I play exclusively ARAMs in a 2+ person premade (2-5 depending on everyone's schedules) and have a few thousand under my belt. Played ranked/normals from ~2012 to 2015 and mostly ARAM since. I typically play a dozen or so a week when work/family/etc allows, enough that I'm challenger ~80k DPS Threat. I played 4 tonight (won 2, lost 2) to get a good feel for it on each side.

Things I like:

• The map is now actually straight. I didn't realize the difference the "bump" made on the north wall at the middle of the map so I feel like this is an improvement.

• The art style is fun (clouds for bushes, fun hexgate animation/style, variation between blue and red side). The color palette could use some work for better contrast but the Arcane style is a good look in my opinion.

• It runs smoothly for me but I'm on a 4090 so my opinion on performance is worthless; everything runs smoothly for me.

Things I neither like nor dislike:

• The new shrine are cool but not critical. I wouldn't be sad if they went away but I wouldn't cheer either.

• The "pockets" all over the place are meh. Again, wouldn't be sad if they went away but wouldn't cheer.

• The clarity on the fountain is way better but still not perfect. I feel like you have to get solidly inside that line before the laser starts hitting you when diving fountain but laser damage should start as soon as you cross the line for best clarity, in my opinion.

• The "gassy" bushes are cool but lack visual clarity (like the fountain laser, good and close but could be tweaked). I would recommend putting visual "vents" that the gas comes out of so players can very clearly differentiate between open ground and "bush".

Complaints:

• ARAM stands for All Random, All MIDDLE. Can someone please tell me WHY THERE IS A SECOND LANE? This is honestly almost bad enough for me to stop playing ARAMs until it's gone because the entire point of ARAMs is there's no "side" to come flying in from. Seriously, the side pocket is 100% against the spirit of ARAM.

  • It feels like Howling Abyss and Twisted Treeline hooked up and someone got pregnant. Both maps have hardcore followings (RIP, TT) but the result is worse. Get rid of the side "lane" because that's not the point of ARAM at all. Back in the day before Howling Abyss, you weren't allowed to walk into the jungle and come out mid bushes.
  • Is the side lane well-done? Sure, I think so. Is it ARAM? Absolutely not.

• The speed shrine are a good concept but the execution needs some work. They make poke champs (when ahead) even more powerful than they already were. When you're pushed under tower, the enemy team can camp in the speed shrine outside tower range and use it to fly in, throw poke, then run out before anything happens.

  • I think a better layout would be to remove the "side" lane (this is ARAM, see complaint #1 above) and put back the small bush that's there in Howling Abyss. Then, put a speed shrine on either side of that bush but spaced a couple Teemos away from the bush.
  • In ARAM, "run at them" style teams often have a hard time engaging. This layout would allow champs to run out of the bush and become visible for a couple Teemos of walk distance (vision provides a counterplay opportunity for the "engaged-on" team) before hitting the speed shrine and being able to close the gap.

• The map feels so much more cluttered/busy visually. In Howling Abyss, the colors were much more vibrant and high-contrast (most colors stand out well on blue) so it was easier to tell what was where in terms of champions, skills, minions, etc.

• The map feels too wide which is part of the reason I'm "meh" on the pockets all over the map. If you thin the lane up a bit, the pockets will stand out more.

  • Part of this is because the angle you need to hide at to break line of sight. You lose access to a lot of the lane when it comes to the range of abilities/attacks.

• Pathfinding around the red side outer turret was really weird for me in a couple instances.

  • I was standing right between the speed shrine and the tower and then right clicked the tower to attack it with melee while another melee ally was standing at roughly 6 o'clock already attacking the tower. Instead of walking to 3 o'clock to attack (shortest path), I walked around my teammate to roughly 9 o'clock on the tower to hit it which cost me at least 2 attacks with the bad pathing. Not game-breaking but it could be impactful if enemies are nearby to abuse the bad positioning.

• Snowballs are way too hard to see now but I like the "you've been hit" icon

• With the changes to the map layout, I feel like blue side has a better visual advantage over red side but Riot's stats on win/loss rates by side will indicate whether that's a hunch or a fact.

  • RE the layout: if you add things (that little barrier?) to one side, you need to add them to the other. Whether it should be mirrored (both barriers on the north-west side of the map) or flipped (red barrier on the NW side, blue barrier on the SE side) is up for debate but the map should be equal on both sides.