I dislike the ARAM changes. Here's why.

Disclaimers:

• I play A LOT of ARAM. Summoner's Rift just doesn't do it for me, and ARAM is (was) a nice way for me to feel like there was comeback potential that I just don't feel on the Rift. (This is probably due to the fact that ARAM starts with the action, rather than forcing a laning phase)
• Although I'm practically an ARAM only account, I own all of the champions. (And I wish there were more things I could buy with BE! hint hint)
• This is not a comprehensive list of examples/problems. For example, I don't talk about runes or their changes for ARAM.
• I know that this is likely to be an unpopular opinion, but I at least want to give my personal feedback for (hopefully) someone to take into account.

Reasons I dislike the ARAM changes:

1. The Bans.

Honestly, I'm not 100% sure why these were implemented other than the fact it's in Ranked. The purpose of ARAM is to be random, and banning champs is against this. (Some would argue that it allows teams to ban champs that are OP in ARAM, and I'll get to that later.)

A better solution to this would be, as many others have suggested, to open up the entire champion pool. This prevents ARAM-only accounts from utilizing their limited pool to their advantage, and allow ARAM to be a place where people could try a wide variety of different champions. However, if this is too much (possibly for economic purposes), then allowing a wider pool of free champions for ARAM would be a satisfactory alternative.

2. The "Built-in Poke Reduction" and sweeping champ "balances"

As I have stated in my list of disclaimers, I have played A LOT of ARAM, so I'm very aware of how oppressive poke is. Given that the person knows how to play the champion, hyper-mobility champions (Zed, Kayn, etc.), tanks and/or champs that have naturally high health (specifically ones that can build damage [looking at you Darius and Nasus]) have a much bigger advantage on this map, just generally. On top of that, recent patches have made burst damage a massive problem, not just in ARAM, but on the Rift as well. It's a burst or be bursted meta, whether I like it or not.

That being said, this blanket poke-reduction limits almost ALL ranged champions, even those who weren't OP nor oppressive in the first place. It feels like a poorly researched and a band-aid solution to a much bigger problem: All of the champions are meant to be played on a much bigger map that allowed for vastly different play-styles and mobility than Howling Abyss (and, as per the event, Butcher's Bridge). Hyper -mobile champs, particularly assassins, stand to gain a lot from this, as they can jump in and out very quickly and run 900 units away with little to no issue, taking significantly reduced damage and receiving almost no punishment for dives that would, typically, result in their death. Crowd-control is supposed to stop these champions, and it does! The problem is almost every single champion has some sort of CC. It's not unique like it was in the older versions of League, and it means that it's likely every champion on the enemy team has at least the same amount of CC that your team does and will stop the champions not affected by the poke reduction (i.e. melee and mid-range champions) and your long-range teammates will look on as their abilities do a lovely no damage. On top of that, some ranged champions have abilities that only stay within the 900 unit range (Jinx's zapper being one I can think of off the top of my head), so they don't suffer from the poke reduction and still do massive amounts of damage.

The sweeping champion changes further highlight the poor planning and rushed state of this solution. The changes are, largely, general changes as opposed to individual champion changes. It looks like whichever team made the changes looked at the forum or other places where they receive feedback, gathered the top 20 champions that people complained were OP and the top 20 champions people said were under-powered in ARAM, did no research, and said, "Sounds like a fine list!" and gave damage dealth or taken buffs/nerfs depending on which list they were on. This, stacked on top of the fact there is built in poke reduction now, gives hard nerfs to several champions and strong buffs to others, which unbalances the game more.

While I have my own personal stance on which champs they did or did not buff/nerf, as well as if I agree with them or not, the fact stands that the changes feel uncaring. All permanent game modes deserve time and effort put into it, not just SR (shoutout to all you Twisted Treeline players!!).

3. The new items and summoner spell

This is more of a personal opinion than the rest of this post. I feel like the Ghostwalker boots and the Mariner's Vengeance item just further unbalances the game, especially given all of the other changes. ARAM did not need a guardian's angel item (especially since it means that Sion, essentially, gets to use his passive twice), Warmog's was only a problem on certain champions (still looking at you Darius [but also Garen and Mundo]), and Ghostwalkers gives more mobility to already hyper-mobile champions.

Side disclaimer: I'm actually not too big of an opponent of the Warmog's changes, I just hate how strong it is on champions with already high health regen.

4. "Fewer Decided Games & Fewer Drawn-Out Games"

I don't think there was anything wrong with ARAM game times. Sure, I ran into a few that went 30+ minutes, but those were still really intense games and I had fun. It felt like our teams were evenly matched and it was a legitimate challenge, not a long drawn out death. With the changes to minions and increased damage to towers, it feels like there's no point to towers anymore. Why even have them? (That's not a suggestion, it's a complaint) On top of this, there were the sweeping champion changes (mentioned above), so it feels like games are MORE decided than they were before the changes!

I do understand people are looking for a quick ARAM mode, however. Honestly, I thought that's what Nexus Blitz was supposed to be. My solution for this would make two versions of ARAM: One where the short games are actively enforced and one where ARAM is played just as it was, but this adds another game mode for Riot to focus on, which may be difficult for their teams.

Thank you for reading!

Tl;dr: I don't like the ARAM changes. They feel uncaring, poorly researched, and rushed. In addition, too many ARAM changes were implemented at once to really be useful in balancing ARAM, especially since, if Riot really wants to keep improving ARAM, data collected from these "experimental changes" will be skewed/difficult to interpret because they pushed too much at once.