Early and Late game Runes

Question

So I recently started playing Fizz and I've seen some builds from some various sites. The Runes I ended up using now are:

• +6.5 Magic Pen.
• +4.5 Armor Pen.
• +45 Ability Power at level 18
• +15 Ability Power

So I'm just thinking, why use +45 AP at level 18? What I mean is that if I get fed early game I'll be good late as well because of items and everything. So that +45 won't do much ( In my opinion ). If I feed early game, that +45 definitely won't do much ( Again, in my humble opinion ). If I stay with a decent score through the whole game, same logic as before. So, I would like to ask. Isn't it better to put Runes focusing only on early game instead of putting some for early and some for late? Because if you get fed early game with the advantage from the, only, early game Runes you will have a huge advantage late game, which means that you won't need as much that +45 AP.

Answer 1

Depend agains who you're going and what champion you pick.

MR runes are very important to survival in the lane (keep in mind that you want to stay as long as possible in the lane and farming/leveling), and usually you're going against another Magic User (ap). Glyphs are the way to go in those runes

Armor runes are also important in the lane for survival, the minions may kill you if you keep receiving damage (usually when you go after your opponent and go behind the enemy minions, the minions will turn up on you). These runes also help a little in late game. Seals are amazing for those runes.

Armor Pen. runes are not so much of use, if you are going as Fizz. They are great if you are Vayne for example. But if you want those (as Vayne for example) go for Marks and/or Quintessence

Magic Pen. runes are great for you, in early, mid and end game. Marks are usually enough, but you can get some Quintessence too.

Hybrid Penetration. runes are excellent on Fizz in the early game, but in the end game, you main damage will be upon the magic damage, since you'll hardly be able to do 3 hits in a row against a target (usually, you'll just jump, pop the ultimate, then scape from the mess, while your team finish the opponents and the opponents try to kill you). In the early game, if you are aggressive, you'll be able to jump in behind the minions, hit once or twice each "dive" then retreat. The main point on the Armor pen is the damage on the minions.

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It's always worth to test YOUR play-style, and pay attention to:

• Do you keep receiving minion damage on your engages?
• Do you wait until 6 to start Harassment? or you go for it since level 1?
• Against who you usually play? (do you go for matches that you know who you are going against or it's a "blind date"?

Based on that, you can pick your runes and also, if you want them to be Flat or Scalable.

• Flat before 6 usually.
• Scalable after 6 usually

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There isn't a "best-rune-set" nor anything like that. But the set of runes that Valentin Grégoire said in his answer, is a good way:

• Flat MR Glyphs (blue) x9
• Flat Armor Seals (yellow) x9
• AP or Magic Pen Marks (red) x 9
• AP or Magic Pen Quints x 3 (or put some movement speed in there).

Answer 2

I am not a Fizz specialist but I would never play with those runes in mid lane. First of all, you don't need armor penetration. However, what you really need is Magic Resist runes (glyphs). Either scaling (/lvl) or flat MR runes. If you go flat, you will have more resist in early game. If you go /lvl, you will have less early, but more in late game. This purely depends on your play style. However, I suggest you to use the flat ones. Without MR, any decent mid player will destroy you. Same goes for armor, certainly against AD champions.

What I would do:

• Flat MR Glyphs (blue) x9
• Flat Armor Seals (yellow) x9
• AP or Magic Pen Marks (red) x 9
• AP or Magic Pen Quints x 3 (or put some movement speed in there).

As said, I am far from a Fizz specialist, but what I provided something generic that is a good start.

Answer 3

It's all dependent on which champions you're playing and how you want to play. If you are going to sit back and farm then the something/lvl runes are great since they are more effective than flat runes at the point in the game where you'll start teamfighting. If you play aggressively early game then you will benefit more from flat runes. For example, I prefer using flat runes on nidalee (with exception to the hp/lvl) because her spears and heal don't really do much early game and it gives me a little boost in my hyper aggressive playstyle. Supports, however, can benefit greatly from offensive whatever/level runes because they aren't (in most cases) going to be building much damage. Also, try using magic pen runes on fizz instead of hybrids since he is all magic damage.