I haven't figured out what role I want to specialize in. I am currently lvl 18 and very close to 19. Are there any good runes to hedge roles?

Tier 1 runes are fine buys if you know what to get before hand, especially being as cheap as they are.
Tier 3 are expensive, but worth the price because of the stats you get.

Tier 2 are sort of IP sinks. If you plan on filling a page pre 20 use Tier 1's. Otherwise, continue savinng up for when you hit 20.

Armor pen and Magic Pen Reds are always safe buys as they can be used on pretty much every champion. The same goes for Armor Yellows.

I recommend looking at the per level runes as well. Some become stronger than the flat runes only after 9 LEVELS! This will put you more towards mid game resistances. However many of them (AP per level blues for example) become stronger by level 7.

Flat AD is better early as it will vastly improve poke and last hitting.
Scaling AP is better because it allows you to scale with each level (AP carries gain more and more damage with every rank of a spell, so the scaling runes will improve this further).

Quints, as a general rule of thumb should be Flat. They have the highest values, so they are best used to pad early game stats, or something that will be effective well into late game (Flat HP, Movespeed, Gold per 5, AD, AP, etc).

EDIT: what I've said is by no means Gospel, just try to consider what will be needed. Will you pad your early game, in hopes of getting ahead early. Or try to play towards a slightly stronger late game.

Basic build for an AD
Armor Pen Reds
Flat Armor Yellows
Flat/scaling MR Blues
Flat HP/AD Quints

Basic build for an AP mid
Magic Pen Reds
Scaling Mana Regen Yellows
Scaling AP Blues
Flat AP Quints

armor seals are my reccomendation. They are THE most versatile runes in the game. They let you jungle easily . They will help you vs. every champion in the game who uses autoattacks. They also help migitate minoin damage early on

The runes that I've found most versitile have been:

Flat Armor - Yellow
Flat Magic Resist - Blue
Movement Speed - Quints

For Reds, Junglers will love Attack Speed, ADs will love Armor Pen, and APs will love Magic Pen.


~I would stay away from HP quints. I bought them when I was new, and have never used them since learning more about the game.

I just wanted to point out that I did mean at lvl 20, I'm not buying runes before then. I have about 13k IP saved up

Have AD Quints and Reds gone out of style in the latest meta?