So I love Snowball on ARAM, but...

Thrackerzod·May 20, 2015·2 votes·830 views

So like the title says, I love Snowball. Riot did good adding it to regular ARAMS. That said, I have two major issues with it. One to do with balance, the other to do with the idiots on my/their team.

First, the balance issue. A few champions are completely, insanely, unfairly nutballs broken with Mark/Dash. Those would be anyone with ways to escape the immediate retaliation from going in on Snowball. LeBlanc and Zed just gibbing someone then zipping out because they had a teleport set up is insane. (Easy fix there, by the way, is to just make it so going in on Snowball erases your Distortions/Living Shadows already out.) But that's actually a minor issue because you only see it so often.

Now let's talk about what REALLY rustles my jimmies with Snowball. If you are a squishy with range on par with a howitzer , no escapes, and generally just no incentives to be closer than is strictly necessary to the enemy (coughcough cough ), DON'T. TAKE. SNOWBALL. Seriously don't. I don't mind if you want to mess around in ARAMs since that's what they're for, but that's just straight up feeding.

5 Comments

Drunk RummateMay 20, 20159 votes

Sad thing about Mark/Dash is that it's actually still very efficient on all the champions you listed to never take it.

Why? Invulnerability frames, true damage, vision, and mobility.

You can get back to lane faster by tagging a minion. You can dodge a skillshot by jumping to the champion you're dueling (I've dodged Ahri charms, Sion Qs, etc like this before, it's not hard) It's extra poke damage and waveclear, and extra damage in a fight. If you cast it on cooldown, it does more damage than ignite in less than the cooldown of ignite. It grants you vision allowing you to check bushes without putting yourself in danger.

There's no reason not to take snowball! And that is a problem.

ThrackerzodMay 20, 20152 votes

I admit I hadn't thought about its damage relative to Ignite, but I'd still rather have something like Heal, Clarity, or Barrier instead. Besides that and the vision the other benefits get pretty situational.

Drunk RummateMay 20, 20153 votes

{quoted}

I admit I hadn't thought about its damage relative to Ignite, but I'd still rather have something like Heal, Clarity, or Barrier instead. Besides that and the vision the other benefits get pretty situational.

Idk I find myself using it to get to lane faster probably 7/10 times. I also always try to tag someone in a fight just in case I need the invulnerability. I probably end up using it for that purpose at least once per game regardless of the champion I'm playing.

I hate the damn thing though. As useful as it is, I think it's just silly. I'd just as soon remove it, but they at least need to trim it down significantly. Vision and invulnerability frames would be good to remove. Even Lee can be CC'd out of his kick animation on Q, why should these be an exception?

FaRmErXMay 21, 20153 votes

i take it 10/10 games I play and I am one of the vocal minority who want it removed ( or have a another markless queue )

bens on 28May 21, 20153 votes

I usually take mark/dash on all of the above. soraka i usually get exhaust unless my team has a lot of cc already. For the reasons Nasreth said below. But also as a squishy hero playing in the back, it gives you the option to play VERY far back and then enter a team-fight when it's safe. For example on Jinx, Cait, Vel, MF, and especially Lux, Kog'maw, Xerath... they can use their long range ults from way long range and then jump in the fight after (hopefully when enemies are running). And hopefully with all of the chaos, the assassins won't even see you. Janna is awesome with mark/dash... and a lot of fun.