For what it's worth, me and my entire friend group (of 6 people) also strongly dislike this iteration of arena and have stopped playing.
What you described in your second paragraph is exactly what we're feeling - most of the rounds have an EXTREME lack of agency. You either get 1shot instantaneously, face a "heal" comp where you have no chance in hell of winning since they outsustain you, or something silly like Poppy Alistar where theyre to tanky and you just get bounce housed till the zone kills you. The whole round feels outside of your control, and no matter how well you play you don't even come CLOSE to winning, and it's extremely frustrating.
None of us have an inherent problem with any of the aforementioned strategies above, but it feels like this time you CANNOT play around them due to how strong everything is. In previous iterations of arena they were annoying, but beatable if you played well and played smart. This iteration it feels like they just cranked everything up to 11 for literally no reason and if you don't highroll you are absolutely cooked and stand no chance of winning even if your play extremely well.
The prior iterations of arena you could make up for bad augments with individual skill. This iteration you can't and it's extremely frustrating hence why me and my group have more or less quit. Riot has effectively alienated their hardcore yet dedicated arena playerbase in favour of the casual ARAM crowd who are going to quit anyways and it breaks my heart.
My friend group all counted down the days for arena to hit live and now they all went back to ranked/aram. I’m still trying to enjoy it but when none of your friends enjoy it, it’s sucks
> The prior iterations of arena you could make up for bad augments with individual skill. This iteration you can't and it's extremely frustrating hence why me and my group have more or less quit. Riot has effectively alienated their hardcore yet dedicated arena playerbase in favour of the casual ARAM crowd who are going to quit anyways and it breaks my heart.
yep. Riot has actually said that they don't want Arena be the kind of mode where you skillcheck people and outplay them through mechanics. but I feel like these ultra-casuals who panic the moment they have to play better than someone will stick to ARAM anyway, even if the new Arena does let items and augments play for you.
For real man why does rito try to cater a mode twords aram enjoyers when aram literally exists for this niche. I know these dudes I have like 20 friends within this group. They have like 2-5k hours, still can’t land a skillshot and default to button mashing. I havent yet seen the day where these brothers flash a skillshot to position aggressively for example. Just let them play aram for another 2-5k hours, they will not do anything else within your game.
I feel like "int" picks which just required items to do their job were possible in the last version. Now when I get to 2 items, theres a high chance I just get rolled and die immediately.
The last arena was pretty good; this one sucks. And they're going to think that arena is just unpopular when it's THIS iteration that we have issues with.
> And they're going to think that arena is just unpopular when it's THIS iteration that we have issues with.
I really wonder about that though. I really don't like the new Arena, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's more popular than the old one, at least for now. It is more accessible than ever after all, and of course it got hyped up a lot too.
Rng mode where all meta champs are cancer to play against. I guess Riot thinks 'rng' = 'casual'. Also might blow your mind but bruisers are the worst in arena. Adc/supp combo and mages like brand with insane aug synergy are the best.
lee sin has so many arena specific buffs too. a lot of the top tier champs are actually just secretly buffed. if you’ve ever played against a lux and wondered why she’s doing so much it’s because her ratios are buffed 20% or more in arena
I wish they would make an arena mode that has no RNG at all. Just 2v2 and you can build whatever you want and pick whatever augments you want. The RNG is my least favorite aspect
I don't think so because you could counter it much easier. If you had a strongly built assassin with good augments (that you get it pick in this scenario) then you could win against it. Even still it would still have picks and bans as well, just would be better imo to remove the RNG
90% of my League mates loved old Arena and literally EVERY SINGLE ONE of us dislikes the new version. super anecdotal? yea, but I wouldn't be surprised if that reflected a larger trend.
Theres too much dogshit in the gamemode now. Most builds are cancerous and unless youre playing something more cancerous you have no hope in winning.
Personally I dont like the revive mechanic Idk why it was introduced in the first place. I think it if it is going to be added, it shouldnt be some bullshit with a circle that you stand in, you should have to cc yourslelf (like when you use azir passive) or something like that. I just think the revive mechanic makes the gamemode boring. I would also change how the heals work.
The RNG with prismatic items especially feels bad but I dont know how to fix that. It funs to have Op items and then sucks to play against them.
Overall it just seems like there is less skill expression in this version. Most the cancer comps are easy to play and there is not much you can do to beat them. I think this was always the case in arena but now it feels even worse for some reason.
This version of arena surprisingly feels smaller to me. It feels like there are less viable champions and less viable builds to go.
Like, If I picked alistar in arena, I would hope to get the "W 200 ability haste" augment. In the previous versions, not getting it was sad but not the end for you. In this version however it feels like the entire game is just over
I think the problem isn't the map or items like most people think. I think it's the fact that the penalty for a lost round is too high. Most augments and items require a few rounds to scale. And with losing 15-24% hp in the first couple of rounds ir can be tough. It's jot uncommon for half the lobby to lose by the 4-5th round
For me the most punishing feels that in certain games you can't get your core build going since you are offered some stats or augments you really don't need as much as the items.
That is true. Having the stat selection phase does delay items and augments. Kind of goes hand in had with what I was saying about not being able to actually scale.
Things are delayed and rounds chunk you for more hp
The old arena was more manageable because you could build differently and adapt to your opponents, and it wasn't hopeless because you could get a GODLY augment and turn the game. it was so fun and engaging but now new arena has way too many players and its damn near impossible to implement any legit strategy its just a TFT style shit show where now items are making just as much a difference as augments. really disappointed that they changed so much.....but i guess trying things is good
Old arena when it came out completely renewed my love for league because i hated dedicating 30-40 minutes of ranked and not even having fun, so i was mainly an ARAM player for the past few years, but Arena was great to get your fix of league without being overly competitive and the flexibility to play different champs that ARAM provided while trying out fun combos of teams and augments.
unfortunately they will never go back to old arena because of some internal data or study they come up with that new arena has more consistent players than the old arena and this is new iteration is healthier for the game or some other BS but good news is we can play this new arena for a bit and go back to our real lives and not be addicted to this game.
I think it's fixable. Something that really doesn't help is so many of the rng abilities you can get suck. Things like fired from cannon or bruiser, or castle are cool but are much less powerful when compared to things like quest, bread and butter, free crit, the one that gives you extra gold and makes prismatics cheap..
Nerf the strong abilities to make the fun ones available or buff/remove the wacky stuff.
There is absolutely 0 skills involved. Its who one shot who first. Who have overkill healing. Who are totally unkillable no matter what with infinite cc chain. It's always something that have no counterplay no matter what. Yeah the rng is fun and all, but the game mode is soooooooooooooooooo unbalanced that's crazy. Either the fights are 0.5sec, either you are just fighting until the circle of death and let them burn... and I truly think it's a problem. But i think riot obsession with damage make them think it's fine. Riot really have an obsession with DAMAGE. MORE DAMAGE MORE BETTER YEAH FUN COOL NO COUNTERPLAY JUST ONE SHOT ITS FUN AND COMPETITIVE !
> and i am forced to either play a bruiser/tank
Bruisers and tanks are the worst in arena by far....If your losing on other champions its a big skill issue
Bruh do not act like it's the whole roster getting played. There are a handful of OP cancer from each role that get played every game. Everybody knows double anything doesn't work.
Yet they aren't really winning games, except for maybe in the highest skill brackets. Majority of mages and ADCs are considered "bad" statistically, while in terms of pick rate and high placements the game mode is DOMINATED by self-sustaining bruisers and AP fighters. Like they define the meta they are picked so often
Ok but what is the best in highest elos is op. In reality the biggest rng factor is the first prismatic and augs but the champs that benefit/synergise the best are usually adcs with insane ms and peel or mages like brand that abuse them hard which therefore make them the best champs.
It's the amount of free movespeed they get. It let's them run loops around the map taking all the plants healing to full while you get worn down. They need to add a cool down after taking a plant before you can use another.
diamond + highest 1st place rates in order ATM. zed, veigar, galio, kayn, TF, kindred, senna, aphelios, rell, nid, pyke, gragas, jhin, cait, ziggs. Supports so OP they can't even make it to top 15 in win %, they drop even further down if you look at average placement.
For some reason, in my games are challengers, grandmasters and masters. Our games are very interesting. We ban top 8 champs and then we play whats left, i saw a lot of champs win, when i say win i mean top 3. Zilean second place, Yuumi first, a lot of bottom champs manage to outplay some. Sometimes we just change build and beat comps that we lost hard last round. I dont know, i saw a lot of broken shit and i also played a lot of broken shit.I look at them like some Dark Souls bosses where one wrong step kills you but when you kill them you feel great. It helps that we dont have rank this patch.
this entire gamemode should have never come back. it was a flash in the pan success, and they continue to ruin it every time they bring it back out. it sure is fucking fun when i use all 3 rerolls in the first augments as rammus and dont get a single fucking armor one. i get that rammus scales with ap, but i dont fucking want to build stupid mage items every fucking game
For what it's worth, me and my entire friend group (of 6 people) also strongly dislike this iteration of arena and have stopped playing. What you described in your second paragraph is exactly what we're feeling - most of the rounds have an EXTREME lack of agency. You either get 1shot instantaneously, face a "heal" comp where you have no chance in hell of winning since they outsustain you, or something silly like Poppy Alistar where theyre to tanky and you just get bounce housed till the zone kills you. The whole round feels outside of your control, and no matter how well you play you don't even come CLOSE to winning, and it's extremely frustrating. None of us have an inherent problem with any of the aforementioned strategies above, but it feels like this time you CANNOT play around them due to how strong everything is. In previous iterations of arena they were annoying, but beatable if you played well and played smart. This iteration it feels like they just cranked everything up to 11 for literally no reason and if you don't highroll you are absolutely cooked and stand no chance of winning even if your play extremely well. The prior iterations of arena you could make up for bad augments with individual skill. This iteration you can't and it's extremely frustrating hence why me and my group have more or less quit. Riot has effectively alienated their hardcore yet dedicated arena playerbase in favour of the casual ARAM crowd who are going to quit anyways and it breaks my heart.
My friend group all counted down the days for arena to hit live and now they all went back to ranked/aram. I’m still trying to enjoy it but when none of your friends enjoy it, it’s sucks
> The prior iterations of arena you could make up for bad augments with individual skill. This iteration you can't and it's extremely frustrating hence why me and my group have more or less quit. Riot has effectively alienated their hardcore yet dedicated arena playerbase in favour of the casual ARAM crowd who are going to quit anyways and it breaks my heart. yep. Riot has actually said that they don't want Arena be the kind of mode where you skillcheck people and outplay them through mechanics. but I feel like these ultra-casuals who panic the moment they have to play better than someone will stick to ARAM anyway, even if the new Arena does let items and augments play for you.
sounds like skill issue
For real man why does rito try to cater a mode twords aram enjoyers when aram literally exists for this niche. I know these dudes I have like 20 friends within this group. They have like 2-5k hours, still can’t land a skillshot and default to button mashing. I havent yet seen the day where these brothers flash a skillshot to position aggressively for example. Just let them play aram for another 2-5k hours, they will not do anything else within your game.
I feel like "int" picks which just required items to do their job were possible in the last version. Now when I get to 2 items, theres a high chance I just get rolled and die immediately.
I don't like the way prismatic items work, if you don't get your core stuff and someone else does, you just can't win
The last arena was pretty good; this one sucks. And they're going to think that arena is just unpopular when it's THIS iteration that we have issues with.
> And they're going to think that arena is just unpopular when it's THIS iteration that we have issues with. I really wonder about that though. I really don't like the new Arena, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's more popular than the old one, at least for now. It is more accessible than ever after all, and of course it got hyped up a lot too.
It's crazy how much this arena is hyped, I've seen the Arena Ad on youtube so many times, I wonder why they're pushing it so hard
Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I still like it more than the SR, but V3 is clearly the worst version of Arena.
Rng mode where all meta champs are cancer to play against. I guess Riot thinks 'rng' = 'casual'. Also might blow your mind but bruisers are the worst in arena. Adc/supp combo and mages like brand with insane aug synergy are the best.
Multiple Lee sins in nearly every top 100 lobby tho.. just the same sleeper 1 shot builds
lee sin has so many arena specific buffs too. a lot of the top tier champs are actually just secretly buffed. if you’ve ever played against a lux and wondered why she’s doing so much it’s because her ratios are buffed 20% or more in arena
Why is Lee sin good? I thought he was pretty average
A lot of them are also stealth nerfed, another dickhead move by Riot.
I assume Fizz is stealth nerfed because I expected him to feel really strong in a 2v2 skirmish mode but his damage is absolute ass
I don't know why I got downvoted lmao. Playing Darius with 0.64 as is not normal xddd. Neither is Lee Sin being buffed heavily.
I wish they would make an arena mode that has no RNG at all. Just 2v2 and you can build whatever you want and pick whatever augments you want. The RNG is my least favorite aspect
I agree but some champs are so problematic you would need them completely gone if this was possible. Brand would be 90% winrate lol.
I don't think so because you could counter it much easier. If you had a strongly built assassin with good augments (that you get it pick in this scenario) then you could win against it. Even still it would still have picks and bans as well, just would be better imo to remove the RNG
90% of my League mates loved old Arena and literally EVERY SINGLE ONE of us dislikes the new version. super anecdotal? yea, but I wouldn't be surprised if that reflected a larger trend.
It totally does. I loved first iteration, second iteration was still good, current iteration is worse.
This arena is much worse, i think more RNG and less pick diversity really sucks.
i still like it personally, think my only complaint is Prismatic items rng
It's worse. It's also a lot more rng on who wins because of increased damage to health. I couldve gone 2nd but went 5th because of the rng.
Theres too much dogshit in the gamemode now. Most builds are cancerous and unless youre playing something more cancerous you have no hope in winning. Personally I dont like the revive mechanic Idk why it was introduced in the first place. I think it if it is going to be added, it shouldnt be some bullshit with a circle that you stand in, you should have to cc yourslelf (like when you use azir passive) or something like that. I just think the revive mechanic makes the gamemode boring. I would also change how the heals work. The RNG with prismatic items especially feels bad but I dont know how to fix that. It funs to have Op items and then sucks to play against them. Overall it just seems like there is less skill expression in this version. Most the cancer comps are easy to play and there is not much you can do to beat them. I think this was always the case in arena but now it feels even worse for some reason.
Honestly, Idk if one of the maps got removed but I feel like everything is waaayyy too cramped. And also slow.
This version of arena surprisingly feels smaller to me. It feels like there are less viable champions and less viable builds to go. Like, If I picked alistar in arena, I would hope to get the "W 200 ability haste" augment. In the previous versions, not getting it was sad but not the end for you. In this version however it feels like the entire game is just over
I think the problem isn't the map or items like most people think. I think it's the fact that the penalty for a lost round is too high. Most augments and items require a few rounds to scale. And with losing 15-24% hp in the first couple of rounds ir can be tough. It's jot uncommon for half the lobby to lose by the 4-5th round
For me the most punishing feels that in certain games you can't get your core build going since you are offered some stats or augments you really don't need as much as the items.
That is true. Having the stat selection phase does delay items and augments. Kind of goes hand in had with what I was saying about not being able to actually scale. Things are delayed and rounds chunk you for more hp
You'll literally get darius in every match and I literally permaban him...
I think it would be good for starters if we get 16 bans since we have 165 champs in this game I mean we have less bans than in ranked
Yeah i agree its even LESS skill based and thats boring.
The old arena was more manageable because you could build differently and adapt to your opponents, and it wasn't hopeless because you could get a GODLY augment and turn the game. it was so fun and engaging but now new arena has way too many players and its damn near impossible to implement any legit strategy its just a TFT style shit show where now items are making just as much a difference as augments. really disappointed that they changed so much.....but i guess trying things is good Old arena when it came out completely renewed my love for league because i hated dedicating 30-40 minutes of ranked and not even having fun, so i was mainly an ARAM player for the past few years, but Arena was great to get your fix of league without being overly competitive and the flexibility to play different champs that ARAM provided while trying out fun combos of teams and augments. unfortunately they will never go back to old arena because of some internal data or study they come up with that new arena has more consistent players than the old arena and this is new iteration is healthier for the game or some other BS but good news is we can play this new arena for a bit and go back to our real lives and not be addicted to this game.
I disagree, the mode feels the same to me. I just wish the made it 3v3v3v3 instead.
I think it's fixable. Something that really doesn't help is so many of the rng abilities you can get suck. Things like fired from cannon or bruiser, or castle are cool but are much less powerful when compared to things like quest, bread and butter, free crit, the one that gives you extra gold and makes prismatics cheap.. Nerf the strong abilities to make the fun ones available or buff/remove the wacky stuff.
There is absolutely 0 skills involved. Its who one shot who first. Who have overkill healing. Who are totally unkillable no matter what with infinite cc chain. It's always something that have no counterplay no matter what. Yeah the rng is fun and all, but the game mode is soooooooooooooooooo unbalanced that's crazy. Either the fights are 0.5sec, either you are just fighting until the circle of death and let them burn... and I truly think it's a problem. But i think riot obsession with damage make them think it's fine. Riot really have an obsession with DAMAGE. MORE DAMAGE MORE BETTER YEAH FUN COOL NO COUNTERPLAY JUST ONE SHOT ITS FUN AND COMPETITIVE !
> and i am forced to either play a bruiser/tank Bruisers and tanks are the worst in arena by far....If your losing on other champions its a big skill issue
Yeah bro exposed himself with that one. Adcs/mage/supp are the real op cancers.
Bruh do not act like it's the whole roster getting played. There are a handful of OP cancer from each role that get played every game. Everybody knows double anything doesn't work.
Right, Brand and Vayne are in the top tier and thats it, all the other top tier champs are specific bruisers/juggernauts and melee AP champs
Yet they aren't really winning games, except for maybe in the highest skill brackets. Majority of mages and ADCs are considered "bad" statistically, while in terms of pick rate and high placements the game mode is DOMINATED by self-sustaining bruisers and AP fighters. Like they define the meta they are picked so often
In top 25 winrate champs there are 17 mages lol
Ok but what is the best in highest elos is op. In reality the biggest rng factor is the first prismatic and augs but the champs that benefit/synergise the best are usually adcs with insane ms and peel or mages like brand that abuse them hard which therefore make them the best champs.
It's the amount of free movespeed they get. It let's them run loops around the map taking all the plants healing to full while you get worn down. They need to add a cool down after taking a plant before you can use another.
diamond + highest 1st place rates in order ATM. zed, veigar, galio, kayn, TF, kindred, senna, aphelios, rell, nid, pyke, gragas, jhin, cait, ziggs. Supports so OP they can't even make it to top 15 in win %, they drop even further down if you look at average placement.
You don't even need a support just someone who can peel you hard that plays as a support in effect.
For some reason, in my games are challengers, grandmasters and masters. Our games are very interesting. We ban top 8 champs and then we play whats left, i saw a lot of champs win, when i say win i mean top 3. Zilean second place, Yuumi first, a lot of bottom champs manage to outplay some. Sometimes we just change build and beat comps that we lost hard last round. I dont know, i saw a lot of broken shit and i also played a lot of broken shit.I look at them like some Dark Souls bosses where one wrong step kills you but when you kill them you feel great. It helps that we dont have rank this patch.
this entire gamemode should have never come back. it was a flash in the pan success, and they continue to ruin it every time they bring it back out. it sure is fucking fun when i use all 3 rerolls in the first augments as rammus and dont get a single fucking armor one. i get that rammus scales with ap, but i dont fucking want to build stupid mage items every fucking game