ARAM suggestion - break free from lack of control

SanKakU··3 votes·705 views

The Problem

So, there is a lot of complaining over the years about how players that make accounts specifically for playing ARAM can have an advantage over other players. And on top of that, they can reroll the free to play for the week champions to get the ones they own, but very often they may not have to worry about it since players with fewer champions owned are often ones to play ARAM and so the experienced players not only get to walk all over the new players that get stuck with the free champions, but they generally get to do it with champions that they approve of with their talents and knowledge. And if all else fails, depending on the player's priorities, they may dodge the game and accept the penalty involved with doing that.

Obviously this can make the games feel unfair for players that aren't interested in manipulating chance and would rather just get a game going. The methods available now to manipulate the chance 'legitimately' at least in my mind are first off rerolling your champion every so often. BORING. The other method is swapping your champion with another player. It's a nice idea but I feel like it's kind of odd because a lot of players will just reroll a champion you might want because they think it's too 'weak' to allow their ally to play it. They also might swap you just to take away your champion because they think their champ will be better for you, and then they will reroll the champion you just gave up to them. Which can make it appear to the player that gave up their champion like that player doesn't give a damn about their opinion.

If the above legitimate options were enough, why are there dodges(you can't dodge accidentally, you have to leave the game...in other modes you might dodge accidentally by failing to select your champion but in ARAM it is selected for you)? And why are people seemingly ALWAYS complaining about ARAM accounts with high win rates? It seems to me that the legitimate means of control we have over our random picks is not enough.

The Suggestion

So what would happen with my idea? A player that owns a majority or all of the champions can actually perhaps have an advantage over someone using the infamous ARAM-only account. It depends on their skill in composing something akin to a mastery page or a rune page. It is the ARAM champion pool page.

What they'll do is select the champions of their choice that they own to play specifically in ARAM games.The game can't select champions randomly for them outside of that champion pool. Newer players might not have access to the champion pool page until they own enough of the champions.

What would the number of champions in the pool be? If I had access to the data on unlocked champions for ARAM top players I could make an educated estimate for an appropriate minimum pool count. The maximum pool count could be double it for simplicity's sake. Even though I am sure there are players that will want to not have to bother with rotating their champion pool page around, if they truly want to play every champion in that mode, they'll make the effort. And along the way they might realize that it is better to minimize the pool a lot.

Giving a player control over their own champion pool for ARAM means that a player on his original account can still compete with ARAM-only accounts. On top of that, it can force players that rush to buy every champion to play better, or at least give them a very large hint on how they can optimize their experience to improve their chances of winning.

The Reasoning

In another game mode, we have so much more control than we used to. We already can select our position, whether it's top, mid, bot, jungle, or support. Then we can declare our champion. The point is I'm someone that's enjoying the game more due to it. And I know I'm not alone. Giving players a random champion select pool to throw champions into and out of would surely make the game more enjoyable for myself and others.

Even players that make ARAM-only accounts could change their mind about some champions. Once they've bought their champions, they are forever in the pool and if they're to be thrown out, what do you expect them to do, use reroll and swap? They're going to run out of rerolls and for reasons already explained, swap may be a flawed option. With the pool page, everyone can take out a champion they don't want to play in ARAM anymore and replace them with something more appropriate and continue on their quest for more wins. It's a lot more efficient than making another ARAM-only account.

5 Comments

Bullnacs2 votes

I like this idea better than the unlock all champs in ARAM option.

I actually just posted some thoughts yesterday about some of the potential drawbacks for some players with the unlock all champs option.

This idea potentially accounts for the concerns with the ARAM only accounts as well as the concerns I raised about those with limited time to dedicate to becoming competent on a large pool of champs.

With a large enough player pool you can keep the OP champs in check while protecting more general accounts from having to play champs that they are either not good at or are poor champs for the gamemode.

SanKakU2 votes

Thanks for the link, yes I have to agree with a certain...apprehension you appear to have when it comes to receiving a champion you do not know much about. I mean back in the old days I could appreciate being adventurous but lately I'm doing what I can to improve my win rate, regardless of the mode I'm playing.

Being able to block out free to play champs for older players that don't spend much money/time on the game would be very nice for them and they could do that if they owned enough champions by using the random champion selection pool page. I don't have anything against the free to play champion rotation at all, I enjoy taking advantage of it when there's a champion that I don't have enough IP for and I enjoy playing it. Before the new draft mode really sung to me I would sometimes only come to play League of Legends when there was a particular champion that I liked but didn't own but was free to play.

Now I play regularly and I remember ARAM felt like a low-pressure mode for me to practice champions I didn't know back then and I think a lot of people may feel that way. But not everyone is of the same opinion, especially as time goes by and they grow as a player. These are "free to play" champions...not "forced to play" champions. Players shouldn't feel forced to play them just because they're in the rotation.

But some might argue that it's good to push upon someone the decision to play a champion they don't know. I think ARAM as a game mode doesn't need to do this anymore, at least not if the player owns enough champions. We now have the hextech crafting system. I have to buy new champs and get new runes in order to get those chests on champs that I haven't got them for yet. It might be even harder for a player to get those chests when they have zero control over the pool. With my idea, you can rotate out champions you've already earned chests for in ARAM.

Bullnacs1 votes

With 4 kids at home, the youngest of which is 2 yrs old, I have limited time that I can play a game without a pause button. I just don't have enough time to play this game and not have fun because I have been thrown on a champ I do not know.

I own 38 champs and would be more than happy to keep 34-35 of them in an ARAM pool with no rerolls.

Minarde2 votes

The downside to this idea is that it'd decimate champ variety in ARAM. Every MMR bracket would essentially become ten ARAM-only accounts every game. You'd end up seeing the same champs game after game after game, even more so than now.

This would be a major problem because randomness is a significant factor in ARAM's longevity. Unfortunately, Riot tends to neglect every map besides SR, so the strong champs on ARAM has pretty much remained the same from year to year. Having mostly the same champs in every game for years would quickly make ARAM feel stale and stagnant. Even if you personally switch up your champ pool, you'd have to convince everyone else to do so too, or else just run into nine "ARAM-only accounts" every game.

SanKakU2 votes

If the number of champions we see is too few then we just raise the minimum pool count. I think you misunderstood what I meant by how big the pool should be. I'm not suggesting that the exact number of champions owned by the average ARAM-only account be used, dear no. I didn't specify a number. I simply told I'd need a lot of additional data and after receiving it I could make an educated guess on what number would be appropriate.

It's unclear to me your opinion on how ARAM games ought to be played but if you prefer the pool to be larger, I'm sure you're not alone. I'm sure many ARAM players are exploiting ARAM-only accounts to get unfair matchups but on the other hand they might be doing so merely because they can get very frustrated by the lack of control they would have on their original account. If you appreciate that lack of control so much, that's understandable. I think the vast majority of exploiters would rather have access to all of the champions they own on their original account and make a pool for random selection than be bothered to grind IP for the really good ARAM champs. You do after all still have to worry about either rolling into free for the week champions or dodging, and either way you look at it, you're wasting time.

It is my belief that someone that is exploiting is doing it primarily because they don't want to be frustrated. Whether it's ill will or not is irrelevant. They will accept a certain lack of an advantage over other players(a larger pool than they would personally prefer) in order to not have to work so hard to get an advantage through just identifying what is strong and using it rather than not only identifying it but then grinding for it again or even just straight up throwing money at the mode to get that to happen.

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