ARAM: Discussion (and poll!): Do healers ruin games?

The Punchline··1 votes·1,146 views

Alright, so to start I'm going to throw out here that I know the game is balanced particularly around Summoner's Rift 5v5 ranked gameplay. That being said, they have in the past made changes specific to Twisted Treeline & Dominion, so this post isn't entirely without foundation.

The big thing I'm wondering here is, are there plans to do anything about the 'healer situation' in ARAMs? Currently, it has been my experience that any team fortunate enough to get a healer (in particular, Sona and New Raka) tends to glide along to an easy, unstoppable victory, because they simply cannot be poked down, an essential part of the pre-engage of ARAM combat. You can't soften up a rapidly, infinitely self-repairing wall, especially not if they feature heavily ranged presence themselves, and most healers build full AP, giving themselves massive counter-poke in their own right. Looking at you, Soraka Q.

What I would like to see is some kind of tweaks to the potency of healing in Howling Abyss to tone down the free win nature of getting one of these uber-healers. I shouldn't look at a team and go:

"OK, Lux. We can handle that. Dodge skillshots. Hm, Cait & Jinx, well that's annoying, gotta burn them down fast.. Oh, Garen, we have some CC we can stop him while we get th-- Oh hell, they have Sona(/Soraka/Karma/Nami/etc.). GG guys."

An otherwise strategic, interesting battle immediately becomes a war of attrition against heals/shields. One that will without a doubt be lost, especially if your team features primarily melee champions, or just plain doesn't have a healer, too.

5 Comments

SmokingPuffin4 votes

I don't think ARAM is a balanced thing. I come into a game of ARAM with the expectation the game won't be fair and that's part of the fun.

To the extent that there is a problem with imbalance in ARAM, I think the problem isn't with the healers, it's with the elite poke champions. Way more worried about the existence of Ziggs on their team than Sona.

IRuleAll2 votes

I dont think healers are nearly as bad as a team with god poke. I'd face a team with normal poke and a healer all day over a team with, ziggs, lux, varus, morg, and a tank.

The Punchline2 votes

I don't think healers are nearly as bad as a team with god poke. I'd face a team with normal poke and a healer all day over a team with, Ziggs, Lux, Varus, Morg, and a tank.

In a case like that, I'd kind of laugh it off and chalk it up to bad luck with comps. Sometimes a team just gets seeded with a really lucky group of long range AP pokers, and possibly a good protector tank (Shen/Rammus, their ilk.)

But at least you have a choice there, some strategy.. build some MR, dodge as much poke as you can, and commit when possible. With a healer, no matter how much counter-poke you throw out, it's all for nothing. You can't engage against them at any point without suffering huge losses, and watching their losses patched up in an instant. Additionally, building MR as in the above example leaves your damage severely gimped. Not a huge issue against a Ziggs/Lux/Varus/Morg/Tank comp because they can't do a whole lot to self heal other than Spell Vamp. Throw them a healer though? And your gimped damage becomes effectively no damage VERY quickly.

Tom Servo1 votes

I've been on teams that have crushed vs healers and I've been on teams that have been crushed by healers. Sometimes you get a crappy comp vs an amazing comp, sometimes it's the opposite. I think most of the time it's how well your team gels together. Right now, my biggest annoyance with ARAM is that I seem to get the same champs over and over and over. It's supposed to be random, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it.

Regardless, ARAM is my favorite mode and I play it almost exclusively.

The Punchline2 votes

Right now, my biggest annoyance with ARAM is that I seem to get the same champs over and over and over. It's supposed to be random, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it.

I've been noticing this as well. I usually queue up with a friend for ARAM for several games each evening, and he's had two nights in a row where he gets Cass 2-4 games in a row.. I seem to get the same 6-10 champions over and over for the past 2 weeks.. Kinda weird considering I own almost 90 champions.

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