Feedback on the Recent ARAM Changes from an Avid ARAM Player

Preface This is a fairly long post as I am a passionate ARAM player (over 3k gams since HA came out) and want to provide some good feedback. Tldr’s included. These are my opinions so please feel free to disagree and/or provide some constructive discussion. Upvote if you think this worthwhile and let’s begin!

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Feedback Related to the Recent Changes • Spectral Cutlass: A controversial item but a healthy one imo. Every AD assassin has had a hard time on ARAM (except sometimes Yi, maybe Zed. They can go in for a kill but escape usually is impossible or leaves them too low. I think it has a good amount of counterplay as well. Hourglass is a big one, camp the mark location during a fight, burst the champ before the recall, etc. I especially like to take this on Rek’Sai who usually has a very hard time finding her place on ARAM. The obvious abuse case is Skarner, but since he buying a lethality item and is dependent on his ult CD plus some other CD (mark, RG, Predator) I think it might be ok.

Suggested changes: If the item is too strong, bump up the CD by 10-20 seconds. Also, I think the build path is a bit too good. I’d swap out Stopwatch and make Lifeline a one-time use item.

• Bloodletter’s Veil: I love this item. A great alternative to Morello. I like how the spell shield can’t be abused by poke mages (who are already strong) but is very helpful to squishy AP divers.

Suggested Changes: I think this item should either have its own spell shield visual or use Edge of Night’s so people don’t confuse it with Banshee’s and to clarify it’s a temporary shield.

• Ghostwalker’s: I love the idea of these boots (especially since Ionian Boots are kind of meh on ARAM) but it seems like they cause a lot of frustration and tanky champs are abusing them (damage/CC free engage).

Suggested Changes: Make the stealth shadow wayyy more obvious. It really shouldn’t be hard to see a Garen who is diving. Other than that, I’m not sure what this item needs. The active could be unusable or have a different effect once you reach a certain hp threshold?

• Starting items: I decided to put this section under “recent changes” because the changes to “true level 4” has made Lost Chapter the unrivaled best starting item for mana mages. AP, CDR, and basically unlimited mana causes this item to outclass Guardian’s Orb in almost every way. Besides that, I still think the official starting items are still noob traps even after their buffs. Hammer is only useful if you don’t have a front line and are expecting to take a lot of poke and Horn is only useful if you expect to be poked but never teamfight. But ADC’s and tanks should almost always just buy normal component items first because they need to hit their power spikes ASAP to catch up with the mages who spike with the fast levels.

Suggested Changes: Remove starting items, increase their re-sell value, or have them build into something.

• Warmogs: To be honest I think the removal ended up being a good change, the item just made too much of an impact on ARAM. But I still think there needs to be some sort of replacement. I think Spirit Visage will end up being a core item for most tanks now (not saying that that is good or bad).

Suggested Changes: An item with either massive base HP regen or some sort of grey health effect.

• Shopkeeper VO: I noticed this patch that you can’t hear the shopkeeper when your camera is not over them this patch. I love it! I don’t want to hear that ghost on HA screaming or giving a speech when I’m fighting in the middle of the map.

Suggested Changes: Keep the camera-shopkeeper VO interaction in play when HA comes back.

• “Base Gates” (I thought that the gates on the base walls in SR were base gates, not the fountain walls): A very good addition as some people take more time to buy based on their champ or ARAM experience. That being said the duration of the gates is still too short for ARAM. You have more money on ARAM and thus you need more time to decide what to get. Tanks especially have very different build paths based on the enemy comp.

Suggested Changes: Increase the despawn timer on the base gates by about 10 seconds.

• Banner of Command: Yeah, the new Banner was so annoying but wave clear comps can be impossible to beat if your team doesn’t have really good engage champs.

Suggested Changes: Bring back Banner in some form or some type of item to help against wave clear.

• Health Shrines: Some people love them, some people hate them. I don’t have much of an opinion at this point. I will say it’s a pretty nice indirect nerf to aoe poke. I also like you can get healed by the outer shrine when your team is pushed to tower whereas before it belonged solely to the pushing team.

Tldr: AD item is good, but components too good. AP item is good, needs a different visual. Boots are cool but are being abused by tanks and fighters. Starting items are bad. Warmog’s gone is good, but a regen item is needed. “Base Gates” should last a little longer. Banner should probably come back.

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Other Suggestions • Mark’s True Sight: Talon jump on your adc? Just cast Mark at him and completely negate his ultimate escape tool! Half the team has Mark which has a very low cooldown and long range, it doesn’t need to hard counter Kha'zix, Shaco, Talon, and Akali. I’d also like to see the champ true sight removed from Oracle’s someday, but at least the radius is small and you have to pay for it.

• Ornn and Talon: If Warmog’s is going to stay disabled I see no reason why Ornn’s passive should have a massive CD or any maybe any CD at all. I like that Talon can jump the bend at the very center of the map, but it should be easier to click/perform than it currently is.

• Runes: I believe any rune that is based on game time (Conditioning, Stopwatch, etc.) should have their time reduced by about 25% (Magical Footwear being the one possible exception). I think this would be a relatively simple change that would offer more rune options in ARAM. Triumph, Presence of Mind, and maybe Coup de Grace should probably be nerfed someday. I’d also like to see the purely useless runes (like Waterwalking) get replaced with ARAM alternatives at some point.

• Dodging: The amount of que dodges is still way too high. I’d give an honest estimate of 20% of my que’s end in a doge. It’s especially annoying because people often will wait until the very last second in hopes that someone will doge for them.

• Game Start AFK’s: I don’t know why but people will often afk at the start of the game (about 10% of my games). It’s very punishing to have a player afk in a mode as fast paced as ARAM. Leave Buster should be harsher on ARAM and Remake should be available.

• Trade Notification: The trade notification is kind of bugged where it will grey-out and become uninteractable for a few seconds when another trade has been made. Annoying, but not a big deal.

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If you're still reading, thanks for sticking with me! Thanks Rito for giving ARAM some love (the bench is awesome)! Thanks Hnk Kenshiro for these cool dividers! Have a good day everyone.

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