Which runes are used most?
Patch 4.17
Picture this:
- I think I'll try a new marksman today.
- What runes should I use?
- probuilds.net
- ...
- Why does every rune page have flat ad marks?
There are a lot of different runes in the game.
But looking at the pages of the best players, I felt like there wasn't much variety. So, I confirmed this suspicion this week (with data science). I downloaded every game played on patch 4.17 by every player currently in challenger, and every player currently in my Silver I-V. This amounts to thousands and thousands of matches played by hundreds of players.
I tallied up how many times each rune was used by players in each league and made Casey Kasem style top-40 charts. Each chart lists every rune used by a challenger player in a ranked solo queue match on patch 4.17. They're ordered by how frequently each rune is used by challenger-level players. The popularity in silver league is also listed, so we can compare the use of runes between the leagues.
Here's the table for marks:
 |  | Diff | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | - | Greater Mark of Attack Damage +0.95 attack damage | |
| 2 | 2 | - | Greater Mark of Magic Penetration +0.87 magic penetration | |
| 11 | 3 | +8 | Greater Mark of Hybrid Penetration +0.9 Armor Penetration / +0.62 Magic Penetration | |
| 6 | 4 | +2 | Greater Mark of Armor Penetration +1.28 armor penetration | |
| 4 | 5 | -1 | Greater Mark of Armor +0.91 armor | |
| 3 | 6 | -3 | Greater Mark of Attack Speed +1.7% attack speed | |
| 9 | 7 | +2 | Greater Mark of Critical Chance +0.93% critical chance |
There are two easy observations to make here. First, there is almost no diversity in mark usage among challenger-level players. There are many more marks than this available, but only these ones are in use at the highest levels of solo queue. Second, challenger level players make more use of the hybrid penetration marks. These are relatively new, there may be many silver players that don't even know they exist.
Here's the table for seals:
| | Diff | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | - | Greater Seal of Armor +1 armor | |
| 5 | 2 | +3 | Greater Seal of Health +8 health | |
| 10 | 3 | +7 | Greater Seal of Scaling Health +1.33 health per level (+24 at champion level 18) | |
| 8 | 4 | +4 | Greater Seal of Scaling Armor +0.16 armor per level (+3 at champion level 18) | |
| 4 | 5 | -1 | Greater Seal of Mana Regeneration +0.41 mana regen / 5 sec. | |
| 3 | 6 | -3 | Greater Seal of Attack Damage +0.43 attack damage | |
| 11 | 7 | +4 | Greater Seal of Gold +0.25 gold / 10 sec. | |
| 20 | 8 | +12 | Greater Seal of Critical Chance +0.42% critical chance | |
| 23 | 9 | +14 | Greater Seal of Health Regeneration +0.56 health regen / 5 sec. | |
| 9 | 10 | -1 | Greater Seal of Attack Speed +0.76% attack speed | |
| 21 | 11 | +10 | Greater Seal of Scaling Health Regeneration +0.11 health regen / 5 sec. per level (+1.98 at champion level 18) | |
| 19 | 12 | +7 | Greater Seal of Magic Resist +0.74 magic resist | |
| 7 | 13 | -6 | Greater Seal of Scaling Ability Power +0.1 ability power per level (+1.8 at champion level 18) |
Everyone agrees that armor seals are the best. After that, there's less agreement. Challenger players reach for crit chance, flat health, and health regen seals much more frequently than the players in my silver league.
Hilariously, the second most used seal by silver players is never used by challenger players at all. Can you guess what it is? ... It's the tier two armor seal.
lol?
Here's the table for glyphs:
| | Diff | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | - | Greater Glyph of Magic Resist +1.34 magic resist | |
| 5 | 2 | +3 | Greater Glyph of Scaling Ability Power +0.17 ability power per level (+3.06 at champion level 18) | |
| 7 | 3 | +4 | Greater Glyph of Cooldown Reduction -0.83% cooldowns | |
| 2 | 4 | -2 | Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist +0.16 magic resist per level (+3 at champion level 18) | |
| 3 | 5 | -2 | Greater Glyph of Ability Power +1.19 ability power | |
| 8 | 6 | +2 | Greater Glyph of Attack Speed +0.64% attack speed | |
| 19 | 7 | +12 | Greater Glyph of Scaling Cooldown Reduction -0.09% cooldowns per level (-1.67% at champion level 18) | |
| 10 | 8 | +2 | Greater Glyph of Mana Regeneration +0.33 mana regen / 5 sec. | |
| 18 | 9 | +9 | Greater Glyph of Mana +11.25 mana | |
| 6 | 10 | -4 | Greater Glyph of Armor +0.7 armor | |
| 14 | 11 | +3 | Greater Glyph of Magic Penetration +0.63 magic penetration | |
| 16 | 12 | +4 | Greater Glyph of Scaling Mana Regeneration +0.06 mana regen / 5 sec. per level (+1.2 at champion level 18) | |
| 23 | 13 | +10 | Greater Glyph of Critical Chance +0.28% critical chance | |
| 4 | 14 | -10 | Greater Glyph of Attack Damage +0.28 attack damage |
Again, there's agreement on flat mr being the best glyph. This table is interesting though, because there is so much more diversity in the usage of glyphs among challenger-level players. Silver players also seem to love ad glyphs, and maybe they should think twice. The question of scaling vs. flat defensive runes is an interesting one. Perhaps I'll address it in a future article.
Finally, here's the table for quintessences:
| | Diff | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | - | Greater Quintessence of Ability Power +4.95 ability power | |
| 2 | 2 | - | Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage +2.25 attack damage | |
| 6 | 3 | +3 | Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed +4.5% attack speed | |
| 4 | 4 | - | Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed +1.5% movement speed | |
| 5 | 5 | - | Greater Quintessence of Armor +4.26 armor | |
| 3 | 6 | -3 | Greater Quintessence of Life Steal +1.5% Life Steal. | |
| n/a | 7 | Greater Quintessence of Cooldown Reduction -2.5% cooldowns | ||
| 7 | 8 | -1 | Greater Quintessence of Health +26 health | |
| n/a | 9 | Greater Quintessence of Health Regeneration +2.7 health regen / 5 sec. | ||
| 21 | 10 | +11 | Greater Quintessence of Magic Penetration +2.01 magic penetration | |
| 9 | 11 | -2 | Greater Quintessence of Mana Regeneration +1.25 mana regen / 5 sec. | |
| 11 | 12 | -1 | Greater Quintessence of Gold +1 gold / 10 sec. | |
| n/a | 13 | Greater Quintessence of Mana +37.5 mana | ||
| n/a | 14 | Greater Quintessence of Sugar Rush +1.5% movement speed | ||
| 8 | 15 | -7 | Greater Quintessence of Armor Penetration +2.56 armor penetration | |
| 32 | 16 | +16 | Quintessence of the Speedy Specter +1.39% movement speed | |
| 15 | 17 | -2 | Greater Quintessence of Magic Resist +4 magic resist | |
| n/a | 18 | Razer Quintessence of Speed +1.5% movement speed | ||
| 20 | 19 | +1 | Greater Quintessence of Percent Health +1.5% increased health. | |
| 19 | 20 | -1 | Greater Quintessence of Spell Vamp +2% Spellvamp. | |
| n/a | 21 | Quintessence of the Witches Brew +4.56 ability power | ||
| 24 | 22 | +2 | Greater Quintessence of Scaling Cooldown Reduction -0.28% cooldowns per level (-5% at champion level 18) | |
| n/a | 23 | Greater Quintessence of Frosty Health +26 health |
Challenger players love their wacky quintessences, even the speedy specter which gives slightly less movement speed than the regular ms quint. There are a number of entries here that are used by challenger only. Some of these make sense, challenger players have probably been around longer in general, and so will have more access to the 'rarer' seasonal quints. Other's make less sense; that no silver players use any cdr or health regen quints looks a bit odd. This may be a coincidence of this particular dataset. There are only 200 challenger players, so it's easy to grab all their games. There are about 200 players in the same league of silver (I-V) as me. But this is obviously only a pathetic fraction of all the silver players.
I like these tables. I hope you do too. Do a pass on your rune pages, and get up on tier three. ha! Stay cool, and I'll be seeing you soon for more fun league + math here at LeagueMath.com.
No runes were harmed in the making of these tables. You all keep playing games to generate data; I'll do my part over here with the analysis and the writeups.
Peace.
