Building characters is an essential part of League of Legends: Wild Rift. Not only do they make your champions stronger but they also enhance them and make them perform better during the game. Apart from items and summoner spells, LOL runes are an important part of a Champion’s build because this is where most of the enhancements of a character will come from. Different runes are suited for different champions. Hence, it’s ideal to get to know these runes so that you’ll have an idea of which ones to use to build your champions.
In this article, get to know the different LOL runes that you can use in League of Legends: Wild Rift.
LOL Runes: What Are They?
Runes are essential parts of a champion’s build in League of Legends: Wild Rift. They strengthen or enhance the abilities and stats of a champion. You can choose which runes to equip your champions with during the picking session at the start of the game. But since the picking session is time-restricted, you can also prepare your rune loadouts beforehand in the respective pages of your champions.
Runes fall under two categories in Wild Rift. First are the Keystone Runes which will affect your build the most because they will grant you significant changes in your offense and defense. You can only equip one Keystone Rune during each game. Secondary runes, on the other hand, are supplementary LOL runes. They will further enhance your champion’s already existing strengths and abilities. You can choose up to three secondary runes per game.
You must familiarize yourself with these runes and their effects because they will greatly affect your champion’s in-game performance and their playstyle throughout the game.
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LOL Runes: Keystones
A Keystone Rune is a primary rune that you can equip to your champions. They have useful active and passive skills that you can use during your runs. The effects of these LOL runes vary, with some being able to provide extra damage and others providing health support. If used correctly, you’ll be able to use the rune to its fullest potential.
At present, there are eight Keystone Runes in Wild Rift that you can use. They are as follows:
1. Electrocute
Electrocute is the best Keystone Rune for champions who are heavy on burst damage. This rune allows players to deal bonus adaptive damage whenever an enemy is hit with three separate attacks. It also deals bonus adaptive damage when you hit your enemies with your abilities within three seconds.
You will have to hit your opponent three separate times with attacks or abilities. The rune will not work if you attack them consecutively. This rune is a reliable source of bonus damage that will ultimately increase the burst damage for combos. It’s also a strong rune to use during the earlier parts of the game because it helps with lane control. Champions who are mid laners will benefit the most from using this as their Keystone Rune.
The downside of using this Keystone Rune is that it has a 25-second cooldown. It’s a rune that doesn’t get affected by ability haste so you might want to think twice about using it in drawn-out fights.
2. Aery
Aery is one of the best LOL runes to use for mages and support. This allows champions to deal extra attack or ability damage while also providing extra healing or shielding abilities. Aery is an extension of the champion so it’ll linger on targets who are damaged or shielded. However, Aery cannot be used again until it returns to its owner.
This Keystone Rune has no cooldown and can be used again as long as it’s able to return to its owner. Aery is a great balance between offense and defense, but certain champions are better off using Aery because of its non-existent cooldown.
The only downside of this is that Aery has a lower damage bonus than runes like Conqueror or Electrocute. Still, if you’re using a Mage, Aery is a great Keystone rune to consider.
3. Conqueror
If you’re looking for LOL runes that will give your champions a strong DPS output, the Conqueror is a Keystone Rune that will help you out. Whenever you hit an opponent with separate attacks or abilities, the rune grants adaptive damage. If you stack the ability for a maximum of five stacks, you’ll be given 10% bonus damage (7% damage for ranged champions) plus your damage output. The bonus AD or AP will stack with the adaptive bonus damage because it is considered as separate damages.
The Conqueror and Electrocute have the same stack counter but with the former, the duration time of the buffs refreshes whenever you damage the enemy. The Conqueror has no cooldown and is great for long games. Additionally, you’ll get stronger as time goes on so this is the ideal rune to use for extended games.
The Conqueror falls short in the earlier phases of the game. Most of the time, games end before the player can witness the full potential of the rune. In that case, most players will prefer to equip their champions with Electrocute because it works better in fast-paced fights.
4. Fleet Footwork
Fleet Footwork grants healing and bonus speed when you reach the maximum Energy stacks that are required to activate the rune’s effects. Energy stacks can pile up with your champion’s movements, attacks, and abilities. This rune is great for ranged champions because they can attack opponents from a distance while gathering energy for Fleet Footwork to work.
The best thing about this rune is that it gives both healing and speed buffs. It offers a consistent healing mechanism that gets better with every damage dealt.
The downside of Fleet Footwork is that it doesn’t offer bonus damage like other runes. While it’s one of the most common LOL runes to use, you might want to stay away from it if you’re looking for a rune that offers additional damage.
5. Grasp of the Undying
Much like Fleet Footwork, Grasp of the Undying grants its users with offensive and defensive effects. For every four seconds that you spend in combat, your next attack will heal you. Additionally, it will permanently increase your HP and deal magic damage to your opponent.
Grasp of the Undying is a well-balanced rune that scales with your maximum health. This rune is mostly compared to Aery because they have similar effects. The difference is that Grasp of the Undying deals both offensive and defensive effects at the same time.
When using Grasp of the Undying, it’s best to remember that this rune requires you to engage in combat for it to activate. It also deals less bonus damage than LOL runes like Conqueror and Electrocute. Regardless, it’s great to use because of the HP increase that you’ll get when you equip your champion with this rune.
6. Aftershock
Aftershock is a Keystone Rune for champions who are great with crowd control. Once you effectively immobilize an enemy, you’ll earn a great amount of bonus magic resistance and armor. These bonuses will allow you to get through the game in the long run. Further, you’ll be able to deal magic damage bursts that will be based on your max health.
This is a great Keystone for survivability as it allows it to take in more damage. It also adds a bit more AoE damage to your initiation.
Aftershock is great for tanks and initiators. But the downfall of this rune is that you’ll only be able to immobilize certain champions. Hence, it’s not going to work on all your opponents.
7. Font of Life
Font of Life marks an enemy champion by impairing its movement. Every time that you or an ally damages the marked enemy, you and your allies will be healed. But bear in mind that you’ll only be able to damage an enemy one at a time.
Font of Life is a great Keystone rune for supporting your allies during long-term battles. Because you can continuously trigger this rune, you’ll be able to sustain your team throughout the entire battle as long as you inflict damage to the marked target.
However, bear in mind that this rune can be countered by Grievous Wounds. Additionally, compared to Aftershock, it is weak against burst damage.
8. Phase Rush
Phase Rush is the latest addition to the game. It activates the same way as Electrocute where you have to hit an adversary with three separate abilities or attacks within four seconds. This rune grants a huge amount of movement speed and a significant amount of slow resistance.
With the added speed bonus, you’ll be able to play with better chances of survival. It also makes your champion harder to chase and kill in the game. The only downfall of this rune is that it doesn’t deal as much damage as other Keystone runes.
LOL Runes: Secondary Runes
Secondary Runes, sometimes called Minor Runes, are supplementary runes that you can equip to your champions for added boosts. These LOL runes also usually complement a champion’s already existing abilities and enhance them further. You can equip up to three secondary LOL runes to your champions before you begin the battle.
Secondary Runes are divided into three categories and they are as follows:
Domination
Domination Runes are geared towards dealing more damage, as the name implies. They are made to increase your damage output one way or the other.
A.) Brutal
Brutal adds penetration, AD, or AP depending on the damage that you deal. This rune is compatible with most champions and is the most reliable one that you can choose if you’re not sure which Domination rune to choose. Assassins and Junglers are the best pair for this rune because the bonus penetration and AD/AP will help run through jungles faster.
B.) Gathering Storm
Gathering Storm is another popular Domination rune that’s used by most champions. However, it’s best for champions who shine later in the game. It’s also a great rune to use for tanks and support champions who have great AD or AP ratios. This rune only starts giving out values after nine minutes into the game and more bonuses at 21 minutes onwards. It’s a great rune to have if you’re a late bloomer, but keep in mind that it’s very weak during the first few minutes of the game.
C.) Hunter – Vampirism
If you have a high-scaling DPS champion, Hunter – Vampirism is a great rune to use. It’s also great for those who run the mid-lane and the jungle because they are the ones with the best chances of stacking since they roam the map constantly. The stacking conditions of Gathering Storm and Hunter – Vampirism are similar as they both start producing bonuses at nine minutes. However, this rune grants an additional bonus Vamp that you can boost if you add Gluttonous Greaves and Bloodthirster as your other secondary runes.
D.) Triumph
Assassins and bruisers are the ones who use Triumph most often. It’s one of the LOL runes that is great for long fights because it deals bonus damage on low health enemies. It also restores 10% missing health to the user for every takedown that they perform. It doesn’t help much if you’re big on offense but it helps take down towers.
E.) Weakness
If you’re a player who mainly plays as support, Weakness is the best Domination rune that you should consider. Not only does it boost the entire team’s damage but it also immobilizes the enemy. This is a great rune to use especially if you’re heavy on crowd control and team support.
F.) Champion
Champion is a rune that grants you a huge damage bonus but you will lose up to 4% of the bonus with each time that you die on the battlefield. This is a rune that’s recommended for early game champions because they will be able to perform better without the risk of dying.
Resolve
Resolve Runes are targeted towards boosting your defense stats. These LOL runes will help you get through fights and defense against certain types of attacks. Compared to other runes, you will have to think about which Resolve Runes to use as you’ll have to not only consider your playstyle but also the damage that your enemies can make.
A.) Bone Plating
Bone Plating is a rune that is best used against champions who dish out combos and burst damage. It can block up to a total of 180 damage for around 1.5 seconds before it has to cool down for 45 seconds. You’ll be able to tell which champions have this rune in effect because they will be surrounded by green plates.
B.) Conditioning
Conditioning activates after the first five minutes of the game. From there, it provides its user with armor and magic resist bonuses every two minutes after its activation. This rune is ideal for champions who have great survivability in the earlier stages of the game. This rune is best paired with the Aftershock Keystone Rune as the bonus armor and magic resists scales directly from your stats.
C.) Hunter – Titan
Hunter – Titan gives 4% tenacity and a max of 20 health for each takedown that you perform. You’ll be able to resist the crowd control abilities of enemy champions as this rune stacks up. However, you’ll need to be careful if your opponent has more than one crowd control champion as there will be a possibility that you’ll still be controlled by them.
D.) Second Wind
Upon its activation, Second Wind will passively grant 6 health every five seconds. When you take in damage from an adversary, you’ll have an additional bonus regeneration based on your missing health. This rune does not have a cooldown and ultimately makes champions like Teemo more bearable to fight against.
E.) Adaptive Carapace
This secondary rune provides players with adaptive resistance when their HP goes below 50%. Their champions will either gain armor or magic resistance depending on the type of damage that they took before their HP went down. If their champion took magic damage, they’ll gain magic resist but if they took in physical damage, they’ll gain armor instead. Adaptive Carapace is a rune that’s great for long fights – especially for champions who get stronger when their damage output is stacked or when their health becomes significantly low.
F.) Loyalty
Loyalty grants you and your closest ally a bit of armor and magic resists. It is arguably one of the runes that you might not want to use because it only has those effects. That said, you might want to choose another rune because Loyalty doesn’t help much in battle nor will you benefit from it in the long run.
Inspiration
Inspiration Runes focus more on utility. They add another layer of advantage to your gameplay by providing you with an additional gold generation, speed bonuses, ability haste, more mana, or objective control.
A.) Pathfinder
Pathfinder is the best rune to use for junglers. This provides champions with an 8% bonus movement that is great if you want to ambush your opponents from the start of the game.
B.) Mastermind
Mastermind is yet another rune to consider if you’re playing the role of a jungler. This grants you a bonus of 10% true damage to epic monsters and a 10% adaptive damage bonus to turrets. Mastermind also grants you an extra 120 gold when you assist or perform these objectives.
C.) Hunter – Genius
If your champion relies on ability haste, Hunter – Genius is a rune that you’ll want to have. The rune works well alone and provides you with the ideal amount of cooldown reduction. If you have this rune in your roster, you don’t have to worry too much about equipping your champion with ability haste items. However, you can still opt to add items with the same effect to better the chances of having a bigger reduction.
D.) Sweet Tooth
Sweet Tooth is one of the more popular LOL runes for laners. The rune grants an increase in Honeyfruit healing which helps a lot during the laning phase. It also gives you bonus gold whenever you or an ally close to you eats a Honeyfuit. One thing that you should know about Honeyfruits is that their regeneration will be based on your missing health, so it’s best to take in a bit of damage first before consuming the fruit. Otherwise, you won’t be able to benefit from it at all.
E.) Pack Hunter
Pack Hunter is a great rune to consider for tank supports. This grants them a bonus movement speed that stays throughout the game. Moreover, it also gives you and an ally an additional 50 gold. Do note that you have to be near an ally to gain the bonus speed otherwise, the rune won’t take effect.
F.) Manaflow Band
If you’re using mages and enchanter supports, the Manaflow band is an essential rune to have because it affects your AD and AP values. When used with the Tear of the Goddess, you’ll have bonuses based on your maximum mana.
Best Rune Build for Champions
Now that you’re familiar with the runes and their effects, it’s time to apply them to the build of your champions. Take note that these builds are just general builds for the different types of champions. You will have to tweak them accordingly depending on the champion that you choose to play as. Each character will require a more specific build for them to be able to perform better.
That said, here are a couple of rune build suggestions that you might want to apply if you’re unsure of which runes to use for your champions.
Also Read: LOL’s Vayne Build Guide: Best Runes, Items, and Spells to Use
A.) Fighter Rune Build
| Keystone | Conqueror |
| Secondary | Brutal, Hunter – Titan, Hunter – Genius |
With Conqueror as your Keystone Rune, it’s guaranteed that you’ll be able to dish out a high DPS output. You’ll gain bonus AD or AP when dealing with separate attacks or abilities to your opponent. Accompanied by Brutal, you’ll be able to deal more damage because of its additional penetration and AD or AP. Hunter – Genius helps enhance this build because it aids in reducing the champion’s ability to cool down. Lastly, this build is further complemented by Hunter – Titan that gives your champion an additional 4% tenacity and 20 health for each takedown that you perform.
B.) Tank Rune Build
| Keystone | Aftershock |
| Secondary | Weakness, Conditioning, Pack Hunter |
Tanks will benefit the most from Aftershock because it allows them to immobilize enemies and earn bonus armor and bonus magic resistance. You can complement the effects of your Keystone Rune with Weakness that boosts your team’s damage and also helps to incapacitate your opponent. Another secondary rune that will compliment Aftershock for a tank build is Conditioning as it grants bonus armor and magic resistance. Lastly, Pack Hunter allows tanks to move faster and deal more damage as they go along.
C.) Marksman Rune Build
| Keystone | Conqueror |
| Secondary | Gathering Storm, Adaptive Carapace, Sweet Tooth |
Conqueror allows you to deal more damage while gaining bonus AD or AP. Gathering Storm compliments your Keystone Rune because of the bonus AD/AP that you’ll earn from the attacks. Adaptive Carapace grants adaptive resistance to your champion as well as armor or magic resistance. This is especially good for marksmen who are always on the field. Sweet Tooth grants healing and bonus gold that benefits champions who are on the lanes throughout the game. It’s perfect for marksmen because they are always on their feet in the lanes.
D.) Assassin Rune Build
| Keystone | Electrocute |
| Secondary | Brutal, Second Wind, Manaflow Band |
Electrocute grants your champion with adaptive bonus damage that increases their burst damage. When used with Brutal, your assassin will earn more AD/AP with bonus penetration as you progress through the game. This helps the champion go through lanes faster. Second Wind grants them an additional 6 health and additional bonus regeneration every time they take damage. Lastly, the Manaflow Band ties all the effects of the build together by affecting your AD and AP values while increasing your max mana.
E.) Mage Rune Build
| Keystone | Electrocute |
| Secondary | Brutal, Adaptive Carapace, Manaflow Band |
Electrocute grants adaptive bonus damage to Mages who are heavy on their burst damage. With Brutal as a secondary rune, it grants the mage with a bit more power because of its additional penetration, AD, or AP. Adaptive Carapace grants them armor or magic resistance that will be helpful in the long run because most mages will need an extra boost when it comes to their defense. Lastly, you’ll need the Manaflow Band to enhance the champion’s maximum Mana as it is essential for mages to be able to have Mana ready at all times.
F.) Support Rune Build
| Keystone | Aery |
| Secondary | Weakness, Loyalty, Mana Flowband |
For Support, Aery is the ideal rune to use because it provides extra attack or ability damage while shielding or healing the champion. Weakness is a great Domination rune to use with Aery because of its ability to immobilize enemies while boosting your team’s damage. Loyalty extends armor and magic resistance to your closest ally while still adding to the effects of Aery for yourself. Mana Flowband adds to your maximum Mana and affects your AD/AP which is essential for support characters.
Wrap-Up
Selecting LOL runes for your champions is crucial to their overall performance. Players must have a grasp of the unique effects and properties of runes first before they head on to building their champions because each rune is different from one another. It’s also important to note that each champion might require a different build, so it’s best to experiment with runes to find the ones that will best compliment your champion. Learning about LOL runes might take a while depending on the player’s skill level, but it will be worth it in the end because once you find the right build for your champion, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with in League of Legends: Wild Rift.
