I am approaching level 20, and would like to start building my tier 3 rune collection. After reading some guides, suggestions, and seeing which runes people want nerfed (ie: the runes are good), I just wanted to see what people typically start with.

I play a variety of characters, from tank to dps to support to mage, and I would like to start out with some runes that are as close to universally useful for a wide range of characters.

Critical damage seems good, as does health, and I've been a huge fan of anything + movespeed since my early DotA days. Could anyone (ideally higher level players) point me in the right direction for how to start this out? If you would, could you tell me which are the 'best' runes of each type that help out a wide variety of characters?

Thanks in advance!

For a general page, I used:

Marks: Either static Armor or Magic resist / level
Seals: Dodge
Glyphs: Magic resist / level
Quints: Static Health

This will give you survivability for any type of champion you play, making it a very useful page. Once you get enough IP you can substitute class specific runes (magic penetration, armor penetration, critical damage, etc.) but for a starting page that can apply to all classes this one works very well.

Personally, for an 'all-around' runebook I would go with mostly HP, HP Regen and CD Reduction.

Hp is obv. Everyone needs hp and starting off with ~80 extra hp makes a large difference.

The regen helps you harass/survive early. If you have enough and can work it right you can actually skip getting certain starting items sometimes, letting you to rush bigger and better items.

Everyone can use CD-Reduction. Everyone. I dont care what anyone says.

But thats just me. Really as long as you dont buy things that are too specific (+crit dmg, +ap, ect) you're going to benefit from it. I would take a look at the heroes you play on a regular basis (no-one plays all 40) and see what they have in common and where they could use some boosts. GL

I would say cooldown reduction on the blue and hp per level on yellow are pretty good universal runes. You can go for a universal set on mark as well but I would really suggest just sucking it up and getting an armor penetration and a magic penetration set just because they are so good. Flat hp works well on the quints (although tier 3 quints cost a ****TON).

Move Quints are a fine buy. That or +Health are the only great universal options.

Red: I'd suggest not getting Crit Damage. There's only a few heroes that's very good for. Armor penetration or Critical Chance are more generally viable for physical champs.

Yellow: Dodge or mana regen are best. Obviously a few champs won't use the mana regen, but it's significant and awesome on pretty much everyone else. (If you like Chalice it's extra good, since Chalice will multiply the rune regen.)

Yellow: Cooldown is pretty much the best "universal". There are few champs that are desperate for it but everyone can USE it.

Were I starting from scratch again, I'd get mana regen, cooldown, and either armor or magic pen and expect to get the other set soon after (which is more than 1 full rune page, I know, but there's no great universal Red runes). Movement Quints. (I have a combination of +Health and +Move quints, but I think the move is better overall.)

Some of that is what my buyer's remorse says nowadays. =}

IMO...

Mage:
Red: Mpen
Yellow: Dodge or mp5
Blue: mpen, CDR, or MR/lvl
Quint: Mpen or flat hpl

Carry:
Red: Apen or crit dmg (Shaco/Gang)
Yellow: Dodge
Blue: MR/lvl or CDR
Quint: Crit dmg (Shaco/Gang), apen, or flat hp

Tank:
Red: MR/lvl or armor/lvl
Yellow: Dodge
Blue: MR/lvl
Quint: Flat hp

I tend to rune defensive stats because I hate spending gold on survivability items D: