Dexterity said:
So it took you a year and a half to get around half of the roster? In a game where counter picking and lane choices are quite important? Taking almost two years to be able to choose so little of the roster isn't a good thing, I don't know why you're trying to argue that it is.
And the IP you get from level 1-20 needs to be used on runes. Quintessences cost about 1000-2000ip each, and you need 3 per rune page. Considering that on my main account I have about 5 different quintessence types for all of my champions, that's a lot of IP, much more than I could have ever gotten from playing level 1-30. Let's also not forget about the red, blue and yellow runes that you need. Again, I have about 5 different types of each one, and different combinations due to having about 10 rune pages.
Runes are designed to be an IP sink so players have a reason to spend RP on champions, they always have been and always will.
1. Counter-picking only exists in ranked, and players who really care about ranked will either play enough to buy a 6300 champ in two days or will just pay real money for them anyway. For people who just play normals, or people like me who will occasionally dip into ranked maybe once a week, then really all you need for competitive advantage/play variety is 2 or 3 champs in each lane/role, depending how you define it, that is anywhere between 10 and 25 of 117 champs. (okay, sidebar here, you need 16 champs to even be allowed to play ranked, so maybe for ranked players that number can be as high as 35)
Also, last time I posted, I didn't realize how many champs there actually were, I thought there were more than there are. By the count I just looked up, I own about 70% of champions.
2. Again, I don't know what game you're playing. I went all the way to level 30 without buying a single rune or saving up, only buying champs (I had over 30 before I hit level 30, and none of them were the 450IP ones) and sure I had a few issues at first, but it didn't take more than a week for me to have enough to be on par enough in-game. Runes are not as important as most people think. Sure, you can't jungle without good runes, but overall their stat advantage can easily be nullified with a little bit of skill and/or well bought items. The only place Runes are actually required are at the very bottom and very top tier levels of play, or in the Jungle.
3. While yes, this is true, reread point 2. Runes are and IP sink. But they also help boost aspects of play for certain people, and can provide small amounts of variety in playstyles of even the same champ between multiple people. The general idea among most people is to buy champs to level 20-25, save up for "standard" runes (Attack Speed/AP red, armor yellow, mr blue, and movement quints) that will get you roughly on par with other players once you hit 30, and really the rest is cosmetic, you get more as you play more.
Runes could be worse, you could be able to pay real money for them, making it an actual "pay to win" title.
I'm trying to figure out why you're demonizing them so much. You're using blatant over exaggeration and simplification of personal stories that don't correlate with actual data, and are presenting it as irrefutable fact. There's plenty of reasons to hate Riot; their emphasis on LoL as a sport, their inability to balance champions, not following up on promises to their most loyal supporters (early referral system users and purchasers of limited skins from the first couple of years, you know what I mean), their haughtiness and misrepresentation of where they actually are in the world as a company, the list goes on. The ONE thing that Riot does well that is held up as the golden boy that any company could, nay should, emulate, however, is their pricing model.
