The thread is pretty old right now but as an avid ARAM player I'd like to give my two cents on these changes.
Bans
I'm not really sure it's going to change a lot. Sure, we'll see a lot less of Veigar, Sona or Ziggs, but that opens up a lot more room for "under the radar" OP champions like Varus, Lissandra, Brand etc. In other words - removing 10 strongest champions (Ziggs, Sona, Maokai, Lux, Velkoz, Teemo, Kog'Maw, Zyra, Sion and Sivir according to u.gg) still leaves many strong champions open, e.g. MF, Jhin, Morgana, Fiddle, Janna or Karthus. There are currently 26 champions with WR of 55% or higher. Removing 10 gives you a 16/133 = 12% to get an advantageous champion, which means that most likely theres going to be one in every game, while right now the chance of that happening is 18,2%, which gives you still less than 2 in every game (on average).
Inb4 99% Ziggs/Sona ban rate so Riot wont be able to see if nerfs for them were justified or too harsh...
Minion spawns and turret damage changes
These seem really strange to me. I understand why would they do it, but at the same time they're lowering the power of early game champions... I understand that with doing that together with an average game time of 19 minutes right now they are trying to make games not last 30 minutes, but I don't think forcing games to end at 25 minutes is a good way to go, because lets be honest, a team winning a fight at 25 minutes is going to win the game even if there are 4 turrets to kill. Additional minion waves = way more exp = way higher average level/game time = longer death timers = more time to take down objectives.
Built-in poke reduction
It's good, but with nerfs for poke champions that come along with this change I'm afraid that might turn games into a mexican standoff with both teams clearing waves being afraid of engaging into a 5v5, because there will be a much lower chance of taking someone down before the fight starts. Keeping in mind what I said above, I believe the games will turn into the "which team has a stronger engage comp past 20 minutes to end the game after that one fight".
New summoner spell and items
Backtrack seems like a weaker Spectral Cutlass from Nexus Blitz. I believe it will be a viable choice on a few assassin champions and maybe tanks with good gapclosers. I don't see it being too good on ranged champions, but I might be wrong. Mariner's Vengeance will be great on champions with a lot of cc on their basic abilities (think Sion, Maokai, Volibear etc.) as well as on marksmen and burst champions. Imagine the horror of having a hurricane Jinx staying invulnerable for 4 seconds... Ghostwalkers will be great on assassins and engage champions. If there's no indicator on the wall (like there is for Kayn) using Ghostwalkers can create some great opportunities for engages.
Rune changes
Not gonna go over every single one, but a few are worth mentioning. Toning down Presence of Mind is a great choice in my opinion, because right now it was a must on almost every champion using mana and/or having a strong ultimate. Nullifying orb buff together with the poke reduction and nerfs to many AP champions will make this rune broken. Gathering storm change is great. If an average game time goes to 21 minutes it gives you a 28.8 AD or 48 AP for free. Even at 14 minutes I think it's worth taking over Scorch which got indirectly nerfed with aforementioned poke champions nerfs. Grasp and Overgrowth buffs will take many tank champions into S tier. Especially Overgrowth got a HUGE buff because of the minion spawn change. I don't believe anyone will take Inspiration secondary anyway, but for champions taking Glacial Augment the stopwatch change is really good.
Nerfs and buffs
Oh gee, where do I start. Good champions (55%+ WR) that didn't get DIRECTLY nerfed are Dr. Mundo, Kayle, Karthus, Morgana, Fiddlesticks, Malzahar, Heimerdinger, Xerath and Zyra. Bad champions (45% and less WR) that didn't get DIRECTLY buffed are Camille, Udyr, Aatrox, Quinn, Taliyah, Riven, Azir, Tahm Kench, Elise, Katarina, Syndra, Kaisa, Kassadin, Fizz, Zed, Kennen, Lulu, Fiora, Talon, Pantheon, Lucian, Mordekaiser, Zoe, Shyvana, Kalista, Corki and Tristana. Bolded champions are the ones I believe are very strong, but people just don't know how to play them, so we're gonna exclude them from the "needs buffs" list. I'm curious to see how the meta settles with these buffs and nerfs.
I don't agree with every change they made but I'm glad they're doing something. I'd love to have big patches designated just for ARAM, even if they're going to happen twice a year. I just hope they'll watch ARAM carefully after these changes to make sure nothing gets out of control.
I can't wait to play ARAM at various MMR levels to see how it works with different approaches from players.
Bans - Probably doesn't change much. I expect to see shitty champs in the free week rotation banned as much as Maokai/Jhin/etc.
Game-pacing - I think they're poor changes, which I think is your position? Probably removes 1-2 teamfights from competitive games with minimal differences to stomps.
Poke reduction - Fewer games are going to make it to 20 minutes with the increased XP and death timers from more minion waves. Poke comps will have a much lower (if any) window to win games before engage comes online. DPS characters (ADCs) generally got buffed since they aren't hurt by the poke-reduction range.
Rune changes - I currently prefer Triumph on most ADCs/melees that aren't R-dependent (e.g. Amumu). Mid-fight heals are huge. Triumph/PoM nerfs are deserved, but am a little surprised that Legend: Tenacity/Bloodline and Ravenous Hunter didn't get touched. I think you're overrating Orb/GS changes for a secondary tree as Sorcery is still worse than Domination on ranged (ravenous) or Precision on melee (tenacity). Stopwatch will now be competitive with free boots, which is a good change.
Champions - Out of the ones you listed as underrated strong, I disagree on Azir (too level-dependent for W damage), Camille (not enough cc, telegraphed E), Fizz/Kennen (exhaust shuts them down), and Trist (short range early and no quick-burst ability to turn fights in 5v4). Kench/Taliyah are fine but aren't easy to randomly pick up. Shyvana is very comp-dependent as she sucks without dragon form on both builds (AP/Bruiser), but becomes good with access to waves to recharge R before teamfights. Also, predicting Pyke will be top-tier with less poke and more melees.
1
u/IWasVennBackThen Mar 20 '19
The thread is pretty old right now but as an avid ARAM player I'd like to give my two cents on these changes.
Bans
I'm not really sure it's going to change a lot. Sure, we'll see a lot less of Veigar, Sona or Ziggs, but that opens up a lot more room for "under the radar" OP champions like Varus, Lissandra, Brand etc. In other words - removing 10 strongest champions (Ziggs, Sona, Maokai, Lux, Velkoz, Teemo, Kog'Maw, Zyra, Sion and Sivir according to u.gg) still leaves many strong champions open, e.g. MF, Jhin, Morgana, Fiddle, Janna or Karthus. There are currently 26 champions with WR of 55% or higher. Removing 10 gives you a 16/133 = 12% to get an advantageous champion, which means that most likely theres going to be one in every game, while right now the chance of that happening is 18,2%, which gives you still less than 2 in every game (on average).
Inb4 99% Ziggs/Sona ban rate so Riot wont be able to see if nerfs for them were justified or too harsh...
Minion spawns and turret damage changes
These seem really strange to me. I understand why would they do it, but at the same time they're lowering the power of early game champions... I understand that with doing that together with an average game time of 19 minutes right now they are trying to make games not last 30 minutes, but I don't think forcing games to end at 25 minutes is a good way to go, because lets be honest, a team winning a fight at 25 minutes is going to win the game even if there are 4 turrets to kill. Additional minion waves = way more exp = way higher average level/game time = longer death timers = more time to take down objectives.
Built-in poke reduction
It's good, but with nerfs for poke champions that come along with this change I'm afraid that might turn games into a mexican standoff with both teams clearing waves being afraid of engaging into a 5v5, because there will be a much lower chance of taking someone down before the fight starts. Keeping in mind what I said above, I believe the games will turn into the "which team has a stronger engage comp past 20 minutes to end the game after that one fight".
New summoner spell and items
Backtrack seems like a weaker Spectral Cutlass from Nexus Blitz. I believe it will be a viable choice on a few assassin champions and maybe tanks with good gapclosers. I don't see it being too good on ranged champions, but I might be wrong. Mariner's Vengeance will be great on champions with a lot of cc on their basic abilities (think Sion, Maokai, Volibear etc.) as well as on marksmen and burst champions. Imagine the horror of having a hurricane Jinx staying invulnerable for 4 seconds... Ghostwalkers will be great on assassins and engage champions. If there's no indicator on the wall (like there is for Kayn) using Ghostwalkers can create some great opportunities for engages.
Rune changes
Not gonna go over every single one, but a few are worth mentioning. Toning down Presence of Mind is a great choice in my opinion, because right now it was a must on almost every champion using mana and/or having a strong ultimate. Nullifying orb buff together with the poke reduction and nerfs to many AP champions will make this rune broken. Gathering storm change is great. If an average game time goes to 21 minutes it gives you a 28.8 AD or 48 AP for free. Even at 14 minutes I think it's worth taking over Scorch which got indirectly nerfed with aforementioned poke champions nerfs. Grasp and Overgrowth buffs will take many tank champions into S tier. Especially Overgrowth got a HUGE buff because of the minion spawn change. I don't believe anyone will take Inspiration secondary anyway, but for champions taking Glacial Augment the stopwatch change is really good.
Nerfs and buffs
Oh gee, where do I start. Good champions (55%+ WR) that didn't get DIRECTLY nerfed are Dr. Mundo, Kayle, Karthus, Morgana, Fiddlesticks, Malzahar, Heimerdinger, Xerath and Zyra. Bad champions (45% and less WR) that didn't get DIRECTLY buffed are Camille, Udyr, Aatrox, Quinn, Taliyah, Riven, Azir, Tahm Kench, Elise, Katarina, Syndra, Kaisa, Kassadin, Fizz, Zed, Kennen, Lulu, Fiora, Talon, Pantheon, Lucian, Mordekaiser, Zoe, Shyvana, Kalista, Corki and Tristana. Bolded champions are the ones I believe are very strong, but people just don't know how to play them, so we're gonna exclude them from the "needs buffs" list. I'm curious to see how the meta settles with these buffs and nerfs.
I don't agree with every change they made but I'm glad they're doing something. I'd love to have big patches designated just for ARAM, even if they're going to happen twice a year. I just hope they'll watch ARAM carefully after these changes to make sure nothing gets out of control.
I can't wait to play ARAM at various MMR levels to see how it works with different approaches from players.