League of Legends: Five overpowered Prototype: Omnistone champions

Preseason is here and League of Legends has never looked so different! Patch 9.23 brought a tonne of changes and one new rune that could be overpowered on certain champions – Prototype: Omnistone.

Gone are the days of ranged top laners being unstoppable against melee champions. Gone are the days of Ezreal having a keystone. Gone are the days of Kleptomancy. Its replacement? Prototype: Omnistone, a rune that allows you to rotate through almost every keystone rune in the game on a ridiculously small 8-4 second cooldown, making it one of the most unique runes League of Legends has ever seen.

Usually, keystones are selected to give you an edge over your opponent by enhancing an area of your kit that’s already strong, particularly in lane where it can be used to temporarily increase offensive or defensive stats to win trades and potentially build a gold lead.

Prototype: Omnistone is the complete opposite in the sense that you do not select it, and in some cases, your important stats aren’t affected by the keystone whatsoever.

That begs the question, isn’t Omnistone a useless keystone with such a strong RNG element? Well, yes and no.

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Yes, because you could be left without a keystone for a good portion of the game if it’s difficult to proc and you’re on a champion unsuited to that rune. No, because with such a short cooldown (8-4 seconds for melee champions, 12-8 seconds for ranged champions), you can actually use your keystone much more frequently than a more standard keystone user.

For example, Electrocute has a 20-25 second cooldown depending on level, meaning that at level 1 you can proc Omnistone three times as often as your opponent can proc Electrocute. Obviously, the effectiveness of this depends on how well your champion can utilize the random keystones, but with only needing 1/3 random keystones to be useful for Omnistone to be as strong as Electrocute, it’s worth the risk, right?

Ultimately, in order for your champion to almost perfectly utilize the new keystone, they need to profit from Adaptive Force, Attack Speed, and bonus tank stats. Keystones like Conqueror, Press the Attack, Electrocute, and Dark Harvest are pretty versatile when it comes to champions that want to do damage, but more niche runes, such as Lethal Tempo, Hail of Blades, and Phase Rush require certain champions to be utilized correctly.

Ideally, your champion can use three abilities (or two abilities and an auto-attack) in quick succession to proc Phase Rush and Electrocute. It’s also necessary that your champion of choice can dictate the laning phase and start trades whenever it suits them to make use of strong keystones. Either pick a champion with easy crowd control or no crowd control at all to avoid/use Aftershock. And finally, a ranged champion is a great option to frequently proc the likes of Fleet Footwork, Press the Attack, and Hail of Blades.

Following these criteria, we’ve picked out five champions (one from each role) that could make use of Prototype: Omnistone and potentially be overpowered if in the right hands. For the time being, we can accept that the new keystone is an extremely situational option, but if you’re struggling to choose a primary rune in champion select and you’ve locked in one of these five champions, why not pick it up!

Top Lane: Volibear

Although you often see him picked in the jungle role, Volibear is also an adept top laner due to his powerful gank set-up, excellent trade potential, and ability to run down enemy carries in team fights. At present, Voli players like to take either Aftershock, Conqueror, or Press the Attack depending on the match-up, but why not skip all the indecision and pick up Omnistone instead!

Looking down the list of available keystones will immediately tell you that Volibear is absolutely fine with all but one – Glacial Augment. The most notable keystones that could be the difference between winning and losing the lane are Conqueror and Hail of Blades and how he uses them to win a trade and push for a gold lead.

On top of that, options like Aftershock and Predator provide a different approach to Voli that allow him to start a fight with tanky stats or quickly roam to mid for a sneaky gank. The opportunities provided by Prototype: Omnistone on Voli are endless, as long as you dispose of Summon Aery and Arcane Comet as soon as possible.

Jungle: Udyr

Udyr is extremely similar to Volibear in the fact that he can be played both top and jungle, set up ganks, and run down enemy carries. Add that to the fact that he has consistent crowd control and plenty of trading power, and they’re basically identical champions.

In this case, you’ll be playing in the jungle, so making use of keystones is much more difficult. However, provided you path around your keystones, using the most powerful ones to hunt the enemy jungler, and farming while stuck with weaker options, you’re all set.

The biggest improvement for junglers that comes from Omnistone is the ability to have Predator in your arsenal, while still being open to other keystones. Farm up, buy your boots, then wait until the time has come to surprise the enemy team with a Predator gank that they will have never prepared for as it’s not visible on the scoreboard.

Mid Lane: Neeko

Arguably the most suitable candidate on this list, Neeko’s ability to build a variety of different ways makes her perfect for Prototype: Omnistone on Patch 9.23.

If we go back to the initial checklist, it’s clear that Neeko has nailed them all. Easy access to two abilities and an auto-attack, check. Ability to start trades, check. Crowd control, check. Ranged, check.

That’s pretty much all you need to know about Neeko. Head into solo queue, lock her in, grab your Omnistone, and wreak havoc with every single option provided with the latest addition to the Inspiration rune tree.

AD Carry: Quinn

Slightly pushing the boundaries of “AD Carry” here, but Quinn has been played in this position plenty of times before. In a similar sense to Neeko, Quinn ticks all the boxes on the Omnistone checklist and can take full advantage of the new keystone both in lane and in the later stages of the game.

Start off a trade with Aftershock, then follow it up with huge damage provided by one of the many damage-oriented options in the keystone rotation. Top it all off by pressing R, activating Predator, and flying (literally) to the mid lane for a roam that will certainly catch the enemy by surprise.

Support: Poppy

Once again, slightly pushing the boundaries of champions and roles, but Poppy is definitely viable in the support position. Not only that, but Omnistone on this champion is also definitely viable. However it’s probably better suited to her top/jungle variant, but we can adjust for support.

Poppy is activated the moment her lane opponent steps too close to terrain. Press E to proc Aftershock, or if you don’t have that keystone up yet, use the likes of Hail of Blades and Electrocute to apply huge damage over a short space of time. Aery, Comet, and Glacial Augment are difficult to proc, but as long as you’re making use of the other choices, it shouldn’t matter too much.

And like with all the champions on this list, your eyes will light up when Predator pops up next to your health bar. Disappear into fog of war, partner up with your jungler, activate your boots and pick up free kills. It really is that simple!

What do you make of the new keystone? Is it overpowered on certain champions? Let us know which champions you think make the best use of Prototype: Omnistone in the comments!