Alright: Dark Harvest needs tuning for ARAM

ModCaptainMårvelous·Nov 17, 2017·2 votes·2,441 views

I don't usually like to demand nerfs for something but after playing a ton of ARAM games, I can safely say Dark Harvest needs tuning for that mode. But why, you ask?

Well, as you know, DH spawns orbs for when minions (Big ones) or champs die. The thing is that with ARAM's fast-paced/kill heavy nature, Dark Harvest becomes an absurd snowball. A snowball the boards could actually justify as neigh unwinnable. While it's a decent game, I'll use my last game as a sample of why Dark Harvest is strong.

Playing as Sivir (a short ranged carry), I had around 70-80 stacks of Dark Harvest at 2 minutes. At eight minutes, I was sitting at over 200 or so.

Make it so champs don't drop as many souls. Make it so the effect is greatly weakened on ranged champs. I don't know. All I know is that in my experience, the team that has a champ which can abuse DH on ARAM is usually the one that wins.

9 Comments

SuperLuigiLXIVNov 17, 20171 votes

ARAM's unbalanced in a lot of ways. They don't tune champions for that mode, why should they have to tune runes?

ModCaptainMårvelousNov 17, 20171 votes

Well, for one thing, you're wrong: Champions have received ARAM specific changes as well as items.

Two, DH is warping the game and I'd rather have Riot nip it in the bud now before it grows into a full-on flower of shit.

SuperLuigiLXIVNov 18, 20171 votes

What champion-specific or rune-specific change was made for ARAM in the past?

Ice Weasel XNov 19, 20171 votes

Champion-specific changes in ARAM:

Bard chimes spawn faster
Nasus gains double Q stacks
Thresh gains double souls
Shyvana's passive stats stack per enemy turret destroyed, due to the lack of dragons
Gangplank gains Silver Serpents passively in addition to those earned from Parrrley
Taliyah's Worked Ground duration is lower
Ornn's ability to forge/purchase items away from the shop has a 5 minute cooldown

The first 5 are so those champs can actually reach certain stat goals. Before those changes, shorter games and higher exp/gold income meant everyone could reach full build before those champs even reached Summoner's Rift mid-game stats for their individual stack values. Taliyah's Worked Ground causes her to lose a lot of her poke ammunition, particularly since the smaller map means a larger percentage of the arena is affected. Ornn was nerfed so he couldn't go on a shopping spree without dying like everyone else.

There have been even more changes to items than to champions for Howling Abyss, some of which were shared with Twisted Treeline.

Tear of the Goddess and its upgrades have a Quick Charge version for earlier maxing
Rod of Ages is also a Quick Charge version for earlier stacking
Numerous items have been added/removed
- Doran's items are now Guardian's items, and only one may be bought at a time
- Support gold items no longer exist
- Vision items went through a few shifts before the current setup with Oracle's Extract and Ghost Poro as our options.
  - Hextech/Arcane Sweeper changed from a mage item to a tank/support item before being removed
  - The Lightbringer changed from a defensive AD item to a physical DoT on-crit item, then became a magical DoT on-crit item before being removed

SuperLuigiLXIVNov 19, 20171 votes

Ah, so all of them were adjusted to account for the basic rules of ARAM, none of them were changed based on power.

Ice Weasel XNov 19, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Ah, so all of them were adjusted to account for the basic rules of ARAM, none of them were changed based on power.

Both, really. The basic rules of ARAM affect the relative power of those specific champions and items. They buffed several as an attempt to bring them in line with other champions in ARAM, and nerfed Ornn so he couldn't reach full build while avoiding death timers. Never being far from the fight means you can level/earn gold faster, so it's almost like having a Zilean passive and support gold item on you if you never get sent back to base.

SuperLuigiLXIVNov 20, 20171 votes

But siege champions whose main weakness is being flanked or otherwise closed in on haven't been nerfed, despite having a FAR easier time in ARAM since they only have to worry about one direction, not every direction. So why haven't they been nerfed for power?

Ice Weasel XNov 20, 20171 votes

{quoted}

But siege champions whose main weakness is being flanked or otherwise closed in on haven't been nerfed, despite having a FAR easier time in ARAM since they only have to worry about one direction, not every direction. So why haven't they been nerfed for power?

As I understand it, Riot's trying to avoid micromanaging balance in ARAM. Part of the ARAM experience is the inherent imbalance. They've hit specific champs, items, and abilities with buffs/nerfs to patch up problems with champ identity. That's something your concern applies to, but in a vaguer sense. Things they probably won't touch directly are base stats and ability scalings. The primary way they've nerfed ability effectiveness for ARAM is the Howling Abyss Aura, which lessens heals in a broad manner. They haven't directly targeted individual champ heals, though.