Comprehensive Guide to Runes

Welcome to my Rune Guide! This is for summoners who have reached at least Level 20 and thus have access to Tier 3 runes. If you are not Level 20, don't buy runes yet because you are throwing IP into the toilet!

If you're looking to buy your first rune page, choose Attack Damage Marks, Armor Seals, Magic Resist Glyphs and Attack Damage Quints. They are listed as the most powerful and general purpose runes in the tier list below.

If you're looking to round out your rune collection, buy the rest of the Class A runes. With few exceptions, you will have the strongest runes for any role and any champion.

For the few exceptions and some cheese strategies, check out Class B runes. They contain special cases like running a single Critical Chance rune; running scaling runes in Dominion/ARAM; and playing energy champions.

Don't waste your hard-earned IP on Class C runes. They provide too little to even be worth considering for cheese strategies.

Tier List

Runes sorted from best to worst, top-left to bottom-right. Scroll down or click the rune name for explanation.

Class A - Optimal for All or Most Champions

Marks/Reds: Attack Damage, Hybrid Penetration, Magic Penetration, Armor Penetration, Attack Speed

Seals/Yellows: Armor

Glyphs/Blues: Magic Resist, Scaling Magic Resist

Quintessences: Attack Damage, Health, Ability Power, Movement Speed, Lifesteal, Armor Penetration, Hybrid Penetration, Armor

Class B - Optimal for Edge Cases

Marks/Reds: Scaling Attack Damage, Armor, Critical Chance, Scaling Ability Power, Critical Damage, Scaling Mana

Seals/Yellows: Mana Regeneration, Scaling Mana Regeneration, Gold, Energy Regeneration, Critical Chance, Scaling Mana, Mana, Scaling Armor, Scaling Energy Regeneration

Glyphs/Blues: Cooldown Reduction, Mana, Energy, Ability Power, Mana Regeneration, Scaling Mana, Attack Speed, Magic Penetration, Critical Chance, Scaling Cooldown Reduction, Scaling Energy, Scaling Ability Power, Scaling Mana Regeneration

Quintessences: Spell Vamp, Revival, Experience, Gold, Health Regeneration, Attack Speed, Critical Chance, Mana, Scaling Mana, Mana Regeneration, Scaling Mana Regeneration, Magic Resist, Scaling Ability Power, Scaling Armor, Scaling Attack Damage

Class C - Not Optimal

Marks/Reds: Mana Regeneration, Scaling Ability Power, Magic Resist, Scaling Health, Scaling Magic Resist, Mana, Ability Power, Health, Cooldown Reduction

Seals/Yellows: Scaling Health Regeneration, Scaling Health, Scaling Attack Damage, Scaling Magic Resist, Percent Health, Health, Scaling Ability Power, Critical Damage, Attack Speed, Attack Damage, Health Regeneration, Magic Resist, Ability Power

Glyphs/Blues: Scaling Health, Armor, Attack Damage, Health Regeneration, Health, Critical Damage, Scaling Attack Damage

Quintessences: Scaling Health Regeneration, Scaling Health, Energy Regeneration, Energy, Cooldown Reduction, Scaling Magic Resist, Scaling Cooldown Reduction, Critical Damage

Detailed Description

Before I dive into the explanations, let me talk about the guidelines I used for the rankings. I took into account gold efficiency, alternative efficiency, flat vs scaling and in-game scenarios.

Gold efficiency is a well-known metric. The stat basically asks: is the rune's stats worth the rune slot? If Attack Damage costs 40 gold and Ability Power cost 21.75 gold, then a rune that gives one Attack Damage is more gold efficient than a rune that gives one Ability Power.

Alternative efficiency is a term I made up. The stat basically asks: is there a better alternative to this rune slot? If a Health Glyph gives less than half the health of a Health Seal, the Health Glyph is not very alternative efficient. On the other hand, the Health Seal is alternative efficient in this example.

Scaling runes become stronger as your champion levels up. They eventually become stronger than the flat (i.e. non-scaling) version. However, early-game advantage is important so flat versions are generally preferable.

Finally, I take into account in-game scenarios. What game mode you're playing. How useful certain stats are for different objectives. For instance, Mana Regeneration Seals are more gold efficient than Armor Seals, but I still rank Armor seals higher because they are useful in far more situations. This metric is highly subjective and hard to quantify.

Marks/Reds

Ability Power - terrible rune efficiency, total AP from Marks is 36% of what you get from Quints. For magic damage, you are better off using Magic Penetration Marks

Armor - most efficent defensive Mark and thus the best to use in a full defensive rune page

Armor Penetration - best flat Mark in terms of both alternative and gold efficiency. Optimal for champions that can stack Armor Penetration like Garen, Pantheon, Corki or Miss Fortune

Attack Damage - not as gold efficient as Armor Penetration but much more useful for last-hitting. Optimal for champions that scale well with Attack Damage. Gets the nod over Armor Penetration because more champions can use this.

Attack Speed - optimal for junglers because you get more hits with red buff and true damage jungle items. At Level 1, this is the most gold efficient rune in the game. Can also be used in a cheese set-up for attack speed lovers like Vayne or Kog'maw.

Cooldown Reduction - least efficient rune in the entire game. Enough said.

Critical Chance - can lead to huge damage with a cheesy early game Tryndamere strategy. You can also take a single Critical Chance rune and hope for lucky crit to win your lane. Very cost efficient

Critical Damage - By late-game (e.g. with 250 attack damage and 50% critical chance), this mark will out-damage any Attack Damage Runes. Also special because only one item gives Critical Damage (Infinity Edge). Get this if your champion can crit and you are confident of reaching late game.

Health - terrible efficiency. If you need Health, take Health Quints. If you need defensive Marks, take Armor Marks.

Hybrid Penetration - As DiffTheEnder puts it: Better than Magic Penetration if you land one auto attack between two spell casts. Better than Armor Penetration if you cast a spell once every four auto attacks.

Magic Penetration - Rated higher than Armor Penetration (despite lower gold efficiency) because this is the best Mark for magic damage whereas there are several options for physical damage

Magic Resist - Average efficiencies. Armor is better for defensive Marks

Mana - Even for mana stacking champions like Ryze, Mana Glyphs and Quints are twice as good. Better to use Magic Penetration Marks in that case.

Mana Regeneration - Worst mana regeneration runes, though could be borderline viable with a full mana regen page

Scaling Ability Power - More efficient than flat Ability Power by Level 6. Surprisingly, it's also more gold efficient than Magic Penetration Marks by Level 12. Could work on late-game, AP-scaling champions

Scaling Attack Damage - At Level 18, this is the most gold efficient rune in the entire game. Preferable to flat Attack Damage in fast-paced game modes like Dominion or ARAM.

Scaling Health - More efficient than flat Health by Level 7. However, Armor is still better for defensive Marks

Scaling Mana - Above average efficiencies. More efficient than flat Mana by Level 6. Viable on mana stacking champions like Ryze if you're playing on Dominion/ARAM or want to maximize late game damage.

Scaling Magic Resist - Mediocre efficiencies. Ties flat Magic Resist by Level 11. Stay far away from this Mark.

Seals/Yellows

Ability Power - Same terrible efficiency as the Mark version

Armor - Not only do Armor Seals have extremely high efficiencies, they're effective against autoattacks, minions, monsters and towers. Since each point of armor gives you 1% of max health against all those threats, Armor Seals give you 52 Health on average. You should use these on every champion.

Attack Damage, Attack Speed - Both of these offensive seals have below average efficiencies. Replacing Armor Seals for either one will let the opponent out-trade you.

Cooldown Reduction - Not as bad as Cooldown Marks, but still have terrible efficiencies. Cooldown is cheap to buy in-game, so not worth getting runes for.

Critical Chance - Borderline viable with a critical chance rune page. You can also take a single Critical Chance rune and hope for lucky crit to win your lane.

Critical Damage - Unlike Critical Damage Marks, not efficient enough to consider

Energy Regeneration - Worth getting on energy champions. How many of these seals you'll need will depend entirely on your playstyle. Play test with one Energy rune and keep increasing until you no longer run out of energy.

Gold - with the boost in passive gold this season, supports are no longer forced to get these. On the other hand, after 18 minutes and 48 seconds, they are more gold efficient than Armor Seals. If you play support and constantly feel the lack of gold, then you should take these

Health - mediocre efficiencies. For defense, Armor Seals are much better

Health Regeneration - mediocre efficiencies. If you need Health Regen, you are better off buying Rejuvenation Bead at the start of the game (5hp/5sec vs 3.87hp/5sec total)

Magic Resist - even worse than Magic Resist Marks. And those are already terrible.

Mana - Mana Glyphs and Quints are almost two times better. Borderline viable with a mana page for Ryze

Mana Regeneration - even more gold efficient than Armor Seals. Ranked lower because only mana hungry champions will need these.

Percent Health - Beats the terrible flat Health Seals at 1071 health which is a bit past early game. Beats flat Health Quints at 1734 health which is a bit past mid game. By then, you might as well get Scaling Health Seals, since Percent Health only beats Scaling Health at 3889 Health. At 3889 Health, you will get an amazing bonus of 175 Health. By comparison, the cheapest Health item (Ruby Crystal) gives 180 Health. Forget about shoddy Health Seals completely and go for Armor Seals.

Scaling Ability Power - one of the two offensive Seals with average efficiency (other being Scaling Attack Damage). Beats the terrible flat Ability Power Seals by Level 6. Still not efficient enough for late game. And since this is a scaling rune, you can't use it for early game cheese either.

Scaling Armor - Beats flat Armor Seals by Level 10. Early game flat armor is much more important, but Scaling Armor can have a niche in Dominion or ARAM.

Scaling Attack Damage - one of the two offensive Seals with average efficiency (other being Scaling Ability Power). Beats the terrible flat Attack Damage Seals by Level 8. Still not efficient enough for late game. And since this is a scaling rune, you can't use it for early game cheese either.

Scaling Energy Regeneration - Same deal as flat Energy Seals and beats them by Level 10. You can use these on Dominion or ARAM in place of flat ones.

Scaling Health - best of Health Seals. Beats flat Health Seals by Level 5. Still not worth getting over Armor Seals.

Scaling Health Regeneration - Beats flat Health Regeneration Seals by Level 4 and is one of the most gold efficient Seals. Despite that, Health Regeneration Quints are more than twice as effective if you really need sustain.

Scaling Magic Resist - Beats flat Magic Resist Seals by Level 8. Avoid these due to mediocre efficiencies.

Scaling Mana - Beats flat Mana Seals by Level 6. Viable on mana stacking champions like Ryze if you're playing on Dominion/ARAM or want to maximize late game damage.

Scaling Mana Regeneration - Beats flat Mana Regeneration Seals by Level 7. Not as useful as the flat version since Level 7 is past early game, but worth considering on champions with mana-intensive mid-to-late games (e.g. Anivia), or on Dominion or ARAM

Glyphs/Blues

Ability Power - above average efficiencies. Can be used to maximize magic damage.

Armor - terrible efficiencies: Seals and Quints give twice the armor. Stick with Magic Resist Glyphs for defensive Glyphs

Attack Damage - one of the worst runes in terms of efficiencies. Stay far, far away.

Attack Speed - better than Attack Damage Glyphs, but still has below-average efficiencies. Can be used to maximize early game physical damage or for attack speed lovers like Vayne.

Cooldown Reduction - best flat efficiencies among all Glyphs and all Cooldown Reduction runes. Cooldown is easy to purchase in-game, but if you need Cooldown at Level 1, then this is the place to get it

Critical Chance - borderline viable with a full Critical Chance page. Attack Speed Glyphs are more efficient for physical damage, but maximizing Critical Chance is another ball game. You can also take a single Critical Chance rune and hope for lucky Crit to win your lane.

Critical Damage - Unlike Critical Damage Marks, not efficient enough to consider

Energy - Worth getting on energy champions. How many of these seals you'll need will depend entirely on your playstyle. My suggestion is to play test with one Energy rune and keep increasing until you no longer run out of energy.

Health - worst Health runes. Stick to Magic Resist Glyphs for defensive needs

Health Regeneration - terrible efficiencies. If you need Health Regen, you are better off buying Rejuvenation Bead at the start of the game (5hp/5sec vs 2.43hp/5sec total)

Magic Penetration - above average efficiencies. Used to maximize late game magic damage. Unless your champion has terrible ratios, Ability Power Glyphs might be a better way to cheese.

Magic Resist - extremely high efficiencies and works on any champion. The only question you should ask is whether to take this or the scaling version. Consider whether you need the upfront Magic Resist: are you facing an Ability Power champion in lane? Get all flats. Are you mostly farming jungle? Get all scaling. Otherwise, a mix of six flats and three scalings work well.

Mana - extremely high efficiencies. However, only optimal on mana stacking champions like Ryze.

Mana Regeneration - not as good at Mana Regeneration Seals, but still efficient enough to be used for spamming spells early

Scaling Ability Power - Ties flat Ability Power by Level 7. Despite the most efficient Scaling Ability Power runes, it's difficult to cheese with scaling runes. By the time you reach Level 18, the extra 27.54 Ability Power is negligible. However, you could replace the flat version on Dominion or ARAM.

Scaling Attack Damage - Beats the terrible flat Attack Damage Glyphs by Level 7, but these runes are terrible themselves. Provides 6.48 Attack Damage by Level 18. For comparison, the cheapest Attack Damage item (Long Sword) provides 10 Attack Damage.

Scaling Cooldown Reduction - Beats Cooldown Reduction Glyphs by Level 14. Ties Scaling Energy Glyphs for the highest level needed to beat their flat counterparts. Worth replacing the flat version in Dominion or ARAM.

Scaling Energy - Beats Energy Glyphs by Level 14. Ties Scaling Cooldown Reduction Glyphs for the highest level needed to beat their flat counterparts. Worth replacing the flat version in Dominion or ARAM.

Scaling Health - More efficient than flat Health by Level 5. Magic Resist is better for defensive Glyphs

Scaling Magic Resist - More efficient than flat Magic Resist by Level 9. This the best Glyph along with its flat counterpart. Consider whether you need the upfront Magic Resist: are you facing an Ability Power champion in lane? Get all flats. Are you mostly farming jungle? Get all scaling. Otherwise, a mix of six flats and three scalings work well.

Scaling Mana - Beats flat Mana Seals by Level 8. Viable on mana stacking champions like Ryze if you're playing on Dominion/ARAM or want to maximize late game damage.

Scaling Mana Regeneration - Beats flat Mana Regeneration Seals by Level 6. Worth considering on champions with mana-intensive mid-to-late games (e.g. Anivia), or on Dominion or ARAM. Consider getting the Seal versions instead since those are more efficient.

Quintessences

Ability Power - Most efficient Ability Power runes and most efficient flat Quint. For magic damage, take these. If you rather prioritize late game, take Magic Penetration runes instead. For solid magic damage throughout, use Ability Power Quints and Magic Penetration Marks.

Armor - Surprisingly more efficient than Armor Seals. Not as good as Health Quints at Level 1. In fact, the only Level 1 situation where Armor is slightly better is if you are Gangplank starting with Veteran Scars mastery and a Doran Shield and the opponent only deals physical damage. However by Level 4, Armor Quints are better on average. So Armor is preferable on mid-to-late defensive rune page and champions that scale off armor like Rammus.

Armor Penetration - Good for late-game physical damage. If you rather prioritize early game damage, take Attack Damage Quints instead (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPsz9kVLMRI).For solid physical damage throughout, take Attack Damage Quints and Armor Penetration Marks.

Attack Damage - Good for early-game physical damage. If you rather prioritize late game damage, take Armor Penetration Quints instead.For solid physical damage throughout, take Attack Damage Quints and Armor Penetration Marks. These are rated higher than Armor Penetration because they can be used on any champion and can help with last-hitting

Attack Speed - Good gold efficiency but out-classed by Attack Speed Marks. Can be used to maximize attack speed for an on-hit build or attack speed lovers like Vayne, otherwise take Attack Damage or Armor Penetration Quints instead.

Cooldown Reduction - Mediocre efficiencies. The total Cooldown Reduction (5.01%) is comparable to what you can get from Masteries. Ability Power and Magic Penetration Quints are a better bet for higher magic damage.

Critical Chance - borderline viable with a full Critical Chance page. You can also take a single Critical Chance rune and hope for lucky Crit to win your lane, but since Quint slots are limited, you should use another type of Critical Chance rune for that strategy.

Critical Damage - Unlike Critical Damage Marks, not efficient enough to consider

Energy - Not as efficient as Energy Glyphs. Not worth a slot: too many good Quint options and too few Quint slots.

Energy Regeneration - Not as efficient as Energy Regeneration Seals. Not worth a slot: too many good Quint options and too few Quint slots.

Experience - Grab this if you are confident you can kill the opponent champion with a level advantage. You absolutely must snowball your early game advantage to get this most out of this rune.

Gold - Similar to Gold Seals, these become more gold efficient than any rune in just under 20 minutes. As a support player, you can decide whether you need more income.

Health - Best of the health runes and the best early game defensive Quint in general. This is optimal for supports and tanks - roles that don't focus on damage.

Health Regeneration - Best Health Regeneration Runes by a mile. If you get hit less than once every ten seconds in lane, you can negate the opponent's Attack Damage Marks and Quints combined. Good for safe, farming lanes. Health Regeneration is useless against a big burst of damage - against Leona/Graves in bot or LeBlanc in the mid for instance. Against big bursts, Health or Armor Quints are better.

Hybrid Penetration - Similar to Hybrid Penetration Marks, though not as efficient. Consider these if your champion relies on autoattacks and magic damage like Volibear.

Life Steal - Great for any Attack Damage carries. With a Doran Blade start, you will get back 9HP with every auto-attack on average. The second highest gold efficiency out of all flat Quints - highest being Ability Power Quints.

Magic Penetration - Ability Power Quints are more efficient. But you can take these if you value late game magic damage more. For solid magic damage throughout, use Ability Power Quints and Magic Penetration Marks.

Magic Resist - These are as good as Magic Resist Glyphs. On the other hand, there are better defensive Quints like Health Quints. This is viable on Galio since he scales off Magic Resist. The question then is whether Galio is viable.

Mana - Best mana runes. Viable on mana stacking champions like Ryze.

Mana Regeneration - Best mana regeneration runes. Viable on mana-hungry supports.

Movement Speed - Useful, general purpose rune. Get back to lane faster; group faster; gank faster; chase faster; escape faster. Difficult to put a price on usefulness. Best for junglers and Dominion.

Percent Health - Unimpressive. Check Percent Health Seal for a detailed analysis. If you want defensive Quints, use flat Health Quints for early game and Armor Quints for late game.

Revival - When combining these runes (15% off death timer) with the Good Hands defensive mastery (10% off death timer), you can cut 3 to 12 seconds from the death timer. This is secretly overpowered on ARAM and Dominion where you die and level up extremely quickly. May also be worth taking if you have a late game team composition.

Scaling Ability Power - Beats flat Ability Power by Level 12. Very efficient. Preferable to the flat version in fast-paced game modes like Dominion or ARAM.

Scaling Armor - Beats flat Armor by Level 12. Not very efficient. Preferable to the flat version in fast-paced game modes like Dominion or ARAM.

Scaling Attack Damage - Beats flat Attack Damage by Level 9. Not nearly as good as Scaling Attack Damage Marks, but you could still use this in fast-paced game modes like Dominion or ARAM.

Scaling Cooldown Reduction - Beats flat Cooldown Reduction by Level 13. Flat Cooldown is not efficient enough to be worth the Quint slot and neither is this.

Scaling Health - Beats flat Health by level 10. By then, the Health from runes is relatively weak. Less than a Ruby Crystal's worth of Health at Level 18. Not worth Quint slots.

Scaling Health Regeneration - Beats flat Health Regeneration by Level 4. Even though that's early, passive Health Regeneration is only useful in the laning phase. By Level 4, you are already halfway through the laning phase and can buy better stats.

Scaling Magic Resist - Beats flat Magic Resist at Level 11. Like the flat version, this rune would only be useful on Galio. You could use the scaling version in fast-paced game modes like Dominion or ARAM.

Scaling Mana - Beats flat Mana by Level 9. Viable on mana stacking champions like Ryze if you're playing on Dominion/ARAM or want to maximize late game damage.

Scaling Mana Regeneration - at level 18, this is the second most gold efficient rune in the game (next to Scaling Attack Damage Mark). Beats flat Mana Regeneration by Level 6. You could replace the flat version when playing on Dominion or ARAM.

Spell Vamp - unlike the physical version (lifesteal), Spell Vamp is harder to use because spell casts are less frequent and cost resources on average. Viable on Ability Power junglers like Nunu, Zac or Diana for a safer, longer jungling.

Acknowledgements

Big thanks to Trampoline Tales, VVinrar and Lanubya! This article is based off math they had already worked out. Alternative efficiencies were taken from Lanubya's spreadsheet. Gold efficiencies were borrowed from another spreadsheet. Flat vs Scaling numbers were taken from yet another spreadsheet. When I couldn't find any numbers, I calculated my own. Please leave your questions and comments below!