Preseason is usually the time of the year when League of Legends players face significant changes to the game, at least compared to the usual patches which arrive every other week. For example, last year's Preseason brought the Item Overhaul which turned the game on its head for a couple of months.

A recent post on the official League of Legends website has revealed their plans on adding another keystone by the name First Strike which will be a part of the Inspiration rune tree. Adding this keystone could put this very unpopular rune tree back on the radar.

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First Strike has already gone live on the game's PBE servers and its effect is reminiscent of Kleptomancy, a controversial keystone Riot removed last season. First Strike grants will grant 5 gold and increase the damage dealt by 12% for 3 seconds upon attacking champions and the effect will also give additional gold based on the bonus damage. Players using this keystone will be required to be the first ones to strike in order to trigger this effect.

league of legends keystone rune

This will allow champions that have a slightly weaker early game to scale up much faster and reach the point where they become much more relevant in the game. The Kleptomancy keystone has made scaling champions like Vladimir one of the most obnoxious League of Legends champions to play against. Unlike Klepto, First Strike also has its offensive capabilities meaning that the rune will be much more flexible and not only picked in specific situations and match-ups.

First Strike will allow Kennen, Vladimir and other League of Legends champions with a strong Ultimate to engage more often once they wind a good opening. The thought behind the Inspiration rune tree was always to provide creative and almost rule-bending tools for players. However, it's safe to say that it's been the least popular rune choice since its introduction for the majority of the player base. There were few exceptions when Unsealed Spellbook took over the meta for a brief period of time before it got patched. It will take some time for First Strike to rise in popularity as players will most likely still opt for the Domination or Pressiocion rune trees.

But it should not take long before we see a professional player picking up First Strike and boosting its pick rates. This was the case with Nuguri back in the 2019 World Championship when he dominated the top lane throughout the tournament by being the first pro to use extensively Kleptomancy. Mastering this Keystone early on will surely give players the advantage while climbing ranks, especially with the upcoming changes to League of Legends' ranking system.

League of Legends is available to play for free on PC.

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Source: Official League of Legends website