Winter already knocked on our doors and it's traditionally bringing us some Snowdown Showdown once again! Howling Abyss is a perfect winter map with all that snow and of those awesome Poros, plus, Legend of the Poro King is coming back in a just few days. If you want to win all that funny ARAM games and catch all of the icons, you need to know how to play on Howling Abyss. That’s why you should take a rest from Summoners Rift, read our guide, prepare your winter champion skins and jump into the snowy Freljord battlefield.

Image courtesy of Riot Games

First of all, we do know that reroll button looks very appealing every time it’s not greyed out, but there’s no need for you to press it every time you can or when you wish to play another champion. The whole point of ARAM (all random, all mid) is that you play a random champion that you maybe even haven’t played before. That's why playing ARAM does a lot helping on expanding your championship pool. When thinking about rerolling, there is only one thing you should think about – your team composition. If your team is balanced on both damage and range, you’re good to good without changing a champion. On the other hand, if your team seems to have only one type of damage or lots of melees/ranged champions, rerolling is what you should think about.

It is important to remember that, in ARAM, it is not your champion that will bring you the win but your itemization of it. Aegis of the Legion is by far the best item you can get in ARAM. When its aura is applied to the whole team, which mostly is, it’s worth insanely more money than what you’ve bought it for. Although it might not be as good item against an heavy AD team, the health regeneration it provides is always useful, especially in ARAM where you can’t go back to heal. Don’t forget about specific items that are only provided for you on the Howling Abyss, such as Guardian’s Horn and Orb of Winter. Furthermore, don’t buy mana items if you don’t plan on spamming spells. We know they are in the recommended field of almost every AP champion in the game, but that doesn’t mean you need to buy it. There is enough mana from the regular mana regeneration and the instant mana boost from the pickups for the ones who don’t want to poke as much. On the flipside, a lot of poke heavy champions who wouldn’t normally get a mana item should consider doing so in ARAM.

Credit: UkatoXV

Let’s go into the fights. In the early game, it’s normal to take damage from poke, however, this doesn’t’ mean you should run into the fight immediately. If the other team has better range than yours, try to stall early game by wave clearing. If they have sustain, don’t even think of trading with them. In the early stages of the game it is really important to know which team is going to hit level 6 first. That is enormous timing window. If the opponents team is more likely to hit it first, you want to make sure to play as safe as possible until you get yourself on the level 6 too because their team will most likely start using their ultimates on you as soon as they can. However, if you and your team are going to get a chance to press R first, you’re the one who shoud try to make something happen as soon as possible. Hitting level 6 is also a great chance for the team who has been pushed back to their towers to gain the lane control back. This might be the crucial moment of the game, so make sure you save your health and Summoner spells for it.

The most important thing that ARAM players must know is that, unlike in the “regular” game modes, here you need to always push. Pushing that single ARAM lane gives you a lot more room to breathe if your team gets aced and the enemy wants to get turret from it. So, clear your minions as fast as you can. Exception to this can be made only when someone really needs to lifesteal from the minions. When you’ve pushed to their turret, don’t dive if you can siege. Diving is almost always wrong and you should do it only if you have 100% of getting a kill without killing yourself or your teammates too.

And remember, although you love feeding those little cute Poros with Poro-snax, maybe it’s not a good idea to do it. If you plan to hide in a bush without a Poro-snax, you will scare that little Poro away and he will tell everyone where you are!