LoL dev explains why one keystone rune was intentionally made underpowered

League of Legends developer Riot August has explained why they left the keystone rune Predator as intentionally underpowered.

League of Legends has a bunch of different ways to customize how you play the game. From the lane or role you choose, to the champion you pick, to the items you build, there are plenty of options for players on offer. Of course, with any online game metas quickly form to decide the strongest path, but League can reward players who opt for more creative builds.

This means players will experiment and stray away from the meta, attempting to find a build that can effectively counter what’s currently being played. Like items, runes can also offer players a different build path that can assist players in countering the meta.

Keystone runes are by far the most important rune available to players, giving a massive power boost that can dictate how a champion has to be played. However, one keystone rune has been considered far weaker than the others for quite some time, with a dev finally explaining why that’s the case.

LoL dev explains why Predator rune is deliberately underpowered

Riot August revealed on stream why the Predator rune was still in the game, despite it being massively underpowered in comparison.

“Honestly we deliberately want that rune to be bad. We think it’s really bad for the game, so we make it deliberately bad. Like sometimes it’s better to have something be really bad just to be there.

“It’s like a thing where… sometimes the illusion of choice is better than no choice at all. Does that make sense? It’s like if we delete something for a lot of players who will be mentally attached to that thing, they’ll be like ‘Riot, how dare you delete this thing?’”

Predator was often used as a rune for junglers, as it gave them immense power whilst ganking lanes. However, nowadays the rune sees little to no play, and it seems like Riot would prefer it that way.