4 changes I would like to see to ARAM

About me: I've played since season 2 and I enjoy playing almost every game mode and I play them all rather competitively. I like winning. I like playing high ELO games where everyone tries to win. I love how ARAM and RGMs have different Metas and playstyles compared to the traditional SR which often aren't fully explored yet. My ARAM MMR is in the top 0.5% according to https://euw.whatismymmr.com/dr%20poro .

Having fun and a fair game still comes in the first place, though. ARAM is no exception. Sure there are champions that are way better than others by the design of the game mode ( http://www.op.gg/statistics/champion/ ), but a random draft makes this less of an issue. If you queue up for a game, everyone gets the same chances. Or do they?

#1. Make ARAM use the entire champion pool (or at least for lvl 30 accounts) I've addressed this before and I understand that there is quite some resistance when I mention this. However, I feel like the upsides greatly outweigh the possible downsides. The reason why I personally would like to see this is twofold. On one hand, I feel bad for owning a lot of champions that I don't like to play (in this gamemode or in general), a lot of which I have bought so I can trade them with teammates in ranked. On the other hand, there are still 13 champions I do not own and I'd like to purchase (mainly for trading), but the fact that any of these champions would weaken my ARAM roster is holding me back.

+Everyone has a fair chance of getting a specific champion, even if you're a jungle main with tons of weak ARAM-champs or if you've purchased champions that you don't like as much as you thought you would or have been reworked.

• You can trade champions freely with all your allies instead of requiring to have both players own them. This makes it easier to trade away a champion you don't like.
• Reroll system can be simplified (1 extra reroll per game instead of gathering points based on the amount of champions you own)
• people wouldn't feel bad for/be deterred from buying champions just because they're bad in ARAM even though they like to play them in other gamemodes.
• ARAM is a great way to learn the mechanics of a champion you don't know yet.
• You can enter a game without having to expect to see your opponents stacked with oppressive AOE waveclear and poke champions.

-If you don't like playing random champions that you don't own, you won't like this change. If you don't like random champions, you don't like ARAM in the first place. You can play other game modes if you like to play your specific champions. Legend of the Poro King allows this, but even as a Poro fan, I dislike this gamemode because of the constant spam of the same champions. I understand that it can be overwhelming for fresh players, that's why I think it would be a reasonable compromise to make it only for lvl 30 accounts.

• Less chance to get hextech crafting chests/keys. Unless Riot intentionally wants to restrict players from this, I think they should make it available for all champions even when not owned. I understand the chests part, but I think keys should definitely be available for all champs. This greatly disencourages (new) players to try out free week champions. - Players will dodge more. This is a toss-up, in my opinion. If games will be more random where your opponent also has crappy team comps, then players might be more likely to just see what comes rather than dodging because you KNOW your opponents have a good comp (otherwise they'd dodge). I think in higher ELO, players will dodge less, in lower ELO, players will dodge more because of players that want to play only champions that they can stomp with. Also see the second suggestion below. - Players will spend less money if they can play champions for free Again I disagree with this statement. You will only have a 1/132 chance to get a specific champion. If you've played a champion in ARAM and you like him, you'll have to buy the champion to play him again. If you only play ARAM then you indeed won't have to purchase champions but the same applies to One-Trick-Ponies. I think most players do play more than one game mode, though and most money spent is on skins, not champions.

Alternative 1: Make it use the shared champion pool (all champions available to any of the teamplayers) so you can still reroll and at least someone will have the champion. You'd need to be 5 man premade with ARAM accounts to abuse this, which is not as likely to happen and you can still trade with anyone.

Alternative 2: Keep ARAM like it is, but make a Ranked ARAM queue only open during peak hours and the weekend (like ranked 3v3) where all champions are unlocked and an actually visible punishment through lp loss.

#2. Rework dodge penalties If you play ARAM, you'll notice that the amount of queue dodges (leaving champion select) is way higher in this mode compared to other gamemodes (except for some RGMs). Queue dodge is extremely frustrating because it dramatically lengthens the time to enter a game for 9 other players. I think it is immorale to dodge unless there is an urgent matter and people should think ahead before they start the queue. While in draft pick a lot of dodges occur due to forgetting to pick/ban, in ARAM, however, most dodges are willingly because they don't like the champ/team comp. The current version is simply not efficient enough. It is easily by-passed by players with alt-accounts who just hop from one account to another. I think the time penalty (15/30/60 minutes for 1st/2nd/3rd dodge as stated in http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Queue_dodging ) is definitely enough, if it isn't by-passed. Changes that I'd like to see are:

• Put frequent dodgers in low-priority queue so that they can't simply wait out the punishment while offline. It's understandable that you queue dodge when something urgent happens last minute. But not if it happens constantly.
• Make the 'dodge counter' reset based on number of games played rather than 16 hours. If you have multiple accounts, you can just dodge on one, go to another, dodge on that one, go back to the first (or a third) and do the same tomorrow while having played 1 game on each account. For example, reduce dodge counter by 1 after 3 games played.
• Add a longer gamemode-specific ban for frequent dodgers. A lot of players do behave well in normals/rankeds but dodge too often in ARAMs because they don't realize the harm it causes to 9 other players.
• After dodging, add a notification upon logging in of what the punishment for your next dodge will be to make players more aware.

#3. Nerf Sona (ARAM only) Didn't I just say that it's fine that there are stronger and weaker champion in ARAM? Yes I did, but this lovely woman is a tad too much of an outlier. stats from http://www.op.gg/statistics/champion/ There are many champions with a winrate of 60-63% which I think is fine. But when there is one at 70% (7% higher than #2), increasing to 75% at diamond (8% higher than #2) there is a problem even in a random draft mode. What this means is that when you see a sona in the game, her teammates are almost guaranteed a victory, before playing. There'll still be comps that have an incredibly high chance of winning against another comp, but just the existance of this champion alone makes these scenarios so much more often which is simply not fun. I play ARAM for the games where both teams seem to be on equal grounds and Sona is the only champion where I've never experienced this with. She's always been a powerhouse in ARAM, but since her rework it's been through the roof. She has the combination of decent poke, amazing healing and shielding and arguably the best auras in the game making her the strongest champion in this mode both early game and lategame, both against poke comps and teamfight comps. I mean, there's nothing you can argue against +70% winrate.

#4. When a Poro with a Braum-moustache explodes, give moustaches to the mini-Poros too!