League of Legends: Evaluating the Changes to Sorcery and Domination Runes
The current League of Legends season is halfway through, but that doesn’t stop Riot from making necessary changes to runes. Recently, two major changes were made to the Sorcery and Domination rune paths on the PBE. Let’s evaluate these changes and determine if they make sense and if they are strong enough in the current meta.
Do the changes make sense?
The first change is the introduction of a new minor rune called Nimbus Cloak. It replaces the Ultimate Hat rune in the Sorcery path. The second change is the addition of Ultimate Hunter in the fourth row of the Domination path. Both runes are related to each other.
Ultimate Hat is not as popular as Manaflow Band among champions in the current meta. Manaflow Band is a perfect rune for spell-slingers, which puts Ultimate Hat at a disadvantage. The replacement, Nimbus Cloak, solves this shortcoming by providing a two-second boost to movement speed after casting an ultimate ability. This rune is more useful for chasing enemies and dodging heavy damage in fights. Champions like Azir, Ekko, Hecarim, and Kai’Sa will find extreme usefulness out of this speed boost.
On the other hand, Ultimate Hunter fits in better in the Domination path. Champions that prefer aggression will benefit from this rune’s ultimate ability cooldown reduction. This change seems more natural for this path.
Are they strong?
Both Ultimate Hunter and Nimbus Cloak are strong, but not overwhelmingly so. They have clearly defined scenarios where they should be used, without being the obvious choice in every situation. Ultimate Hunter may become a problem later on if the other runes in its row lack identity and power. However, at the moment, the changes seem fair on the PBE.
Nimbus Cloak is the more balanced of the two runes. It provides a significant power boost to champions that can take advantage of it without overshadowing other options. Ability spamming mages should still prioritize Manaflow Band, but Nimbus Cloak offers a strong alternative. The only downside is Nullifying Orb, which may remain untouched by most players. Overall, the changes to these runes are expected to arrive in Patches 8.10 and 8.11.