Comet, Manaflow Band, Transcendence, Scorch

Domination: Taste of Blood, Ravenous Hunter

Rune Shards: Ability Haste, Adaptive Force, Magic Resist/Armor

Arcane Comet adds extra area of effect damage when you cast a spell. Manaflow Band gives you extra mana so you can keep spamming your spells, Transcendence also helps you spam your spells by way of cooldown reduction, and Scorch helps you whittle down your opponent’s health. On the other path, both Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter help you stay in lane thanks to their healing capabilities. Best used on champions like Heimerdinger and Syndra.

If you’re an assassin, you’ll need the burst provided by the Domination path and the sustain from the Precision path.

Domination: Electrocute, Sudden Impact, Eyeball Collection, Ravenous Hunter

Precision: Triumph, Coup de Grace

Rune Shards: Ability Haste, Adaptive Force, Magic Resist/Armor

The extra burst from Electrocute will go a long way. You’ll be using your spells to deal damage most of the time so you’ll be feeling the effects of Electrocute right away. Sudden Impact gives you more damage every time you use a mobility spell, while Ravenous Hunter also gives you heal. On the other path, Coup de Grace is here to help you instantly kill low health opponents.

ADC

ADC champions are very item reliant. They are also mostly auto attacked based so they need all the attack speed they can get. They’ll be running with the Precision path most of the time and Dominion for the extra damage.

If you’re a DPS ADC or a hyper carry who’ll do damage in the late game, you’ll need the Precision path as your primary and the Dominion path for your secondary.

Precision: Lethal Tempo, Overheal, Legend: Bloodline, Coup de Grace

Domination: Taste of Blood, Ravenous Hunter

Rune Shards: Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, Armor

Lethal Tempo increases your damage per second thanks to its Attack Speed buff. Overheal will allow you to get a shield whenever you heal if your health is full. Legend: Bloodline will give you additional life steal. Since you’ll be building attack speed items anyway, you won’t need the attack speed from Legend: Alacrity. Coup de Grace helps you finish off low health opponents. On the other path, Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter will give you additional heal. Best used on champions like Jinx, Twitch, and Kog’Maw.

If you’re an ADC who relies mostly on their spells and would rather burst opponents quickly, you would be better off taking the Dominion path as your primary and the Precision path as your secondary. 

Dominion: Dark Harvest, Taste of Blood, Eyeball collection, Ravenous Hunter

Precision: Presence of Mind, Coup de Grace

Rune Shards: Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force, Armor

We’ve gone over on previous sets most of the runes you’ll find here except for Dark Harvest and Presence of Mind. Since you’re a burst ADC, Dark Harvest allows you to have more damage whenever you hit a low health enemy. Once it stacks it will greatly increase the damage you deal with every spell and every basic attack. Presence of Mind, on the other path, will help you regenerate mana so you can keep blasting your opponents with your spells. Best used on champions like Jhin or Sivir.

Support

Last, but not the least, we have the support runes. Most supports are either tanks or enchanters so it makes sense that they’ll be primarily using the Resolve and the Sorcery paths for their runes.

If you’re a tank who’s dedicated to protecting your carry, you’ll need a defensive boost from the Resolve path and the resource hacks from the Inspiration tree.

Resolve: Guardian, Font of Life, Bone Plating, Unflinching

Inspiration: Biscuit Delivery, Cosmic Insight

Rune Shards: Attack Speed, Armor, Armor

This rune set is geared exclusively for tank supports to take the damage instead of their carries. Guardian makes them tankier when near an ally while all the other runes help them sustain and last longer during fights.

If you’re an enchanter who would rather heal and shield your allies from afar while empowering their basic attacks, you’ll be better off taking Sorcery as your primary and Resolve as your secondary.

Sorcery: Summon Aery, Manaflow Band, Celerity, Scorch

Resolve: Font of Life, Revitalize

Rune Shards: Adaptive Force, Adaptive Force, Armor

We’ve gone over most of the runes on this particular rune set. Summon Aery, however, is extremely useful when paired with an enchanter who uses a lot of shielding spells. Since Aery adds an additional shield on top of the shield you used on your spell. Revitalize also enhances this shield by a lot. So if you used champions like Lulu, Karma, or Janna with this particular rune set, your carries will never die thanks to your shields.

So there you have it! Everything you need to know about runes and how they work. Be sure to check back with us often for more guides about your favorite games. Have fun and we’ll see you on the Rift!