Rune pages

I'm still a bit new with runes since I waited until I could get T3 runes to being purchasing them, so I'm still unsure of which are best to get. I know how to make my AP page, but I'm struggling with my AD page. I have a lot of friends who are lv 30 and have been for a while. They mostly all agree that I should get attack damage marks, glyphs, and quintessence while using seals of armor. Although I have others saying I should use Armor Penetration marks and quintessence.

Which is better do you all think? The armor penetration cost more, but I don't know if that means anything. Maybe a better question is, which is more important: AD or armor Pen.? Or what does armor pen. do exactly? Obviously it ignores part of the opponent's armor, but how much of it and is it dependent on how much ad you have?

the glyphs should be magic resist, and as for armor pen or attack damage on marks; either works fine but it can differ between champions, i see most people getting armor pen though
i dunno about armor pen quints, never seen someone do that or suggest it, you should probably go with staight out ad for quints though
and for how it works, i believe it basically takes out your opponent's armor, just basically that if it's flat armor pen

There are primary runes and secondary runes. Secondary runes are less effective than primary ones, and the glyph of attack damage would be a secondary rune. Reading the wikia about runes will give you a list of runes that are primary for each. When you are limited to only a small amount of runes (which is common since they can cost a lot of IP), I recommend taking these:

AD:
x9 AD marks
x9 Armor Seals
x9 Magic Resist Glyphs
x3 AD Quints

AP:
x9 Magic Pen marks
x9 Armor Seals
x9 Magic Resist Glyphs
x3 Ability Power Quints

My reasoning behind this is is this: you will encounter both physical and magical damage in each and every game no matter what, and since seals are a primary in defensive stats, we take armor seals. Glyphs are primaries in magical stuff. We magic resist because it's a primary. These runes are effective in their roles and they can be used for all rune pages you have.

Attack damage marks and quints are primaries in their respective categories. If you're going to play and AD champion, then AD runes will of course increase your power. You asked about the difference between armor pen and attack damage. The answer is simple, armor pen will allow you to deal greater damage in late game, while AD will help you more in early game. This is because there is little armor in the early game and attack damage can also help with last hitting (WHICH IS VERY IMPORTANT!).

On the AP side of things, we take magic penetration marks because in combination with Sorcerer Shoes (which most AP champions will buy for movement speed) you can deal "true damage". Also, since champions do not get a scaling magic resist like they do get scaling armor, you keep this true damage aspect for the game until the enemy team buys magic resist in items. We don't take armor penetration for AD champions since they don't have a penetration boots like AP's do. Furthermore, some AD champions you play will be bruisers who opt for Ninja Tabi or Mercury Treads. And AP champions scale with ability power so we take AP quints.

These runes are pretty useful for you starters with little IP. League of Legends have a large array of diverse champions who are definitely more optimal with different runes, but until you can accumulate enough IP, these runes are still very good for many champions.

One more note, we've been seeing a great surge of hybrid penetration marks for AP champions because they will auto attack for harass in the early game and will increase their harass damage. You may take these instead of magic penetration runes. In fact, they might be more optimal. I haven't done much research on it as the noob I am.

oh man, thank you so much D: just a few more questions that are a bit more specific to who I play. I was told Attack Speed runes might be a good idea to get for champs like Warwick and Volibear, but I'm not so sure since Voli is a great solo top laning champ and AD runes might be better since I can farm off of last hits early laning stage. Although, he is a very good champ early game especially for getting first blood, so once again, a little unsure. Warwick I think AD runes would be better since I'm jungling and hitting hard on camps early game would be more effective I'd think.

Also with Katarina, I've seen 3 different rune pages for her from people I play with(haven't looked at suggested pages from guides), one that is a generic AP page with armor and magic resist, another with straight AP runes across the board, and another with AP marks and quins, and health seals and glyphs. I was thinking the Health addition might be really good because the best way to build Kat is straight HP-AP items after her nerf. yes or no?

I don't know much about Volibear but I would think that AD marks and quints would be good on him since he does auto attack and he has a free attack speed buff on his W.

Warwick should go with attack speed marks in the jungle. Attack speed is better than AD in this situation because the jungle monsters will sit there and let you attack them, and attack speed gives lots of consistent damage. It also helps to keep his passive up. I would go with AD quints or Movement speed since you are the jungler and it helps ganks.

Katarina is a pretty versatile champion. We've seen innovators like Voyboy taking sunfire capes and warmog's armor. I would just go with generic Magic pen marks, armor seals, mr glyphs, and ap quints. It's more tanky than straight AP pages but less tanky than the health page. It's a good in between. It really depends on how you play Katarina though. If it's assassin Katarina, then taking ability power per level glyphs and health per level seals increase your damage potential. The opposite is also true about tank Katarina.

Unknown wrote:

I don't know much about Volibear but I would think that AD marks and quints would be good on him since he does auto attack and he has a free attack speed buff on his W.

Warwick should go with attack speed marks in the jungle. Attack speed is better than AD in this situation because the jungle monsters will sit there and let you attack them, and attack speed gives lots of consistent damage. It also helps to keep his passive up. I would go with AD quints or Movement speed since you are the jungler and it helps ganks.

Katarina is a pretty versatile champion. We've seen innovators like Voyboy taking sunfire capes and warmog's armor. I would just go with generic Magic pen marks, armor seals, mr glyphs, and ap quints. It's more tanky than straight AP pages but less tanky than the health page. It's a good in between. It really depends on how you play Katarina though. If it's assassin Katarina, then taking ability power per level glyphs and health per level seals increase your damage potential. The opposite is also true about tank Katarina.

A lot of people run attack speed marks or hybrid pen marks on Volibear.

Like I said, I ain't no Volibear pro. Take dem attack speed or hybrid pen if you want.

Are Hybrid Pen marks worth it tho? I was told the hybrid ones give too little of each stat to really be worth it even with hybrid build champs. Sorry, I don't know much about the general basics of the game's stats to know much on how to build most champs, I just do what I'm told is good, then after playing a champ for a while I figure it out XD

Hyrbrid penetration marks are good.