ARAM Issues

Kurø ˉ·Mar 17, 2015·6 votes·1,208 views

Would it be possible for Riot to show a little more love to ARAM as a game mode? I totally understand all the work that goes on at Riot to make League of Legends the awesome game that it is, but making ARAM a full game mode and then not really showing it any love has me frustrated. Of all games that I play I would have to say I play ARAM most often. It helps me force myself to learn about champs I don't play much and it adds a level of, "I'm good at League of Legends, not just a few specific champs" which is totally awesome.

What frustrates me though is that the Howling Abyss as a map had more work put in than the game mode itself. There aren't tweaks to specific champions to keep them from being incredibly op, there aren't team comps that are impossible to get because they are so over powered they win in under 15 minutes of gameplay. I get that it is supposed to be totally random but it doesn't feel that way when an entire team of melee champs is pitted against the most hardcore ranged champs in the entire game. At least 15% of games I play I feel cheated because the game was won n champion select. Even when my team gets a team comp that is incredibly over powered I feel cheated. I've gone >30/50 in an ARAM before in felt like I didn't even have to try because the enemy teams had no chance due to team composition.

Meanwhile there are champions I have never seen lose ARAM at all. Certain champions have innate advantages in a map like the Howling Abyss and this has been completely ignored. Things like Amumu having is stun take up almost the entire width of the lane, all stealth champions have giant advantages, Twisted Fate's ultimate makes stopping him from Backdooring completely impossible, global ultimates like Jinx's, Ashe's, Ezreal's and Karthus' are significantly easier to use in ARAM providing them with distinct advantages as well. Almost every time I play a game where one team has a healer and the other team doesn't the team with the healer wins. There are many more examples of how specific champions and team compositions need to be tweaked to provide a more competitive atmosphere in ARAM games.

As a player who enjoys ARAM very much some tweaks would be greatly appreciated. More attention has been paid to game modes that only lasted a short while whereas ARAM has been around for quite some time now and has been ignored.

Well there is my rant. Do with it what you will. I might not have all the specifics or math backing up my claims but I do have the feelings of many players whoj think that ARAM would be an awesome game mode if only some attention were given to it. Players I play with and against every day feel cheated by this game mode where not only are champions given out by chance but victories seem to be so as well.

7 Comments

Kholdstare13Mar 17, 20155 votes

ARAM is balanced in imbalance. It does not and should not get map-specific balancing. That is for TT and Dominion where picks and counters are an important part of play.

What ARAM should have instead is the full pool of champions open to everyone. Force the odds of each champion showing up on each team to be even, instead of letting ARAM-only accounts ruin that. By doing this, you create a balance over a large number of games. You WILL go up against OP enemies, and you will ALSO have OP allies. The deciding factor will be your skill. Can you capitalize on advantages when you roll them, and counter when the enemy does? I can say there is not a single OP champ that I have not beaten at least once. The bigger the gaps in team comp you are able to overcome, the higher your MMR will climb.

Just unlock the pool so it won't be tainted by smurfs, and punish dodging with a loss to prevent scumming.

Kurø ˉMar 20, 20153 votes

"Balanced in imbalance" sounds deep and awe inspiring and all but it is just an excuse. Have you ever played an ARAM that lasted less than ten minutes? I have, and it was literally because the enemy team comp was so strong and our team comp was so weak that no one could do anything. There was no skill level involved, there was no possibility of winning from the start. I've been on the other end and I still feel cheated out of a game. I didn't win, the system handed me a win. It is uncomfortable and irritating. Opening the full pool of champs is something I see a lot of people ask for and honestly I don't see that as a solution. True randomness sounds good and all, but it makes for an incredibly poor game. Actual randomness will create patterns that people don't like to see. Like when apple had to adjust their truly random song shuffling to a less random one that felt more random by intentionally not putting similar songs one after another. I feel that the biggest solution is to make certain team comps unobtainable.

The biggest issue is that I feel cheated out of half of my games. Win or lose, I feel like I didn't have any say in the matter. And most of the people I'm in game with say they feel similarly.

Kholdstare13Mar 20, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Kuro No Kenshi 0,realm=NA,application-id=LFfTlAky,discussion-id=GBuJuH7G,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2015-03-20T03:59:34.325+0000)

"Balanced in imbalance" sounds deep and awe inspiring and all but it is just an excuse. Have you ever played an ARAM that lasted less than ten minutes? I have, and it was literally because the enemy team comp was so strong and our team comp was so weak that no one could do anything. There was no skill level involved, there was no possibility of winning from the start. I've been on the other end and I still feel cheated out of a game. I didn't win, the system handed me a win. It is uncomfortable and irritating. Opening the full pool of champs is something I see a lot of people ask for and honestly I don't see that as a solution. True randomness sounds good and all, but it makes for an incredibly poor game. Actual randomness will create patterns that people don't like to see. Like when apple had to adjust their truly random song shuffling to a less random one that felt more random by intentionally not putting similar songs one after another. I feel that the biggest solution is to make certain team comps unobtainable.

The biggest issue is that I feel cheated out of half of my games. Win or lose, I feel like I didn't have any say in the matter. And most of the people I'm in game with say they feel similarly.

"feel" good or not, if the odds were truly even you would get those games as both winning and losing automatically the same number of times, and it would cancel out. What's left on your average performance are the number of close games you were able to turn or secure with skill. A card counter in blackjack can still go on a losing streak and wind up down a lot of money. It's the law of large numbers that says if he keeps at it with full skill, his average will be positive.

Kurø ˉMar 21, 20151 votes

I think you're missing the point. I don't want "what's left" to be based on the close games I could secure, I want most of them to be. I'd rather lose a really awesome close game than blindside my opponents with a team comp they could never contend with. The latter situation, even though I've won, is hardly fun and ruins the experience.

The point is that you can try to tell me that it isn't about "my feels" but if your philosophy isn't about providing an enjoyable gaming atmosphere to your playerbase then you probably aren't going to have a successful game. I believe that Riot does, in fact, care about the "feels" of their players and that they will do things to improve our gaming experience. Enough care simply has o be shown.

Kholdstare13Mar 23, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Kuro No Kenshi 0,realm=NA,application-id=LFfTlAky,discussion-id=GBuJuH7G,comment-id=0000000000000000,timestamp=2015-03-21T08:15:16.511+0000)

I think you're missing the point. I don't want "what's left" to be based on the close games I could secure, I want most of them to be. I'd rather lose a really awesome close game than blindside my opponents with a team comp they could never contend with. The latter situation, even though I've won, is hardly fun and ruins the experience.

The point is that you can try to tell me that it isn't about "my feels" but if your philosophy isn't about providing an enjoyable gaming atmosphere to your playerbase then you probably aren't going to have a successful game. I believe that Riot does, in fact, care about the "feels" of their players and that they will do things to improve our gaming experience. Enough care simply has o be shown.

You seem to be asking for a bit much, tho. From what you say, the only thing that would satisfy you would be a full mirror ARAM. Even WITH that, it doesn't make every game a fun experience, only a balanced one. Who wants to be the Shyv on a team of Lux, Morg, Ori, and Syndra, whether the opponents have the same comp or not?

The full open would do a lot over the current state of the game. As it stands, by NOT dodging you end up statistically more likely to go against scummers than be allied with them, and by having a normal champion pool you are more likely to be on the receiving end of ARAM smurf OP spam. Those are the games that are not fun. Those are the first priority for removal. Reducing it to only a few crazy imbalanced matchups while simultaneously providing actual balance to the mode over large samples of games seems like a damn good step to me.

Dessim8Mar 17, 20152 votes

I think a less hidden ELO would make people actually care about it instead of lol at me when I bring up that it might just matter if you want better quality foes.

Other than a draft mode, unlocking the whole pool won't actually make it balanced since it's still a gamble.

TexicantMar 21, 20152 votes

opening the champion pool and a bigger penalty for dodging would go a huge way to making ARAM better. Since many people playing ARAM only unlock op champions, that leads to more games in which one team would have a superior team comp and win at champ select. A larger pool would/should mean the op champs are less likely to be picked, and certainly less of them on one team. You may see a champion a few more times since even those who don't own them would have a chance...but I think it would balance out better