Runes Reforged: Riot To Combine League of Legends' Runes and Masteries And Make Them All Free

Let's be honest: You really want to spend your hard-earned League of Legends IP on new champions. Runes and masteries are a necessary expenditure, though it sucks to have to decide between that cool new champion or -- ooh! +1.03% critical chance! I mean, if it was only 1% I'd pass, but 1.03%? What a bargain!

Right, nobody says that. And Riot realizes that, which is why the company is planning "Runes Reforged," a major update to the game that will overhaul how runes and masteries are handled. The two will be combined into a single system that provides fewer, more focused, choices rather than a bunch of small, incremental stat changes. Keystone runes will "feel like huge choices that you can build an entire play style around," according to Senior Producer New001. Other runes will have significant, though lesser, effects.

The best news is that all those runes will be totally free, so you can use your IP on other things, such as champions. What if you've spent a ton of IP on runes and rune pages already? New001 promises there will be a plan to "take care of" those veteran players. This change will have a major effect on LoL's economy, so Riot is taking the opportunity to evaluate other parts of the game. More details on both of these compensation points will be revealed later in the year.

Runes Reforged is currently scheduled to roll out with the pre-season update in November. As always, exact details can change, and Riot is gathering player feedback on the changes before setting anything in stone.

Additionally, there's an update to the Honor System coming as well, with plans to make the system more visible by asking players to select a teammate to honor after a match. You can level up your Honor rank by being a good teammate, with greater rewards, such as key fragments and "exclusive content" for high-Honor players. This new system is coming to PvE this week, with a global release coming in Patch 7.13.