While picking the right keystone rune can mean the difference between winning and losing in League of Legends, being aware of what lesser runes you’re picking is sometimes just as important! Let’s review these reforged runes (again) to discuss when you should bring them with you onto Summoner’s Rift.
Back in May 2021, we went over the nuance that comes along with choosing which keystone rune to pair with your favourite champions. However, these keystone runes are only the surface of the reforged rune system, and the lesser runes that complement them along each rune tree can be incredibly relevant to your in-game success. While these lesser runes, as their names suggest, are indeed less powerful than keystone runes, they each have unique effects that empower your champion in ways that you should know about before just planting them into your build. The goal of this guide is to offer a brief, easy-to-understand explanation of what each lesser rune does and when to take it, along with an example of a champion who uses it effectively. With this guide in mind, you’ll be able to consciously pick your runes in champion select and thus hopefully make your champion as powerful as possible.
What It Does: Whenever you would heal (outside of health regeneration) above your maximum health, convert some of that healing into a shield up to just over 10% of your maximum health. Healing or taking/dealing damage refreshes the duration of the shield.
When To Take It: Overheal is great on champions who build lifesteal and value having a small bit of additional health, especially in the early game.
Example Champion: Aphelios pairs well with Overheal because his scythe-pistol (a.k.a. the red gun) innately provides his kit with some lifesteal. This means that he gets increased value from this rune right at the start of the game.
What It Does: Whenever you get a kill or assist against an enemy champion, you heal for 12% of your missing health and gain 20 gold on top of the reward for killing said champion.
When To Take It: Any champion who can secure kills or assists and who wants to sustain their way through teamfights will enjoy taking Triumph.
Example Champion: While pretty much any fighter (more commonly known as bruisers) would want to take this rune, Renekton is a great example because he doesn’t have mana or energy, making him unable to take the rune we’ll talk about next. Like all fighters, he appreciates the additional health during teamfights, and the additional gold from kills can help him snowball in the early game.
What It Does: Whenever you get a kill or assist against an enemy champion, you restore 15% of your maximum mana or energy. Furthermore, damaging an enemy champion increases your mana regeneration for four seconds or boosts your energy regeneration rate slightly.
When To Take It: Any champion who is reliant on consuming tons of mana during teamfights will typically take Presence of Mind as either part of their primary or secondary runes.
Example Champion: Taric, who guzzles through mana like no other champion during teamfights, obviously benefits immensely from taking this rune. His healing capacity makes him able to easily obtain the assists necessary to be constantly activating this rune during teamfights.
Note: All Legend runes use the same stacking system which builds up over the course of the game. Legend runes reach their maximum capacity at either 10 or 15 stacks, each stack consisting of 100 points. Kills and assists on champions grant 100 points, kills and assists on epic monsters grant 100 points, killing large monsters grants 25 points, and killing a minion grants 4 points. At maximum stacks, these runes also provide a small bonus to their correlated stat.
What It Does: Gain 1.5% bonus attack speed per Legend stack, up to 18% bonus attack speed at 10 stacks.
When To Take It: Any champion who relies on attack speed to deal consistent damage will likely take Legend: Alacrity.
Example Champion: While pretty much all marksmen take Legend: Alacrity, Vayne is a great example of a champion who uses it really effectively. This is primarily due to the fact that most of her damage comes from her W, Silver Bolts, which relies on landing as many auto attacks as possible to maximize damage.
What It Does: Gain 2.5% tenacity per Legend stack, up to 30% at 10 stacks.
When To Take It: Champions who rely on running directly at enemies without being impeded benefit immensely from taking Legend: Tenacity.
Example Champion: Urgot likes to take Legend: Tenacity due to the fact that besides his ultimate, he needs to be rather close to enemy champions in order to deal maximum damage.
What It Does: Gain 0.6% lifesteal per Legend stack, reaching a maximum of 9% at 15 stacks.
When To Take It: Champions who are heavily reliant on lifesteal in order to stay alive during fights typically enjoy taking Legend: Bloodline.
Example Champion: Samira frequently takes Legend: Bloodline because she is reliant on lifesteal and thus builds plenty of it. This is compounded upon by the fact that her ultimate applies lifesteal upon damaging enemies.
What It Does: When damaging a champion below 40% of their maximum health, deal 8% increased damage.
When To Take It: Coup de Grace is a relatively universal rune on champions who desire to secure kills.
Example Champion: While many champions take Coup de Grace, Jhin is a great example of a champion who has a clear purpose for using it. Since every fourth bullet Jhin fires does more damage to enemies who are low on health, it naturally compounds with Coup de Grace.
What It Does: Deal anywhere from 5% to 15% increased damage to enemy champions based upon the difference between their max health and your own. This maxes out against enemies with double your health.
When To Take It: Champions who innately have low maximum health and don’t typically build bonus health can benefit immensely from Cut Down.
Example Champion: Yuumi likes to take Cut Down because she doesn’t build any items with bonus health (due to pretty much always being attached to an ally) and has an incredibly low amount of base maximum health, meaning that she always gains bonus damage against enemies.
What It Does: Deal anywhere from 5% to 11% increased damage based upon your missing health. This begins when you’re below 60% maximum health and maxes out at below 30% of your maximum health.
When To Take It: Champions who don’t mind being at low health can benefit consistently from taking Last Stand.
Example Champion: Since Olaf already gains bonus attack speed, lifesteal, and healing from being at low health, it should make sense that he is able to reliably maximize this rune’s damage.
What It Does: Dealing damage with a basic attack or ability against a champion who is impaired by a crowd control effect deals a small bit of bonus true damage. This rune has a cooldown of 4 seconds.
When To Take It: Any champion who has a reliable combo which involves damage and crowd control will often take Cheap Shot to boost their damage potential.
Example Champion: Annie’s playstyle typically revolves around stunning a target then bursting them down with abilities, so it should be clear why she makes great use of the bonus damage from Cheap Shot.
What It Does: Whenever you deal damage to an enemy champion, heal for a small amount. This rune has a 20 second cooldown and won’t activate if you’re at full health.
When To Take It:Champions who want to heal often tend to take Taste of Blood to augment their healing.
Example Champion: Since Cassiopeia is reliant on healing to stay within range of her enemies, she often makes great use of this rune in conjunction with the healing from her E.
What It Does: Whenever you dash, blink, or exit stealth, dealing damage within the next four seconds will grant you lethality and magic penetration for five seconds.
When To Take It: Champions who have dashes, blinks, and stealth as a core part of their kit benefit immensely from taking Sudden Impact.
Example Champion: Ekko, who is reliant on using the dash and blink from his E to engage on enemies, obviously gains plenty of damage potency from taking this rune.
Note: These runes use a system wherein activating their effect (spawning a Zombie Ward, summoning a Ghost Poro, or securing a kill or assist against an enemy champion) grants a bit of adaptive force. This adaptive force maxes out at 18 attack damage or 30 ability power.
What It Does: Destroying an enemy ward creates an allied ‘zombie ward’ in its place which grants vision in that area.
When To Take It: Any champion who frequently destroys wards can gain quite a bit of value from taking Zombie Ward.
Example Champion: Any support champion who takes Domination as their primary or secondary rune tree will benefit from taking this rune due to the fact that one of their core duties as support is destroying enemy wards.
What It Does: Whenever one of your own wards would expire, summon a Ghost Poro in its place which lasts for an additional ninety seconds and gets scared off when enemy champions approach.
When To Take It: Champions who place plenty of wards can maximize the benefits of Ghost Poro.
Example Champion: Similarly to Zombie Ward, while it is hard to narrow down an exact champion who benefits from taking Ghost Poro, any support champions who is placing wards frequently could benefit from using this rune.
What It Does: Scoring a kill or assist against an enemy champion grants you one ‘eyeball’, up to a maximum of ten.
When To Take It: Any champion who focuses on securing kills, particularly early in the game, can use Eyeball Collection effectively.
Example Champion: Since Rengar already benefits from slaying champions due to his passive, it should be clear why Eyeball Collection synergizes naturally with the rest of his kit.
Note: These runes use a ‘bounty hunter’ system, wherein each kill or assist against a unique enemy champion grants you a Bounty Hunter stack.
What It Does: Gain anywhere from 1.5% omnivamp to 7.5% omnivamp, depending on your number of Bounty Hunter stacks.
When To Take It: Champions who are reliant on healing but can’t build lifesteal typically love taking Ravenous Hunter.
Example Champion: Syndra is a champion who frequently takes Ravenous Hunter because while she couldn’t viably build lifesteal, she still benefits from the sustain omnivamp provides.
What It Does: Gain anywhere from 10 to 35 item haste, depending on your number of Bounty Hunter stacks.
When To Take It: Any champion who is reliant on an activatable item to be played optimally would benefit from taking Ingenious Hunter.
Example Champion: While the lack of activable items in the game has relegated this rune to obscurity, any champion who builds an activatable item could make use of it.
What It Does: Gain anywhere from 5 to 45 movement speed when out of combat, depending on your number of Bounty Hunter stacks.
When To Take It: Any champion who wishes to move more freely around the map can benefit immensely from taking Relentless Hunter
Example Champion: Since Bard typically roams around the map to collect chimes and gank lanes, Relentless Hunter pairs excellently with him by helping him do this more efficiently.
What It Does: Gain anywhere from 6 to 31 ultimate haste, depending on your number of Bounty Hunter stacks.
When To Take It: Champions who are particularly reliant on their ultimate to win teamfights can take Ultimate Hunter to increase their consistency.
Example Champion: Fiddlesticks is a great example of how to use this rune effectively, as they need their ultimate to be up in order to engage and teamfight effectively, thus making ultimate haste an important stat for them.
What It Does: Any time that you would take magic damage that would bring you to below 30% of your max health, gain an anti-magic shield for four seconds. This rune has a 60 second cooldown.
When To Take It: If you’re against a champion who deals magic damage and you want to play safely, taking Nullifying Orb can be incredibly effective.
Example Champion: Instead of always taking this rune on specific champions, I recommend looking at the enemy’s team composition and taking this rune if they rely heavily on magic damage or if you’ll be laning against a champion who deals primarily magic damage.
What It Does: Landing an ability on an enemy champion (with a cooldown of 15 seconds) permanently increases your max mana by 25, up to a maximum of 250 mana. After gaining 250 maximum mana from this rune, you restore 1% of your missing mana per every five seconds.
When To Take It: Champions who use plenty of mana in order to operate effectively love to take Manaflow Band to make their lives easier.
Example Champion: Since Veigar needs to be constantly expending mana and landing abilities to stack up his passive, he makes efficient use of this rune.
What It Does: Whenever you use a summoner spell, grant yourself ghosting (the ability to avoid unit collision) and bonus movement speed for two seconds.
When To Take It: Any champion who wants to follow up a summoner spell with increased mobility can benefit from taking Nimbus Cloak.
Example Champion: While Nimbus Cloak is a relatively obscure rune, if you’re looking to flash onto a target and not have to deal with running into minions, consider trying it!
What It Does: At level five, gain five ability haste. At level 8, gain five more. At and after level 11, whenever you score a kill or assist against an enemy champion, reduce the remaining cooldowns on your non-ultimate abilities by 20%
When To Take It: Any champion who wants to have their abilities off cooldown as often as possible benefits from taking Transcendence.
Example Champion: Ryze, who has to throw out around five abilities per combo in order to deal maximum damage, happily takes this rune in order to be able to do that more reliably.
What It Does: All movement speed bonuses are increased in effectiveness by 7% and you gain 1% bonus movement speed.
When To Take It: Champions who particularly value movement speed take Celerity in order to increase their potential.
Example Champion: Since Hecarim’s passive grants him bonus attack damage proportional to his movement speed and his E provides him with a surge of movement speed, he makes incredibly efficient use of this rune.
What It Does: When you’re above 70% of your maximum health, gain up to 18 bonus adaptive force.
When To Take It: Any champion who pokes enemies out of lane and gets bursted down easily once below 70% of their maximum health anyway can make great use of Absolute Focus.
Example Champion: Through her abilities, Miss Fortune has the effective range to poke enemies from far away, and like most Marskmen, being below 70% health late in the game is basically a death sentence. These combine to make her an effective user of this rune.
What It Does: When you deal damage to an enemy champion with an ability, deal a small bit of bonus magic damage. This rune has a ten second cooldown.
When To Take It: Champions who are trying to land plenty of abilities during the laning phase typically love taking Scorch to increase their damage.
Example Champion: Since Lux is looking to zone enemies out by using her E to either poke them down or force them away from the wave, she uses this rune effectively to increase her early-game damage.
What It Does: Whenever you’re in the river, gain 25 bonus movement speed and up to 18 adaptive force.
When To Take It: Any champion who wants to spend a lot of time in the river, either to take objectives or gank lanes, can use Waterwalking efficiently.
Example Champion: Most junglers who choose to take the Sorcery rune tree as either their primary or secondary rune tree can make the most out of using this rune, since they typically spend plenty of time in the river.
What It Does: Every 10 minutes, your champions gain some adaptive force.
When To Take It: Any champion who scales effectively into the late-game can make great use of Gathering Storm.
Example Champion: Since Viktor excels at stalling out games by using his E to clear waves super efficiently until he and his team outscale the enemy team, he makes particularly good use of this rune.
What It Does: When near an enemy tower, gain a stack every half a second, up to six stacks. At six stacks, your next attack against a tower deals a lot of bonus physical damage. This rune has a cooldown of 45 seconds.
When To Take It: Champions who like to split-push and thus destroy structures quickly after approaching them can use Demolish efficiently.
Example Champion: Since Ornn tends to split-push in order to gain enough experience/levels to use his passive, he is often able to use this rune to its maximum potential.
What It Does: When you slow or immobilize an enemy champion, allied champions who basic attack said enemy heal proportionally to your maximum health.
When To Take It: Support champions who are able to consistently apply crowd control aid their allies immensely by taking Font of Life.
Example Champion: Since Leona is able to apply Font of Life’s effect using every one of her abilities except for her W, she is able to activate this rune consistently enough for it to be very useful.
What It Does: Whenever you have a shield, gain bonus armor and magic resistance. Furthermore, after being shielded, your next basic attack against an enemy champion deals bonus adaptive damage.
When To Take It: Champions who have a shield as a core part of their kit and primarily deal damage through basic attacking are able to use Shield Bash very effectively.
Example Champion: Due to the fact that Camille’s passive consistently grants her a shield whenever she is trading with an enemy champion, she is able to make great use of this rune.
What It Does: After 12 minutes into the game, you gain bonus armor and magic resistance, and your total armor and magic resistance are increased by 5%.
When to Take It: If you’re on a champion who builds lots of armor and magic resistance, Conditioning can help increase the efficiency of their items.
Example Champion: Rammus, whose passive makes him deal more damage with basic attacks when he has more armor, obviously makes great use of this rune which increases his armor.
What It Does: Whenever you take damage from an enemy champion, regenerate just over 4% of your missing health over the next ten seconds.
When To Take It: Champions who heal lots yet are susceptible to poke can make excellent use of Second Wind.
Example Champion: Since Maokai is a low-mobility, short-range champion who already has healing as a core part of his kit via his passive, this rune fits quite naturally into his playstyle.
What It Does: After you’ve taken damage from an enemy champion, the next three spells or attacks that said enemy uses against you deal up to 60 less damage.
When To Take It: Any champion who falls victim to being poked, particularly in the early game, can make great use of Bone Plating.
Example Champion: In conjunction with the shield from his W, Sion is able to take this rune in order to shrug off most instances of poke damage during the laning phase, making him one of its most effective users.
What It Does: For every eight monsters or minions that die near you, you gain three bonus health. After you’ve seen 120 monsters or minions die, you gain an additional 3.5% maximum health.
When To Take It: Any champion who relies on having tons of health in order to take plenty of hits can benefit from taking Overgrowth.
Example Champion: Dr. Mundo is a quintessential user of this rune, since he is able to use its bonus health to survive more damage and beat down opponents via simply having lots of health and healing.
What It Does: You passively have 5% increased healing and shielding power. Healing and shielding on allies below 40% of their health is increased by 10%. Healing and shielding applied to you, including self-healing and lifesteal/omnivamp, is increased by 10% when you are below 40% of your maximum health.
When To Take It: Champions who heal others or themselves regularly are able to use Revitalize to increase their performance.
Example Champion: While this rune might seem great for healers, champions like Yone who heal for tons of health via lifesteal and grant themselves shields with their abilities also use it incredibly effectively.
What It Does: Gain anywhere from 10% to 30% slow resist and tenacity based upon your missing health.
When To Take It: Any champion who runs at their target and is thus vulnerable to slows and immobilizations will benefit immensely from taking Unflinching.
Example Champion: As a champion who goes so far as to take Ghost just so he can run at his enemies faster, Darius makes great use of this rune as a tool which lets him hurdle fearlessly towards his foes.
What It Does: When your Flash is on cooldown, you gain access to Hexflash. Hexflash lets you channel for 2.5 seconds and then blink a short distance. This rune has a cooldown of twenty seconds.
When To Take It: Champions who like to engage using Flash can make excellent use of Hextech Flashtraption
Example Champion: When played as a support, Sett makes great use of this rune because it allows him to always threaten enemies with his Flash plus E combo.
What It Does: After twelve minutes, you get Slightly Magical Boots in your inventory for free which are virtually identical to regular Boots, save for the fact that they are slightly better and make any upgrades slightly better. Kills and assists against enemy champions reduce the time at which you get these in your inventory by forty-five seconds.
When To Take It: Champions who are heavily reliant on movement speed but don’t particularly need it in the first twelve minutes of the game can benefit immensely from Magical Footwear.
Example Champion: Xerath, as an immobile mage, makes great use of Magical Footwear because he doesn’t prioritize buying boots and yet benefits from having slightly more mobility later into the game.
What It Does: After fourteen minutes into the game, you receive a Perfectly Timed Stopwatch which is identical to the Stopwatch except for the fact that it only contributes 250 gold to any upgrades. Kills and assists against enemy champions reduce the time at which you get this in your inventory by two minutes.
When To Take It: Anyone who would buy an item which upgrades from the Stopwatch can make use of Perfect Timing.
Example Champion: Basically any mage who wants to build a Zhonya’s Hourglass at some point in the game can make great use of this rune.
What It Does: You can enter debt to buy items, but it adds a 50 gold surcharge to any purchases that you make which put you into debt. Your debt limit increases as the game progresses.
When To Take It: A champion who wants to hit their item powerspike quickly but doesn’t mind getting into debt to do so would benefit from taking this rune.
Example Champion: While this rune is relatively obscure, it would be fun to experiment with it on any champion who can build an early advantage and snowball the game by getting into debt to purchase items quickly.
What It Does: You start the game with three Minion Dematerializers in your inventory which can be consumed to execute an enemy minion, placing the dematerializers on a three minute cooldown. You deal increased damage to the types of minions that you have dematerialized.
When To Take It: Champions who need just a bit more damage to make their waveclear consistent can benefit from taking Minion Dematerializer.
Example Champion: Twisted Fate makes great use of this item because it gives him the damage to conveniently clear waves with his Q.
What It Does: At two minutes, four minutes, and six minutes into the game, receive a Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will. This biscuit restores 50 mana, increases your max mana by 50, and restores health.
When To Take It: Any champion who could use a bit of extra mana and healing in the early game could use Biscuit Delivery effectively.
Example Champion: While many support champions take this rune, Alistar makes particularly good use of it because of how susceptible he is to poke damage.
What It Does: Your champion gains 18 summoner spell haste and 10 item haste.
When To Take It: Champions who build active items and rely on summoner spells to perform effectively can efficiently use Cosmic Insight
Example Champion: Vladimir is able to use this rune well due to the fact that he often builds Hextech Rocketbelt and Zhonya’s Hourglass, along with taking the summoner spell Ignite, meaning that he uses all of the stats that this rune grants.
What It Does: You gain 7.5% bonus movement speed towards nearby enemy champions who are immobilized, grounded, or slowed. This bonus is doubled if you’re the one who applied the immobilization, grounding, or slow.
When To Take It: Champions who want to apply crowd control then chase down an enemy make great use of Approach Velocity.
Example Champion: Since Ashe’s basic attacks always apply a slow to enemy champions, and she wants to be constantly basic attacking to deal damage, she is able to always make the most out of this rune.
What It Does: When using a potion or biscuit, you immediately restore 50% of the health and/or mana that you would restore, and then gain the rest of the healing at half of the rate that you normally would. You also gain 5% bonus movement speed while healing from a potion or biscuit.
When To Take It: Any champion who wants their potions and biscuits to be a bit more useful during the early game can get tons of value out of Time Warp Tonic.
Example Champion: Since many champions take this rune, it is relevant to note here that it is often paired with Biscuit Delivery so that you’re able to get the most out of its effects.
From what has been said, it should be clear that while these are considered ‘lesser’ runes, they still have incredibly potent effects. As a result, choosing the right ones can be the difference between winning and losing, and knowing the nuanced details of what they do is the key to knowing which runes to take in which situation. If there is one key takeaway from this article, it is that being able to critically assess what runes you’re selecting is an important step in becoming the best League of Legends player that you can possibly be. By knowing exactly what benefits you have from your lesser runes, you’ll be able to stretch every small advantage you have over your opponents to the max, hopefully making you win more games!
