What are the pros and cons of flat vs. scaling runes?

Question

With 80+ champions and more being added, and endless build possibilities, I know it's unrealistic to ask "which one of these is better" because there is no right answer. I assume that one is not flat out better than the other for all situations, otherwise there wouldn't be an option for both.

However, as someone new to the game, I'm unsure when I would want to use a flat rune over a scaling rune or vice versa. To that end, I am wondering the following:

There are several different runes that give either a flat bonus or a scaling bonus. For example, when looking at Tier 1 Marks, I see I have 2 options for AP runes:

• Mark of Potency: 0.47 ability power.

or

• Mark of Force: +0.08 ability power per level (1.44 at champion level 18)

So, a few questions. If these are too unwieldy to be answered in a single question, please let me know. I assumed that these are appropriate under the broader heading of my title, but if they would work better as separate questions, I'll split as needed.

1. Under what circumstances or with what build goals are flat runes preferable to scaling runes and vice versa? Why?
2. Do these circumstances change based on what Tier of runes you are working with (1, 2, or 3)?
3. Am I wrong about there not being a type that is better than the other at certain levels? Are there runes which are, by general community consensus, clearly better or worse than their flat or scaling counterparts (i.e. scaling mana regen at Tier 3 being clearly better than flat mana regen at Tier 3)?

Answer

This applies only to classic gameplay, I haven't played enough Dominion to give advice on it.

In short, go with flat runes if you will have a significantly stronger laning presence because of them. Although per-level runes outpace flat runes around level 13 (sometimes even earlier), the strong early game presence provided by flat runes can out-value the late game presence provided by per-levels.

To answer your questions more directly:

1. Certain champions that have high stat scaling or activated abilities use flat runes to significantly empower them early game. Some examples:

   • Akali's Twin Disciples passive provides 10% spell vamp and 10% bonus magic damage when she has a bonus of 10 attack damage and 20 ability power, respectively. Having this at level 1 is very appealing, and this is what pro Akali players tend to do, including the top Akali Westrice.

   • Champions with 1:1 ability power to damage ratios on their abilities (Sion, Amumu, etc.) can turn an early game 50 ability power directly into 50 damage, which is scary for early levels when you have from 400-600 health as a squishy champions. You will have to be weary of taking damage from them and this will badly hurt your early game.

2. You should never buy less than Tier 3 runes. Tier 1 and 2 runes provide small bonuses and may be responsible for at most 3-5 of your low level wins, but once you hit level 20 you'll be glad you saved your hard earned IP for Tier 3 runes. Runes cannot be bought with RP so you'll be forced to grind for them, which I've been doing for the last 200 games and I'm still not finished. You will still win plenty of games without a rune page before level 20, speaking from personal experience.

3. There is always a certain level at which per-level runes outpace flat runes. That level is usually around 13, but as stated in this answer some outpace at level 6. Almost all of the time you need to measure the utility you get out of your runes by yourself, because their value is largely based on your skill and style. The three exceptions I know are that flat Armor, flat Magic Resist, and flat Mana Regen are far more valuable than per-levels because of how important those stats are early game. Early game farming and presence is very important, which you will learn with time and I won't cover here.

Referring to playstyle:

In terms of offense, flat runes are really worth it if you can use them to force enemy champions out of their lane and zone them early game. For example, if those flat runes get you 20 more creeps and 1 more kill than your opponent, you have a ~1000 gold advantage that more than makes up for the stats lost by taking flat runes over per-levels.

In terms of defense, I always use flat runes to counteract the power of others who do so. If your opponent happens to use a strong combo of flat runes on a champion in most cases you will be crushed in lane (read my answer to #1). By starting with flat runes like Armor yellows and Magic Resist blues I get a whopping +13 Armor and +13 Magic Resist. Health quintessences are also recommended. They mean you can basically ignore enemy champion harassment for the first 5 levels and farm as you please. There is nothing more discouraging to your enemies then when their all-in flat rune strategies fail miserably.

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