ARAM Guide - Summoners, Mini Tier List, Best Items, Strategy

Archive post, December 2012. Almost every rule this guide assumes has changed since, and the map is the place to start. ARAM isn't one bridge any more: the queue rotates the Howling Abyss, Butcher's Bridge and Koeshin's Crossing with equal odds, so the sprint to the upper left bush describes one lobby in three. Champion select works differently as well, handing each player two or three random champions and dropping everything unpicked onto a shared team bench. The mode also runs on a set of rules the post never had to think about: it cuts outgoing healing in half, leaves self-heals alone, and scales damage down to 85 percent past 1000 units and 70 percent past 2000, which taxes exactly the long range poke the strategy section is built around. Damage over time and ultimates ignore that tax. The summoner spell list is missing the one that starts fights now, Mark, the snowball you throw across the bridge, and Clarity is still there. Most of the shopping advice went with the shop, since the chalice line, Will of the Ancients and Aegis have all left, but the Brutalizer is still on sale, and so are Tear of the Goddess, Thornmail and both sets of boots. You do still start at level 3 with 1400 gold, and dying on purpose to go shopping is still how you get home.

Howdy gang! Lately real life's been stressful, and after a long 10 hours at work all I want to do is wind down and play some ARAM. This means I haven't had a chance to think up many crazy new summoner's rift strategies, which I know you all love. To make up for that and just in time with the release of the new ARAM forums, I'd like to present to you all this short guide on:

ALL RANDOM, ALL MID

LET THE CHAOS COMMENCE!

1.0 Summoner Spells
2.0 Basic Strategy
3.0 Champions
4.0 Items
5.0 Advanced Strategy

1.0 Summoner Spells
So why is "summoner spells" before "Basic Strategy"? Well before you get into the game, you'll have to pick your summoner spells! Let's go over a brief overview of the common ones:

Flash: Still strong, but it probably won't be up as much as you need it since battles are constantly happening.
Heal: Very popular in ARAM, even in its slightly weaker state
Ignite: Nice to finish off unsuspecting opponents with heal and gives you an early damage boost, I like it, don't get it on long range poke champions though.
Barrier: Nerfed, but still strong.
Exhaust: I'd say at least have one person grab it if the enemy team has an AD carry
Clarity: Not as useful as you might think with the increased mana regen. You might use it early game, but later on everyone will have enough mana if you build the right items.
Cleanse: Eh...too many CCs, it'll never be up often enough to be useful.

2.0 Basic Strategy:
Early Game
So you've got your 5v5 all set up, nobody's DC'ed, and the people who want to dodge have dodged (repeatedly). Now you're level 3, in game, with more gold than you've ever seen. What next? First up you'll obviously have to buy your items (see 4.0) and generally you have one of two choices:

1. Group up in the middle and play safe
2. Run to the upper left bush as fast as you can with your team and start preparing to invade the enemy bush.

Generally, people like to do the second one since it's more fun.

Mid-game
Last hitting isn't quite as important in this game mode, but of course any gold advantage you get will be good. On the other hand, if you see someone aiming for last hits, feel free to poke them down every time they go for a last hit. This will turn the tide in your favor.

Late-game
Late game it generally comes down to who has the better team composition. Make sure to time your deaths appropriately so that there's always someone healthy defending your base. If possible, always make sure to suicide during a time when the enemy team is all down. It isn't worth waiting for your health to regenerate after a big battle since you could simply die, re-spawn with full health, and use your new gold to shop!

3.0 Champion Tier List
This isn't a full tier list, but I'll have one out later this month. Most of the champions are pretty similar and have their ups and downs against different opponents. On the other hand, if you get one of these champions listed below, pump your fist and say "Yessssss" (at least I do)

S-Tier: Lux, Jayce, Nidalee, Ziggs, Janna, Sona, Master Yi, Blitzcrank, Varus, Zyra, Kassadin, Fiddlesticks
Tons O' Fun Tier: Zilean, Miss Fortune, Ashe, Veigar, Teemo, Kog'maw, Gangplank, Anivia, Swain, Gragas, Dr. Mundo, Galio
A-Tier: Cassiopeia, Urgot, Brand, Karthus, Soraka, Viktor, Morgana, Rumble

4.0 Items
In this section I'm not going over every single item but instead I just want to focus in on the more important ones:

Tear of Goddess VS Chalice
Both are very very good on this map for champions with small mana pools, but low CDs on their spells. Which one you pick is up to prefence, but unless you're an AD carry, definitely pick one or both up.

Brutalizer
Even if you haven't been catching on to the black cleaver craze, DEFINITELY build brutalizer on your AD carries if you have long range poke like Ashe or Varus.

Boot Choice
You don't HAVE to start with boots, and in many cases, starting with a brutalizer (on champions like Ashe or Varus) will be better.

Starting right away with Sorc boots on certain champions like Annie or Brand is a pretty solid move. With champions like Karthus or Cass you'll want to pick up some regen though.

Ionian boots are viable on many more champions here than on summoner's rift. Use them if you want to spam more, since the ability haste they give goes a long way on a map where there's always something in range to cast at.

Buying Items
Remember to die when it's safe to do so to go back and shop! Try not to feed anybody dangerous spree gold though.

5.0 Advanced Strategy
Okay, now that we've got the basics out of the way, it's time to go over some advanced strategies. I know some of you skipped over my entire post and scrolled straight here so I'll try and write something useful here and maybe you'll scroll up and read the rest of it.

Thornmail
Okay, so this isn't the most mind-blowing #1 advanced tactikz you've ever heard, but I see a lot of people forget about this item. If the enemy AD is getting very strong, chances are if you pop some thornmails on your champions, you can turn a losing game into an easily winnable game.

Spread Out
On summoner's rift it's generally better to group up so that you can come to the aid of your allies quickly. On ARAM it's much better to spread out on the map. The reason for this is that there's a LOT of poke that's going to be flying your direction, and for some reason people tend to crowd around the same side, which makes it much more likely for skillshots to land and do tons of damage.

Aura Items
Nobody likes being the aura carrier, but with y'all tightly bound together, aura items are extremely powerful. While WOTA is nerfed, items like Aegis of the Legion are still very effective on this map.

Dragon Control
If you look to the bottom right hand side of the map you'll see this tiny gravestone, if you walk over with your champion...just kidding I'll add more strategies if I think of some. Feel free to post some below in the comment section!

Shooting my way to victory!