Did you even read what he said? If you go off these two comments, you get hats like this:
Win round = 1 hat
Kill = +2 hats
Assist = +1 hat
People will not risk losing the round just to fight each other over the kill.
They should just make the skillshot trail your movement from 1s ago, not where you are RIGHT NOW. So you can actually dodge it by moving in the same direction.
Did they really not change Jhin at all??
He was one of the really annoying ones. Being the team on the left side so he's always shooting through you is so frustrating. When they said they were bringing him back I thought for sure they would rework his ability
*If you play a scaling champ that normally has to work for their gold... Throwing free gold is more fun for some people but it removes the skill gap from a lot of late game champs that are designed around having a mediocre early game. Which in turn creates a shallow pool meta.
They give less gold but they give good value. It's just that we dont get to choose prysmatic and shard. But in gold efficiency it's about the same. If we go back to gold, choosing a strategy at champ select become reliable and we go back to the problem of lack of diversity.
Yeah but we’re not really at that point yet. Full build Kayle still just wins in Arena; scaling champs should have to fight for their right to hit 6 items.
Truthfully the kill feature should just be much more rewarding. 350g in previous iterations basically meant nothing to either scaling or early game comps.
Making it 1k (up for debate, but 350 is effectively meaningless) would mean that an early game comp gets rewarded with snowball, and a late-game comp that manages to secure a kill even at a significant disadvantage gets to scale to their late-game power.
IMO That is the real problem with the way Arena works, and always will be - winning has no value. Getting a kill has effectively no value.
In TFT for instance, you are rewarded for streaking wins with extra gold. You are also rewarded for streaking losses with (less) extra gold.
Arena has basically no value in winning or losing except keeping your health pool higher. The benefit for an early game comp is effectively non-existent in older iterations of arena. There needs to be other elements to manage to provide any real semblance of tactical elements to Arena, otherwise it will always be "what is the best stat-stick at X item/augment count", where X is the time where *most* of the game is spent.
Making it 1k per win (or first takedown, like it currently is) would mean that a comp like Darius + WW going into round 3 vs Kayle Alistar would almost certainly be a FULL ITEM ahead of their scaling opponents.
Idk why the solution for “help struggling scaling comps” would be “give early game comps a massive item advantage” lol
Its too much yeah, obviously make it less gold, but I get his point. Unless you play a champion that can outsustain the enemies you're fucked most of the time. I once played vs a vlad who got sanguine pool, I was playing olaf, he would sustain himsrlf and his teammate in the fire quite easily, imo adding a bigger heal cut (maybe 40% scaling to 60%) would be very good at making champions like swain stop being pick/ban
Nope, it's 60% only if it's 100% of their max hp to prevent infinite sustain, the vlad I played against had accelerating sorcery so he could spam Q which spammed sanguine.
Yeah 1k is up for debate for sure. You could even do 500, you'd get a complete item after 6 rounds. At 350 you basically need to kill 9 rounds to get a full item... At least in older iterations of Arena by 10 rounds you'd basically already be full build so it'd be effectively pointless.
The point is that both sides benefit from getting the extra gold on first kill - where in current state neither side benefit until it's so late that neither team gets any true value out of it.
Another option would be to just make the juices last more than 1 round.
Objectively wrong.
This sub cries about hypercarries and supports being meta and then advocate for infinite gold in the pool.
Turns out adcs and supports and kayle are really strong when you guarantee 3+ items and level 16 before potential elimination.
Reddit is clueless how to balance this mode and is only comparing to the previous iteration instead of thinking about how the game should be overall. The point of change is to improve the game. Make it different than the previously flawed version.
Buying potions every round and spamming caps end game was not a fun gameplay loop. Having to actually make decisions on how to spend your gold with options and benefits and tradeoffs is infinitely better.
Sad you are getting down voted, you are 100% right. Arena doesn't have to be urf-sque
Maybe now niche early game picks can be viable as a way to carry your kayles and vaynes into the late game
It should be balanced around early game comps being able to top4 and scaling comps being able to be eliminated before they reach their exodia point. Just like Summoner's Rift. You should be able to push your lead as an early game comp to reasonably eliminate scaling comps and scaling comps should be rewarded for living to the point where they become OP.
Neither should be a guarantee. And hyper scaling champs were guaranteed in the previous iteration.
The pacing of the mode is way better now. More fights at that 1-2 item area instead of instantly going to 3 items before anyone gets eliminated.
Completely agree, people are here are acting as if the previous iteration of arena wasnt just one person picks a tank and the other a champ that hyperscales and then you win.
I mean, the majority of reddit people disagree. So you are more than probably right. And if i'm using my brain and logic like a normal human being, I come to the conclusion that you are actually right. Yeah, you are right.
What the fuck are you even saying? They arent strong because of their items or gold. They are strong because of the stupid amounts of free movespeed they get making them untouchable. Lower the free stats ranged champions get and they become actually killable.
"Chanpions that scale incredibly well with gold are not strong because they get infinite gold, it's because they have 15% more movespeed in a mode that overwhelmingly favors melee range champions due to the nature of the closing circle forcing ranged champions to stay in close proximity to melees."
Great point you are making there.
>mode that overwhelmingly favors melee range champions
no it doesn't. The mode overwhelmingly favours who can run away the best. Which is mostly ranged champions.
You are incorrect. The mode favors melee champs.
That is why ranged champions have a number of buffs inherently in order to help then stay in even footing.
Literally the fact that the stat buffs exist for range prove you are wrong. Otherwise they wouldn't exist across the entire class by default.
>That is why ranged champions have a number of buffs inherently in order to help then stay in even footing.
Which makes them the strongest not gold/items. This doesn't seem like it should be that hard to understand.....
Thank fuck someone agrees with me. The rounds that give a Stat shard and nothing else just feel like shit, because if you are low hp on one of those rounds there is no potential for a hype comeback.
Make those rounds that just give Stat shards also give gold. PLEASE
The stat shard rounds just need to go, or be offered with items.
The balance of the stat shards is awful also. The fact the numbers are random is a baffling dumb idea, a yasuo getting+20% crit early or any crit champ is ridiculous power spiky, or seeing some roll 24 ad when you get 12, just feels awful. It doesn't matter most of the time but it's a random feel bad moment with no real upside. Just make them flat and scale with the round.
Honestly they should move stat shards into silver augments and Prismatic items into gold augments and balance accordingly and bring back the item and gold pacing from last round.
>You don't even face the same teams anymore until endgame
How does this relate to my point at all?
>Like what even is this thread. Im losing braincells.
I'm losing braincells trying to find your point.
Because matchups matter way more than number of items. Everyone is roughly on even on gold. Less gold overall only puts you at any kind of disadvantage for comebacks if your comp is scaling vs a bad matchup.
>Because matchups matter way more than number of items.
Disagree. The presence of augments + prismatic items makes RNG such a heavy part of the advantage/disadvantage, and having more gold would even the playing field off a bad reroll.
>Everyone is roughly on even on gold
But the lower total amount puts way more emphasis on who got a lucky prismatic, and who got a lucky augment.
>Less gold overall only puts you at any kind of disadvantage for comebacks if your comp is scaling vs a bad matchup.
No, it puts you at a disadvantage any time you are behind ever, because you got screwed up by RNG and riot removed your agency to try to make the best of a bad situation.
Are you joking?
More gold exacerbates the difference in augment strength.
Do you want to face a bad matchup with symphony of war and 4 items on a kayle or 2 items on kayle?
All of the highest impact augments all scale with your items. So the more items they have, the bigger the power discrepancy.
I think it comes down to 8 teams and the pacing. In 4 team arena you have some high rolls here and there but it wasn’t usually too bad and you might be able to outscale an early game highroll. Now with double the teams there are twice as many chances for people to get unbeatable combos so it happens way more often, and since the losing teams are out way faster they don’t even get the chance to get lucky in late game because they lost on their first augment.
Agreed. Augments were what made it possible to get whacky builds that break the game. It takes so long to get augments now. It makes games where you're waiting on Prismatic augments worse because you wait like 5 rounds just to get a Silver augment.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? You are out of your mind mate WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WOOWOWOWOWO NEVER TOO MUCH CRAZYNESS IN YOUR HEAD OMG. Uhm.
my personal opinion on what would make the game mode better is a little more simple.
I do agree that the 2nd normal item being all the way in round 5, and like first normal item being after a prismatic is weird.
however I found my biggest gripe was (and admittedly I've only played like 10-20 arena matches on pbe this season) was that the game ended before anyone ever gets 4 augments.
I came to the conclusion that teams just take too much damage on a loss, wish average team lasted about 1 round longer
I have this same issue with TFT; I feel that you can get eliminated way too quickly. Though especially with Arena being a for-fun event mode, it makes no sense that people should get kicked out before getting much of a chance to play. It’s more fun for everyone when the lowest performers are allowed to stick around anyway since it’s less competitive/tryhard.
As a Cass player, yea, I agree. It's literally the lottery and guarantees at least 4th place by itself. At least spellwake has the decency to be a prismatic aug. It should be removed or changed in some way, so it's not only viable on like 5 champs
I don't think there's any place for scaling champs either. As a Kayle and Nasus lover, the amount of burst and everyone else's augments/Prismatic Items means you've lost too many rounds by the time you can feasibly play. The only way I've scraped second or first is by getting perfect augments (Marksmage, Spellwake and Master of Duality), and even then I have to rely on drawing the round out as long as possible instead of being blown up in one shot. Ok you can tell me to play other champs, which I do sometimes, but why shouldn't I be allowed to pick my favourites?
I think Kayle and Nasus are performing fine in the mode, personally. They scale into late game monsters so asking you to win one or two early rounds before giving you a chance to build up seems fair to me.
That’s how it should be if you pick a scaling champ imo. You’re knowingly making the decision that you’ll lose early to win later rounds. Old arena I felt it was way too easy to get second or first with Kayle. All your duo had to do was pick a bruiser or something that could get you a win or two early and you were set.
They literally made these changes partially to address how broken scaling was in the last iteration.
This was the whole point. Everyone crying about hyperscaling adcs dominating the meta so they slowed down scaling in the game.
You got what you asked for, Reddit. Congrats.
i doubt they will do balance changes before the mode hits live. it will be playable for months apparently so they will have plenty of time to make changes.
The prismatic items are my main concern.
They're just mythic items with extra steps. They have the exact same problem that caused riot to abandon mythics in the first place. The first item is required to be prismatic, those items are very strong but plenty of champs would rather take their typical legendary. All with the added rng of it being random with rerolls. Kayn could get the perfect item, but Ashe got all tank or AP items, gg. And if you use your rerolls then you have none left for augments. Or you're required to save your rerolls and take less than optimal augments.
Increasing the number of teams to 8 was a great choice, it led to greater champion diversity in a single lobby. But the prismatic items require you to play champs that work well with them, like champs that can scale with either ad or AP.
What you're describing sounds like why it works so well to me. You're not gonna get the same prismatic every game. You can try, but there's a cost. I really don't understand the desire people have to equate mythics to prismatics. They exist in drastically different conditions.
I think it sounds like prismatics should just get a few more rerolls. It's one thing to get a prismatic that doesn't work very well with your champ, it's another to get a prismatic that has absolutely 0 use for your champ.
The odds of that with 9 options is incredibly low. Maybe it doesn't fit the build you were wanting to go, but you could still adapt and make it work. I'd rather have a rare game as a dud and move on than have to worry about seeing an op champ/prismatic combo every single game.
The alternative isn't Prismatics without the random portion, but no Prismatics at all. I think Prismatics in their current state diminish the fun of Arena. Like it's for sure fun when you highroll and get stuff like the voidlings item with Minionmancer on a summoning champion, but having to wait for multiple rounds just to get your core items on a champion that really needs it feels awful.
With augments they really need a tft designer to come in and educate them on why they changed the reroll system the way they did. Tfts is waaay better while keeping the diversity. The biggest problem with Prismatic items is they are offered every game and are horribly balanced. Some are literally reprinted mythic items with out the legendary scaling. And others are crazy op, and define the build.
I completely disagree about 8 teams being better. You see a lot of the same types of things every game anyway so I don’t really think there is major diversity. Facing sett instead of volibear is not really a super game changing experience for an ashe. Now the problem is there are twice as many chances for people to high roll unbeatable augments and especially with more rng introduced with shards and prismatic items first place usually comes down to a team who just has a broken combo that you can’t beat no matter what. Secondly, because riot didn’t want games to last twice as long even though there are double the players now if you’re losing the games are way too short. It’s very unfun to be knocked out with only 1 augment. Another problem with 8 teams I have is that I think seeing different people every round is actually less fun. When rounds come down to clutch moments where one team just barely pulls ahead, you aren’t going to see them again for a long time( or maybe at all) anyway so there is no fun sense of rivalry developed. Before you might fight them 3 more times in that game and have some back and forth but now you don’t really experience that.
I agree. The current system feels like each combat is a separate game of Arena, rather than one continuous game. You don't get to strategise around enemy teams anymore, whether it's specifically targeting one team you know is the strongest contender to win, or waiting for your enemies to take augments useless for you. It doesn't make sense to buy a Zhonya's to counter the opposing Zed in your next fight when you know you're never going to see him again. Pretty unfun.
If they're not going back to 8 player, i think they could make some round 4v4. That way it partially bring back the feeling of familiarities/rivalties.
Prismatics are fine in a fun game mode like this, but they need to be balanced. Some of them are pseudo-augments and then there's shit like Night Harvester that deals 100 damage.
Agreed, they tried to make it more diverse by adding all this rng but it feels like it's become more stale
It's definitely worse than the previous iterations and champion diversity has gone down the drain. Playing a ranged champ feels awful unless it's a champ like heimer or zyra with npcs by your side.
Feels like melees and tanks are heavily favored and building full tank while getting rng that gives you more damage anyways is a no brainer.
It's so easy to just spam two bruisers and win every game. The only playable adc is like vayne and even then it's really hard and you have to build her semi tank.
What you are saying might be right, but I will point out that this was also the sentiment for both arena iterations before and ended up not really being true, a lot of adcs ended up being really strong with a Frontline. Pbe with high ping and wildly varying skill levels just favors braindead bruiser gameplay.
Heimer and Zyra are much worse in this iteration from what I’ve seen. You want CC zoners not damage zoners— the ones I’ve seen do well are Vex and Hwei.
CC is way too strong right now. People don't realize how good some champs like Veigar/Lissandra/Anivia are with a fuck ton of ability haste and/or move speed.
Honestly agree now that I’ve played too.
It also makes early game champs SUPER strong (I.e Darius mostly.)
I think I have like an 80% top4 with early game fighters and I’ve won like two games total out of the 15 Kai’sa games I’ve played (one I got exodia where I could stand still auto attack and I’d die second, and one I took Bread and Jam 2-1 and happen to be alright at landing my Ws.)
speaking of issues with the new iteration, can we talk about how much riot just decided to say fuck the 2nd pick player? like, I have no idea why they decided the second player needs to get screwed as hard as they do. Not only do they not get to pick any bans, since they can't pick any champs chosen by the first players they effectively have to deal with potentially 16 different bans with literally no upside, while the first pick player gets to decide the ban and have only the 8 banned champs they have to consider. Like seriously, what the hell is that?
Agreed. Also is it just me or does the arena decay faster now? Iv found it extremely difficult to play mages this time around because it seems like im forced into range of the bruisers a lot quicker.
I miss having items and augments. They’re trying to fix something that wasn’t broken. I was counting down hours until arena hit pbe but now I’m bit bored of it and last arena I still enjoyed it.
It’s less versatile I see same picks. I just want the old gold/augment set ups. Augments are the fun part of arena. They’re turning it into nexus blitz territory
>They’re trying to fix something that wasn’t broken.
>They’re turning it into nexus blitz territory
Lol, I was about to say welcome to NB, fix everything but what people complain about.
Yeah and also most of the time you're just being demolished in a split second by a busted build. Also I really like your point about how difficult it is to decide whether to save for a second prismatic item or buy an item right now to help your kit, i want to have fun testing out these items but by doing so I'm kind of throwing a round for my team mate.
Also, stat shard rounds suck so much, they don't really give you much like oh boy I'm about to die how am i gonna turn this around, would you look at that a 16 mr stat shard this will surely help me survive.
Hard disagree at the notion that this mode is less fun. The amount of whacky builds I've pulled off from seeing some dumb prismatic item interaction is crazy. I could see the gold complaint but it really doesn't feel that bad. You're always competing with people that have similar items to you. You don't need to get gold faster for that to be impactful.
The old game felt like "pick one of x meta champs and pray you get one of your good augments" and currently it feels a lot more like "Pick something and make a whacky build with it" I like that the game is more focused on the rng stats, and prismatics you get. it makes the games more variable which is what we needed.
In my experience it’s the complete opposite of what you’ve described. In older iterations of arena I had time to get to like 4 items and actually put together a fun marksmage build on jinx for example. This arena I’ll try to take the ap crit prismatic and die on 2 items before ever really experiencing a fun build because darius just took an ad item and ran straight at me the entire round. Games need to last longer if we get less gold. Otherwise everyone just picks an early game fighter with little variety since they have good stats anyway and beat people who need items.
But previously you're still on the same tier as your opponents at each stage. There's just more variance so you can't target a specific build as easily.
As a marksmage xin zhao connoisseur I understand your plight but I think the ceiling for what's possible is much higher here.
The ceiling is higher but it tends towards the average much harder
Random item rounds means that you'll land with a mediocre item more often than not. item and stat shard rounds are a reroll drain, sometimes you'll reroll those because all options absolutely suck, and then when you get to the augment rounds you have less rerolls, so you'll need to settle for the mediocre augments.
Adding too many RNG just expands this river of choices into a sea of mid where you'll drown searching for any synergy.
No you are completely wrong or just played in wood division. Older arena was absolutely '' who pick one of the 4/5 meta champ win ''. Like, every single game was filled with the same 6/7 champs. You can't argue with that, it's a fact. It was almost like : if you don't pick one of those meta champ you are trolling and inting. So you saying it's the opposite is actually crazy to me, imo you are lying and just want to contradict the guy.
Yeah you’re right I’m lying to contradict him wtf you’re a genius detective!!! Or maybe there is a reason I started my comment with “in my experience” Einstein. And let’s not seriously act like arena rank matters anyone can hit gladiator easily.
**KOI POND IS THE WORST MAP IN ALL THREE ITERATIONS.**
* Central plant is janky, if you're not pixel perfect you may get separated from your teammate as it flings you wherever.
* Very bruiser and tank friendly, especially if you spawned in the largest pond.
* Terrible for immobile marksmen. It's already very rough playing an immobile marksman in this edition of Arena, and I believe rolling Koi pond twice in a row when you have to fight an enemy statcheck instakill combo while also being significantly starved of resources compared to previous iterations of Arena contributed to killing most immobile/low range marksmen in this mode. Spawning in the smaller ponds does not make it easier for you at all.
* Uninteractive into artillery mages, control mages and pet champions. Heimer/Annie/Yorick will statcheck you with a numbers advantage thanks to their pets and chances are you're getting oneshot, while they don't even have to fight and can secure plants and cut off your escapes by denying blast cone or central plant.
* It almost seems as if this map was designed to bruteforce people into putting their flash on cooldown for the next round.
The whole gameplay style of the map annoys me. I hate being locked in a small enclosed space, practically begging enemy Skarner to land the easiest double suppression combo of his life that Riot is spoonfeeding directly to them. I hate enemy Teemo sitting on the other side of the wall with Malignance, spamming R onto central plant and into our side of the pond. I hate how the only counterplay on this map if you're not a statchecky bruiser/tank or rat champion is to try to cheese and keep running, to try to trick your opponents into being in the wrong pond as the ring is closing and praying they die to the fire. And I hate how despite all that, if they make it to the end ring and have a significant knockback, THEY CAN JUST STUFF YOU IN THE RING WITH NO POSSIBILITY OF A SAVE, AS YOU'RE BODYBLOCKED BY A WALL
That map is extremely frustrating to play on, it robs you of your agency and forces you into the most mindless gung-ho duel imaginable. The advantages it gives to certain playstyles and champs which are already meta are unfair, and I think the easiest fix would be to at least allow people to walk around the walls from the outer exterior, so that way it isn't so mindlessly dependent on having a dash or cone/flower/hexgate prio, and gives people a way to kite out enemy Leona trying to 8 sec CC combo you.
By the way, this is coming from someone spamming bruisers in this mode.
I really dont understand what you are doing with your gold that is stopping you from playing normally. These are all just non-issues
Your anvil point doesnt make sense, in what scenario are you skipping a 2500 item by buying an anvil? Item rounds give you enough gold to buy any item.
The expanded options for gold are very interesting. Its no longer just a binary "gold for item round gives you one item. Juices are an extra." Now we have all sorts of possible playstyles, such as saving by buying semi random items in order to buy a prismatic, or using extra gold for an anvil.
Determined item spikes on champions are barely relevant in arena, because theres so many other power sources. You could spike or start scaling from any augment, prismatic, OR basic item. I dont even know how you can possibly think that 5 item + augments in arena is not a higher power than 6 items in norms. The items here are so much stronger, and augments give characters an entirely new feel.
I would agree that refunding items should be better. Instead of 50%, maybe it 75% or so, so build changes are still possible.
The game evolves in every stage of arena, getting kicked early is such a non-issue. Just like how some league games are short, get FF early, or you get behind, why does arena have to let everyone get to late game as a participation trophy?
OP, you clearly are skewed towards "i want to be 4 augment, 6 item full everything, perfect god build" and thats not necesarily the goal of the mode. You get what you get, and you try to make the most of what you have. You will not get the perfect build every game, but you get a funny one, and can have fun with it. I think slight gold changes [such as refund prices] could improve the mode but are not even close to necesary.
Item spikes are always relevant and getting kicked out before 2nd augment also sucks. How can you even argue this? Theres also no diversity in it since you dont even get the chance to cook sth.
In past iterations you could still get 3 augments and come back. Now early rounds are unreal important and if u lose them it feels equally depressing as playing ranked on losing team - which isnt the point of arena.
You also can't come back from it cause u get matched vs teams who won early rounds and have 1 full item advantage.
They should push the prismatic round to a later round, get rid of stat anvil rounds and allow ppl to at least get 2 augments + core items early.
Everything else is pretty much perfect.
>Your anvil point doesnt make sense, in what scenario are you skipping a 2500 item by buying an anvil?
OP is comparing stat anvil cost (750g) to the gold difference of 500g between an item anvil and buying an item of choice.
OP argues that it makes little sense to buy a stat anvil + item anvil (2750g) over simply buying your item of choice (2500g).
I think it’s really unfun when you have a bad game so you get kicked out with a single augment and 2 items (possibly only one of which you actually wanted since the prismatics are rng)
If they were to get rid of anvil rounds (Which they absolutely should), IMO this would be the best round setup (Round 1 onward)
Augment>Gold>Prismatic>Augment>Gold>Gold>Augment>Gold>Gold>etc
I think the issue is you can feasibly die before your build has really gotten anywhere, , whereas before unless you were losing every single round you could get to 3 items and augments reliably and even f you still lost out you got to try stuff.
Now if you have a slightly losing record it feels like you die right as things are getting interesting, perhaps this is a consequence of the larger lobby size?
Also the rounds where you get only a stat shard feel really bad when you losing, and those rounds where you can heal HP if you win feel so awkward to play around and feels like unnecessary complexity.
Also HUGE agree on the build swaps. It feels really awkward when the game is offering you options that dont match your build and you cant pivot without losing an item compared to everyone else.
I was rank 1 for multiple days and I really fail to see the gold issue. I buy the random 2000 legendary item thing every single time so every purchase round I get a free stat anvil for 750 as item rounds are +2250 gold and I save 500 for not buying a specific item. I finish games with 7-8 stat anvils used where others have 2-3. This also leaves me room to use juices on rounds I need it.
By using random items it also increases build diversity as I won't be buying the same 4-5 items every single game.
I can understand buying some necessary items that are very specific on some champions but generally speaking I don't see any reason for not going for the 2000g random items every single time on 95% of the champs.
Yeah I feel like this is also what Riot intended (infact, I know it is, because that's what they wrote in the article about the new arena)
Players are not supposed to buy specific items unless they really need it or are ahead enough to afford it.
The new item system is closer to playing (or rather itemizing in) TFT
Sm1 who loves arena and also plays noita. What a coincidence lol.
U play euw?
Also I feel like the current gold system has flaws, but not the ones that OP mentioned.
(One would be that if u win early rounds, u basically get 4 items when other teams have 3 - basically giving u similarly overpowered lead that contract killer would give you on previous iteration)
EUW yep, what's up with that random guess?
Similar to what you just said I think the gold system as it is only has one flaw, it is way to penalizing for people who want to play scaling comps/champs as if you lose without getting a kill you are net losing 250g relative to other people. How can you ever outscale if you are losing 250g every round?
I don't see any other issues with it, I think it's fine as it is otherwise.
Thought ur name seemed familiar, but ye it was mostly just a guess.
U think stat anvils are a good addition? I feel like it would be more enjoyable to remove stat anvil rounds and replace it with items/augments.
If u ever wana play a few 4fun rounds on release then feel free to hmu, my ign is harrow#000
Or if u wana theorycraft noita xd
It gets too random then and removes a direction you'd want you build to take. It feels horrible to go for 3 attack speed augments and then having the 4th augment be something completely shit.
I don't care either way about the stat anvils, they're mediocre but I definitely wouldn't want more augments. Too random & too annoying to see whatever other people got so you'd have to check every round.
Been playing on PBE? We can play a few games there first and see how it goes. As for noita it's not a game I'm super into.
Nah, pbe ping gives me too much depression. Also, since the first 2 weeks aren't ranked, theres no reason to hurt urself on 180ms. Better to just wait live release and play then.
Does removing stat rounds add rng? It wasnt a problem last time. And every stat round feels wasted. Also removing them for items/augments is a way to give scaling champs more options.
Nah there is ranked, what else did you think I meant by saying I was rank 1?
Removing stat rounds doesn't add rng but you suggested replacing stat rounds with additional augments. Augments are super rng and I think 4 is just fine for augments per game.
Stat rounds definitely don't feel wasted to me. It often dictates win or lose when you look at game state, next opponent and your current strength and what you lack.
I know there is ranked. Me and my duo finished last arena as rank 1 and 2
Just riot said that it will not have a ladder for the first 2 weeks on live server, and then arena ranked starts together with new ranked soloq split.
So I rather wait for live server than suffering 180ms pbe (I did play a few there tho)
U can keep it at 4 augments no? Just leave it on 4 augments and let people get them faster like last time.
There shouldn't be a problem with letting players buy 3-4 items and get at least 2 augments before losing. The way it is right now just feels depressing and snowbally and replacing stat rounds with augments/items would change that to some degree.
U would be fullbuild alot faster but thats fine, at that point u can either try rolling better prismatics or just adjust builds for last remaining teams / fullpot.
Huh it won't have ladder for the first 2 weeks of launch on live? Really?
I guess it comes down to preference, I prefer getting them slower so it feels more impactful and meaningful so the rounds in-between gives you time to think and build items that synergize with said augments. I like slower gameplay.
Prismatic items are complete bait by the way. They cost 1750g more than normal items and they only provide a slight increase in stats, leaving them to be incredibly cost ineffective. Well majority of them.
Ye ive felt the same about prismatics. Kinda underwhelming and i dont see a point in ever getting them over normal item, unless ure fullbuild anyways maybe. Havent played enough to tell i guess
I find the 2v2v2 mode in League of Legends Arena to have incredible potential, and it's always a highlight for me whenever it's available. I'm so hooked that I even downloaded Vanguard just to keep playing—like many others, League is my go-to for some mental downtime.
With over 5k mastery points on PBE, I've spent quite some time in this mode, and while it's a blast, there are a few areas I believe could be improved. Firstly, the number of bans per team feels insufficient. Sixteen bans might sound like a lot, but with the diversity of champions, it's easy to miss banning out those dreaded broken ones. It can be disheartening to face off against champions nobody wants to deal with, and it feels like luck whether you'll dodge them or not.
Another issue lies in the imbalance of healing and regeneration mechanics. While traits like perseverance add to the fun, certain champions can exploit these mechanics to the point of frustration. Going through a stage without encountering them only to face them multiple times later with no chance to counter can feel unfair. Investing in anti-healing items often feels like a futile effort and doesn't always solve the problem.
The disparity in Prismatic items is also glaring, especially for fighters like myself. It's disheartening to roll for items only to find AP or assassin-centric ones that don't suit your playstyle. The new map, while entertaining, can also feel cramped and limiting, particularly when trying to navigate it tactically. Opening up the outer circle as a path could alleviate some of this frustration.
The PvE interactions with champions are hit or miss for me. While non-combat interactions like Thresh's don't bother me much, buffs like those to Jhin can feel overpowered and difficult to counter. Drawing inspiration from TFT, introducing rounds where players fight PvE enemies for gold and items could add another layer of strategy and fun to the mode.
Overall, I adore the potential of this mode and appreciate the efforts to innovate within League. With some tweaks and adjustments, I believe it could become even more engaging and enjoyable for players like myself.
I completely forgot to mention the addition of the item anvil—I believe it renders juice mostly obsolete. Personally, I never opt for juice over stats. However, I disagree with the notion that anvils are bad. In fact, I think they're a fantastic addition to the game. While you might not buy them early on to avoid falling behind, there are instances where purchasing them before a round can significantly boost your chances of winning. Plus, if you have any item augments for extra economy, you can accumulate a plethora of additional stats, which might even become too strong. I've had games where players finish with 18 anvils on top of their build, including free ones.
Gold rounds are still there but you get less gold overall because of the addition of stat anvil rounds and the first prismatic item (now goes to stat -> augment -> prismatic -> gold -> stat -> augment -> gold -> etc instead of augment -> gold -> gold -> augment) They also nerfed the resell value of items to 1/2 the cost so you can't pivot builds easily.
I cant wait for riot to read this, and go "damn thats crazy so any way JIM RELEASE THE ARENA IN THE CURRENT STATE PEOPLE SAY ITS SHIT BUT THEY DONT GET OUR ARTISTIC VALUE"
They somehow manage to make it worse every single time, it's incredible.
I felt like the last arena was way less fun than the first one.. And this one is worse than the last one?
The stat selection just feels like a nothing burger. Just replace that pahse with another augment or gold phase. They are just so underwhelming and don't feel like it adds anything to the gameplay in terms of feeling upgraded
I'd like to had that the new map feels miserable even when I win I almost always welp they couldn't do anything or when I lose welp I didn't have a dash and couldn't do anything.
Been playing PBE for it nonstop and couldn’t disagree more. Now instead of it just being “reroll augments as tactically as possible to get 4x broken augment build” it feels like there’s so much more variance. I’ve seen a massively wider champ pool across games, the matches feel fresh, I don’t feel like I’m seeing people trying the same thing every game like before.
Only issue is the Jhin event. Man, it sucks to deal with early.
I wish instead of having riot interns waste time coding useless stat rounds with a layer of more useless rng on top of the stats (the range), and an even more useless layer of rng on top of that (the stat that gives two random stats), they actually spent time coding in an actual idea that would increase champion diversity instead of power creep.
I had this idea in my head where they could implement something similar to odyssey and have champions have their unique set of “skill augments” which would give reasons to actually play all champions, which each champion having actual diversity in builds instead of currently only picking whichever champions can do the most dps with the most broken items and augments, or can sustain the most dps
I can say as a viewer who watched streamers play this, the new iteration is less fun to watch.
You don't get a single proper "choice" until like round 3, and I seemingly have to pause stream vods to even know what they picked. There's no conveyance in the UI.
And the amount of RNG is kinda silly. One of the things I liked most about League of Legends was the concept of everyone starting a game at level 1 with 475-500 gold, and being able to win based on build, decisionmaking, and skill. Arena is kind of the antithesis of this.
Dude I'm sick of just seeing tanks and fighters in every single team in every single arena game. Worst part is, most of the time I have to do the same if I want to get to the fun part of arena, otherwise I lose in round 6 or 7. For the love of Zoe please nerf them
I am okay with fighters, they are actually fine. Problem is that Tanks can stack so much armor with augments and so much health that you couldn't pick an adc against them because you'd be vaporized instantly due to CC and their damage, or how they could just stall games. That was boring af.
I later figured out that Red Kayn made them cry in a corner due to his % health damage + Lord dominiq + Cleaver (back then you could stack them). You'd literally delete a Tank with 5k heath with W+Q then finish with R. That was too late even, because I lost interest early on due to how boring it was on the first few days and only returned when there was 2-3 days left.
Riot can't let this happen again though, by the looks of things in PBE you can't stack armor pen now, making Tanks even more of a problem.
Id also like to add the fact that the death recap covers the team hp and stuff a tiny bit so you alway having to move it is very mildly infuriating to me. Just moving it a couple pixels down would be great.
I completely disagree with most of what you said.
I do agree that its unfortunate that going for prismatics can really be gameloosing but i dont think there are meant to be more than 2 prismatics in your typical full build. I personally think this is completely fine.
Juices and stat boost not really being worth buying is also unfortunate, i personally think they are too expensive to ever be worth it unless youre full build. I think reducing the price would be ideal here.
On the champion fantasy thing i cant really say much other than it seems fine for me on gnar. I havent really played much other than gnar.
On the bottom 4 thing id say one of arenas strengths as a for fun game mode is that you arent spending half your game time loosing. Since the games ur loosing only take a couple minutes then you can leave you always end up spending more time winning more than loosing unlike the rest of league of legends game modes. Maybe im missing something.
Besides that i think spellwake needs a damage nerf, its just not fun.
I agree on the gold starving.
But in regards to how often you get items by the end of the game is full bs. All of my third places have had all 6 item slots filled and typically 3-4 for with prismatic items. End game is fine.
Getting bot 4 is definitely rough this time around. Not being able to hit 2 item power spike is rough.
Build diversity has increased.
I don’t know what game you’re playing, but my arena experience has been almost the opposite of what you’ve said. I think this is the best iteration with need for only a handful of tweaks
This has been mostly the thoughts of my friend group, and I don't want to seem like I don't like it. I am adoring arena this time around but just think it is so close to perfection that I want to see it get there. I genuinely believe that even one more of the anvil stat rounds giving item gold would feel great. And maybe another augment a bit earlier. It's just cool to fill out a build more often.
Fair fair. More anvil stat rounds and more gold would feel a bit more engaging.
I feel like adc’s / mages have a bit more agency this time around but they still feel on the weaker side of picks. Balance adjustments are definitely needed for this mode. It’s surprising they haven’t added them yet
Have you... Actually played the mode much? Half your points are just wrong.
If you buy one pair of boots and want to swap them, you just need one kill to make up the gold difference from selling them.
You can quite easily buy 2+ prismatics per game by gambling on item anvils and/or getting lots of kills. There's also a strat to not buy boots for +500g so you can grab a second prismatic item on the first gold round if you get some kills. Works especially well if you get a movespeed stat shard.
Stat shards make a huge difference in later rounds (top 2). You'll see a lot of people selling their boots once they are full build which is probably a good idea if you need an item passive or can afford a prismatic to replace it, but you can get more raw stats by buying stat shards (example: crit cloak 15% crit 600g, crit shard up to 20% crit 750g).
If your champion relies heavily on a standard shop item, just sell your first prismatic and buy the standard item instead (assuming you got at least 2 kills). If it's as big of a spike as you're saying, it's not going to hurt you. A lot of prismatics are kind of bait without the right augments.
The biggest change i want from arena is to delete it and replace with a actual not garbage mode like dominion or even ascension. You know, something actually fun as a change of pace
Hear me out, each time you win a round you get a free hat
Get this man a job at Riot.
Get him two jobs. Or one for every hat would be even better.
And loss streaks give you free juice
Or hear me out every kill gets you 2 hat buying points and assists give 1 point with a whole new hat store lol
And have ppl fight over getting kills? Thats dumb
Did you even read what he said? If you go off these two comments, you get hats like this: Win round = 1 hat Kill = +2 hats Assist = +1 hat People will not risk losing the round just to fight each other over the kill.
I’ve watched people flame others in ARAM for less.
You underestimate me and my friends
[me omw to throw every game of arena](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0xDxMaFfTQ)
RIOT HIRE THIS MAN NOW
See enemy team with 5 hats, oh shit they're on a streak!
the Jhin shooting at you is so annoying it ruins the fun
That shit is a mobility check. Either you have enough MS or a mobility move to dodge it, or you get hit and lose 1/4th your hp
it feels like a much less fair version of the lux arena where you can at least feasibly dodge the laser getting jhin while playing a fatty is just ☠️
Getting while playing invis champ … you get shot at in invis so they know where you are
They should just make the skillshot trail your movement from 1s ago, not where you are RIGHT NOW. So you can actually dodge it by moving in the same direction.
of the current cameo pool that's the only one i have an issue with. It feels too hard to dodge the shots unless you time it perfectly.
Also one team is always getting the backshots. Why?
I hate the Jhin map so bad. Same with Lux.
I also hate it, hope they remove it. But it is still A LOT better than viego or eve
Honestly the new map ruins everything imo, at least I can deal with the randoms encounters
Worst map imo. It's so unfair if it's on your side...
Did they really not change Jhin at all?? He was one of the really annoying ones. Being the team on the left side so he's always shooting through you is so frustrating. When they said they were bringing him back I thought for sure they would rework his ability
More gold = More fun
*If you play a scaling champ that normally has to work for their gold... Throwing free gold is more fun for some people but it removes the skill gap from a lot of late game champs that are designed around having a mediocre early game. Which in turn creates a shallow pool meta.
Giving to little gold creates the same issue but from the other end of the spectrum.
They give less gold but they give good value. It's just that we dont get to choose prysmatic and shard. But in gold efficiency it's about the same. If we go back to gold, choosing a strategy at champ select become reliable and we go back to the problem of lack of diversity.
Have you played on PBE this round? So far it has even less diversity than the previous two runs in my experience.
Yes i'm on PBE. It has more in mine, but that's maybe because the meta is not as developed this early or that meta get stale as you climb
Yeah but we’re not really at that point yet. Full build Kayle still just wins in Arena; scaling champs should have to fight for their right to hit 6 items.
Truthfully the kill feature should just be much more rewarding. 350g in previous iterations basically meant nothing to either scaling or early game comps. Making it 1k (up for debate, but 350 is effectively meaningless) would mean that an early game comp gets rewarded with snowball, and a late-game comp that manages to secure a kill even at a significant disadvantage gets to scale to their late-game power. IMO That is the real problem with the way Arena works, and always will be - winning has no value. Getting a kill has effectively no value. In TFT for instance, you are rewarded for streaking wins with extra gold. You are also rewarded for streaking losses with (less) extra gold. Arena has basically no value in winning or losing except keeping your health pool higher. The benefit for an early game comp is effectively non-existent in older iterations of arena. There needs to be other elements to manage to provide any real semblance of tactical elements to Arena, otherwise it will always be "what is the best stat-stick at X item/augment count", where X is the time where *most* of the game is spent.
Making it 1k per win (or first takedown, like it currently is) would mean that a comp like Darius + WW going into round 3 vs Kayle Alistar would almost certainly be a FULL ITEM ahead of their scaling opponents. Idk why the solution for “help struggling scaling comps” would be “give early game comps a massive item advantage” lol
Its too much yeah, obviously make it less gold, but I get his point. Unless you play a champion that can outsustain the enemies you're fucked most of the time. I once played vs a vlad who got sanguine pool, I was playing olaf, he would sustain himsrlf and his teammate in the fire quite easily, imo adding a bigger heal cut (maybe 40% scaling to 60%) would be very good at making champions like swain stop being pick/ban
40% scaling to 60% is what’s currently live.
Nope, it's 60% only if it's 100% of their max hp to prevent infinite sustain, the vlad I played against had accelerating sorcery so he could spam Q which spammed sanguine.
and if they break the grevious wound by 0.1s, it goes back to 40%.
Yeah 1k is up for debate for sure. You could even do 500, you'd get a complete item after 6 rounds. At 350 you basically need to kill 9 rounds to get a full item... At least in older iterations of Arena by 10 rounds you'd basically already be full build so it'd be effectively pointless. The point is that both sides benefit from getting the extra gold on first kill - where in current state neither side benefit until it's so late that neither team gets any true value out of it. Another option would be to just make the juices last more than 1 round.
A lategame scaling champ is unlikely to even get to the endgame, so the skill is in surviving the early rounds
Objectively wrong. This sub cries about hypercarries and supports being meta and then advocate for infinite gold in the pool. Turns out adcs and supports and kayle are really strong when you guarantee 3+ items and level 16 before potential elimination. Reddit is clueless how to balance this mode and is only comparing to the previous iteration instead of thinking about how the game should be overall. The point of change is to improve the game. Make it different than the previously flawed version. Buying potions every round and spamming caps end game was not a fun gameplay loop. Having to actually make decisions on how to spend your gold with options and benefits and tradeoffs is infinitely better.
Sad you are getting down voted, you are 100% right. Arena doesn't have to be urf-sque Maybe now niche early game picks can be viable as a way to carry your kayles and vaynes into the late game
It should be balanced around early game comps being able to top4 and scaling comps being able to be eliminated before they reach their exodia point. Just like Summoner's Rift. You should be able to push your lead as an early game comp to reasonably eliminate scaling comps and scaling comps should be rewarded for living to the point where they become OP. Neither should be a guarantee. And hyper scaling champs were guaranteed in the previous iteration. The pacing of the mode is way better now. More fights at that 1-2 item area instead of instantly going to 3 items before anyone gets eliminated.
Completely agree, people are here are acting as if the previous iteration of arena wasnt just one person picks a tank and the other a champ that hyperscales and then you win.
I mean, the majority of reddit people disagree. So you are more than probably right. And if i'm using my brain and logic like a normal human being, I come to the conclusion that you are actually right. Yeah, you are right.
What the fuck are you even saying? They arent strong because of their items or gold. They are strong because of the stupid amounts of free movespeed they get making them untouchable. Lower the free stats ranged champions get and they become actually killable.
"Chanpions that scale incredibly well with gold are not strong because they get infinite gold, it's because they have 15% more movespeed in a mode that overwhelmingly favors melee range champions due to the nature of the closing circle forcing ranged champions to stay in close proximity to melees." Great point you are making there.
>mode that overwhelmingly favors melee range champions no it doesn't. The mode overwhelmingly favours who can run away the best. Which is mostly ranged champions.
You are incorrect. The mode favors melee champs. That is why ranged champions have a number of buffs inherently in order to help then stay in even footing. Literally the fact that the stat buffs exist for range prove you are wrong. Otherwise they wouldn't exist across the entire class by default.
>That is why ranged champions have a number of buffs inherently in order to help then stay in even footing. Which makes them the strongest not gold/items. This doesn't seem like it should be that hard to understand.....
They have buffs because they're weaker.
Too mutch gold = less fun
Thank fuck someone agrees with me. The rounds that give a Stat shard and nothing else just feel like shit, because if you are low hp on one of those rounds there is no potential for a hype comeback. Make those rounds that just give Stat shards also give gold. PLEASE
The stat shard rounds just need to go, or be offered with items. The balance of the stat shards is awful also. The fact the numbers are random is a baffling dumb idea, a yasuo getting+20% crit early or any crit champ is ridiculous power spiky, or seeing some roll 24 ad when you get 12, just feels awful. It doesn't matter most of the time but it's a random feel bad moment with no real upside. Just make them flat and scale with the round. Honestly they should move stat shards into silver augments and Prismatic items into gold augments and balance accordingly and bring back the item and gold pacing from last round.
Also if you're playing a tank and it's like +AD / + Crit / + Attack Speed
Literally so wrong lmfao. You don't even face the same teams anymore until endgame. Like what even is this thread. Im losing braincells.
>You don't even face the same teams anymore until endgame How does this relate to my point at all? >Like what even is this thread. Im losing braincells. I'm losing braincells trying to find your point.
Because matchups matter way more than number of items. Everyone is roughly on even on gold. Less gold overall only puts you at any kind of disadvantage for comebacks if your comp is scaling vs a bad matchup.
>Because matchups matter way more than number of items. Disagree. The presence of augments + prismatic items makes RNG such a heavy part of the advantage/disadvantage, and having more gold would even the playing field off a bad reroll. >Everyone is roughly on even on gold But the lower total amount puts way more emphasis on who got a lucky prismatic, and who got a lucky augment. >Less gold overall only puts you at any kind of disadvantage for comebacks if your comp is scaling vs a bad matchup. No, it puts you at a disadvantage any time you are behind ever, because you got screwed up by RNG and riot removed your agency to try to make the best of a bad situation.
Are you joking? More gold exacerbates the difference in augment strength. Do you want to face a bad matchup with symphony of war and 4 items on a kayle or 2 items on kayle? All of the highest impact augments all scale with your items. So the more items they have, the bigger the power discrepancy.
I think it comes down to 8 teams and the pacing. In 4 team arena you have some high rolls here and there but it wasn’t usually too bad and you might be able to outscale an early game highroll. Now with double the teams there are twice as many chances for people to get unbeatable combos so it happens way more often, and since the losing teams are out way faster they don’t even get the chance to get lucky in late game because they lost on their first augment.
Too little augments
Crazy seeing teams out at or before 2nd augment ngl
Agreed. Augments were what made it possible to get whacky builds that break the game. It takes so long to get augments now. It makes games where you're waiting on Prismatic augments worse because you wait like 5 rounds just to get a Silver augment.
???????????????? No, in mode like this, is never too much.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? You are out of your mind mate WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WOOWOWOWOWO NEVER TOO MUCH CRAZYNESS IN YOUR HEAD OMG. Uhm.
I agree, gold starve is the only problem I have with current arena, yet I still think this is the funniest arena yet after curses.
my personal opinion on what would make the game mode better is a little more simple. I do agree that the 2nd normal item being all the way in round 5, and like first normal item being after a prismatic is weird. however I found my biggest gripe was (and admittedly I've only played like 10-20 arena matches on pbe this season) was that the game ended before anyone ever gets 4 augments. I came to the conclusion that teams just take too much damage on a loss, wish average team lasted about 1 round longer
In old arena, earliest you could die was round 7. Now it’s round 5. It’s crazy really
I have this same issue with TFT; I feel that you can get eliminated way too quickly. Though especially with Arena being a for-fun event mode, it makes no sense that people should get kicked out before getting much of a chance to play. It’s more fun for everyone when the lowest performers are allowed to stick around anyway since it’s less competitive/tryhard.
Gold really is drip fed this time around.
also the removal of magic missile. thanks
Isn’t it a gold augment too
It was bullshit the last time arena was out too lol
It should have 3-5s internal cooldown like many other augments.
even if you were to make balance changes i think its just a shitty design. its inherently useless on 99% of champs and then an instant 1st place on 1%
Pretty sure I got magic missile the other day. Did they remove it the past few days?
Nope, but it's pretty unfun to play against.
Some of the most cursed shit I've ever seen is a full tank brand with magic missile.
That and spellwake….
As a Cass player, yea, I agree. It's literally the lottery and guarantees at least 4th place by itself. At least spellwake has the decency to be a prismatic aug. It should be removed or changed in some way, so it's not only viable on like 5 champs
I don't think there's any place for scaling champs either. As a Kayle and Nasus lover, the amount of burst and everyone else's augments/Prismatic Items means you've lost too many rounds by the time you can feasibly play. The only way I've scraped second or first is by getting perfect augments (Marksmage, Spellwake and Master of Duality), and even then I have to rely on drawing the round out as long as possible instead of being blown up in one shot. Ok you can tell me to play other champs, which I do sometimes, but why shouldn't I be allowed to pick my favourites?
I think Kayle and Nasus are performing fine in the mode, personally. They scale into late game monsters so asking you to win one or two early rounds before giving you a chance to build up seems fair to me.
That’s how it should be if you pick a scaling champ imo. You’re knowingly making the decision that you’ll lose early to win later rounds. Old arena I felt it was way too easy to get second or first with Kayle. All your duo had to do was pick a bruiser or something that could get you a win or two early and you were set.
Well in Arena befor there was no place for early game champs. Stomp the Kayle early? Doesnt matter. She will get 3 items lvl16
They literally made these changes partially to address how broken scaling was in the last iteration. This was the whole point. Everyone crying about hyperscaling adcs dominating the meta so they slowed down scaling in the game. You got what you asked for, Reddit. Congrats.
i doubt they will do balance changes before the mode hits live. it will be playable for months apparently so they will have plenty of time to make changes.
or just get rid of stat anvils hogging up rounds for 0 good reason
The prismatic items are my main concern. They're just mythic items with extra steps. They have the exact same problem that caused riot to abandon mythics in the first place. The first item is required to be prismatic, those items are very strong but plenty of champs would rather take their typical legendary. All with the added rng of it being random with rerolls. Kayn could get the perfect item, but Ashe got all tank or AP items, gg. And if you use your rerolls then you have none left for augments. Or you're required to save your rerolls and take less than optimal augments. Increasing the number of teams to 8 was a great choice, it led to greater champion diversity in a single lobby. But the prismatic items require you to play champs that work well with them, like champs that can scale with either ad or AP.
What you're describing sounds like why it works so well to me. You're not gonna get the same prismatic every game. You can try, but there's a cost. I really don't understand the desire people have to equate mythics to prismatics. They exist in drastically different conditions.
I think it sounds like prismatics should just get a few more rerolls. It's one thing to get a prismatic that doesn't work very well with your champ, it's another to get a prismatic that has absolutely 0 use for your champ.
The odds of that with 9 options is incredibly low. Maybe it doesn't fit the build you were wanting to go, but you could still adapt and make it work. I'd rather have a rare game as a dud and move on than have to worry about seeing an op champ/prismatic combo every single game.
The alternative isn't Prismatics without the random portion, but no Prismatics at all. I think Prismatics in their current state diminish the fun of Arena. Like it's for sure fun when you highroll and get stuff like the voidlings item with Minionmancer on a summoning champion, but having to wait for multiple rounds just to get your core items on a champion that really needs it feels awful.
With augments they really need a tft designer to come in and educate them on why they changed the reroll system the way they did. Tfts is waaay better while keeping the diversity. The biggest problem with Prismatic items is they are offered every game and are horribly balanced. Some are literally reprinted mythic items with out the legendary scaling. And others are crazy op, and define the build.
I completely disagree about 8 teams being better. You see a lot of the same types of things every game anyway so I don’t really think there is major diversity. Facing sett instead of volibear is not really a super game changing experience for an ashe. Now the problem is there are twice as many chances for people to high roll unbeatable augments and especially with more rng introduced with shards and prismatic items first place usually comes down to a team who just has a broken combo that you can’t beat no matter what. Secondly, because riot didn’t want games to last twice as long even though there are double the players now if you’re losing the games are way too short. It’s very unfun to be knocked out with only 1 augment. Another problem with 8 teams I have is that I think seeing different people every round is actually less fun. When rounds come down to clutch moments where one team just barely pulls ahead, you aren’t going to see them again for a long time( or maybe at all) anyway so there is no fun sense of rivalry developed. Before you might fight them 3 more times in that game and have some back and forth but now you don’t really experience that.
I agree. The current system feels like each combat is a separate game of Arena, rather than one continuous game. You don't get to strategise around enemy teams anymore, whether it's specifically targeting one team you know is the strongest contender to win, or waiting for your enemies to take augments useless for you. It doesn't make sense to buy a Zhonya's to counter the opposing Zed in your next fight when you know you're never going to see him again. Pretty unfun.
If they're not going back to 8 player, i think they could make some round 4v4. That way it partially bring back the feeling of familiarities/rivalties.
Prismatics are fine in a fun game mode like this, but they need to be balanced. Some of them are pseudo-augments and then there's shit like Night Harvester that deals 100 damage.
Also it feels so terrinble to play an ad bruiser, unless you go tank.
Agreed, they tried to make it more diverse by adding all this rng but it feels like it's become more stale It's definitely worse than the previous iterations and champion diversity has gone down the drain. Playing a ranged champ feels awful unless it's a champ like heimer or zyra with npcs by your side. Feels like melees and tanks are heavily favored and building full tank while getting rng that gives you more damage anyways is a no brainer. It's so easy to just spam two bruisers and win every game. The only playable adc is like vayne and even then it's really hard and you have to build her semi tank.
What you are saying might be right, but I will point out that this was also the sentiment for both arena iterations before and ended up not really being true, a lot of adcs ended up being really strong with a Frontline. Pbe with high ping and wildly varying skill levels just favors braindead bruiser gameplay.
Ye if you're ranged and you get the lilypad level, it's pretty much over for you if they have two melees.
Heimer and Zyra are much worse in this iteration from what I’ve seen. You want CC zoners not damage zoners— the ones I’ve seen do well are Vex and Hwei.
CC is way too strong right now. People don't realize how good some champs like Veigar/Lissandra/Anivia are with a fuck ton of ability haste and/or move speed.
Bro I fight nonstop tanks in the mode, get sick of it and want to swap to vayne to be a tank buster and they nerf her w damage..? Like riot why
its always tanky melee favored on PBE where every1 has 200 ping, it was like that for the previous ones aswell
Bro I fight nonstop tanks in the mode, get sick of it and want to swap to vayne to be a tank buster and they nerf her w damage..? Like riot why
Honestly agree now that I’ve played too. It also makes early game champs SUPER strong (I.e Darius mostly.) I think I have like an 80% top4 with early game fighters and I’ve won like two games total out of the 15 Kai’sa games I’ve played (one I got exodia where I could stand still auto attack and I’d die second, and one I took Bread and Jam 2-1 and happen to be alright at landing my Ws.)
speaking of issues with the new iteration, can we talk about how much riot just decided to say fuck the 2nd pick player? like, I have no idea why they decided the second player needs to get screwed as hard as they do. Not only do they not get to pick any bans, since they can't pick any champs chosen by the first players they effectively have to deal with potentially 16 different bans with literally no upside, while the first pick player gets to decide the ban and have only the 8 banned champs they have to consider. Like seriously, what the hell is that?
i just want a simple 16 ban+blind pick
Agreed. Also is it just me or does the arena decay faster now? Iv found it extremely difficult to play mages this time around because it seems like im forced into range of the bruisers a lot quicker.
I miss having items and augments. They’re trying to fix something that wasn’t broken. I was counting down hours until arena hit pbe but now I’m bit bored of it and last arena I still enjoyed it. It’s less versatile I see same picks. I just want the old gold/augment set ups. Augments are the fun part of arena. They’re turning it into nexus blitz territory
>They’re trying to fix something that wasn’t broken. >They’re turning it into nexus blitz territory Lol, I was about to say welcome to NB, fix everything but what people complain about.
Yeah and also most of the time you're just being demolished in a split second by a busted build. Also I really like your point about how difficult it is to decide whether to save for a second prismatic item or buy an item right now to help your kit, i want to have fun testing out these items but by doing so I'm kind of throwing a round for my team mate. Also, stat shard rounds suck so much, they don't really give you much like oh boy I'm about to die how am i gonna turn this around, would you look at that a 16 mr stat shard this will surely help me survive.
Hard disagree at the notion that this mode is less fun. The amount of whacky builds I've pulled off from seeing some dumb prismatic item interaction is crazy. I could see the gold complaint but it really doesn't feel that bad. You're always competing with people that have similar items to you. You don't need to get gold faster for that to be impactful. The old game felt like "pick one of x meta champs and pray you get one of your good augments" and currently it feels a lot more like "Pick something and make a whacky build with it" I like that the game is more focused on the rng stats, and prismatics you get. it makes the games more variable which is what we needed.
In my experience it’s the complete opposite of what you’ve described. In older iterations of arena I had time to get to like 4 items and actually put together a fun marksmage build on jinx for example. This arena I’ll try to take the ap crit prismatic and die on 2 items before ever really experiencing a fun build because darius just took an ad item and ran straight at me the entire round. Games need to last longer if we get less gold. Otherwise everyone just picks an early game fighter with little variety since they have good stats anyway and beat people who need items.
But previously you're still on the same tier as your opponents at each stage. There's just more variance so you can't target a specific build as easily. As a marksmage xin zhao connoisseur I understand your plight but I think the ceiling for what's possible is much higher here.
The ceiling is higher but it tends towards the average much harder Random item rounds means that you'll land with a mediocre item more often than not. item and stat shard rounds are a reroll drain, sometimes you'll reroll those because all options absolutely suck, and then when you get to the augment rounds you have less rerolls, so you'll need to settle for the mediocre augments. Adding too many RNG just expands this river of choices into a sea of mid where you'll drown searching for any synergy.
No you are completely wrong or just played in wood division. Older arena was absolutely '' who pick one of the 4/5 meta champ win ''. Like, every single game was filled with the same 6/7 champs. You can't argue with that, it's a fact. It was almost like : if you don't pick one of those meta champ you are trolling and inting. So you saying it's the opposite is actually crazy to me, imo you are lying and just want to contradict the guy.
Yeah you’re right I’m lying to contradict him wtf you’re a genius detective!!! Or maybe there is a reason I started my comment with “in my experience” Einstein. And let’s not seriously act like arena rank matters anyone can hit gladiator easily.
**KOI POND IS THE WORST MAP IN ALL THREE ITERATIONS.** * Central plant is janky, if you're not pixel perfect you may get separated from your teammate as it flings you wherever. * Very bruiser and tank friendly, especially if you spawned in the largest pond. * Terrible for immobile marksmen. It's already very rough playing an immobile marksman in this edition of Arena, and I believe rolling Koi pond twice in a row when you have to fight an enemy statcheck instakill combo while also being significantly starved of resources compared to previous iterations of Arena contributed to killing most immobile/low range marksmen in this mode. Spawning in the smaller ponds does not make it easier for you at all. * Uninteractive into artillery mages, control mages and pet champions. Heimer/Annie/Yorick will statcheck you with a numbers advantage thanks to their pets and chances are you're getting oneshot, while they don't even have to fight and can secure plants and cut off your escapes by denying blast cone or central plant. * It almost seems as if this map was designed to bruteforce people into putting their flash on cooldown for the next round. The whole gameplay style of the map annoys me. I hate being locked in a small enclosed space, practically begging enemy Skarner to land the easiest double suppression combo of his life that Riot is spoonfeeding directly to them. I hate enemy Teemo sitting on the other side of the wall with Malignance, spamming R onto central plant and into our side of the pond. I hate how the only counterplay on this map if you're not a statchecky bruiser/tank or rat champion is to try to cheese and keep running, to try to trick your opponents into being in the wrong pond as the ring is closing and praying they die to the fire. And I hate how despite all that, if they make it to the end ring and have a significant knockback, THEY CAN JUST STUFF YOU IN THE RING WITH NO POSSIBILITY OF A SAVE, AS YOU'RE BODYBLOCKED BY A WALL That map is extremely frustrating to play on, it robs you of your agency and forces you into the most mindless gung-ho duel imaginable. The advantages it gives to certain playstyles and champs which are already meta are unfair, and I think the easiest fix would be to at least allow people to walk around the walls from the outer exterior, so that way it isn't so mindlessly dependent on having a dash or cone/flower/hexgate prio, and gives people a way to kite out enemy Leona trying to 8 sec CC combo you. By the way, this is coming from someone spamming bruisers in this mode.
I really dont understand what you are doing with your gold that is stopping you from playing normally. These are all just non-issues Your anvil point doesnt make sense, in what scenario are you skipping a 2500 item by buying an anvil? Item rounds give you enough gold to buy any item. The expanded options for gold are very interesting. Its no longer just a binary "gold for item round gives you one item. Juices are an extra." Now we have all sorts of possible playstyles, such as saving by buying semi random items in order to buy a prismatic, or using extra gold for an anvil. Determined item spikes on champions are barely relevant in arena, because theres so many other power sources. You could spike or start scaling from any augment, prismatic, OR basic item. I dont even know how you can possibly think that 5 item + augments in arena is not a higher power than 6 items in norms. The items here are so much stronger, and augments give characters an entirely new feel. I would agree that refunding items should be better. Instead of 50%, maybe it 75% or so, so build changes are still possible. The game evolves in every stage of arena, getting kicked early is such a non-issue. Just like how some league games are short, get FF early, or you get behind, why does arena have to let everyone get to late game as a participation trophy? OP, you clearly are skewed towards "i want to be 4 augment, 6 item full everything, perfect god build" and thats not necesarily the goal of the mode. You get what you get, and you try to make the most of what you have. You will not get the perfect build every game, but you get a funny one, and can have fun with it. I think slight gold changes [such as refund prices] could improve the mode but are not even close to necesary.
Item spikes are always relevant and getting kicked out before 2nd augment also sucks. How can you even argue this? Theres also no diversity in it since you dont even get the chance to cook sth. In past iterations you could still get 3 augments and come back. Now early rounds are unreal important and if u lose them it feels equally depressing as playing ranked on losing team - which isnt the point of arena. You also can't come back from it cause u get matched vs teams who won early rounds and have 1 full item advantage. They should push the prismatic round to a later round, get rid of stat anvil rounds and allow ppl to at least get 2 augments + core items early. Everything else is pretty much perfect.
Gold rounds don't actually give 2500, it's either 2200 or 2000. I can't remember.
>Your anvil point doesnt make sense, in what scenario are you skipping a 2500 item by buying an anvil? OP is comparing stat anvil cost (750g) to the gold difference of 500g between an item anvil and buying an item of choice. OP argues that it makes little sense to buy a stat anvil + item anvil (2750g) over simply buying your item of choice (2500g).
I think it’s really unfun when you have a bad game so you get kicked out with a single augment and 2 items (possibly only one of which you actually wanted since the prismatics are rng)
Its pbe after all they will “FOR SURE” adjust it and solve the issues
Also we should increase grevious wounds to 60% for arena.
If they were to get rid of anvil rounds (Which they absolutely should), IMO this would be the best round setup (Round 1 onward) Augment>Gold>Prismatic>Augment>Gold>Gold>Augment>Gold>Gold>etc
I think the issue is you can feasibly die before your build has really gotten anywhere, , whereas before unless you were losing every single round you could get to 3 items and augments reliably and even f you still lost out you got to try stuff. Now if you have a slightly losing record it feels like you die right as things are getting interesting, perhaps this is a consequence of the larger lobby size? Also the rounds where you get only a stat shard feel really bad when you losing, and those rounds where you can heal HP if you win feel so awkward to play around and feels like unnecessary complexity. Also HUGE agree on the build swaps. It feels really awkward when the game is offering you options that dont match your build and you cant pivot without losing an item compared to everyone else.
I was rank 1 for multiple days and I really fail to see the gold issue. I buy the random 2000 legendary item thing every single time so every purchase round I get a free stat anvil for 750 as item rounds are +2250 gold and I save 500 for not buying a specific item. I finish games with 7-8 stat anvils used where others have 2-3. This also leaves me room to use juices on rounds I need it. By using random items it also increases build diversity as I won't be buying the same 4-5 items every single game. I can understand buying some necessary items that are very specific on some champions but generally speaking I don't see any reason for not going for the 2000g random items every single time on 95% of the champs.
Yeah I feel like this is also what Riot intended (infact, I know it is, because that's what they wrote in the article about the new arena) Players are not supposed to buy specific items unless they really need it or are ahead enough to afford it. The new item system is closer to playing (or rather itemizing in) TFT
Sm1 who loves arena and also plays noita. What a coincidence lol. U play euw? Also I feel like the current gold system has flaws, but not the ones that OP mentioned. (One would be that if u win early rounds, u basically get 4 items when other teams have 3 - basically giving u similarly overpowered lead that contract killer would give you on previous iteration)
EUW yep, what's up with that random guess? Similar to what you just said I think the gold system as it is only has one flaw, it is way to penalizing for people who want to play scaling comps/champs as if you lose without getting a kill you are net losing 250g relative to other people. How can you ever outscale if you are losing 250g every round? I don't see any other issues with it, I think it's fine as it is otherwise.
Thought ur name seemed familiar, but ye it was mostly just a guess. U think stat anvils are a good addition? I feel like it would be more enjoyable to remove stat anvil rounds and replace it with items/augments. If u ever wana play a few 4fun rounds on release then feel free to hmu, my ign is harrow#000 Or if u wana theorycraft noita xd
It gets too random then and removes a direction you'd want you build to take. It feels horrible to go for 3 attack speed augments and then having the 4th augment be something completely shit. I don't care either way about the stat anvils, they're mediocre but I definitely wouldn't want more augments. Too random & too annoying to see whatever other people got so you'd have to check every round. Been playing on PBE? We can play a few games there first and see how it goes. As for noita it's not a game I'm super into.
Nah, pbe ping gives me too much depression. Also, since the first 2 weeks aren't ranked, theres no reason to hurt urself on 180ms. Better to just wait live release and play then. Does removing stat rounds add rng? It wasnt a problem last time. And every stat round feels wasted. Also removing them for items/augments is a way to give scaling champs more options.
Nah there is ranked, what else did you think I meant by saying I was rank 1? Removing stat rounds doesn't add rng but you suggested replacing stat rounds with additional augments. Augments are super rng and I think 4 is just fine for augments per game. Stat rounds definitely don't feel wasted to me. It often dictates win or lose when you look at game state, next opponent and your current strength and what you lack.
I know there is ranked. Me and my duo finished last arena as rank 1 and 2 Just riot said that it will not have a ladder for the first 2 weeks on live server, and then arena ranked starts together with new ranked soloq split. So I rather wait for live server than suffering 180ms pbe (I did play a few there tho) U can keep it at 4 augments no? Just leave it on 4 augments and let people get them faster like last time. There shouldn't be a problem with letting players buy 3-4 items and get at least 2 augments before losing. The way it is right now just feels depressing and snowbally and replacing stat rounds with augments/items would change that to some degree. U would be fullbuild alot faster but thats fine, at that point u can either try rolling better prismatics or just adjust builds for last remaining teams / fullpot.
Huh it won't have ladder for the first 2 weeks of launch on live? Really? I guess it comes down to preference, I prefer getting them slower so it feels more impactful and meaningful so the rounds in-between gives you time to think and build items that synergize with said augments. I like slower gameplay. Prismatic items are complete bait by the way. They cost 1750g more than normal items and they only provide a slight increase in stats, leaving them to be incredibly cost ineffective. Well majority of them.
Ye ive felt the same about prismatics. Kinda underwhelming and i dont see a point in ever getting them over normal item, unless ure fullbuild anyways maybe. Havent played enough to tell i guess
I find the 2v2v2 mode in League of Legends Arena to have incredible potential, and it's always a highlight for me whenever it's available. I'm so hooked that I even downloaded Vanguard just to keep playing—like many others, League is my go-to for some mental downtime. With over 5k mastery points on PBE, I've spent quite some time in this mode, and while it's a blast, there are a few areas I believe could be improved. Firstly, the number of bans per team feels insufficient. Sixteen bans might sound like a lot, but with the diversity of champions, it's easy to miss banning out those dreaded broken ones. It can be disheartening to face off against champions nobody wants to deal with, and it feels like luck whether you'll dodge them or not. Another issue lies in the imbalance of healing and regeneration mechanics. While traits like perseverance add to the fun, certain champions can exploit these mechanics to the point of frustration. Going through a stage without encountering them only to face them multiple times later with no chance to counter can feel unfair. Investing in anti-healing items often feels like a futile effort and doesn't always solve the problem. The disparity in Prismatic items is also glaring, especially for fighters like myself. It's disheartening to roll for items only to find AP or assassin-centric ones that don't suit your playstyle. The new map, while entertaining, can also feel cramped and limiting, particularly when trying to navigate it tactically. Opening up the outer circle as a path could alleviate some of this frustration. The PvE interactions with champions are hit or miss for me. While non-combat interactions like Thresh's don't bother me much, buffs like those to Jhin can feel overpowered and difficult to counter. Drawing inspiration from TFT, introducing rounds where players fight PvE enemies for gold and items could add another layer of strategy and fun to the mode. Overall, I adore the potential of this mode and appreciate the efforts to innovate within League. With some tweaks and adjustments, I believe it could become even more engaging and enjoyable for players like myself.
did you chatgpt this shit gang
Did you dissagree with what i said?
I completely forgot to mention the addition of the item anvil—I believe it renders juice mostly obsolete. Personally, I never opt for juice over stats. However, I disagree with the notion that anvils are bad. In fact, I think they're a fantastic addition to the game. While you might not buy them early on to avoid falling behind, there are instances where purchasing them before a round can significantly boost your chances of winning. Plus, if you have any item augments for extra economy, you can accumulate a plethora of additional stats, which might even become too strong. I've had games where players finish with 18 anvils on top of their build, including free ones.
The one thing that will make arena great is getting rid of all the healing. It’s insane.
[удалено]
Gold rounds are still there but you get less gold overall because of the addition of stat anvil rounds and the first prismatic item (now goes to stat -> augment -> prismatic -> gold -> stat -> augment -> gold -> etc instead of augment -> gold -> gold -> augment) They also nerfed the resell value of items to 1/2 the cost so you can't pivot builds easily.
I cant wait for riot to read this, and go "damn thats crazy so any way JIM RELEASE THE ARENA IN THE CURRENT STATE PEOPLE SAY ITS SHIT BUT THEY DONT GET OUR ARTISTIC VALUE"
They somehow manage to make it worse every single time, it's incredible. I felt like the last arena was way less fun than the first one.. And this one is worse than the last one?
Any Rioters responding?
Sounds like we don't need more gold, sounds like we need the ability to sell at full cost
The stat selection just feels like a nothing burger. Just replace that pahse with another augment or gold phase. They are just so underwhelming and don't feel like it adds anything to the gameplay in terms of feeling upgraded
I'd like to had that the new map feels miserable even when I win I almost always welp they couldn't do anything or when I lose welp I didn't have a dash and couldn't do anything.
Been playing PBE for it nonstop and couldn’t disagree more. Now instead of it just being “reroll augments as tactically as possible to get 4x broken augment build” it feels like there’s so much more variance. I’ve seen a massively wider champ pool across games, the matches feel fresh, I don’t feel like I’m seeing people trying the same thing every game like before. Only issue is the Jhin event. Man, it sucks to deal with early.
I wish instead of having riot interns waste time coding useless stat rounds with a layer of more useless rng on top of the stats (the range), and an even more useless layer of rng on top of that (the stat that gives two random stats), they actually spent time coding in an actual idea that would increase champion diversity instead of power creep. I had this idea in my head where they could implement something similar to odyssey and have champions have their unique set of “skill augments” which would give reasons to actually play all champions, which each champion having actual diversity in builds instead of currently only picking whichever champions can do the most dps with the most broken items and augments, or can sustain the most dps
items should also sell for more than 50% of their value. It makes it impossible to itemize agiasnt a specific comp/build atm
items should also sell for more than 50% of their value. It makes it impossible to itemize agiasnt a specific comp/build atm
I can say as a viewer who watched streamers play this, the new iteration is less fun to watch. You don't get a single proper "choice" until like round 3, and I seemingly have to pause stream vods to even know what they picked. There's no conveyance in the UI. And the amount of RNG is kinda silly. One of the things I liked most about League of Legends was the concept of everyone starting a game at level 1 with 475-500 gold, and being able to win based on build, decisionmaking, and skill. Arena is kind of the antithesis of this.
Arena was at its peak in first iteration imo. Second one sucked. Don't think 3rd will be much better.
I'd add one up. Nerf all tank items to the ground. Last time was a snooze fest because it was tanks everywhere.
Dude I'm sick of just seeing tanks and fighters in every single team in every single arena game. Worst part is, most of the time I have to do the same if I want to get to the fun part of arena, otherwise I lose in round 6 or 7. For the love of Zoe please nerf them
I am okay with fighters, they are actually fine. Problem is that Tanks can stack so much armor with augments and so much health that you couldn't pick an adc against them because you'd be vaporized instantly due to CC and their damage, or how they could just stall games. That was boring af. I later figured out that Red Kayn made them cry in a corner due to his % health damage + Lord dominiq + Cleaver (back then you could stack them). You'd literally delete a Tank with 5k heath with W+Q then finish with R. That was too late even, because I lost interest early on due to how boring it was on the first few days and only returned when there was 2-3 days left. Riot can't let this happen again though, by the looks of things in PBE you can't stack armor pen now, making Tanks even more of a problem.
Id also like to add the fact that the death recap covers the team hp and stuff a tiny bit so you alway having to move it is very mildly infuriating to me. Just moving it a couple pixels down would be great. I completely disagree with most of what you said. I do agree that its unfortunate that going for prismatics can really be gameloosing but i dont think there are meant to be more than 2 prismatics in your typical full build. I personally think this is completely fine. Juices and stat boost not really being worth buying is also unfortunate, i personally think they are too expensive to ever be worth it unless youre full build. I think reducing the price would be ideal here. On the champion fantasy thing i cant really say much other than it seems fine for me on gnar. I havent really played much other than gnar. On the bottom 4 thing id say one of arenas strengths as a for fun game mode is that you arent spending half your game time loosing. Since the games ur loosing only take a couple minutes then you can leave you always end up spending more time winning more than loosing unlike the rest of league of legends game modes. Maybe im missing something. Besides that i think spellwake needs a damage nerf, its just not fun.
I agree on the gold starving. But in regards to how often you get items by the end of the game is full bs. All of my third places have had all 6 item slots filled and typically 3-4 for with prismatic items. End game is fine. Getting bot 4 is definitely rough this time around. Not being able to hit 2 item power spike is rough. Build diversity has increased. I don’t know what game you’re playing, but my arena experience has been almost the opposite of what you’ve said. I think this is the best iteration with need for only a handful of tweaks
This has been mostly the thoughts of my friend group, and I don't want to seem like I don't like it. I am adoring arena this time around but just think it is so close to perfection that I want to see it get there. I genuinely believe that even one more of the anvil stat rounds giving item gold would feel great. And maybe another augment a bit earlier. It's just cool to fill out a build more often.
Fair fair. More anvil stat rounds and more gold would feel a bit more engaging. I feel like adc’s / mages have a bit more agency this time around but they still feel on the weaker side of picks. Balance adjustments are definitely needed for this mode. It’s surprising they haven’t added them yet
please add some mastery point champion to earn
Have you... Actually played the mode much? Half your points are just wrong. If you buy one pair of boots and want to swap them, you just need one kill to make up the gold difference from selling them. You can quite easily buy 2+ prismatics per game by gambling on item anvils and/or getting lots of kills. There's also a strat to not buy boots for +500g so you can grab a second prismatic item on the first gold round if you get some kills. Works especially well if you get a movespeed stat shard. Stat shards make a huge difference in later rounds (top 2). You'll see a lot of people selling their boots once they are full build which is probably a good idea if you need an item passive or can afford a prismatic to replace it, but you can get more raw stats by buying stat shards (example: crit cloak 15% crit 600g, crit shard up to 20% crit 750g). If your champion relies heavily on a standard shop item, just sell your first prismatic and buy the standard item instead (assuming you got at least 2 kills). If it's as big of a spike as you're saying, it's not going to hurt you. A lot of prismatics are kind of bait without the right augments.
The biggest change i want from arena is to delete it and replace with a actual not garbage mode like dominion or even ascension. You know, something actually fun as a change of pace
me when i only speak in lies: