League of Legends: Patch 9.23 will bring HUGE changes to runes

Along with the big preseason changes coming to League of Legends in Patch 9.23, we’re also going to be seeing some big changes to runes!

There’s plenty of hype surrounding Patch 9.23 as it will bring the Elemental Rift to League of Legends, along with a host of item changes. However, the start of the preseason will also give Riot the chance to tackle some of the more problematic keystone runes – like Conqueror and Kleptomancy – as well as some smaller runes.

We’ll be taking a look at each of these upcoming rune changes to break down what they mean, which champions that currently use them that this could help or hurt, and what new changes might be using the runes that don’t already. This is all pure theory crafting and speculation so if you have your own opinion feel free to let us know in the comments!

Conquerer

Conquerer has been a problem since it was introduced, essentially crowding out tanks from the top lane since bruisers like Jax and Renekton can stack it up quite quickly to get the true damage. Personally, I think they should have just removed the heal and maybe added one extra auto to proc the damage, but it seems Riot is just going to rework the rune completely.

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Now, basic attacks and spells will grant stacks of Conqueror, granting adaptive force per stacks and when fully stacked you heal for 15% of the damage dealt. Ranged champions will gain fewer stacks (thank God) but the true damage aspect has been removed.

Who this helps: Tanks, who no longer have to deal with the true damage cutting through their resistances.

Who this hurts: The bruisers who loved taking the rune to basically auto-win split pushing against tanks like Jax and Renekton.

Who might start taking it: I could see early game lane bullies who can take advantage of the stacking like Tryndamere and Aatrox (who already took it) leaning into this rune more heavily. The healing is minuscule but it is probably better for those early game 1v1s (especially the stacks of adaptive force when opponents don’t have as many resistances). ADCs are probably not taking it unless they’re going full attack speed and it ends up healing more than Fleet Footwork.

Aftershock

There’s been a lot of questions about whether Aftershock should be geared towards just tanks or if there’s a place for high-cc mages like Ryze and Lissandra to take them. Well, Riot seems to be steering away from the latter with this change.

The armor and MR buffs that you get when Aftershock gets procced are going up (and scale with your armor and MR items). Additionally, the damage will now be based on your bonus health rather than maximum health, meaning tanks will likely get more damage out of this than even HP-stacking mages.

Who this helps: Tanks, for sure, as they’re getting more damage and the bonuses from this scale better into the late game.

Who this hurts: As I said, the squishier mages who aren’t getting as much out of those bonuses unless they forgo damage and choose to stack resistances and HP.

Who might start taking it: I don’t think anyone new is going to look to take this, it’s just going to be better on tanks and worse on mages who already use it.

Omnistone (replacing Kleptomancy)

Klepto has made champions like Ezreal and Gangplank nightmares to balance, so instead of reworking it Riot has elected to completely replace it. The new keystone, Omnistone, will periodically grant another single use of a random keystone. After 40 seconds of not using a keystone, Omnistone will re-roll after exiting combat.

If there is one thing I have learned in my time playing an analyzing League of Legends, it’s that uncontrolled random mechanics will be avoided whenever possible. The fact that players can be stuck with a random, worthless keystone for up to 40 seconds makes this too risky to taken when players can go for another keystone more consistently. I doubt anyone uses Omnistone and I really wish Riot had just done some more reworks to Kleptomancy (for my two cents, I’d have removed the item drop and instead said something like every attack on a champion grants 1-5 gold or something like that).

Who this helps: I can’t imagine anyone taking this keystone, so no one directly. However, it helps whoever got crowded out by existing Klepto keystone users.

Who this hurts: Gangplank, Ezreal, Illaoi, Kayle, and all the other champions who leaned on Kleptomancy.

Who might start taking it: Streamers who are having a laugh and people who don’t understand the game. Unless this is super busted somehow, I don’t see anyone wanting to take this keyword.