I am about to hit 30 (and don't worry, I won't jump right into ranked games) and I have very few runes. I don't know what runes to buy really. I was looking at tier 1 runes and saw I can get about +1 AP for around 200 IP but when I switched to tier 3 it said about +0.80 AP costs over 1000 IP. Is there a point to this? Also, I play a wide variety of champions from flat AD to AP and hybrids, and I only have about 3000 IP. Most runes seem to cost around 1000 to 2000 IP, so how long will it take to get a full rune page?

Anyone? :\

It takes a while to get a full rune page - more so to fill out rune pages for the champions you play.
Most tier 3 runes will set you back 205-410 IP. Exceptions are runes related to energy (820 IP at tier 3) and the quintessences (515, 1025, or 2050 IP).
From there you guesstimate the average IP you earn per game and divide your prospective page cost by that number.
As to which runes to buy, most guides on the web will include a suggested rune page for that champion. You can use those and make a page that, while not optimal, will cover most of your champions of that type (I.E mages vs. fighters vs. carries vs. supports vs. etc)

Good luck, hope this helps.

A list of runes with their costs, courtesy of the League wiki

Hi Huntrion!

Rune prices vary significantly--in fact, some of the best runes are also the cheapest.

First of all, there is little reason to get Tier 1 and tier 2 runes--tier 1 runes give little to no stats, while tier 2 runes are terribly cost-inefficient compared to tier 3 runes. You want full sets of tier 3 runes because while, say, +0.95 AD marks may not look like much on their own, having 9 of them will set you significantly ahead early game (you can last hit much easier, trade harass better, etc.)

It might be a bit too late, but usually we recommend to start saving IP for tier 3 runes at summoner level 15... it's a fact of life that runes tend to be awfully expensive, unfortunately. :/ that can't be helped though.

Here are my recommendations for first runes to buy:

1. Flat armor seals (yellows). These are only 205 IP each (relatively cheap, I guess), and I believe having all 9 gives you like an extra 13 armor or so early game--pretty much the best runes in the game imo. A must have for jungling, and a godsend against strong physical enemies early.

2. magic resist/level glyphs (blues). These are also only 205 IP each, and really help a lot late game vs powerful ability power mages. An AD carry who only has 30 MR late game is a sad panda when he or she gets instabursted by a fed AP carry

3. If you play AD, get flat armor pen or AD marks (reds). If you play AP, get flat magic pen marks (reds). I think these are all 410 IP each, but AD really helps out your early game last hitting and damage trading, and AP really helps out your early game spells (mpen runes + sorc shoes against an opponent with no mr = close to true damage).

4. For quints, I'd recommend flat AD or armor pen for AD champions, and flat AP for AP champions. If you want one set of quints for everyone, try flat movespeed.

P.S. Usually around Christmas, Riot has an IP sale on arpen, mpen, movespeed, and flat hp quintessences--try picking up the movespeed quints then if it happens this year.

Hope this helps!
~Callanthe

Are AP per lvl of seals better or are flat AP runes better?

also, I am combining lots of different runes into one pages. Like combining AP and a little AD with defense runes, etc. Is this a good idea or should I just buy runes for each champion?

Hmmm...I'd recommend using two default rune pages, one for AD and one for AP:

AD: flat AD or arpen marks, flat armor seals, mr/level glyphs, flat AD quints
AP: flat mpen marks, health/level or mana regen/level seals, ap/level glyphs, flat AP quints.

Acquiring this is basically enough for the majority of champions out there...very few champions really require an extremely specialized rune page.

Also, do NOT mix too many stats on one rune page. Kind of like what I said before, if you only get one rune of a type it makes almost no difference, but getting all 9 has a much larger impact. I'd recommend sticking with my recommendations above or with some other reasonable guide (ex: buy either only health/level seals or mana regen/level seals for APs, don't mix. It makes both less effective.).

This question seems to be asked every week or so.

It all depends on what you need the runes for.

Flat runes give you a bigger boost at the start of the game, but are overtaken by the scaling ones part way through.

My first set were Attack Damage Red Marks, Flat Armor Yellow Seals, Flat Magic Resist Blue Glyphs and Attack Damage Quints giving +9.4 Magic Resist, +11 Physical Damage, and +9.8 Armor at level 23.

A full set of these at level 30 will cost 8,610 IP and give 15.3 Physical Damage, 12.06 Magic Resistance and 12.69 Armor I believe.

To begin with you can combine runes to form a set that you want to start with. Eventually, you can evolve this into 20 different Rune pages, as you buy more and more.

Currently, I have full sets of the following: Flat AD, ArPen, MPen, Attack Speed Reds; Flat armor, Flat mana regen, Flat MR Yellows; AP/level, MR/level Blues; Move Speed, Gold/10, Flat AP, Critical damage, Lifesteal Quints.

Between these, I'm able to run a rune page for almost any situation.

On a budget, go for some basics. Flat armor yellows are extremely useful, and not very expensive. MPen reds are about the only primary mark that works for AP. Flat AD reds are cheap and useful for most AD champions. MR/level glyphs are a good use of blues for champions that don't need AP. Move speed Quints are useful on almost any champion, although they're a bit expensive. Flat AP and Flat AD Quints are also worthwhile.

Hope this helps.