Wild Rift Rune explainer: The best Keystones and Runes for your Champions

With the arrival of League of Legends: Wild Rift around (most, sorry Americas...) of the world yesterday, many new and veteran LoL players are wondering how to best arm their different champions, before each showdown on the Rift.

One of the most essential things is the concept of Runes, brought directly from the PC version, Runes give champions extra bonuses within the game, either as additional statistics or specific improvements for certain types of champions.

If you wondering what the best options to choose from are and what each one of these grants, we have you covered since in this guide we will explain everything about the Runes available in League of Legends: Wild Rift.

Runes: Origin and Purpose

(Picture: Riot Games)

Runes are something that has existed within League of Legends since its launch more than 10 years ago, although they have undergone many transformations as the game has evolved.

Their main goal is simple: strengthen and add additional power to a champion's skill set. A perfect combination of runes can help you master the early game, as well as provide boosted stats for the mid and late game.

Now, as you can see in the previous image, some of the Runes have different sizes, those in the first row. This is because within the game, whether on the PC or mobile version, there are two types of runes, which we will explain below.

Keystone Runes

(Picture: Riot Games)

This is the most powerful set of Runes, players can only choose one of these, being the most important piece of a champion's composition, in addition to fully affecting the minor runes that you choose after this one.

These runes are usually tied to the champion classes you want to play, as they provide various bonuses in terms of damage, protection, versatility, and more. We will describe the effects of each of these below:

• Electrocute: If your champion hits the enemy with three different attacks or abilities in less than three seconds, the targeted enemy will take bonus damage.
• Aery: By using attacks or abilities, your champion will send Aery to a target with which it damages enemies or protects allies.
• Conqueror: Your champion's attacks and abilities generate stacks. Each stack grants bonus attack damage or ability power.
• Fleet Footwork: By using basic attacks or abilities, you accumulate energy points. By accumulating 100 points, your next attack will heal you and increase your movement speed.
• Grasp of the Undying: After taking damage in combat for four seconds, you will regain a percentage of life.
• Aftershock: Immobilizing an enemy will grant additional armour and magic resistance for a set time. In addition, it generates an explosive effect that damages nearby enemies.
• Font of Life: Damaging an enemy with attacks that slow or immobilize them will mark them for 4 seconds. Allies that attack the marked enemy will regain health.
• Kleptomancy: After using an ability, your next ability or basic attack against an enemy champion will grant you a random item effect.

Best Keystone Runes according to the Champions classes

(Picture: Riot Games)

As we mentioned, each Keystone Rune is specifically tailored for a certain fighting style or certain champion classes, as its benefits are better suited for some than for others

• Read more: League of Legends: Wild Rift Tier List - The best Champions by role and class

With this in mind, these are the best Keystone Rune options:

• Electrocute: Mages and Assassins, frequently used on champions such as Ahri, Akali, Zed, and Annie.
• Aery: Supports, mainly those with poke attacks. Used on champions like Seraphina, Soraka, Nami, and Janna.
• Conqueror: The most versatile rune, being used by many classes of champions, from Fighters, through to Tanks, and Marksmen. Used frequently with Camille, Garen, Ezreal, and Master Yi.
• Fleet Footwork: A rune made almost exclusively for Marksman, including Jhin, Jinx, Miss Fortune, and Vayne.
• Grasp of the Undying: One of the best Keystone Runes for Fighting or Tank champions with a lot of harassment, being selected primarily in Dr Mundo, Malphite and Nasus.
• Aftershock: Very rarely used, but works great on some Support champions like Blitzcrank and Alistar.
• Font of Life: Made for Supports with immobilization or slow abilities, standing out among these - Braum.
• Kleptomancy: The least used rune, due to its low stat benefits within the game. However, it can be beneficial for some Marksmen.

Minor Runes

In addition to the Keystone Runes, there are other types of runes which grant certain benefits during the course of the game, divided into three classes or Rune Trees, they are:

Domination Runes

(Picture: Riot Games)

Focused on physical and magical damage, bonus health, and vampirism.

• Brutal: Grants 7 bonus attack damage and 2% armour penetration, or 14 bonus ability power and 2% magic penetration (adaptive based on the champion).
• Gathering Storm: Every 2 minutes you gain 2 bonus attack damage, or 4 bonus ability power (adaptive based on the champion).
• Hunter - Vampirism: Grants 2% physical or magical vampirism. Unique champion takedowns grant 2 Attack Damage with 1% Physical Vampirism or 4 Ability Power with 1% additional MagicVampirism (adaptive).
• Triumph: Champion takedowns restore 10% of missing health. Allows you to deal an additional 3% damage to enemies below 35% health.
• Weakness: Slowing or immobilizing an enemy champion marks them for 5 seconds. As long as it's marked, it takes 5% more damage.
• Champion: You get 10% damage against champion champions, however, you will lose 5% life each time you eliminate one.

Resolve Runes

(Picture: Riot Games)

Focused on physical or magical defence, durability and survivability.

• Backbone: Gain 10 armour or magic resistance, whichever is lower.
• Conditioning: Gain an additional 8 armour and magic resistance after 5 minutes of match time.
• Hunter - Titan: Grants 20 extra hit points. Each unique knockdown grants an additional 20 Life Points and 4% Tenacity.
• Regeneration: Every 3 seconds, you regenerate 2% of missing health or mana, whichever is less.
• Loyalty: You and your closest ally gain 2 armour and 5 bonus magic resistance.
  Spirit Walker: Gain 50 bonus health and 20% resistance to slows.

Inspiration Runes

(Picture: Riot Games)

Focused on healing, mana, and utility tools.

• Pathfinder: Gain 8% movement speed in brush, jungle, and river, when out of combat.
• Mastermind: Deal an additional 10% true damage to epic monsters and turrets. You also get 100 extra gold and 500 XP, by eliminating or helping to eliminate the objectives mentioned above.
• Hunter - Genius: Gain 2.5% cooldown reduction. Unique champion takedowns grant an additional 1.5% cooldown reduction.
• Sweet Tooth: Increases Honeyfruit's healing by 25%. Each fruit also provides 20 gold.
• Pack Hunter: When near an ally champion, you gain 2% movement speed. For every unique ally champion you participate in a takedown with, you and your ally will earn 50 gold.
• Manaflow Band: Damaging an enemy champion with an ability or empowered attack permanently increases your mana by 30, up to a maximum of an additional 300.

As you could see, each of these runes, whether the Keystone or Minors, have unique and exceptional characteristics, for which you must know well what it can bring to your preferred champions, and so when the time comes you are better prepared to use them to their full potential.