New League of Legends Runes Series: A Guide to Sorcery

Our Runes Series will be covering each of the five major trees, looking at the different runes within each and discussing how they will be best used. Our experts will be analyzing which champions, items, and mentalities will likely be most effective in using each one. If you’re looking for another tree, here are Precision, Domination, Resolve, and Inspiration. 

Sorcery: Empower your abilities, end your mana hunger

Ah, the Sorcery tree – this will be the likely choice of spellcasters and mages that want to improve their ability to blow stuff up. Basically any champ that wants to empower and enhance and their abilities, or enrich their resources will find these choices appealing. The tree also provides a bit of utility in terms of shielding, movement speed, and shielding.

Keystone

Summon Aery 

• Aery works very similarly to Pix from Lulu’s E, offering defensive and offensive versatility.
• It’s a great choice for this is good for more supportive mages such as Karma and Lulu.

Arcane Comet

• Arcane Comet seamlessly fits into any champ’s spell rotation that involves some form of CC.
• Champs that have stuns or snares like Syndra, Anivia, Annie, and Lux are smart pairings.

Phase Rush

• Phase Rush will be an awesome tool for champs that lack mobility but have consistent damage.
• It will also have its use in providing more options for assassins who need an escape after a kill.
• The additional movement speed will empower and expand the capabilities of champions like Ryze, Talon, and Twisted Fate.

Artifact

Nullifying Orb

• The orb will be a good situational choice when looking to survive against mid AP assassins and burst mages.
• The survivability it provides can give you that extra bit of clutch that can help you come out on top of an all-in.
• Talon is the prototypical choice for a champion that will greatly benefit from taking Nullifying Orb.

Manaflow Band

• Life will become much easier for poke champs or mid mages with pre-6 mana problems if they opt for the Manaflow Band.
• The rune will open up more opportunities since you’ll have more resources to consider.
• Expect to see champions like Cassio, Anivia, and Xerath wearing the band.

The Ultimate Hat

• Do you love playing champions with global impact ultimates or champions rely on using their ultimate often? This is the rune choice for you.
• The hat will give champs like Twisted Fate and Ryze more map presence and will give champs like Orianna more chances to use their game-changing ultimates.

Excellence

Transcendence

• Mages that like to stack CDR quickly will be looking to transcend and increase their ability spam.
• This has excellent synergy with The Ultimate Hat.
• Logical choices included champs like Twisted Fate and Vladimir.

Celerity

• Celerity will amp your movement speed while boosting your damage.
• It’s perfect for champs that are going Phase Rush but do not require early CDR.
• Champions like Talon and Cassiopeia will be rocking new Celerity running shoes (yes, I know that Cass can’t wear shoes).

Absolute Focus

• Mages that like stay far away from the frontlines and poke can upgrade their artillery with Absolute Focus.
• Look out for champs like Xerath and Ziggs raining pain down from the skies.

Power

Scorch

• Poke champions that want to add extra bite to their abilities will likely grab scorch.
• Xerath and Ziggs are obvious choices here.

Waterwalking

• Want to roam or skirmish often? Give your Talon, Twisted Fate, or another similar champ the ability to walk on water.

Gathering Storm

• Scaling mages will love this, especially ones with good AP ratios like Veigar and Orianna.

Secondary Trees

Sorcery + any path = +15 attack damage or +25 ability damage (adaptive)

Precision

• Precision will be used as a secondary tree by assassins and burst champs who want a little more scaling damage and utility.

Domination

• This will be the most common secondary for mages looking to use Phase Rush and deal as much damage as possible

Resolve

• This will be very situational but would be best used on Supports who want to take Summon Aery and also want to be tanky.
• Tanky champions looking to abuse synergy with Phase Rush may also opt for this.

Inspiration

• Inspiration provides potent utility for shielding Supports and mages.
• We expect to see Summon Aery in combination with the diverse range of situational bonuses inspiration gives.

Thanks for reading! Our next Rune Series article will be on Resolve so stay tuned. For more discussion or questions for our coaches about Sorcery, drop by our Discord. To learn more about the other trees, check out Precision, Domination, Resolve, and Inspiration.