ARAM Tier List

[LazaHorse]

With the Proving Grounds being released as an available custom game map, ARAMs have become very popular, especially for HG in-house games. They're non-competitive and make for some hilarious moments (cuz Slowpoke and Moo are the biggest teamkillers in the history of LoL). A while ago I made a tier list for Summoner's Rift of all the champions (I'll probably update that in a little bit) and figured I'd make one for ARAMs/ARABs (All Random All Bot at Dominion) as well. This is mostly theory-crafting along with whatever experience I've gained from ARABs/ARAMs over time.

 

First, let's discuss strengths. ARAM teams are best improved by the same things that improve team fights in late game on Summoner's Rift. These things, in decreasing importance are as follows:

Poke

Area of Effect (AoE) abilities

Hard CC

Strong Initiates

Burst Damage

Sustain

Resistance

 

I use these as the grounds for my choices. Champions in top tiers excel beyond other champs at some or even all of these things. So let's get into it. I'll bold ones that I explain later:

 

 

God-Tier (If you get these, you will most likely dominate the game/carry your team):

Nidalee (AP), Fiddlesticks, Master Yi (AP), Twisted Fate, Kog'Maw, Lux, Janna, Gragas, Ezreal (AP), Heimerdinger, Alistar, Soraka, Blitzcrank, Kennen, Ryze, Urgot, Rumble, Ziggs, Morgana, Singed, Dr. Mundo, Ashe, Maokai (AP), Karthus, Zilean, Sivir, Twitch, Anivia, Volibear, Galio

 

Tier One (Very strong champions who will be dominant though counterable in ARAMs):

Varus, Xerath, Ahri, Viktor, Riven, Sejuani, Kayle, Lulu, Yorick, Sona, Orianna, Nautilus, Tryndamere, Cassiopeia, Shyvana, Vladimir, Amumu, Katarina, Karma, Tristana, Malphite, Veigar, Nunu, Graves, Teemo, Skarner, Annie, Leona, Malzahar, Olaf, Shen, Gangplank, Swain, Poppy, Fizz, Jax, Caitlyn, Hecarim

 

Tier Two (Relatively weak champions though not a complete detriment to their team):

Evelynn, Lee Sin, Udyr, Shaco, Taric, Miss Fortune, Nocturne, Corki, Kassadin, Jarvan IV, Garen, Renekton, Akali, Cho'gath, Warwick, Pantheon, Trundle, Darius, Rammus, Mordekaiser, Brand, Draven, Fiora

 

Tier Four/Eve Tier (Champions whose existence in ARAMs are significant slightly more than super minions):

Irelia, Talon, Vayne, Leblanc, Xin Zhao, Nasus, Sion

 

 

General Observations:

• AD Carries tend to struggle because they get focused quickly. The very few AD Carries in top tier have either CC or defensive spells (or both for Urgot) that allow them to excel in ARAMs.
  
• Though poke is a very powerful factor in ARAMs, it is trumped late game by CC and hard initiations.
  
• Nidalee is the most broken piece of shit to ever grace the Proving Grounds.
  
• SCREW Barrier.
  
• Warmogs tends to be the most commmonly built item... despite whatever champion you might be playing.
  
• Early game matters about as much as Udonis Haslem does to the Miami Heat.
  
• Sion... is the... most... useless... ARAM... champion... in the game.
  

 

I will explain the bold picks momentarily. Enjoy for now! This is of course not set in stone, as I may have missed something or not realized another thing. Do make recommendations here of things that should be added/removed/changed.

 

 

Bold Pick Explanations:

 

Nidalee - Nidalee in human form gives everything that you want early on in an ARAM. Her Q absolutely CHUNKS people for large sums of health at a time. Her W helps give vision of those crucial middle bushes as well as reducing resistances for further Spear damage. Her E is a decent heal and more importantly a great attack speed steroid for champions like Ashe and Tryndamere who excel with Attack Speed early/late. Her Cougar Form also provides GREAT team fight AOE damage and a decent finisher to trump that STUPID STUPID STUPID Barrier summoner spell.

 

Fiddlesticks - I have said it for a while now... even on Summoner's Rift: Dark Wind is secretly one of the game's most broken abilities. In ARAMs it ABSOLUTELY SHINES as strong poke damage and a silence that disrupts team synergy. When I play Fiddle, I max E first then Q and don't even GET drain until late (its usually interrupted in team fights). His ult is still his ult... and ulting out of the middle brushes (and flashing into range if need be) can absolutely destroy people and lead to easy towers.

 

AP Master Yi - Alpha Strike is more or less a souped up version of Dark Wind that combined with a Lich Bane can EASILY take down a poked target from 50% health. With Highlander, that then leads to more alpha strike and eventually pop goes the weasel. AP Master Yi is considered gimicky on Summoner's Rift because this best case scenario does not happen often. However, on Proving Grounds, it happens FAR TOO OFTEN because you can only run one way to get out of range: backward.

 

Lux - Lux's Snare and Singularity set up fights stupidly well, and her AOE shield sustains so much damage during team fights. There is of course her ult... which is still... her ult. Broken amounts of AOE burst damage combined with a shield that absolutely shines (get it?) during team fights.

 

Heimerdinger - Heimerdinger shined in Dominion when it came out because of his pushing ability at the bottom capture points. For the same reason, he dominates ARAMs. Put turrets in the bushes, and you just secured half of the map for your team. His passive then allows you and your minions/turrets to stay in lane for a long time while your rockets poke and your grenade wins team fights.

 

Ryze - The most broken champ in the game is only SLIGHTLY broken in ARAMs. While Ryze does excel in late game team fights on SR, he is only "decent" in ARAMs because he cannot get the farm/kills he needs to scale into late well (buying mana items). However, because most mana items are cheap and you get decent gold flow passively in ARAMs, he still finds a way to become godly after say 20 minutes into a game.

 

AP Maokai - Maokai's saplings provide for some decent poke early and late game, but that is not what makes him powerful in ARAMs. What makes him especially strong is his AoE ultimate. When playing AP Maokai, if you can even ACTIVATE your ult with a squishy inside, it can do amazing damage in a VERY LARGE AoE, not even mentioning the damage-reduction and reflection element. Maokai's got Poke, CC, Tankiness, Sustain (passive), and one of the largest AoE nukes in the game.

 

Twitch - Twitch hits R and all of a sudden his attacks hit your ENTIRE TEAM for 800 damage at a time. The fact that Proving Grounds at least is a very linear map allows him to reach his late game and team fight potential fairly early and very often.

 

Varus - STUPID amounts of poke and his AOE CC from his Hail of Arrows and ultimate make him top of Tier One. The only reason he isn't god tier is that he lacks a defensive strength on his own (and Ashe's CC/Ultimate are more reliable/impactful). Still he is an AMAZING pick in ARAMs whose skillset fits constant team fighting well.

 

Sejuani - Sejuani has shown up SOOOOOOO MUCH in ARAMs recently because she is free this week. As such, she's been "play-tested" a lot and in my opinion deserves this spot. Her ultimate... is... godly... in... ARAMs. It's that simple. Her ultimate MAY BE the best ARAM ultimate in the game. She can then follow up with a LOT of sustained damage from her W after building significant amounts of health as well as CC for a long duration. Is she quite as good an initiator as Maokai? Maybe not... Is she quite as tanky as Mundo? No. Still, she is a good mix of both and thus deserves her spot.

 

Malzahar - He may deserve a higher spot, but the fact that his team fight potential relies on someone more or less getting caught out of position seems to be contrary to what a "god tier" champion deserves. He has AOE, he has a transferring DoT, and he has a great silence poke, but his ultimate is just lackluster and his skillset more or less REQUIRES someone that lets him deal the damage to them to be significant.

 

Evelynn - Oddly enough Eve is not in Eve tier. She's honestly not terrible in ARAMs for the sole reason that oracles don't last very long (people die... a lot). That being said, she's still not very good, but in the right hands she can burst people down very quickly or be tanky enough to do sustained damage with hate spike and TF/Lich Bane procs.

Edited July 6, 2012 by LazaHorse

[-O-P-rime]

Brand should be higher, and stack warmogs for days. Tank everything, regret nothing.

[LazaHorse]

Updated to explain the specific champions I noted.

[Gravity Kitteh]

Aram is awesome.

[Chick Magnet]

Twisted Fate = Garbage in ARAM. Way too squishy.

[Defiant Behavior]

Nice!

[Gravity Kitteh]

Twisted Fate = Garbage in ARAM. Way too squishy.

 

lol nope, TF wrecks on ARAM. Stay in the back, throw dem AP cards~

[LazaHorse]

lol nope, TF wrecks on ARAM. Stay in the back, throw dem AP cards~

 

Yep... Just sit back and spam Q... Proving Grounds is completely linear meaning the middle card should be easy as balls to land.

[kur0san]

I looked around and I think your list is the best I've seen. I do have a couple of thoughts.

 

God-Tier (If you get these, you will most likely dominate the game/carry your team):

Ziggs - his r dosn't do that much damage as it used to, I will say his q is decent damge but over all I dont think he god-tier. I mostly see ziggs damage in the middle of damage done in aram games. I think Ziggs is tear 2 just my opinion.

Maokai - Tank can be almost unkillable with passive and 10 people spamming all spells.

 

Tier One (Very strong champions who will be dominant though counterable in ARAMs):

Varus - I'd almost say he should be god-tear because his poke is insane, he can be so far away and still half shot someone. A back-line poke that can poke enemy back-line with little to no danger.

Xerath - Also insane poke at long rang as long as you have a front line Xerath can stun and out harass most champs. Feels higher than some of the other champs in tier one.

Ahri - taunt can win lvl one team fights good poke and decent escape/engage with lots of aoe damage. If your losing you can stall out and clear creep waves mid game till you can catch up. Feels higher than some of the other champs in tier one.

Sejuani - other than ult there just not much good of this champ. Amumu is much better his ult hit anyone he wants, better engage and good aoe damage with tears. All of Amumu skills are very useful and allows ap build as well as tank build. Sejuani cant do much but be in the way. I'd say eve tier worthy. She can be easily ignored and dose not pose much threat if her ult is down.

Kayle - OMG so many games carried by Kayle she can out damage most AD champ and her ult makes her nearly unkillable. AD Kayle is beast I'd highly recommend god-tier.

Tryndamere - I think tryndamere is probably the worst ARAM champ. There no creeps to build up furry and teams almost always have rang or poke. Before he can go in he takes so much damage , you cant really build as a tank and if you try to build ad you need someone else to engage. Below eve tier in my opinion.

Amumu - all skills are useful and can change and win games. Can be bult as AP and deal lots of damage or tank and still be a threat. AEO stun + engage stun so good for piking off the back lines. Tears kills tanks and bruisers. I'd recommend god-tier

Katarina - Almost always a CC to stop ulty good poke but not sure if tier one

 

 

Tier Two (Relatively weak champions though not a complete detriment to their team):

Cho'gath - Diffently needs to be higher, with buffs knock up is hits way more often. aoe silence stops so many other champs ults. Cho has it all: tons of cc, aeo, good damage, true damage, and tanky. God tier worthy if nothing more than being able to counter so many champs.

 

Tier Four/Eve Tier (Champions whose existence in ARAMs are significant slightly more than super minions):

Irelia - front lines are so underrated. Irelia can not only becoming almost unkillable by stacking res. But if your team is mostly ap she can carry a game as a damage tank hybrid. I would think she could be tier 2.

Talon - Talon isnt that bad though he not teir one can still pick off the carries on other team. His silence also destroys many mages.

Leblanc - Leblanc could be tier one. Being able to pick off almost any champ you want and get away with it just op. In the right hands god-tier in most hands tier 2.

Nasus - Nassus is tier one if not god-tier. His ult dose so much damage Building tank on nasus I'm able to out damage almost anyone.

 

Front line champs are underrated everyone wants a high KDA, so they built damage when the team needs tanks. And as a out come not only do they lose team battle but they do less damage just because they melt fast. It irritates me to no end when a team is all squishes and the person that could build tank builds AP or rushes a tri-force. Even a team of nothing but bruisers with no poke can dominate a game if they have a good front line and keeps the enemy poke out of range. Building MR, auras, Armor and HP are not dont enough. I run in to all AP teams often. Rushing 3 Negatron Cloak and a war mogs it not hard to 1v5 even if my damage is low theirs is lower and they ways all their cd on me and my team can clean up. Even if my team is dead on someone like Ali I can just melee them till my team gets back up ccing, kiting, and healing my self taking one or 2 of enemy champs with out dying.

 

Final note, I'm dyslexic if there is any typos I'm sorry I tried to spell check but I don't always get everything.

[Awkward]

[*]Nidalee is the most broken piece of shit to ever grace the Proving Grounds.

 

This.

[LazaHorse]

I'll update this eventually. Admittedly, I wrote this after only about a week or so of ARAM games if that even and theory. Now that it's been out for a decade now, I'll reupdate this list. Meanwhile enjoy the great preaching of David Platt:

 

[video=youtube;mqTWLut6lcg]