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Middle Runes, How to build your AP Carry ?

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Introduction

BLABLAHello everyone, welcome in my new guide !

BLABLAFirst of all, English is not my native language. Please excuse all the mistake you can find. I try to polish the guide everytime I can so if you find out mistakes, just point them out please, I'll fix them.

BLABLAI'm not writting a guide on a Champion of the League this time. I'm speaking about Runing and what it means. This guide is meant to make you able to choose your runes alone, accordingly to different relevant factors. I will explain what Runes can be taken Middle Lane as an AP Carry.

BLABLAThe main reason that brought me here is because I figured out that a lot of people just copy/paste the runes they see in a high LKS rated guide. It's not the right behaviour in my opinion and I'll try to explain why.

BLABLAI'm currently Gold I and my main role is to be the Middle AP Carry. Consequently I believe that my League of Legends experience can help other people building up their own rune page.

BLABLAEither you'd be a new or experienced player I trully believe this guide can help you to have a new vision over all the runing process and how runing actually works.

BLABLAI give some Middle AP Carry advices but there's a lot of generic stuff that can be applied to any lane, so even if you don't play AP Carry you can find relevant stuff in there ;)

BLABLAYou can find a short dictionnary of the terms used among the guide.

BLABLAHave a nice read ladies and gentlemen.

What are Runes meant to be ?

Dafuq Runes are for ?

BLABLAFirst of all, I need to clarify a point : what is the goal of the Runes.
BLABLARunes have several goals :
- Make it up for a weakness your Champion has, wether it be early, middle or late game
- Amplify one or several of your Champion's strength (calling it synergizing)
- Give you an advantage over your opponent (via damages or resistances)
- Make it up for a hard match-up
- Make it up for a situation (duo-lane, jungler that won't give you blue, ad lane, you feel like the jungler's going to camp you...)
- Increase your playstyle advantages

Proper path to Runing

BLABLANo matter your Rune choice, there's a proper way to set up your Rune Page.
BLABLAYour Rune Page should not give you more than 5 different bonuses (one for each color plus one).
BLABLARight-click to quickly add/remove Rune to your Rune Setup.
BLABLAIf you play SoloQ it's good to have at least 2 Rune Pages for each Secondary role and 4 Rune Pages for your Main role.
BLABLAIf you don't have a lot of IP's, you should focus your Rune purchases on "Usual Choices" below.
BLABLAYou should not buy any Rune before level 20.
BLABLAYou should always understand why you choose a type of Rune over the others.

Rune Setup Examples

Good Rune Setup

VS
Bad Rune Setup

Good Rune Setup

VS
Bad Rune Setup

Common Ideas on Runes

BLABLAThese are general tips on what to remember when you build up your rune page.

Runing is highly Situational

Runing depends on what you expect to face on your lane. Basically a Top-Laner needs to have the Runes to face the enemy Top-Laner (AD or AP Damages), or the Bot-Lane (AD/AP or AD only Damages) or also the AP Carry (AP Damages). But the Top Laner can also be an AD Assassin, an AD or AP Bruiser or an AP/AD Tank so he needs to have both Resistance Penetration for instance.

To one Champion belongs several optimal Rune Pages

You need different set of Runes for the same (or same kind of) Champion. You may want to have two rune sets for an AP Assassin in order to play either really aggressive either more defensively versus a difficult opponent.

Runing depends on Enemy team's in-game Skills

That's why copy/pasting high Elo's Rune Pages is not effective. Understanding why he chooses his Runes is wiser. A high ELO gets Greater Glyph of Magic Resist on his Kassadin ? Maybe because he likes to play defensively when you prefer to go for the kill. A high ELO gets Greater Quintessence of Gold on his Jungler ? Because at his ELO he can't have that much successful ganks. A high ELO gets two Greater Mark of Attack Damage on his AP ? Because Farming is far more important at his level than our. I could give a lot of other example, but to be clear, just understand why someone chooses a Rune and not another. Make your Runing effective for your level.

Theorycrafting can help you knowing wether or not a Rune Set is optimal

You don't know if Greater Mark of Magic Penetration are better than Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration ? Just put down the maths on a piece of paper and check by yourself. Repeat the process for anything you want to compare. You can also check on the internet to see the maths done by less lazy people.

Runing rely on the Champion you are playing with

Runing for Vladimir or Zilean or Kassadin would be really different. If it's not, there's a problem. All of these champions have the same type of damages but can be Runed differently, Vladimir could benefit a lot from Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp when Kassadin would need Greater Quintessence of Ability Power as an AP Assassin.

Runing rely on the Champion you are laning against

Basically don't get Greater Glyph of Magic Resist if you face an AD Assassin Midlane. But remember that Greater Seal of Armor can still be useful even if you face an AP Carry mid, think about the 90 AD Xin Zhao that will jump on you with his Three Talon Strike activated. You need to think beyond the lane level, beyond the jungle Level. Why do Top Elos get Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist when they face an AD Top ? Because Magic Resist does not increase per level and really few Magic Resist items are interesting for Top Laners, so they prefer to pick these Runes to cover the lack from MR/Level in the end-game.

Runing rely on your Playstyle

If you are constantly pushing and making the enemy unable to land skill shot, why did you pick these Greater Glyph of Magic Resist for ? You would have dealt more damages with proper Greater Glyph of Ability Power set rune. On the contrary, if you find yourself being a really good mana manager you should not need Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration. Make yourself comfortable with your playstyle and choose your Runes accordingly.

Your ultimate Rune choice will come from in-game Experience

No matter the maths or other people's advices, if you like to play with Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed on Katarina or using Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp with Vladimir, just go ahead. You should never stop using a Rune Setup you were comformtable with unless it is really uneffecient.

Any Rune Page is viable if his owner can give a logical reason for his choices

Always listen to people that seem to be giving explainations for their choices. Never think that your choice is better than your friend's one before you actually tested it or did the math about it. People thought Greater Quintessence of Hybrid Penetration was a complete useless choice on Shyvana and Dr. Mundo (Season 2) before a High ELO Jungler publish his guide and put the Damage Theorycrafting with it.

The Reasons Behind the Choices

BLABLATo be clear : I recommand you to build your page depending on your own choices, not mine or anyone else's. The choices I present are not what I recommand, but what I think can be taken into consideration.

- Quintessences -

Usual Choice

Flat Ability Power

Why ?
- Increases early Trade potential, early kill capabilities alone or on a gank
- Gives early push power, push control and spell-farm capabilities

Why not ?
- Only early offensive choice

Other Choices

Flat Attack Damage

Why ?
- Take only 1 or 2 of these
- Gives easier last hits with hard Champions like
- Increases pushing potential of Champions that does not have AoE spells like or
- Increases early lane control for strong Auto Hits champions like or

Why not ?
- Absolutley no use after level 3-4
- Decreases your starting Ability Power, even if you take only one of these

Movement Speed

Why ?
- Gives important Lane Control
- Makes your side ganks easier
- Increases your survivability over the entire game
- Helps dodging skillshots

Why not ?
- Less trade potential
- Less pushing control
- Needs to be exploited (change your playstyle)

Attack Speed

Why ?
- Highly situational (, , for instance)
- Synergyze with your champion
- Increases early Auto Hit harass
- Helps eary Last Hits
- Helps farming under turret

Why not ?
- No damage bonus on quick trades (spell vs spell)
- Less damage on spells
- Auto-Hits push your lane
- Useless if no synergy with your champion

Spell Vamp

Why ?
- Highly situational (, , for instance)
- Gives you Sustain (For mana-free casters : gives unlimited amount of Sustain)
- Makes you able to survive through without
- For mana-free casters : gives unlimited amount of Sustain
- Increases tankiness through damages
- Gives a rare and expansive stat

Why not ?
- Needs to have access to enemy minions to heal (doesn't work if you are being zoned)
- No damage bonus at all
- Needs to be exploited (change your playstyle)

- Seals -

Usual Choice

Flat Armor

Why ?
- Often face an AD Caster like or
- Gives defensive stats against an enemy AP Carry's Auto Hits
- Gives defensive stats against an enemy AD Jungler

Why not ?
- Can be useless depending on the match-up
- Only useful early on

Other Choices

Scaling Ability Power

Why ?
- Increases potential of the %AP bonus from

Why not ?
- Few bonus early game

Flat Mana Regeneration

Why ?
- Helps you push, trade and harass over your laning phase

Why not ?
- Mana should not be an issue because you need to learn how to manage your mana pool
- AP Carries often build or or Catalyst the Protector what makes these Runes kinda useless

- Marks -

Usual Choice

Flat Magic Penetration

Why ?
- Magic Penetration scales with Magic Damages (obvious yo)
- Others Marks are useless for an AP Caster

Why not ?
- No reason not to take these

Other Choices

Flat Attack Damage

Why ?
- Take only few of these
- If you like to harass with Auto-hits early on
- If you have a Champion that benefits from Attack Damage in any way ('s range, 's )
- If you need few more damages for your Auto Hits (like or )

Why not ?
- Hurts your flat Magic Penetration
- Needs to be exploited (change your playstyle)
- Better get rather than Marks

- Glyphs -

Usual Choice

Scaling Ability Power

Why ?
- Scales with %AP Bonus from

Why not ?
- Weak bonuses early game

Other Choices

Flat Magic Resist

Why ?
- Highly decreases enemy's damage output early game

Why not ?
- Only useful if you face an AP Carry
- Gives you no Push Control

Flat Ability Power

Why ?
- Increases killing potential early on
- Increases pushing capabilities

Why not ?
- bypass these at level 8, right before you hit level 9 (and you max your first damage ability)
- Advantage fades off quickly versus due to the items you get between level 1 and 8

Vocabulary

Flat Rune : Opposed to "Scaling". It means a Bonus that does not increase per level.

Lane Control : The ability to farm safely, choose wether or not to trade or set up ganks easily.

Laning Phase : The "early game", time you spend farming/trading with your opponent when your two turrets are still up.

Push Control : The capability to push or be pushed easily (by killing all the minions under your turret with one or two spells).

Push Power : The capability to quickly push the minion wave under the enemy turret.

Scale with (to) : Look for "Synergizing" below.

Scaling Rune : Opposed to "Flat". It means a Bonus that increases every champion level up.

Sustain : Sustain means being able to stay on a lane for a long time, thanks to Mana and Life regeneration or LifeSteal/Spellvamp or any other form of hp/mana recovering from the Champion abilities.

Synergy, Synergizing : Two attributes going into a virtuous circle. A perfect example of synergy is Critical Strike Chance and Attack Speed, the most Attack Speed you get, the more Critical Strikes you procc in few seconds. Another simple example is Magic Penetration with Magic Damages.

Theorycrafting : The Art of using maths to compare two things to know which one of them is optimal.

Trade, Trades, Trading : Calculating Damage Received versus Damage Dealt when a fight occurs on your lane between you and your opponent.

Zoning, being Zoned : Zoning is the fact of putting so much pressure on your opponent that he is forced to stand far away from your minions. You can also zone an opponent during a teamfight by saving a CC for him ( Taric's Dazzle or Vi's Cease and Desist).

The End

BLABLAHere is the end of the guide, I hope I could help you out, at least a bit.

BLABLAFeel free to post on the guide or directly pm me if you want to point out English or Game mistakes. I'd be glad to debate with you and update my guide accordingly.

BLABLAHope to see you on the battlefield fellow summoners !