ARAM punishes players for supporting Riot

Summerfest·Nov 5, 2014·9 votes·2,789 views

I own every champ in the game (I enjoyed supporting Riot and i'm a sucker for sales), but that puts me at a huge disadvantage compared to players who only buy the champs they enjoy/ are good with. Worse than losing, I simply don't enjoy half the champs. To make it worse, even the reroll system heavily favors low champion pools.

ARAM needs a dramatic rework. Either pool it from all the champs in the game or allow players to select which champs go towards their pool. The later is already happening with dedicated ARAM accounts.

41 Comments

AlljoyNov 5, 201412 votes

I like the idea of it being truly random and picking a champion for you out of the entire pool rather than simply the ones you own.

ForFoxSakesNov 5, 20145 votes

1 - its ARAM, who cares 2 - they didnt make you buy all the champs 3 - **your fault **for buying champs you dont want to play

SummerfestNov 5, 20145 votes

I initially started collecting champs so i could first pick/ trade with anyone. No good intentions go unpunished I suppose.

TalidusNov 5, 20143 votes

1 - I think Riot cares, they put a lot of money into ARAM and unless jobs, money, time, effort is not one of your top priorities, your probably 12. 2 - Riot made all the champs to buy to make the game a better place, doubt they made them to make it worse but who knows, complete lack of common sense may win out the day 3 - I will say your right here, buy champs you want to play, not ones you don't. Then again, they could improve the system to allow you to pick 10 or so you want to have considered for the random gen to pick.

Sorry had to reply to toxic boy up there.

LordCheesusCrustNov 5, 20144 votes

It's not that I don't want to play Udyr, but I definitely don't want to play Udyr spending 90% of the game dodging Ziggs/Lux/Varus poke just so I can go in to maybe do some damage/play set up that their Sona will heal up afterwards anyways.

Extreme scenario, yes, but ARAM only accounts heavily increase the frequency of things like this.

Killer X 12Nov 7, 20142 votes

Champs who are good in normals =/= champs i wanna play in aram.

Poorly DressedNov 5, 20145 votes

I really enjoy ARAM myself and having a big champion pool sucks - i agree 100% ! Keep up the motivation and let's pray they will change the system somehow soon! And: remove Sona and Soraka

LordCheesusCrustNov 5, 20145 votes

I honestly think they just need a ban phase.

GenreninjaNov 5, 20144 votes

I think the best case solution, would be to change how ARAM matches players. And factor in matching players with similarly sized champion pools. That way they all have relatively equal chances of getting a variety of champions.

R3k0n1nGNov 6, 20142 votes

I honestly think they just need a ban phase.

Absolutely! I personally love and prefer the ARAM game mode. In fact its what I play 90% of the time. I own about 75 champs and would love to see a pick and ban phase rather than having to split my playtime, RP, and IP between different accounts.

GenreninjaNov 5, 20142 votes

How about make a new ARAM only account? and only purchase champions you want to play in ARAM?

SummerfestNov 5, 20149 votes

That only makes the problem worse.

GenreninjaNov 5, 20142 votes

How?

KalarepaNov 5, 20146 votes

"Car thieves are big problem in my city. How do I fix this? I know, I'll start stealing cars as well!"

GenreninjaNov 5, 20143 votes

"I drive a Hummer, live in a crowded city, I hate paying a ton of money on gas, I can't fit in parking spaces sometimes, and the little bitty cars keep running around me! How do I fix this? Trade it in for a smaller car."

LordCheesusCrustNov 5, 20145 votes

Invalid point. ARAM only accounts ruin the random aspect, as they turn the gametype into more of an 'All Random OP Champions All Mid' scenario for themselves. Saying that players should create a whole new account and add to the problem is a terrible solution, and is not at all what this gametype was intended to cause.

GenreninjaNov 5, 20142 votes

Not any more invalid than becoming a car thief to change car thievery.

ARAM is non-competitive. So if you feel like accounts with smaller champion pools "ruin" your experience. Then you're taking too seriously and using an ARAM only account strategy would help you do what you want: Win. It doesn't make sense to say ARAM Only Accounts ruin the game AND complain that having too many choices ruins the game.

An ARAM Only account is not any different than the OP's original suggestion of letting the summoner choose a smaller pool of champions for ARAM.

Edit: I'd also like to point out. The OP's "problem" and your "problem" are two different problems. In his case, he's annoyed because having too many champions makes the game less enjoyable. And he wants to reduce the pool of champions anyway. So the ARAM Only account I proposed solves his problem. It's a simple solution for him, FAR more simple than them augmenting the design, which they may very well do in time anyway.

Killer X 12Nov 7, 20142 votes

You miss the point. People DO have aram only accounts. When you get to hundreds of wins and you get put against those accounts, you'll have 3 people or so on a team whose only champs they can pick from are soraka, xerath, varus, sona, rammus, and bullshit that is just great on aram. Everyone has had those games where you get stomped because the team comp you were against sucked.

The issue is that people who do that (have aram only accounts) ruin the game experience for others. Oh, take it less seriously? I'm sorry that you confuse me trying to enjoy my free time as being serious. I 'm not trying to sit here and get pushed under tower to just eventually lose a 15 min aram because i had a 5 melee champ team. That isn't fun. If i wanted to play a game and not have fun, i'd play dominion.

Changing the game mode so that it is from all champs rather than just the ones you own helps all players who do not have aram only accounts. It won't happen because it will make you buy less champs and riot wants money, but the fact remains he same. It is not really an ARAM If all 10 players don't have all 100+champs.

GranspearZXNov 7, 20143 votes

So many failed analogies in one place...

Let me see if I can make this easier to understand:

Two people have six-sided die. Both agree that the first person to roll a 3 or a 4 wins. Now... let's say one person has a six-sided die and the other has a 20-sided die and operate on the same rules. Now the person with the smaller die has a significant advantage.

THAT is the point--that a larger pool in a 'random' environment (because when it comes to random number generation, nothing is TRULY random) actually gives the advantage to someone who has a smaller one and is targeting something specific.

I don't know if I agree with the 'unlock all champs' solution but for God's sake, at least recognize the argument being made here.

Killer X 12Nov 7, 20142 votes

I do. The point is that in the case of aram only accounts someone CHOSE the 6 sided die in order to get an ADVANTAGE, while the other chose the 20 sided die because he plays other modes besides just aram.

Clearly people with a larger champ pool have smaller chances of getting the champs they want, but they didn't buy champs to intentionally ruin their aram chances. They did it so they could play normals, or urf even. Aram only accounts buy champs just for arams...

Lumus AvatarNov 5, 20142 votes

I understand where you're coming from. And I get the utility of being able to snag champs for others in draft mode. but I am just heavily biased toward the idea that I only buy champs I want to play and I like ARAM because (excluding the free rotation champs) I only get rolled champs I want to play.

I would feel like changing ARAM would be punishing me - especially since the toxicity on SR (even in normal games) has made ARAM my favorite mode.

I know it's too late for you now and I respect your reasons for purchasing more champs, but I would have just stuck with the champs I like. I've been playing about a year and I only own 25 of the champs cuz I DO NOT want to play the others. I don't feel bad about my small champ pool either.

People say "I can't swap you? Y U NO HAVE TEEMO?!" And I just say "Cuz I don't want to play Teemo."

I agree that making an ARAM account would be exacerbating the existent problem of ARAM accounts. (why does this stuff start happening in every mode? someone always has to break the system) but then I guess that just leaves me saying - in the nicest way possible - to suck it up. That is a risk you run buying all the champs. Or even just buying champs you don't actually want to play. I already have to deal with rolling free champs - rerolling and getting another free champ. That's always fun. But to step back, I remember it's supposed to be random, so I generally don't reroll at all. Unless we have NO ranged, then I cross my fingers that I roll one of my 4(?) ranged champs. ARAM requires you to have at least one ranged poke-y champ.

Man that was a ramble of rambles. sorry about that. got carried away.

iainB85Nov 5, 20142 votes

From a design stand point ARAM would be way more fun and fair if it was an ARAM of the entire champion pool.

Of course that goes against Riot's business model, so I don't know if it'll happen...

JunkοNov 5, 20142 votes

Yes it should be from the entire champ pool, it could make you buy a champ you never thought you would like too.

Tentacle LoveNov 5, 20142 votes

It's supposed to be all random right? So when one player has a random pool of 11, and another has a random pool of 121, clearly the game is less random for one player.

That's just one random, not all random.

Espy PsycheNov 5, 20142 votes

Well, here's how you do it.

ARAM already gives extra points towards rerolls based on your champion pool, which means players who own more champions get to reroll more often than players with less champs.

So let's say one player has 36 champions in their pool, and another has 100. The 36 player gets 36 points towards rerolls while the 100 player gets 100. But if the 100 player was able to pick 36 champions they could draw from in ARAM, then they would get 36 reroll points instead of 100.

This helps the ARAM players, both with high and low champion pools, because it means you're less likely to get an all-melee team and lose by virtue of which champions are picked. It also means that players with high champion pools get to play more ARAM without getting flamed every game for bad champion draws (which does happen, ARAM players flame just as often as other players even though it's not a serious mode).

This helps Riot, because players are more likely to buy champions (with RP) with no fear of drawing them in ARAM. This means more $$ for Riot.

And trust me, you don't want every player to have every champion in their champion pool for ARAM. Imagine getting a noob who sucks at League anyway getting a high skill champion that they don't own and thus have never played before.

Sightless66Nov 5, 20142 votes

Imagine getting a noob who sucks at League anyway getting a high skill champion that they don't own and thus have never played before.

No, that's exactly what I want. That's fun. Playing against Sona 3 times in a row isn't.

Killer X 12Nov 7, 20142 votes

I agree. I used to play aram just to practice the champs that were free each week. Sorry some people can only play 16 champs so thats all they own.

Katunga JonesNov 5, 20142 votes

It sounds pretty simple. Just like the number of champs from free rotation. You pick 10 champs and it randomly selects from those 10.

Killer X 12Nov 7, 20142 votes

Making it more like 50 or 60 champs would make more sense. We can easily name 10 champs that are always good in aram. You'd see the same champs every damn game.

JuicerNov 7, 20142 votes

Guys the whole point of ARAM is that you get a random champion. It's in the game title and description so stop whining about " fairness and likeliness " of getting a champ you want. If you want to keep playing the same champions over and over don't play ARAM because it gives you a random champion.

AryzyraNov 7, 20142 votes

They're not going to open up all champs for everyone. Bad business. But ARAM definitely does not provide a wide arrangement of comps in its current configuration. If your team has a bunch of mediocre-bad champs, the other team is more than likely stacked. That's a bit of a problem from a competitive standpoint.

Drunk RummateNov 7, 20142 votes

the more champions you have the more frequently you gain rerolls

FDruNov 5, 20141 votes

lol, I can see it now. Every single game is going to be Lux, Morgana, Varus, Ziggs, Sona, Nami, Fiddlesticks, Ashe, Caitlyn, Soraka

That's okay though. It's still fun playing an OP poke champ even if the enemy team is full of them. You know what's not fun? Playing anything else vs a team of OP poke champs.

Playing ARAM is an unfun waste of time if you own every champ. The chance of getting a bad champ is too high and the frequency of rerolls is too low, and the chance of wasting rerolls on yet another bad champ is so high that it doesn't matter if you get rerolls twice as fast as some retarded smurf.

Dr JarjarbinksNov 6, 20141 votes

if you think the difference in champ pools is that unfair why dont you smurf? it wouldnt be unfair because apparently everyone but you guys are smurfing anyway so just join in and stop complaining.

Poorly DressedNov 6, 20143 votes

Maybe some people don't want to follow the smurf trend for whatever reason! Also, it just doesn't feel right - doesn't matter if most do it :)

Dr JarjarbinksNov 7, 20141 votes

I think your chivalry is a little misplaced but whatever

Killer X 12Nov 7, 20141 votes

Believe it or not, people have ARAM Only accounts. They only buy champs that are good in arams. They only get good champs. They win. Simple.

It being from all champs would be nice, but they would never do that because they know that a lot of people buy champs and then hate them. If you got to try out every champ (eventually) then you'd know whether or not to buy them....probably leading to less sales. Lets be real Riot's Money > your problem.

a call beyondNov 7, 20141 votes

melees aren't allowed to have fun in this game look at SR, the jungle is the only place left for them because of ranged cancer

CooLTanGNov 12, 20141 votes

I stated this before ARAM was put out in a queue. ARAM meant to be random all champions....

SweetMasterAceDec 26, 20141 votes

All I play is ARAM, and it makes me incredibly bitter and miserable due to how broken and stupid it is. I've actually started a smurf account which I'm turning into a "dedicated ARAM account" so I can have more fun with the game mode.

I love the idea of having the game pull from every existing champion for a feeling of true randomness. A ban phase would be fantastic as well. These two changes alone would make it far more playable.

Also, giving some champ-specific buffs and nerfs like they do with other maps such as Twisted Treeline will help tremendously. Melee champs without reliable poke (like Tryndamere, Wukong, Aatrox etc.) really need some kind of buff to help their viability and subsequently enjoyabilty. Perhaps providing each one with a flat 25 movement speed bonus so they can actually escape from the fray or dodge skillshots more easily would help.

I mean, let's look at whom I consider the single worst ARAM champ in the entire game: Tryndamere. He can't build any Fury reliably, has no poke, has unreliable / bad Crowd Control, etc. His ONLY use in ARAM comes when he hits level 6, at which point he can jump into the enemy team and get 2-3 auto attacks off while ulting before dying. Compare that to an auto attacker like Yi who jumps in and triple kills while ulting, can farm well, has a much lower cooldown tanking steroid, has sustain that DOESN'T require him to give up all his damage potential etc.

BLU MedicDec 27, 20141 votes

A better idea would be a dynamic reroll system. The more champions you own, the more rerolls you get. Coupled with getting rerolls faster for owning more champions, it may balance out a bit.

Another system that could work is picking a champion out of all champions owned by both teams. That way, someone with an ARAM only account and someone who owns the majority of champions in the same game would both have the same chance to end up as Garen.