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League of Legends: ARAM gets makeover with Hexgates, Tower Debris, and more

The Howling Abyss is about to become more exciting in 2023 with significant map and balance changes that will affect ARAM gameplay. (Photo: Riot Games)
The Howling Abyss is about to become more exciting in 2023 with significant map and balance changes that will affect ARAM gameplay. (Photo: Riot Games)

All Random All Mid (ARAM), one of the most popular game modes in League of Legends (LoL) is getting some improvements.

The mode will be getting multiple changes to its map, its system, and champion balance all in preparation for Season 2023.

In ARAM, the game's regular battlefield has been swapped out for a single, narrow lane, and the player is given a different champion to play with each match.

Games on ARAM's map, called the Howling Abyss, are all about teamfighting and attempting to tear down the three enemy towers and eventually the enemy Nexus in front of you.

On the other hand, games on the regular Summoner's Rift are focused on positioning, objective management, and earning slight advantages.

With the Howling Abyss generally untouched for years, LoL developer Riot Games is making a few tweaks to the game's balance and its map to make gameplay more interesting for players.

In a preview announcement posted on Tuesday (15 November), Daniel “Maxw3ll” Emmons, Riot’s new Design Lead of the Modes Team on LoL, talked about what changes players can expect on the Public Beta Environment (PBE):

Howling Abyss Map Updates

Hexgates

A fun new addition to the map includes the Hexgates, which will allow more backdoor plays and scrappy ganks in the Howling Abyss (Photo: Riot Games)
A fun new addition to the map includes the Hexgates, which will allow more backdoor plays and scrappy ganks in the Howling Abyss (Photo: Riot Games)

Hexgates are also being added to the map, except they're made of ice. These will allow players to get to the outer turret immediately instead of spending a lot of time walking through the entire map. This was made to help players "get back into the action faster", allowing more flanking and backdoor opportunities and potentially shortening gameplay time.

Once the first turret is destroyed, Hexgates will link to the outer tower, where it will stay for the rest of the game. Even more, you can use your enemy’s Hexgates to escape from a teamfight! We imagine ARAM will be much more dynamic and fun with the addition of this feature.

Tower Debris

Caution: Road obstruction ahead. Destroyed turrets on ARAM will leave fallen debris behind. (Photo: Riot Games)
Caution: Road obstruction ahead. Destroyed turrets on ARAM will leave fallen debris behind. (Photo: Riot Games)

Destroyed turrets will also leave debris behind instead of disappearing completely. This will attempt to mimic choke points on the Summoner's Rift, making gameplay more dynamic and encouraging players to position their attacks strategically.

On top of all these, the Howling Abyss will now have more brushes scattered around the map, to give more places to hide and have better overall fog of war.

Game Balance Changes

Long-range champions will no longer continue to reign on ARAM, some changes on Melee champions were made to help them keep up with this game mode. (Photo: Riot Games)
Long-range champions will no longer continue to reign on ARAM, some changes on Melee champions were made to help them keep up with this game mode. (Photo: Riot Games)

Melee vs Ranged Champions

One of the biggest pain points of ARAM is how heavily disadvantaged Melee champions are compared to Ranged champions.

To address this, devs are giving melee champs additional magic resist. Players should also expect Omnivamp and Lifesteal against minions to be reduced significantly at 50%.

Finally, long-range damage modifiers are also getting reduced further, based on additional distance, scaling up from 15-30 based on 1000-2000 distance away. The damage reduction, however, won’t affect ultimate abilities.

With this change, ADCs can no longer quickly recover to full health after a wave clear. It won’t be as hard to deal with champions with very long pokes like Zoe and Kai’sa.

Energy Regeneration is given to Zed, Akali, Kennen and Lee Sin, so they don't run out of tools in endless team fights at the Howling Abyss (Photo: Riot Games)
Energy Regeneration is given to Zed, Akali, Kennen and Lee Sin, so they don't run out of tools in endless team fights at the Howling Abyss (Photo: Riot Games)

Energy Regeneration

Energy-using champions like Zed, Akali, Kennen, and Lee Sin will gain a 20% bonus Energy Regen on ARAM so they wouldn’t easily run out easily in endless team fights.

This will give them more access to their skills and make a better impact on the Howling Abyss.

Tenacity

Some ‘squisher’ melee champions also get 20% tenacity, so they don’t get caught out as easily as before by crowd control skills.

These include Akali, Ekko, Elise, Evelynn, Fizz, Kassadin, Katarina, Kayn, Kha’Zix, Leblanc, Pyke, Qiyana, Rek’Sai, Rengar, Talon, and Zed.

Ability Haste nerf on Ashe

The Frost Archer has received a special nerf since the damage nerfs on ARAM didn’t seem to affect her much.

Ashe gets -20 Ability Haste in ARAM so that she can’t keep spamming her slow and mark spells.

You can check here for a closer look at all the ARAM changes.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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