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ARAM Suggestion — "Champion Pool"

uuu··4 votes·3,977 views

ARAM is a great gamemode. Its popularity among the player base is undeniable - it used to exist solely in custom games before Riot decided to make it an official, permanent game mode.

Unfortunately ARAM has one undeniable flaw for most players - that is getting stuck with a champion you don't like simply because you decided to buy that champion at one point, thinking you would like them. Or just getting stuck with a champion you don't feel like playing at the time.

Riot has done a lot to fix this. The reroll system is great, and having more champions can be rewarding when it comes to trading. But unless you enjoy all champions at all times, you will inevitably get stuck with a champion you really don't want to play. Even if you create a smurf account to buy only champions you like, you're stuck with the free-to-play champions (not to mention that Riot has officially stated "We don’t endorse [smurfing] because it can ruin the game for other players").

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The suggestion is simple: Each player has an ARAM "champion pool". By default, your ARAM champion pool consists of all of your champions, but each player can select any number of champions for their pool to consist of (with some minimum - perhaps 14, the number of champions in the free-to-play rotation).

Pros: • Players have no incentive to create a smurf account specifically for ARAM. • Players will never be forced to play a champion they really don't want to play (which can lead to dodging, or a negative gameplay experience). • Possibility for more complex team strategy. • New players who like ARAM will be motivated to buy champions for their ARAM champion pool. • Removes the negative aspect of buying a champion that isn't good in ARAM. • At higher skill levels, ARAMs will be more challenging and exciting. • Players who dislike the random aspect of ARAM will enjoy a more predictable system. • Paves the way for ranked ARAM.

Cons: • ARAMs will feel less random and will have a stronger meta-game. • Added complexity and potentially added difficulty doesn't necessarily complement the intended "casual" ARAM experience. • Certain champions will rarely be seen in ARAM because nobody will choose them.

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Please share your thoughts, suggestions, criticisms, for the idea of an ARAM champion pool. I will expand the Pros and Cons if there is something I think should be added.

6 Comments

Killer of Night92 votes

Better not. You would see teamcomp based only on artillary mage (lux,xerath,ziggs,vel koz) or ad long range caster (varus,jayce) or also some long range adc such as (jinx,cait,twitch and maybe sivir even not she's not long range). Also some mage such as karthus,veigar,morgana,zyra would be perma picked. Even if some tank are good or strong (because of warmog mostly) on aram, 70% of the aram player would probably choose a long range champ. Basically the aram mod would turn out to be a bullet hell with the only issue that if u pick fiora for example (because you get her from your champ pool because u main fiora) it's now your fault instead of being just unluck.

Daddy Ants2 votes

ARAM accounts need killing.

Make all champions unlocked in ARAM.

Either that or disable Sona, Lux, Xerath, Ziggs.

Syrile1 votes

Nooooo. ARAM should be random. Not only is this far from what the game mode is supposed to be but it is just going to allow Karthus, Lux, Teemo, Shaco, Morgana, Yi, and the other overly broken champions in every game... :/

I would much prefer something be done to maximize randomness and prevent the above tactic that I mentioned instead of allowing an easier time to do it.

I would much rather have harsher penalties for dodging ARAM, especially after spamming trades with people or harassing them with "give me X champion or I dodge/feed."

Riot will never unlock all champions for ARAM sadly.. otherwise this would fix most of the problems other than dodging... :/ An alternative to that would be to have an even larger free pool and the free pool is based on your champions unlocked. So if you have just the 20 most broken champions available in your pool and you could have a "free" pool of 30-40 champions, maybe more if Riot would, that is only champions you do not own. The more champions you have, the less free champions you would have, etc.

This would help fix ARAM a ton if there were penalties for dodging and trolling.

JeaneGreene1 votes

I personally think it would be cool to have a “not ARAM pool.” So you can ban 2-3 champions you have who you don’t want to play as in ARAM.

Daddy Ants1 votes

Another suggestion I think could work for balancing ARAM

  • Remove or heavily nerf summoner 13
  • Disable Presence of Mind in ARAM.
Minarde1 votes

Quick note before I get into things: free rotation for ARAM and other random modes is actually 42 as of Patch 8.11, triple the standard free-week rotation.

Possibility for more complex team strategy.

How? It's still random. Unless you mean a premade organizing "X goes all mages, Y goes all tanks, Z ..." or something, but that's incredibly niche.

New players who like ARAM will be motivated to buy champions for their ARAM champion pool.

That's already a thing, since owned champs are always part of your champ pool. Saying "players aren't discouraged from buying champs" might be a valid consideration, yet you already brought that up in your next point.

At higher skill levels, ARAMs will be more challenging and exciting.

No, much the opposite. High-MMR ARAM would just further devolve into seeing the same top-tier champs every game. So similar to now, but worse. The challenge and excitement in ARAM is in adapting to unusual champs and team comps. Making it more predictable is thus a detriment.

Players who dislike the random aspect of ARAM will enjoy a more predictable system.

Quite frankly, people who dislike the random aspect maybe shouldn't be playing a random mode.

Paves the way for ranked ARAM.

I'd actually argue it moves us further away from Ranked ARAM. ARAM distinguishes itself from the current ranked queues by emphasizing well-roundedness. Summoner's Rift (and Twisted Treeline to a lesser extent) pushes specialization. Especially with position ranks, players are encouraged to focus on specific niches. However, due to ARAM's randomness, it's significantly more important to be good at a wide variety of things. Unlike in SR and TT, one-tricking is a terrible idea in ARAM. More predictability and more specialization move ARAM towards being SR/TT-lite, which conflicts with the purpose of asking for Ranked ARAM.

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