Season 8 Runes Reforged Guide

Hay guys, since they consolidated roons and mustardseeds into one big system I'm making a guide so you can make informed decisions instead of using a preset or getting burned by the error part of trial and error. Keystones have their names underlined. Runes without bolded names are ones I haven't seen in action enough to judge its impact or don't recommend taking in most circumstances.
I try to avoid citing exact numbers because rito will likely adjust those in future patches and it would be a hassle to update those.
I'll start with the greens cuz I'm the most familiar with them.

RESOLVE: the big boyz/crutch tree.
Keystones

• Grasp of the Undying - the super max HP roon. In extended combat every so often your next attack will do bonus damage based on your max HP, heal you based on your max HP, and permanently increase your max HP by 5.
  Get this for HP whores: Dr. Mundo, Tahm Kench, Sion
  
  
• Aftershock - this is actually pretty good although I haven't used it as much. You get increased resistances after STOPPing a chump's movement and creates a delayed EXPUROSHUN around you.
  Get on tanky melee guys with lots of snares/stuns, like Nautilus or Blitzcrank.
  
  "hurr durr what does that circle do" --vroop, every gayme.
  
• Guardian - when next to an ally, if one of you is hit both get shield and movespeed
  Get this for tanky supports who want to peel for their ADC, like Braum
  

First Line

• Unflinching - you get Tenacity and Slow resist after casting a summoner spell and when they're on cooldown.
  These are good stats to have on anyone, but especially frontliners who expect to get disabled.
  
  
• Demolish - lets you power strike a tower for bonus damage based on max hp. Great if you're already going the HP meister route and want to become a living siege weapon.
  
  
• Font of Life - Allies heal from hitting someone you've impaired the movement of, for that teamfight synergy.
  Get this if the other two nodes don't seem that appealing to you and you're playing someone with a movement impairing ability, obviously.
  

Second Line

• Iron Skin - gives a little bit of armor, and a little more when you get healed/shielded. Pass!
  
• Mirror Shell - gives a little bit of magic resist and a little more when healed/shielded. Pass!
  
  
• Conditioning - gives a good chunk of armor and magic resist after 10 minutes. This is really the only node you should take on a Resolve primary page, the other two just kinda suck unless you've got a ton of heals and shields on your team or you're doing some weird combo with the Kleptomancy keystone.
  

Third Line

• Overgrowth - more like OGREgrowth! Your max hp increases just from being near dying minions/monsters! It's permanent and scales infinitely. A great finisher to a Max Health raid boss page.
  
  
• Revitalize - Boosts heal/shield power, even more on low health allies. It's meh, because if you have a heal/shield you probably won't be running Resolve primary.
  
• Second Wind - Heal for a percent of missing hp after taking damage. Will need to test this out.
  

DOMINATION: the killer mans tree
Keystones

• Electrocute - 3 hit zap. the new name for dunderlords decree. Zaps a chump for extra damages after hitting them 3 times in a row. Spells, basic attacks, and even DoT ticks all count as separate hits making it very easy to activate. Like thunderlords, it's good on pretty much anyone but especially good for burst damage types like Veigar, Twisted fail, Lee Sin, etc.
  
  
• Dark Harvest - Now anyone can have half of Thresh's passive! Collect a soul to power up your next basic attack, damage increasing based on how many souls you already have. Get this on people you'd like to have half of Thresh's passive on. Get it on Thresh so his passive is multiplied by 1.5.
  
  
• Predator - Channel your boots to get a short speed boost. Haven't seen this used much and I haven't used it myself. It's probably good for junglers without reliable/strong CC? Rengar is the first that comes to mind...
  

First Line

• Cheap Shot - Deal bonus true damage against movement impaired enemies.
  You would get this on champions with movement impairing abilities, however the actual damage is so low that I don't think this node is worth taking for now.
  
  
• Taste of Blood - "I should not have licked it". Moderate cooldown heal on damaging an champion. The healing actually scales with your damage stat so this may be worth taking pending further investigation.
  
  
• Sudden Impact - Gives Armor and Magic Penetration after a dash or stealth. Great if you're playing someone with a dash or stealth move; Fiddlesticks, Twitch, Lee Sin..
  

Second Line

• Zombie Ward - Wards you kill are revived under your control. Also reanimates your own wards when they expire. Effectively multiplies the value of every ward you place.
  
  
• Ghost Poro - Put a poro in a bush for moar vision.
  
  
• Eyeball Collection - Increases AD/AP from champion and ward takedowns.
  

Third Line: The Bounty Hunter series. You get a Bounty Hunter stack for each unique champion you helped kill.

• Ravenous Hunter - Heal off ability damage, increased healing per BH stack. Good general node if Domination is your primary.
  
  
• Ingenious Hunter - Active Item ability CDR, increased per stack. Kind of trash unless you have a lot of item actives that you actually use often. Can't think of anyone who does that at the moment.
  
  
• Relentless Hunter - Out of combat movespeed, increased per stack. Meh.
  

SORCERY: the whizzard tree. helps you out with your abilities.
Keystones

• Aery - A crappier version of those cute little critters that accompany Star Guardians. Gives your next spell a numerical boost, so it does more damage or gives an ally more temporary HP.
  Get this on supporty types with shield abilities like karma, lux, lulu, morgana
  
  
• Arcane Comet - after hitting a chump with a spell, deals aoe damage around where the spell was targeted/hit. Kind of like Lewden's Echo except it can miss. Get this on people who primarily use abilities to doo the deeps, preferably with some CC on them like Xerath or Annie to reduce the chance of missing. There's no range limit so having a long range spell also synergizes with this.
  
  
• Phase Rush - 3 hit haste. Like Electrocute, but gives you move speed and slow resistance instead.
  Get this on people who have a hard time keeping up with the dashing youngsters like Dario and Nasus.
  

First line

• Nullifying Orb - it's hexdrinker, the rune. Get a magic damage shield if your hp drops below 30% due to magic damage.
  Good for tanks or not getting nuked. I recommend taking Ultimate Hat instead if the enemy team doesn't have a strong source of magic damage or it's blind pick.
  
  
• Manaflow Band - Lissandra's passive, the rune. Every so often, your next ability costs no mana and gives you some instead. This is probably the most worthless compared to its competitors on the first line. If you're having mana problems I feel bad for you son, I've got 999 mana and you've got none.
  Seriously though, don't get this, you can just buy some mana items or git gud at managing your mana(aka not spamming).
  
  
• The Ultimate Hat - my favorite node. gives extra cooldown reduction for your ultimate ability only, which increases the more you use your ult. I'd recommend taking this even if Sorcery is your secondary line.
  It benefits practically everyone, although not as much for people who can already spam their ults (kog'maw, kassawin) or get reset on takedown (dario, katarina)
  

Second Line

• Transcendence - IT'S THE BRAIN MEME! Gives CDR at level 10, and converts extra CDR to your damage stat (AD/AP). Everyone loves cooldown reduction.
  A great general use node.
  
  
• Celerity - Bonus movespeed, converts part of movespeed to damage stat. For speedsters like Hecarim and Udyr.
  
  
• Absolute Focus - Gain bonus AD/AP when above 70% health. This is pretty meh, it'll be useless in duels and is outshone by its competitors.
  

Third Line

• Scorch - Next offensive ability deals bonus magic damage after a short delay. This is in the same situation as Cheap Shot, the damage is too little to merit taking this over something else.
  
  
• Waterwalking - go a little faster and do a little more damage in the river. Why? Don't take this.
  
  
• Gathering Storm - felix's favorite node. Gives you increasing amounts of your primary damage stat(AD or AP) over time, all you gotta do is wait.
  

PRECISION: the shoot boyz tree
Keystones

• Press The Attack - 3 attack weak. basic attacking a chump three times consecutively makes them vulnerable, taking more damage from all sources for a while.
  Get this for peeps who already have attack speed.
  
  
• Lethal Tempo - Get an attack speed boost after hitting a chump. This can exceed the normal attack speed cap(Currently 2.5). Can be kind of annoying, since it will activate when you just harassed your opponent with a skillshot or something which leaves you standing there out of range uselessly with the buff on, and then be on cooldown for when you actually get in a fight.
  Good for the non-ammo based shoot boyz, as well as melee attackers like Mister Yi, Freelora, Trondomere.
  
  
• Fleet Footwork - Move and shoot to ENERGIZE your next attack, it'll heal you and give brief movespeed. Stacks with all other energized effects, including Statikk Shiv and Rapid Fire Cannon.
  Get this on shoot boyz that shoot slowly but hit hard, like Jhin, Ezreal, Jinx with Fishbones (don't actually get this on jonx tho)
  

First Line

• Overheal - Extra healing is converted into a shield. It's nice to have a little buffer against pokes and assassinations, but the max shield strength is based on your max HP, which is typically pretty low for shoot boyz...
  
  
• Triumph - heal %missing hp and get extra gold from killing a chump. Great for General Use.
  
  
• Presence of Mind - For a short time after leveling up or takedown, your abilities cost no mana. Again with the mana thing? Trash.
  

Second Line: REGEND roons. Kind of like Bounty Hunter, except you get stacks from monster and minion kills too and it caps at 10. These are all pretty boring but practical, they just give you more stats.

• Legend: Alacrity - more attack speed per stack
  
  
• Legend: Tenacity - more Tenacity per stack. I'd recommend this one in particular because I don't like being CC'd but it's really a matter of personal preference.
  
  
• Legend: Bloodline - more lifesteal per stack
  

Third Line: muh damages

• Coup de Grace - do more deeps to chumps who are low. Get this for securing those kills. General Use approves of this node.
  
  
• Cut Down - Lord Dominik's regards, the rune. do more deeps to chumps with more HP than you. As a shoot boy, that's pretty much everyone so you can't go wrong with this node.
  
  
• Last Stand - do more deeps when you're low on HP. Obviously the highest risk highest reward. Get this only if you're playing someone who thrives at low HP because they have some sort of baity survival move, like Tryndamere, Kindle, Volibear, or Tahm (why are you taking Precision on him though?)
  

INSPIRATION: the wacky tree. Currently the most useless, unless you don't care about dealing damage or getting kills at all.
"hurr chill out it's just a game bro, I play to have fun!" Yeah. These are for you.
Keystones

• Unsealed Spellbook - Summoner spell cooldowns are reduced by 25%, and you can swap them out every few minutes. Note that cooldowns are NOT reset on swap so you can't chain-cast.
  
  
• Glacial Augment- Basic attacks slow champions. Item abilities that slow become AOE. This is probably the most redundant rune in the game, and on a keystone no less. You can easily simulate this effect with Frozen Mallet, and Item Actives that slow tend to already be AOE. Do not take this on anyone ever.
  
  
• Kleptomancy - Next attack after spellcast gives gold on champ hit, with a chance of dropping a random consumable like a potion. I've always been a fan of the "money on hit" node but sadly it's really not worth having Inspiration as your primary tree just for this. IMO consumables become increasingly irrelevant after early game.
  

First Line

• Hextech Flashtraption - gives you a crappierbetter version of Flash when Flash is on cooldown. Think of all the sick playz you could make!  
  
  
• Biscuit Delivery - gives you FREE BISCUITS at regular intervals through early-mid game. The power of Biscuits is tried and true, they will not fail you. They also give you a small increase to max mana. Deliver those biscuits to General Use!
  
  
• Commencing Stopwatch - free Stopwatch, and reduces the ability cooldown of all items that build from it (Guardian Angle, Gargoyle Stoneplate, and the ever popular Zimmerman's Powerglass). This is actually really good, early game Stasis and save some gold on an item.
  

Second Line

• Magical Footwear - get free magyyk boots after 10 minutes. you can't buy boots before then, but you can expedite magyyk boot delivery by killing chumps.
  
  
• Futures Market - Take out a loan to buy items you can't currently afford. Yes, this is real, I'm still having trouble believing it myself. Haven't tried it, or seen anyone use it. Must be sleeper OP.
  
• Minion Dematerializer - get these weird things that can zap minions and increase your damage against them? yeah I have no idea.
  

Third Line

• Cosmic Insight - They didn't bother to make any flavor text for this  it gives you a little CDR for everything, and increases your CDR cap. A nice normal node for a troll tree.
  
  
• Approach Velocity - run faster to crippled people, ally and enemy. Take it if you're into that sort of thing.
  
• Celestial Body - get a flat boost to max hp in exchange for reduced damage output for 10 minutes. I mean, as long as you don't care about damage...