Does ARAM need an objective? (And counter objective)

ARAM has some elegance in its simplicity, but both the map and the fact that the entire point is to screw over the enemy team in fights (not apply pressure) hems in the meta. I know we've faced off against a team of Lux + Varus + Sona + Blitz + Veigar maybe swap out Nid for one of the damage dealers and Galio for a frontline.

It's not uncommon for actual bridges to have a checkpoint in the middle. So instead of nothingness around the center, maybe there should be a small military outpost. At this outpost, we have a wizened old general who has gone insane from the cold and endless battle. It would fit thematically I think since, well, the map itself only tenuously supports lore. Each side supposed to be representing the Freiljord vs the Watchers, but because each side HAS to be symmetric, there's no distinction and it's all just lost.

But back to the meta. The real strength of ARAM teams is to poke people down and then push them off of the objective. Then take it. Or simply grab them and blow them up. I'm ok with the latter, but the former isn't really fun. Riot has historically introduced items and mechanics to try to alleviate some of the early game of melee. I think adding an objective in the middle (and some small tower tweaks) would alleviate the problem without undermining the spirit of ARAM as a clusterfuck.

The environment

Now, I'm not thinking about adding a new lane. I'm thinking about adding something about as big as the dragon pit but with a bottleneck half as long from Rift's mid to mid tower. Additionally, I want the objective to give a global taunt when aggroed. The reason is because when one team goes in, I want the other team to immediately follow-up if they can. The one-way bottleneck punishes over aggressive teams who go for the objective without having dominance over the field. If you have aoe damage, you can kill the enemy poke comp easily because of this hemming in of targets.

The fight

The objective is a mix. I want the general to be be fairly easy to tank but take a somewhat long time to kill. Perhaps 20 seconds even with 1 or 2 ADC on the dood. Instead, he will be focused on going crazy. He will periodically ignore aggro tables and hit the squishiest target in range for heavy damage (or the target who has dealt the most damage to him!). He will debuff anyone he isn't attacking with an armor and magic resistance shred and also slows their movement speed by a progressively larger amount the less health he has. Ultimately, this means that the objective itself is easy to kill even with only one or two people, but it is very easy for the enemy team to steam roll into this objective and then steal it. The heavier debuff near the end of the fight is tailored specifically to encourage enemies to snipe it and wipe groups instead of play chicken from the get go. Poke teams will lose their precious advantage, and hard engage teams will be severely weakened. The boss gains more hp with how many towers have been taken - how many have been lost.

The Buff

Is not actually a buff. I think something akin to the Poro King would be appropriate. The general walks down the lane and tanks tower hits while protecting his allies. He has an aura that periodically heals allies and also gives increased damage to towers, perhaps similar to Mountain Drake. Actually, that would probably be for the best considering my suggestion for towers.

Towers

Massive armor and MR buff. +100 or +150 and a slight reduction in health. The reason in increasing EHP of the towers is because these teams both dominate the fight and then keep pummeling towers with impunity, essentially racing against the clock to take all the towers before the squishy melee become not so squishy. The main problem however is that many of these same pokers are also adept at kiting and keeping people away, meaning that they don't actually have to fight the clock. With the above aura, the EHP of towers dramatically fall because it's all true damage, melting towers quickly.

Expected results

ARAM account teams cannot simply keep poking people down in order to dominate. They must now beat people off and then go for the objective or else go through the slow, arduous process of tickling tower after tower and letting the weak early game disappear altogether. This incentive to get the boss allows an opportunity for the weakened enemy team to collapse or capitalize on poor decision making, potentially allowing them to get a nice buff and swing the game. And if they fail, the buff from the boss accelerates the game, allowing them to get it over more quickly. Getting the aura should defacto be one free tower if not two no matter whether you are winning or losing. Of course, if you cannot safely get the objective, then your strengths lie in other areas, allowing to win the game as before and deny your opponent the opportunity.

Expected Drawbacks

The swinginess of games would go up significantly. I personally think this is a good idea since ARAM is a clusterfuck. However, I am not representative of the ARAM community. Swinginess can be tuned via the distribution of tower EHP between resistances and raw hp as well as the strength of the aura. Because the boss heavily encourages teamfighting, I don't think this will affect the focus of teamfighting in ARAM. Whether you do it at an inhibitor of at a guardshack with a boss, a teamfight is a teamfight. Slower games for people who do not want to take an objective just cuz is a concern as well. I think it's the largest concern because instead of simply rolling down the lane progressively, you have to go back and forth, interrupting your game flow to meet some mechanical demand of the game. I think a way to mitigate this effect would be to add an ARAM only item with the following attributes:

> > Insignia of War > > 3600 gold (Pickaxe, Blasting Wand, Ruby Crystal, 1450 gold) > > +25 AD > +40 AP > +150 HP > > Unique passive - Heroism > Statistics for this item double if your team has not killed the General. > Unique passive - Independence > Gain 5% armor and magic resistance per lvl against towers only. Disabled if your team has killed the General > Unique Active - Spirit of Madness > Increase Bonus AD or AP (whichever contributes to your tower damage) by 3% per lvl for 5 seconds. 360 second cooldown. Not usable if your team has killed the General. Attacks and spells against an enemy's allied General reduce the cooldown by 18 seconds.

I think Jax would love this item, but the purpose would be to give the losing team yet another manner to comeback, but it also allows a method of winning without dealing with the objective.

Thoughts?