Hi guys. After more then a year of everyday lurking in these forums, I discovered there are more forums than visible from drop-down menu (why the hell isn't aram there? gg Riot).

Anyway, now that I'm here, what is current meta for aram? Thanks!

It's a little loose since you comps are so variable, but there are a number of trends I've seen worth sharing.

Your team should always shoehorn at least one serious AD and one serious AP damage dealer as well as someone running an Aegis, regardless of comp. If you're all AP or all AD, you will get shut down hard.

Opening Chalice on casters is a big thing. The goal is to not die for a really long time then get executed by turret after an ace and buy multiple tier 2 items at a time.

Communicate early about who on your team will run an Aegis. Every team should really have one.

Peeling is heavily underrated. If you do it when you can for the people who need it, you'll probably win.

If you random a hero you're unfamiliar with unless it's an ADC, your best bet is to go tanky whoever you are and volunteer to be your team's aegis bearer. Think like a support and run auras for your team and debuffs on the enemy (Zeke's/WotA, Randuins/Frozen Heart, Shurelya's). If you have any kind of CC at all, peel for the person on your team with the biggest item lead.

If you're pretty sure you're going to die in a team fight, do everything you can to run TOWARD the enemy nexus. You can often get their team to split up and chase you with more than one person giving your team a numbers advantage at the real point of attack.

ADCs need lifesteal. BotRK or Sanguine Blade should always be your first completed item.

Building pure damage will rarely work for APs. Aside from your deathcap, everything you build should have some defensive stats on it.

MOST IMPORTANT - team comps are often radically unbalanced by nature. You can very easily take advantage of this in your item build. Build defensive items based on their comp. Heavy CC? QSS. Three APs? Stack MR like crazy and buy merc treads. 2 ADs? Rush Randuins.

ARAM is a constant team fight. It's less about offense, and more about attrition.

LASTLY sometimes you really do lose based on comp alone... but sometimes it's not so broken as you think. Don't give up just because they have heavy poke in the early game. Think about what plays there ARE to be made and be patient. You can really surprise yourself with a little patience and the right items.

well written ^^

also poke is quite overpowered in ARAM. also if you guys don't get a traditional ad carry champion, it might be worthwhile to run ad items on any ranges champion you guys do have. it's hard ot to giggle about some of the ad lux and crittlesticks i've played that yielded good results in the matches. auras items are good, aoe attacks are good. range is good. Healers are OP. I think that's all you need

Wow guys, that's far more than I hoped for, much obliged

I object to this "All AP or AD team" you will lose mentality especially at the moment. The reason why health is so popular is because armor and mr are bypassed by the new change to how % penetration works. Before, % penetration was calculated AFTER static penetration but not anymore. If your AP team has Sorc boots, Liandry, Abysal Scepter, and void staff, it will not matter if the enemy team is stacked with MR items.

A team of Nid, Lux, Kassadin, Amumu,and Yi should go roll over any balanced team. Insert Ziggs, Sona, Syndra, Malz, Fiddle, Gragas, Brand, Ahri, etc in place of any of those names. So please, don't give up when you have an all AP team because in the ARAM world, Poke/sustain is what you're looking for in a team.

Imo the meta should be like this:
2-4 pokers depending on the strategy (nid,lux,jayce,varus,ashe,kog,tf,ez,ziggs...) should be with at least 1 adc.
1 fulltank that can counter poke by soaking damage,tanking tower,initiate (blitz,mundo,amumu,alistar,galio,j4)
1 healer (alistar,nid,sona,soraka)
1 cleanuper (yi,kat,akali,wuk,irella)

Regardless of comps it's important that people are building good team fight items. If you have an AP heavy team someone should build a will of the ancients, or a zeke's herald for a team with multiple ADCs. Also having a bulwark and locket provides a substantial teamfight advantage

all mid

since the team comp is 100% random, there isn't much of a meta aside from how to play what you are dealt. League of Warmogs still applies, and I end up grabbing one unless I have a massive poke, or need other options on a tank to delay it till later in the build. Things get so random, I end up destroying on champs I thought were worthless and have seldom to never played before, while losing horribly on my favorites when rolling a team with bad synergy. The real 'meta' is to adapt to the teams you are given, decide strategy and rolls on the fly, and pick out a good order for initiation and focus.

Edit: Ok seriously? Downvoting an old post because it doesn't apply anymore? Yes, howling abyss changed EVERYTHING. Meta is still to beef up, but warmog is gone. Bulwark is massive, LB has entered the fray so AD can anti-Teemo, but the big thing is just to beef up and fight as a team. Any competent all-in beats a team of poke.