Burst caster baseline
Magic penetration marks, resource or armor seals, magic resistance or scaling AP glyphs, and AP or movement quintessences.
PRE-GAME SETUP GUIDE
League Classic Runes & Masteries Guide
Classic preparation happens before champion select ends. Marks, seals, glyphs, quintessences, and a 30-point mastery page should all support the same lane plan instead of becoming a pile of unrelated bonuses.
Choose runes for reliable early stats, then choose a mastery skeleton for the champion's main job. Use 21/9/0 when damage and a small defensive floor matter, 9/0/21 when mana, cooldowns, movement, and utility drive the build, and 0/21/9 when surviving and controlling space come first.
RUNE PAGE
Give each rune slot one clear job.
Marks commonly carry offensive pressure, seals cover lane durability or resource stability, glyphs answer magic pressure or scaling, and quintessences provide the largest flexible bonuses. The labels do not force one answer, but they make it easier to see when a page is trying to do too many unrelated things.
Start with the matchup you expect to play repeatedly. A page that reliably survives the first waves and reaches a champion's core pattern is more useful than a theoretical maximum that only works when the opponent never interacts.
Attack damage baseline
Physical damage or armor penetration marks, armor seals, magic resistance glyphs, and damage or movement quintessences.
Tank and support baseline
Durability marks or utility pressure, armor seals, magic resistance glyphs, and health, movement, or defensive quintessences.
30 MASTERY POINTS
Pick a skeleton before optimizing individual points.
A mastery page is easier to reason about as a split between Offense, Defense, and Utility. The exact point choices still depend on champion and lane, but the split tells you what the page is designed to protect.
21 / 9 / 0
A damage-first page with enough defense to survive normal retaliation. Useful when reaching an offensive breakpoint is the main plan.
9 / 0 / 21
A utility-heavy page for mana, cooldowns, movement, summoner-spell value, and repeated spell use.
0 / 21 / 9
A defensive foundation for front-line jobs, hard lanes, and champions whose value survives even without maximum damage.
MATCHUP ADJUSTMENTS
Change the page when the lane changes the first ten minutes.
Rune and mastery choices have the most visible value early, so matchup adjustments should focus on the interactions that happen before items can repair the lane.
- Into repeated physical trades, reliable armor can be worth more than a scaling stat that activates after the lane is decided.
- Into magic burst or long-range poke, magic resistance and health protect the recall timing that keeps the build on schedule.
- For short-range champions, movement can be an offensive stat when it determines whether a targeted spell or empowered attack connects.
- For mana-limited casters, resource stability only matters when it creates an additional useful rotation rather than unused maximum mana.
BUILD CONNECTION
The pre-game page and the item build must tell the same story.
AP Master Yi's 9/0/21 baseline supports mana, movement, cooldown access, and cleanup timing. Classic Ryze uses the same broad split for a different reason: resource growth and repeated short-range rotations. Garen can take a damage-heavy or defensive skeleton depending on whether lane pressure or front-line reliability is the job.
9 / 0 / 21 baseline
AP Master Yi setup
Utility supports safe farming, movement, and access to another Alpha Strike.
Open reference →9 / 0 / 21 baselineClassic Ryze setup
Mana and cooldown utility reinforce a repeated spell cycle rather than one isolated hit.
Open reference →Multiple baselinesGaren champion guide
Compare a pressure route with a safer defensive route and see how the full page changes.
Open reference →FINAL CHECK
Review the setup as one system.
Before queueing, say what each group of points and runes is doing. If two choices solve the same minor problem while the lane's largest threat remains unanswered, simplify the page.
- What stat changes the first three waves?
- What resource or defensive limit stops the champion's second rotation?
- Does the mastery split support the build's actual win condition?
- Which one choice should change when the matchup changes?
FAQ
Classic rune and mastery questions
Is 9/0/21 only for mages?
No. It is a utility structure, not a class label. It fits champions that gain more from mana, cooldowns, movement, or summoner-spell utility than from committing 21 points to damage.
Should every champion use armor seals?
Armor is a dependable baseline in lanes and games with meaningful physical damage, but it is not an automatic answer to every matchup. Change the page when magic pressure, resource stability, or another early interaction is clearly more important.
Can I use one rune page for every role?
You can use a safe general page while learning, but specialized pages become valuable when a role repeatedly asks for different early stats. Build a small set of explainable pages before creating many narrow presets.
SOURCES & METHOD
Baselines are guidance, not hidden performance data.
The page follows the Classic rune and 30-point mastery structure shown in the official game context and the site's sourced build records. Exact choices remain matchup-dependent and should be checked against the current client.
Official League Classic