What are the first runes I should buy?

Archive post, July 2011. There's nothing to shop for here any more. Riot replaced this whole system with the Runes Reforged trees, which you pick for free in champion select, so Greater Quintessences, Marks, Seals and Glyphs don't exist and no amount of saving up buys you a rune page. We're keeping the post as a record of what starting out actually cost back then rather than as advice to follow now.

So you've just dinged 20 and you're looking to buy those o-so-powerful Tier 3 runes eh? But you're also a little confused about which ones to buy! Well you've come to the right place. Runes are only purchasable via IP, except for some random useless ones you can get through the Collector's Pack. Additional rune pages are also available for 6300 IP or can also be purchased via RP.

Generally you'll want to start with your Quintessences and your Marks (Reds) This is because these make the most noticeable difference early game, which is when your runes matter the most.

Quintessences: Generally you'll want a full set of 3 Greater Quintessence of Strength and 3 Greater Quintessence of Potency to cover both your AP and your AD champions.

Next you'll want to work on your Greater Quintessences of Swiftness for your junglers, and/or Greater Quintessence of Fortitude to improve on your early-game tankiness.

Marks: You'll definitely want a full set of Mark of Strength (Flat AD) and Mark of Insight (Flat Mag Pen) since these will cover 90% of the reds that each champion uses, except for a few support and jungling champions.

Seals: This is where it gets tricky, there are all sorts of yellow seals for all sorts of champions, and they pretty much vary according to your playstyle. Viable ones include Health per level, Mana Regen, and armor, which will cover pretty much all the champions.

Glyphs: If you thought seals were tricky, these blues are even more worse. Basically they don't do all that much, but viable ones include ability power per level, flat cooldown, flat/scaling magic resistance, and that's really about it until you get to higher levels.

Thanks for reading and let me know if I left something out :)