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The All Random All Mid (ARAM) mode in League of Legends is one place where players let loose and enjoy the game without caring about their ranks. This is discounting the players who try too hard to win in ARAMs as well and type “GG, easy.” In LoL Patch 12.23, Riot Games released a flurry of changes to the Howling Abyss map including frostgates and falling towers. In the patch notes, Riot Games wrote, “This update goes out to our ARAM players! From the new stat adjustments introduced in the last patch to falling towers and Frostgates, new and exciting updates are coming to the Howling Abyss this patch.”
Additionally, there is also one new brush on the middle bottom side of the bridge and the brushes between the outer and inhibitor turrets also increased in size. Two weeks have passed since these changes were introduced and most players are unhappy and continue to voice their issues with these changes added to the ARAM mode.
Players are not excited about ARAM anymore
To those unfamiliar with ARAM, players are given random champions from the available champion pool and will able to trade or reroll their picks. The game mode still features 5v5 combat and there’s only one lane (middle) in the mode.
A majority of the League of Legends community feels like the changes to ARAM only make the mode competitive instead of making it fun and entertaining. Multiple players on social media have been voicing their disappointment, especially about the falling towers.
One Redditor wrote, “These changes [falling towers] vastly reduced the amount of available space to move and fight around and all that's done is catapult Teemo and Shaco from ‘obnoxious’ tier all the way up to ‘if you fall behind you permanently stay behind’ tier.” The user noted that there is no way that a single cannon wave, which works as Oracle’s Extract, is going to be enough to clear all of the Teemo shrooms and Shaco boxes on the map.
A comment on the thread felt that there should be a narrow gap at the end of the fallen towers so that champions can move around them. The problem with the falling towers is that they block the entirety of the lane and players have to use the other half of the lane to push or defend against enemies. This also acts as terrain and champions like Ornn, Teemo, Shaco, or Anivia can use the falling towers to their advantage.
Another Redditor said, “With the extra bush added and destroyed towers creating a permanent obstruction in the lane, the map feels very congested for the losing team and full control for the winning team. Blocking off almost half the lane while surrounding that remaining open path makes the losing team feel cornered every time they try to start or answer a teamfight.”
Early in November when the ARAM changes went live on the Public Beta Environment, a player asked why Riot Games has not considered making the towers fall in different directions instead of just one. Replying to this, Lead Modes Designer Daniel “Maxw3ll” Emmons said, “We tried it falling at various angles but unless it restricted player movement in this way the terrain just wasn't changing up the game. Most of the movement on Howling Abyss is towards or away from the Nexuses (Nexii?). Falling in the middle or at an angle didn't really create cool vision plays you could make.”
While the majority of the player base feels negative about the falling towers and the new ARAM terrain, the chances of Riot Games reverting these ARAM changes are pretty low.
