Is it really that hard to nerf ARAM champs like once a year?

Lord Macaroni·Sep 26, 2015·2 votes·759 views

Just tone down the damage or raise mana costs for these champs once and then you never have to balance for ARAM ever again.

Everything else is fine and has counterplay.

14 Comments

HabitzSep 26, 20152 votes

I'm not a fan of different maps having different stats. Aram is a great opportunity for people to try new champs and they shouldn't be given a false impression on how that champ will work in other game modes.

MinardeSep 26, 20151 votes

The downside to that ideal is that you're sacrificing one mode's balance for the sake of the other game modes. If there's a champ warping balance or a champ heavily struggling, it's reasonable to adjust stats a bit to keep a game mode healthy. Riot tried doing the "No map-specific balancing because game clarity" in the past, but even they eventually realized that philosophy doesn't work.

MirkwoodiaSep 28, 20152 votes

There was crying, I skipped that and just wanted to say Riot said they didn't want to put anybody else to work on alternate maps other than SR because thats the main game. I think MWAB just covers all the alternate maps and makes sure they don't break, and he's probably got a lot to do, since he said something like...

"Every new thing needs to work with all the old things so the game doesn't break" or i cant remember exactly, but one other thing was Morello trying to limit as much map-specific balancing as possible. And I saw a TON of map specific changes removed from Dominion back then. Didnt like it, the purpose was to simplify the game for SR players, made me sad

MintChipHomieLixSep 26, 20151 votes

Yeah nerf champs for a random format... that makes sense..... oh wait no it doesn't quit crying.

Lord MacaroniSep 26, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Yeah nerf champs for a random format... that makes sense..... oh wait no it doesn't quit crying.

They can individually balance for separate maps, but thanks for your contribution. It's just they aren't popular enough or don't generate money for Riot to care and is the equivalent of releasing a bugged game with no follow-up support.

MintChipHomieLixSep 26, 20152 votes

I have over 1000 aram games played so I know that these champs are strong but they don't need to be changed man. Just learn to play around them. Being a random format means sometimes you just get a bad matchup stuff happens.

ShikigamiSep 26, 20151 votes

ARAM isn't meant to be a serious competitive gamemode. It's for fun. They litterally only buff champs if their kits are near unusable on ARAM (Like GP Silver serpent buff), but otherwise, it's just meant to be a fun bloodbath mode.

Lord MacaroniSep 26, 20151 votes

{quoted}

ARAM isn't meant to be a serious competitive gamemode. It's for fun. They litterally only buff champs if their kits are near unusable on ARAM (Like GP Silver serpent buff), but otherwise, it's just meant to be a fun bloodbath mode.

I never said it was supposed to be competitive, and yes the mode is supposed to be fun. However, the amount of people with ARAM only accounts that spam the champs mentioned above doesn't feel very random when they're in 80% of games and completely dominating you. It's not very "fun" to dodge a Varus arrow every 3 seconds with near-infinite mana.

ShikigamiSep 26, 20151 votes

It's litterally unfathomable that you can spam a champion in ARAM. It's All RANDOM. You have the same odds as they do to get those champs.

MinardeSep 26, 20153 votes

You have the same odds as they do to get those champs.

That's actually false in the current implementation. Players can only roll champs personally available to them (i.e. owned champs plus free week). For instance, assume there's 10 OP champs. An ARAM-optimized account that only owns those 10 champs has, at worst, a 50% chance to roll one of those OP champs each game. Meanwhile someone who owns every champ has, at best, a 10/126 chance (~7.9%) to roll an OP champ.

CavemanteroSep 26, 20152 votes

I think they should open up all the champs or just add another 10 f2ps for ARAM only. Maybe even make it 40 f2ps for the month instead of weekly for ARAM only.

MinardeSep 26, 20152 votes

Sure, those are two possible ways to address ARAM-optimized accounts. Other people have suggested making the pool of available champs team- or match-based, combining champ pools of the individual players. Under this proposal, players would still be incentivized to buy champs, but aren't penalized for doing so.

Silver FluffenbuSep 27, 20151 votes

so you're saying there are so many people who have an ARAM only account that it's frustrating?

Those people probably also have a main account, and a smurf or two. so they either put extra time into their second account to farm ip for redundant champs or they pay cash money so Rito can make cool new Kindreds and Burning Tides; either way, why be mad?

MinardeSep 27, 20154 votes

why be mad?

From an idealistic perspective, ARAM-optimized accounts subvert the spirit of ARAM competition. The whole point of the game mode is to play as a random champ. ARAM-optimized accounts purposely game the system to have as nonrandom a champ as possible. The current implementation rewards players for having small champ pools while seemingly punishing those with large pools.

From a game mode health perspective, ARAM isn't exactly well-balanced. However, the random aspect mitigates meta stagnation by preventing players from picking the same strong champs game after game. ARAM-optimized accounts go against this process, making the game mode feel staler.

Essentially, whether you personally feel it's competitive or not, ARAM is a fun game mode. ARAM-optimized accounts, on the other hand, make it not fun.