League of Legends’ Howling Abyss, also known simply as ARAM, is balanced separately from Summoner’s Rift. For years, players have been asking Riot for an option to see balance changes during champ select. Now, one of the devs has finally addressed the topic by explaining the problems it would cause.
In a comment on League’s subreddit on May 1, Rioter Barack Probama explained that introducing the option to see ARAM-specific balance changes during champ select would be information overload and cause toxicity. The easiest way to represent balance changes, at least in their opinion, would be to a small arrow up or down to indicate whether a champ has been buffed or nerfed. If there aren’t any tuning changes in ARAM, Riot could mark it with a tilde (~).
Naturally, it would add clutter to your UI, because you’d need to see it for all champions in the lobby, including the rerolled ones and the ones your teammates selected. It would also lead to more toxicity in the lobby. Your teammates could flame you for picking a nerfed champion, hyperfixate on the most meta teamcomps, and even pressure you to play something you don’t want.
Rioter Barack Probama thinks we could have the best of both worlds by including a “little informational window pops up that explains the last 3 patches as well as the ARAM adjustments they have.” This way, you’d see the information you need, but it would cause less friction, and League players wouldn’t be as toxic because of your choices.
Additionally, it would be ideal if you could see balance changes for enemy champions in ARAM, so you can prepare and adjust your build easily. These would be big changes, though, so if Riot was to turn this idea into a reality, it would probably take a while to implement.
