Boards›Maps & Modes

I Wanna Talk About ARAM

Artist Bogrim·10/7/2014, 3:05:22 PM·10 votes·1,668 views

ARAM is my favorite game mode. It's fun because it's random and people take it less serious, and you get to play a ton of different champions that otherwise aren't so strong in Summoner's Rift.

But I feel like the game mode is suffering and there are a lot of things that could be done to improve on it. For example:

1) Dodges and Rerolls

People frequently leave ARAM during Champion selection. Sometimes I have to retry 4-5 times before I can actually get into a game. And it's really no fun to get a champion you'd love to play, only to watch the client return to the front page 10 seconds before the game was about to launch.

I feel like this mostly comes down to how rerolls work. A bad team comp often makes people dodge, and people usually end up spending their rerolls faster than they can get them back.

Suggestion: Give teams a set amount of rerolls, instead of players having individual rerolls. Each team would have somewhere between 2 and 3 rerolls per game and when you request a reroll, the rest of the team can vote on whether they agree with your reroll or not. Not only would this help horrible team compositions, but also give players a chance to trade before they reroll ("hey I'm good with LeBlanc, you can just trade me her").

2) ARAM Accounts

It's no secret that there are certain champions that are just stronger in ARAM than others (Ziggs and Sona, I'm looking at you two) and you can actually significantly increase your win rate by leveling a seperate ARAM account where you only buy Champions of top tier to "increase your odds".

I'm leveling one at the moment and the difference is huge. But at the same time I'm kind of sorry it's so much more fun to play on my ARAM account because my main account is the one with all the skins on. I can't help but think it would be beneficial for everyone, both the players without ARAM accounts, the players with ARAM accounts as well as Riot if a change was made to lessen the benefit of an ARAM account. Players without ARAM accounts wouldn't be at advantage, players with ARAM accounts could play on their main account and Riot would likely profit from players buying skins for more champions on their main account.

Suggestion: The best way to solve this would be to make all Champions available in the ARAM pool, including the ones you don't have that aren't free to play either. That way ARAM would truly be All Random.

3) Disconnect issues

This is a smaller issue that I'd still like to point out because I sincerely believe it would improve the player experience in ARAM!

It truly sucks when a player DCs from your team in ARAM because there really is nothing you can do about it. But the difference between ARAM and Summoner's Rift is that ARAM matches don't usually last as long so first being able to surrender at 20 minutes usually means you can't surrender at all. And since you're always team fighting, the entire team is affected by it instead of just a single lane or lost jungle pressure.

Suggestion: Surrender at 10 minutes instead of 20 would do miles for ARAM matches.

Thanks for reading my thread! Do you agree or disagree with my issues? Do you think there are any other issues that should be addressed? Please share your own thoughts!

11 Comments

3ngin33r10/7/2014, 3:08:22 PM6 votes

All champs available no re-rolls at all, 10 min surrender

Azlagor10/8/2014, 2:48:59 PM6 votes

I totally agree, having 2 rerolls for the entier team instead of single persons might help(or even just 1). Making all champs aviable really should happen to shut down aram-only accs and to increase deversity in aram.

I personally wouldn'T be sad if rerolls get removed completly and leaver would get punished harder. One of the most fun things in ararm is figthing with a more bruiser/tank comb vs another bruiser/tank comb. But thx to rerolls, u only encounter poke/disengage setups as everone rerolls every champion that dows not fit to poke/reroll, and ig u ever don'T do so, u play as the only melee out of 10 vs a poke comb and that sucks. Champions like udyr only suck in ararm if they face a ranged poke and kite setup, if ur enemys would need to come close aswell, udyr(or any other true melee) would work perfectly fine And without rerolls, the chances of figthing other melees would be singificantly higher.

CLG Factor10/7/2014, 3:08:54 PM3 votes

And can we have ranked ARAM?

MCSanctuary10/8/2014, 2:12:39 PM2 votes

Here's an idea. How about hour long bans for dodgers for ruining the whole idea of ALL RANDOM.

FOODFOOD10/8/2014, 7:44:59 PM2 votes

The more and more I play and think about it, the more I agree with the All-Champs-Unlocked idea for ARAM. While I've gotten pretty good at dealing with Ziggs, Lux, Sona, Varus, etc... I'm really getting bored seeing them. Also, doing so would change the algorithm for Rerolls, so there would need to be a new RR system in place.

I like the team RR idea.

Here's my idea on it:

-Each player gets 1 individual RR per match. -Each team can vote to RR the entire team. 4 votes wins, and the whole team gets new champs.

Jeddite10/7/2014, 3:41:48 PM1 votes

ITT: Complaining about queue-dodging, then wanting the entire champion pool unlocked for ARAM. Increasing the likelihood of a player random'ing an "undesired" or "under-powered" champion isn't going to reduce queue-dodging -- it will increase queue-dodging. This short-sighted non-suggestion always comes from somebody who put zero long-term thought into the ramifications of the change.

Unlocking all champions isn't going to result in more "balanced" teams that people suggest. While it may result in the statistical likelihood of Fiddlestick+Sona+Varus+Ziggs+Caitlyn teams, those teams are still going to happen. Why? Because champions like Aatrox, Sejuani and Vi are still undesired in ARAM, so players are going to re-roll a "weak" champion in favor of a "strong" champion.

Unlocking all champions would also encourage the "LOL IT'S JUST ARAM" line of thinking and result in people when stuck with an undesired or unfamiliar champion. This will result in poor performance -- either because a player is completely unfamiliar with their assigned champion, or because the player isn't interesting in trying to learn a new champion on the fly.

10-minute surrender time is also unnecessary. This is something desired by the bronze-level of ARAM MMR (which is a thing, kids -- look it up) because they don't know how to win against a poke-heavy team and end up pushed to their inhibitor by the 10-minute mark and want to give up, because that's easier than learning how to deal with poke-teams.

Ranked ARAM isn't happening. If Dominion can't have a ranked mode, then ARAM certainly won't ever have ranked. Best case scenario is Riot enabled a semi-draft mode style. Captains each ban 3 champions, then teams are randomly assigned their champions. Banned champions cannot be received via re-rolls. However, as Riot has done little to support ARAM over ~2 years, this is unlikely to happen. Then there's the all-too-likely possibility that players who complain about Ziggs and Sona (who are downright infuriating to deal with) don't even queue-up for this mode. Howefver, the ability to ban "OP" champions is a more feasible solution than unlocking the entire ARAM pool.

Valiant Hero10/11/2014, 2:26:03 AM1 votes

Gentlemen, I think we can all agree

All champions unlocked NO rerolls 10 minute surrender Another players D/C no longer results in a loss for you Balance the top tier Varus half damage Q Sona half heal ziggs half dmg etc

Instead of Final destination No items Varus only Varus Varus Varus Varus Varus VS Varus Varus Varus Varus Varus

DeynaTaggerung10/10/2014, 5:08:13 PM1 votes

Although I can see how making all the champs available for ARAM may be a bit crazy from riot's side it seems it would only have positive effects to the game mode. The idea of ARAM is to give a shot at learning some of the mechanics of champions you don't normally play. It'd also help force some people to learn about new champions. Since there'd be champions you may not know the kit for it'd be good if there was added in a screen showing the champion's kit and the tips. This could be shown in the lobby, and during load in??? It'd be kind of like a supplement to free week champions, to allow people to get a chance with all types of champs and not just their mains. ARAM ranked is silly because so much of what makes ARAM fun is just knowing it's not serious and challenging yourself with an unfamiliar champion you don't expect yourself to execute perfectly. Broadening horizons.

SSLRranma10/7/2014, 10:40:02 PM1 votes

I think One team reroll(Reroll entire team) should be an option in addition to two individual options. Whole team needs to vote for that reroll.

Making all champions available is a BAD move. Financially for riot, and bad for the players as well. I'd say if anything, More champs need to be free in general each week. Add 3 more champs in, and from the 1350 IP range and maybe one higher or lower. Even if it's just for ARAM.

As for dodging, I would say some kind of counter that keeps track of dodging per week and scales queue times up for frequent dodging, and stiffer penalties for doing in a row.