I wanted to write just a brief explanation about the difference choices for runes in mid lane, but as I started to do the math I got really discouraged. Because champions scale throughout the game 18 different times it makes it very difficult to compare the early game advantage of some runes vs the late game advantage of others. That being said I’m going to do my best to give an unbiased opinion. Also note that I’m a traditional mid player and most of the calculations will be for Ability Power champions.
A very popular choice that is used by professional AP players like scarra, Crs Nyjacky, C9 Hai, and Link is flat Ability Power quintessences. Some of these players have knowledge from this game that rivals the dinosaurs. Yes, I’m looking at you, scarra. His account was almost in the first 10,000 people to register and it seems like he’s been playing ever since. However young or old these players are they all bring experience. They have also all chosen to run flat Ability Power quints.
Another valid option for mid laners are movement speed quints. Movespeed quints are popular on champions that need to close the gap for effectiveness. They are also rather prevalent on champions that don’t scale with AP as well (Ryze) and champions that don’t benefit greatly from armor penetration (Katarina). They are sometimes used on niche champions that roam more often (Kassadin, Twisted Fate), but are not limited to those champions. Again, members of the same list mentioned above are found to be using movespeed quints on some of their AP mids to accommodatethe need to close the gap.
Another less main-stream option that I just used 6150 IP on is the idea of Spell Vamp quints. There are many AP mids that these runes don’t quite work for. Also, the fact that Spell Vamp is reduced to one-third effectiveness with AoE and DoT spells is another turn off, but let’s take a look at a champion that suffers from these drawbacks and see if they still work.
I’m going to use Lux as my example because when I checked lolking she was the most popular AP mid. Because all of Lux’s spells hit multiple targets they ALL suffer from the reduced effectiveness of Spell Vamp. Assuming level 18 vs level 18. I also assumed scaling Magic Resist blues/glyphs. I could assume no Magic Resist runes, but because Lux doesn’t have scaling MR, she would be as squishy level one as she would be at the end of the game (no items). However, the effectiveness of both Ability Power and Spell Vamp are determined by Magic Resist, so we can use a formula to solve our problems. In other words, if a person buys MR, both flat AP quints and Spell Vamp quints become less effective, so MR doesn’t benefit the argument in any way. The reason I used scaling MR quints is because it also lines up nicely with a target like Leona who gets free MR like other melee champions do. Level 18 Lux with scaling MR blues has 54.3 MR. Leona, at level 18 with no bonus from runes has 52.5. I’m not going to worry about masteries, let’s just move on, shall we?
At level 18 if Lux hits Lux with a full combo (passive not included) she deals 648 damage if the enemy Lux has scaling MR blues. Let’s tack on flat AP quints and she deals 667.8 damage. 19.8 damage never felt so gratifying. If she would have been using Spell Vamp quints instead she would have healed for 12.96 life instead of dealing 19.8 bonus damage. That is remarkably close considering Lux only has three damaging spells and they all have reduced effectiveness! She is essentially only getting 2% Spell Vamp, rather than the full 6%! Because of the reduced effectiveness it would be safe to say that Lux probably shouldn’t run Spell Vamp quints.
Some people play Lux in such a safe and effective way that the healing would not be considered wasted in the laning phase. If Lux is able to clear waves and Wraiths and essentially heal up off of that damage then it very quickly becomes worth it. In the example I gave, Lux was only hitting a single target. As soon as you account for her Lucent Singularity or giant laser of death hitting multiple targets the healing would immediately amplify. Granted, damage calculations from running flat AP quints and hitting multiple targets could also be taken into consideration.
Originally I bought Spell Vamp quints to use with LeBlanc, so let’s take a look at her damage as she has a few spells that can benefit from the single-target effectiveness.
LeBlanc lacks the defensive spell that Lux has, and therefore has an AP ratio of 3.7 as opposed to the 2.05 ratio of Lux. One of those ratios drops in its effectiveness because it is an AoE ability, but the rest maintain their values.
At level 18 if LeBlanc hits LeBlanc with a full combo she deals 930 damage if the enemy LeBlanc has scaling MR blues. Adding damage from flat AP quints takes the burst up to 965.6, adding 35.6 damage. Granted, that damage is added as soon as LeBlanc hits level six, whereas the other damage comes from base damages and being level 18. If LeBlanc had Spell Vamp quints instead of flat AP quints she would actually heal for 49.4 health.
Another interesting note is that the flat AP would actually lose value as the game progressed as most melee champs gain MR throughout the game, and many champions run scaling MR blues. The small difference those runes give to the MR stat may be ignored by some, but they are a difference of over 160 damage before AP is factored in.
Flat AP quints have the potential to help you finish off your lane opponent early in the game, but fall off in the late game. Depending on the champion you are playing Spell Vamp quints could potentially be more beneficial.
