riot responds to aram backlash

13.1 ARAM Balance Changes

The 12.23 ARAM changes shook up the way everyone plays on the Howling Abyss, and we're addressing some immediate balance concerns as we continue to evaluate the Tower Rubble and other new changes.

Buffs:
The Marksman Class

Marksmen are suffering the most with the changes, so we're returning a small amount of lifesteal power to move the whole class slightly upwards.

Lifesteal effectiveness on minions increased 50% to 60%

Death Timers

In patch 12.23, death timers were changed to be 3 seconds longer in the late-game. We are walking back a bit of that change, and are closely monitoring game time to consider further changes.

Death timers at levels 11-18 are all reduced 1 second

Individual Champions

Draven
Outgoing damage increased 100% to 105%
Kai'Sa
Outgoing damage increased 100% to 105%
Attack speed scaling increased 100% to 102.5%
Kalista
Outgoing damage increased 105% to 110%
Lucian
Outgoing damage increased 103% to 105%
Tenacity increased 0% to +20%
Lulu
Shield modifier increased 100% to 110%
Nunu & Willump
Outgoing damage increased 108% to 110%
Damage received reduced 92% to 90%
Tenacity increased 0% to +20%
Udyr
Outgoing damage increased 100% to 105%
Tenacity increased 0% to +20%
Yuumi
Healing modifier increased 100% to 110%
Zeri
Outgoing damage increased 105% to 110%
Damage received reduced 95% to 90%

Nerfs:

Primarily to Juggernauts and Assassins, who are dominating the Abyss at the moment. Many were given extra power to help them in the previous iteration of ARAM, and we're reducing some of that extra power.
Individual Champions

Bel'Veth
Outgoing damage reduced 105% to 100%
Damage received increased 95% to 100%
Darius
Damage received increased 95% to 100%
Healing modifier reduced 120% to 100%
Ekko
Damage received increased 95% to 100%
Elise
Outgoing damage reduced 110% to 105%
Illaoi
Damage received increased 95% to 100%
Irelia
Outgoing damage reduced 105% to 100%
Damage received increased 95% to 100%
Kassadin
Damage received increased 95% to 100%
Tenacity reduced +20% to 0%
Katarina
Outgoing damage reduced 105% to 100%
Damage received increased 90% to 100%
Kha'Zix
Outgoing damage reduced 105% to 100%
Damage received increased 90% to 100%
Maokai
Healing modifier reduced 100% to 80%
Mordekaiser
Outgoing damage reduced 100% to 95%
Damage received increased 100% to 105%
Nilah
Outgoing damage reduced 100% to 95%
Healing modifier reduced 100% to 90%
Rek'Sai
Outgoing damage reduced 110% to 100%
Rengar
Outgoing damage reduced 108% to 100%
Healing modifier 120% to 100%
Sett
Outgoing damage reduced 95% to 90%
Sion
Outgoing damage reduced 92% to 90%
Damage received increased 108% to 110%
Talon
Outgoing damage reduced 110% to 105%
Damage received increased 92% to 95%
Teemo
Ability haste reduced 0 to -20
Outgoing damage reduced 90% to 85%
Urgot
Damage received increased 100% to 110%
Zed
Outgoing damage reduced 110% to 100%
Ziggs
Ability haste reduced 0 to -20

[MattyLoveGaming]

So Riot Maxwell posted the changes right at the end of editing this video,

[Rekken]

The fact that at the start of the patch they gave a champion like P Y K E 20% E X T R A T E N A C I T Y goes to show how much they actually play their stupid ass game

[sluhnes]

As someone who played ARAMS most of 2022, this is a mess. I feel like Riot is starting to forget that ARAM isn't a competitive mode AT ALL. The balance buffs or nerfs should be ok for the strongest champions of the gamemode, not for 90% of the champions, most of those buffs or changes are pretty much insignificant for the average player and that emphasizes how much Riot is trying to turn into ""viable"" competitive a gamemode in which you can't ban champions nor pick your own.

[ultratog]

But are they going to address the fact the first tower lost creates a massive disadvantage since the winning team gets to teleport to the outer turret vs the losing team having to teleport to the inner turret? Its hard enough to push the enemy off of tower 2 and by the time you reach their outer turret they respawn and port directly too it.

[Μπάμπης-υν]

As a leblanc hater it really pissed me off when i saw she had 20 free tenacity bonus % dmg and less % dmg taken like she wasn't 1shotting everyone before

[igorximenes]

Akali: builds heartsteel, one shots you, leaves without losing a drop of blood, refuses to elaborate

[afonsoalmada]

As an ARAM only player, I feel like the gates are so badly thought. In my experience, once u start losing, it's almost impossible to have a big comeback and if u start winning, u just snowball and no one can stop u. If u'r losing and the enemies ar already at ur Nexus and by some miracle, ur team kills them, no matter what u do, the enemies will be already waiting for u in their first tower

[MIMINOSEC]

As someone who played arams for 8 years straight I hate new map and buffed champions

[sauldavila]

Towers deal negative damage, I think towers need to be buffed a lot.

[pluuk]

Funny how they explain "3 seconds longer". But they seem to forget the portal that saves you 10 seconds, so basically it makes it a 13 seconds difference in which you can easily take 2 turrets and end the game.

[hahafunny]

I miss when aram was a chill game mode where i could troll and have fun with both my teamates and the enemy team, now everyone wants to speedrun games and tryhard like their lives depends on it, just, pain, too much pain

[Enazerath]

He is willfully refusing to admit his changes are bad at this point. He has been extremely dismissive on both his twitter and in the subreddit and has frankly displayed that he doesn't know what he's doing or talking about. He actually tried to argue that the fallen tower choke points hurt poke champions and that you have plenty of room to dodge in the gap, only for someone to compile a list of abilities that cover the entire area of the choke and can't be dodged as a result, so he ignored it. He is actively making the game mode worse and refusing to listen to any criticism outside of "balancing". I used to love playing aram, but it's awful now.

[mort]

Some champs need changes to balance the gamemode. But when some assasins have such high buffs that they build tank and still 1shot u, it makes no sense. Or tiny nerfs like 95%. Reduce the convoluted changes

[emilemil]

In my opinion the issue with the balance buffs and nerfs is that they don't take player skill into account. Champion like LeBlanc and Pyke aren't weak because of the map, but because they are fairly hard champions to play and thus perform poorly in the hands of the average player. Put those champions in a lobby of Diamond+ players that play those champions regularly and they aren't weak at all, which makes them grossly overpowered with the balance buffs.

The inverse is true for a champion like Ziggs, which is atrocious against good players (that won't sit back and get poked) and becomes even worse with the balance nerfs.

Obviously perfect balance can't be achieved with simple adjustments, so I would prefer if champions were balanced for where they are the most powerful. It's okay if assassins have a 40% winrate in the average game if that means they have a 50% winrate among high ranked players, in the same way that opposite is true for enchanters and poke champions.

[vlcn]

my biggest issue is the turret creating terrain when it falls. sometimes it entirely blocks off one side so you can only move through the small gap on one side. a lot of abilities can take up the entirety of this small gap and block the only way of passing which is ridiculous

[ReaperMain]

The problem with Riot's balance team is that champs like Leblanc can miss half their abilities and can still one shot you with only 2 of them just because of how are they scale. There should be harder punishments for people who carelessly spam abilities and miss them, but that's not the case. The game used to be fun with skill shots because it felt like every single one mattered, now it's a matter of avoiding a single cc ability otherwise you get cc locked to death. Assassins and bruisers that have a ridiculous amount of flexibility and miss abilities shouldn't be able to perform so well. High skill should = high reward, but it doesn't anymore.

[mysticstelios]

The only champion specific nerfs they should keep are for kai'Sa W & Ashe W.

[HuyDao]

I don't have a problem with any of the changes except for the damn hex gate and long death timer.
I play Aram for fun, not competitively grinding my ass off for no reason. The hex gate completely ruin the dynamic of the game. Every time you just go through the hole, it's almost always a team fight mid and late game. Can't even enjoy walking anymore.

[ZeroZero]

This reads like "We're sorry you're so ungrateful of the bad experience we provided and that you complain about the awful balance we did."

[maxenite]

My problem with hexgates is how can I do the "destroy first turret before 5 min" challenge? Even if we ace them in first 3 min, they spawn immediately and using hex portals to stop us. That challenge is meaningless right now.