League of Legends (LoL) Question: Flat CDR blues vs Scaling CDR blues

Posted in Runes 21,553

Flat CDR blues vs Scaling CDR blues

Asked by utopus on April 8, 2014

Recently, i've read a lot of guides hyping out about changes to their rune page. For those who don't know, people have generally been switching up their rune pages from something along the lines of 9 Magic resist glyphs to something like 6 flat CDR glyphs, and 3 MR glyphs.

I was wondering why people want to use FLAT CDR glyphs, instead of scaling CDR glyphs. CDR usually doesn't help a heck of a lot during the early levels, when champions don't have all of their abilities yet, and the cooldowns on their spells are still really long. Scaling CDR beats flat CDR after level 6, and at that point, the CDR could help a lot with extended fights/exchanges

Answers (3)

(531) |

I was using the 6-3 setup before the 4.5 patch hit. The idea is to get 10% from those Runes + . Then with an item such as you get 30% and then Blue buff or will make you hit the cap.

When switching to Scaling CDR you've got the following options:

Use 9 Scaling instead of 6-3 Setup.
Easy enough. I use this setup on mage-like supports such as Nami or Karma. Well I actually play Vel'Koz but you get the point. The idea is that you only need one 20% CDR item and you'll hit the cap at level 18. In mid-lane this isn't exactly useful as you will be using Blue buff most of the time and there's also items like Twin Shadows which would put you over the cap. Considering Athene's is the first item for most mages, you'd be crossing the cap quite soon.
Use 6 Scaling instead of 6 Flat.
I guess that works. However you'd end up late-game either breaking the cap by at least 5% or you'd be at 35% CDR. Almost no one uses Ionian Boots of Lucidity so the 15% is really tough to work with as you almost always will be wasting stats. On top of that, you'd be having a slightly weaker early-game.
Use 3 Scaling instead of 6 Flat.
Works but consider the fact that it will take 3 times as much levels to break even which is generally not worth it.

However, the Quints got changed as well, which means we have some various options now:

The classic 6-3 Setup.
1 CDR Quint and 3 CDR Glyphs. Fill the other Glyphs with either Mres or AP/lvl.
A setup I like for farm-oriented laners such as Ziggs. You don't sacrifice as much late-game scaling but you also don't sacrifice as much early-game damage.
2 CDR Quints and 1 Mres Quint. AP/lvl Glyphs.
For the ap mids who have a great late-game but can't do much during the early-game such as Nidalee. This Quint setup is essentially identical to the aforementioned 6-3 setup but we're using Quints now because the AP/lvl Quints suck the - metaphorical - D.

Now this is pretty much mid-lane only, mostly because I'm a mid-laner. However you should be able to extrapolate this to support and the non-mage champions. Some AD caster esque champions in the jungle should be able to use most setups given although you'd generally opt for the 6-3 setup as that contributes to the early clear time. For supports, that is, the mage ones, I really like the Scaling CDR setup but for the tanks I would just get Magic Resist, be it Scaling, Flat or a mix (I use 6 Scaling, 3 Flat).

(1495) |

Oh, I thought they went through with that nerf. I guess it was just the mobility boots change that went through.

(531) |

I dunno what you are talking about Psi, they still give 15% CDR, I checked in-game while I read your post.

(218) |

Wait, doesn't?

(1495) |

#thanksmobafiredatabase

(1495) |

If I understand your point correctly, I should note that don't give 15% CDR anymore.

(531) |

New does. Now builds out of and .

(24) |

Quoted:

items like which would put you over the cap.

does not, as far as I know give CDR

IMO, just do not use CDR glyphs on mages in patch 6.9.
For AD manaless champions, using 1x CDR quints + 9x CDR glyphs is good.

(1495) |

Scaling CDR overtakes flat CDR at level 9, not level 6. Plenty of games are decided before that point. This also means that, unlike many scaling runes, scaling CDR only gives double the flat value at level 18 instead of triple the flat value.