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Keystone Rune guide: How to use Lethal Tempo

What’s it do, what runes should you pair with it and who should wield it?

Lethal Tempo is one of the strongest new runes hitting this preseason. The bonus attack speed and the lift on the attack speed cap will make tank busting easy as hell. If you’re an AD Carry and you don’t know what rune to take, we can save you the trouble: pick Lethal Tempo.

What does it do?

After spending 1.5 seconds attacking a champion (in combat), you’ll gain a massive attack speed buff (30-80 percent depending on your level). This effect lasts for three seconds but can be extended (up to six seconds) by continuing to attack champions. Lethal Tempo increases the attack speed cap while it’s active.

Which runes go well with it?

This is going to be the default rune for most AD Carry players. This build is going to focus on tank busting and speed but could certainly be modified by adding some lifesteal in favor of additional attack speed.

Triumph is an excellent rune for an AD Carry to take. The extra income is helpful for pushing your power up fast. Trading in lane becomes much easier as well with the health boon after every takedown. As the game goes on and the fights become bigger, this rune gets even more helpful.

Legend: Alacrity is going to be excellent for almost every AD Carry who would want to take Lethal Tempo. The Keystone increases attack speed but also raises the cap, meaning that you can’t really waste the rune by capping your attack speed through items or other means. If the champion benefits from attack speed already, Alacrity will make them even stronger and boost the power of Lethal Tempo even further.

Cut Down is an essential rune for AD Carries to take. Look, almost every champion in the game is going to have more maximum health than you do. The enemy jungler and top laner is guaranteed, but chances are the support and mid laner could beat you out as well. While there are certainly weird situations where this rune won’t be super helpful, this extra damage combined with your attack speed will demolish tanks or bruisers in seconds.

For our extra tree we’re going to pick Domination. This will give us access to Cheap Shot and Eyeball Collection. Cheap Shot will grant you some extra damage to impaired champions, which is helpful when you can hit them multiple times per effect thanks to Lethal Tempo. Eyeball Hunter will offer you some extra damage for the first 10 takedowns you get. Once you cap out the rune, it will even offer you some extra lethality. Your job is to kill champions as an ADC. Both of these runes will help you do that throughout the game.

Who’s it for?

Riot Games

Lethal Tempo will be the default AD Carry rune. Attack speed is a very powerful stat and while several AD Carrys are built around it, everyone can use it effectively.

You want to take this rune on champions like:

  • Vayne
  • Caitlyn
  • Varus
  • Kog’Maw
  • Kalista

Vayne is able to stack her Silver Bolts very quickly with Lethal Tempo, granting her some very powerful burst damage. While most AD Carrys won’t be able to take advantage of this rune to her extent, they all have their own special considerations. Varus can stack Blight faster, Kalista can stack spears and Caitlyn can generate headshot even quicker.

No matter who you’re going against, this build will help you take them down quickly. And isn’t that just every AD Carry’s dream?