Latest ARAM Changes and thoughts

All they need to do is give it more CD (the current cooldown is a joke) and lower the range. Oh, and take away the random TRUE damage.

I have a lot of champions and do not play ranked or classic on my account. I play ARAM only and special event maps. I don't have any other accounts because to be honest - I don't enjoy the community in Classic or Ranked. This new spell has caused a lot of issues already. I played two games as ADC characters and I've never had so many issues with it. Now everyone is rerolling ranged champions to melee in order to win. This isn't the way ARAM was meant to be played. They took out the entire idea of team comp. There is no need for tanks because the stun on the spell allows you to go in automatically and shred through anyone as melee. What's even worse is that any sort of ults - such as Varus and Sona - don't affect anyone coming in on a snowball. More than 2-3 times in a match, I attempted to ult the Fiora and Wukong as soon as I was out of the stun and it didn't affect them. So it was a wasted ult and I died anyways. I have spoken to more than a few people about this new change and all have agreed that it needs removed or nerfed. I understand melee wanted some sort of poke - but this is too much.

It doesn't need to be removed.

It needs to be balanced.

20 second cooldown and 3/4 screen range for an instant teleport to something? Yeah...no.

Honestly I think it was an unnecessary addition, especially with Warmogs and RoA/RG being strong early buys for tanks who need to sustain.

The mark summoner spell does more than allow them to engage, it gives them unnecessary sticking power which may have been intentionally left out of their champion's kit. I'm also probably not the first to think that a Galio flying into your team like Lee Sin is a BAD mechanic to have.

Furthermore, what's with the RANGE on this thing? It's like 3x a nidalee spear in distance. If you're going to leave it in, increase the cooldown and decrease the range substantially... to like 600 range not 3500 range.

Why do you even concider it to be bad? YOU most likely play ARAM on a special account, using only champions that are good on Howling Abyss. That would explain the fact that YOU don't want tanks and melee champions terrible engages to have a place in the map.

It is the best thing that ARAM has recieved (except for the launch of Howling Abyss, giving ARAM a queue for itself). I have around 1600 ARAM matches, I have every champion in the game and I am really happy that The Legend of the Poro King influenced a major gamemode after its limited duration in League. I no longer don't care if I get Udyr, Skarner, Shyvana etc. because now they're playable, now I can finally have a chance against a poke comp that usually destroys us early.

The "Mark/Dash" is also a major reason that I played around 40 games of Legend of the Poro King. Because it felt good to use champions that are concidered bad, and go up against all the poke and destroy them. ARAM has never been better compared to how it is at this point.

During a FGM, it was a cool, flavorful addition that everyone knew wasn't going to be around forever. However, like some others have said, I, too, primarily play ARAM (Not on a smurf, because I can't stand playing against the same people over and over, so I'm not going to do that myself) and as a constant spell choice, for a permanent game mode, something about it has to change if it's going to stay.

In the few games I've played since the patch I have been on both sides of a team that is able to spam the spell to ridiculousness. I just finished a game where I was berated for focusing Garen and Wukong, but they both spammed the snowball til someone on the backline got hit and then it was a free for all mad-house. And there's a lot of discussion about how it makes tanks more viable.

This is true, I've seen Ali and Gali fly into the middle of an entire team to initiate, but the problem is many tanks/bruisers/fighters are meant not to just soak up damage but soften and set up teams for team fights. And they could already do that before. I've flashed as Galio, I've WQ'ed with Alistar, heck I even somehow went positive in my first ARAM as Udyr. But part of the success, I believe, is that you have to do the best with what team you're given.

When a Nunu takes out half the OP team cuz they were overconfident and face-checked the brush, he did it without an infinitely long dash. When a Galio, or Wukong, or [insert melee tank/bruiser here] waits at the front line, soaking up a little damage here and there waiting for their time to strike, they do it by strategizing with their team. Udyr, Skarner, all of them the same way.

Take that as you will, whether it has merit or I'm just a noob with no credentials (i know match histories and levels will be checked), but while not every team will be setup perfectly, with ARAM there is a good chance that some number of champs on either side will be able to use the distance and the dive potential abusively.

Plus, with the spell as is, it becomes much more prone to abuse once a team gets ahead. A team that's lacking a tower, for example, is less profitable with the mark/dash than the team that took it, since typically that would be suicide to jump into them (not saying certain games don't warrant it; everyone loves a turn around) but the winning team has a MUCH longer engage now once the tower is down and gets a much greater benefit to spamming the snowball.

Longer cooldown, shorter distance; I don't know the proper way to fix it. But I feel that assassin's getting twice their normal engage and tanks being able to immediately lock down backlines from that distance needs more "counterplay" (not sure how I feel about that word) than just "Dodge it..." While it may not do the damage that Nid spears do, it's ARAM, eventually someone is going to get hit, and best case scenario, assuming you have a tank, is that they take all of them that do hit.

I'm not going to say that I won't play LoL anymore, I've played it all day long today despite these feelings. But there's a pretty definitive split, it seems, among people who like and dislike the snowball and I'd hate to see my only game mode turn into something that's just not worth it.

That's just my two cents. (Will say though, that I'm glad to see a lot of you being pretty level headed in your discussion)

Disagree. Mark is a great addition to make the mode more fun for all champions.

The summoner spell is a fine addition to ARAM. It allows champions like to actually be usable and not 100% reroll status.

A range nerf would be fine though, make it about the range of Lee sin's Q and I have a feeling it will be just fine.

Warmog was a great addition for tanks.

Mark just ruined the game entirely.

I am against Mark. Its not a good move for ARAM. It's fun in Poro mode though. :)

I think they should have a separate mode for mark, and one that does not have mark. This way it should be easier to filter the players who want to play as it was without it, and those who actually want to play with it available. (of course it would still be possible to play in the mode with it available and choose to not set it as a summoner spell yourself) This way both sides of the argument should be appeased, those who are unhappy with it and those who think it's awesome stuff.

The only people complaining about this are people that play only poke champs and hate losing cause now it's possible for them to.

Mark is a good introduction for ARAM. It actually gives melee threat on champions who poke from far away. I feel like most people who are complaining about this are people who have ARAM only accounts and now their "elite" champion pool can't oppress all the other champions as easily.

Consider these champions. While not all to the same extent, all these champions can poke from an extremely far range. They offer high damage and can kill you without you ever seeing them on your screen. Also, a lot of ARAM only accounts will most likely buy these champions, as they offer a lot of firepower with no danger to the user.

Now consider these champions. Pretty much bottom of the barrel in ARAM with not much ability to do anything except run around and take damage. I'm not saying these are all bad, but put them up against my first list and they will be next to useless. Even with the mark ability, it doesn't immediately make these champions viable, except now it at least offers them a way to get into the enemy without having to get . Also, even IF you rush this item, it will still take awhile to get it and if your team is losing, it will take even longer, your team losing both towers and dying, accelerating the other teams gold/xp, meaning that even IF you can purchase RG, their lead should be able to see them through a good engage on your part. at least provides a chance for them to get in. Think of it this way. Mark basically gives the champion "poke". Them landing their "poke" allows them a chance to go in and dump on you, which is basically what the ranged champion is doing with their skillset.

I think, mark/dash is good for ARAM. People just need to change their behaviours. No more standing like retard and just throwing your poke at melee, because they can't catch you. No more trolling with 1v5 poke, because you're Nidalee and they can never ever touch you. No more having poke/heal team and slooowly abusing it to poke and win.
ARAM is no longer easy mode, if you got OP poke champion. Now you also have to dodge skillshots or be ready to team fight.

Is something, I'd make the missle speed slower, CD a bit higher or damage deleted. But the spell needs to stay.

To be completely fair to Riot, ARAM gets completely boring when everyone utilizes the same strategy. Poke, poke, poke, tower dive! x5

Mark allows for a unique game experience for everyone, not to mention slapping those people on the face who only have those dumb ARAM-only smurf accounts.

ARAM is my favourite game mode. I fully approve of Mark. Get over yourself.

PS: Mark is a snowball. Who doesn't want a snowball fight? :P

I like the chaos.

I don't think it should stay, but I'm 1000000% sure the developers at Riot who thought this was a good idea aren't going to remove it because they obviously don't give a shit. As such, in my opinion the best and only fix is to:

1. Keep the range.
2. Remove the True Damage.
3. Increase Cooldown to 30sec without refund mechanic.
4. Remove optional second activation of Dash, and instead you straight up dash.

This actually makes it so there is skill involved, and not 5 people sitting and waiting for it to land every 20 seconds, and makes it so that only people playing champions that actually needed the dash for engaging and viable tool. That gives a disincentive to champions like Akali, Kat, Fid, Yi etc who didn't need it before the snowball was added, but at the same time if they choose to use it as a summoner spell ( remember for balance purposes this taking up a summoner spell should be a weighted option not a must have on all champions) it makes it so they can't haphazardly chuck snowballs until it's obviously in their favor, which most of the time it is, to execute the second activation.

This is my 2 cents on the situation coming from someone who plays ARAM a lot and on a supposedly high matchmaking.