In old ARAM the meta was very strongly oriented around poke damage, sustain abilities and snowballing, because your main source of gold as a team was from killing enemy champions or gold over time items. The game would go through a long period before anyone had their ultimates and this often occured without major team fights, as champions waitied to get their initiation skills or survivability items before daring to initiate a team fight.
This is no longer the case. Now champions start at level 3 and gain experiance over time, this is no waiting for level 6 by 1 wave of creeps split 5 ways anymore, getting to level 6 is fast and painless. With a much shorter window before team fights, poke and sustain are much less useful, although they have still remained fairly useful. Champions also gain gold over time, which severely limits the effectiveness of snowballing and gp10 items.
Thirdly there is now brush (allowed) in the game mode. This is great for champions who have sight giving abilities such as traps or wards, and this is great for champions who need to get a little closer to their opponents without being seen (like most melee champions).
Here's a list of some things I feel the new meta values in champions:
Hugely powerful: Initiation, Team fight ability, Poke
Fairly useful: Sustain, Tower tanking, Tower killing
Weak: Snowballing, Vision control, Mobility, Ability to get freely executed, Death passives
Useless: Pushing minions, Eve's stealth
Furthermore I will mention that I feel the new ARAM map levels the playing field for all champions much more effectively, so much so that I almost eliminated "God Tier" from my tier list. I however like having a "God Tier" and did feel that some champions still deserved to be in it, despite the smaller variance in champion power.
God Tier Champions:
Twisted Fate: This guy is amazing and stands up to the test of time. He has great poke with long range, a short cool down stun (with lots of damage attached), he has decent AoE damage for team fights (or harass) and he has a host of weaker useful abilities including regaining mana with blue cards, passable tower killing ability, his ult gives him some limited vision control, the ability to be freely executed and some backdoor ability. He also snowballs pretty well. In my sample data he very much lives up to this praise with an 86% win rate and dominating over half the games that he's in.Hecarim: I only saw this guy a few times, but those times I saw him he made a huge impact on the game he was in, and won them. Heracrim is everything you ever wanted in a imitator/tank and he heals a ton during teamfights. This champion actually had the best rating in my data, but I dropped him below TF because I had a much larger sample of data for TF then Hec, so I was confident in my placing TF at the top.
Nidalee: Who saw this coming? Nidalee god tier? No but really, she has had an amazing KDA in a large sample of games I saw her in, and a fairly good win rate to boot (only 61%, but that was mostly from back when people would dodge if they saw a Nid on the other team and didn't have a TF on thier own team). Nidalee has amazing poke, some passable sustain and vision control, good tower killing if she can heal someone who benefits from attack speed, and mobility. With her ultimate and litchbane, she's actually fairly good in teamfights too. In after game stats, Nidalee has cosistantly had top tier damage output, which is pretty good considering all the other things she brings to a team.
Extra note: Feel that she's dropping off late game and not dominating as much anymore? Try getting your team to NOT initiate as soon as everyone's alive, and throwing a few spears until the enemy team is sufficiently soft enough to win the team fight, it works wonders!
Tier 1 Champions:
Malzahar: Good long range poke that can hit multiple enemies, a secondary poke which can bounce off that minion that dies oh so fast and deal good damage to enemies, minions that can tank some skill shot poke or add just a little more to your poke or team fight ability, this guy has great poke. He also has good AoE skills for a team fight, and good single-target focus for that team fight too. His ult is essentially a Warwick ult in terms of shutting someone down, but it's harder to interrupt and safer because he doesn't jump on top of the guy he's suppressing. In my sample data Malzahar is one of only 2 champions in the league that won every single game I saw them in, with a win/loss ratio of 5 wins, 0 losses. (The other champion was Hecarim with 3 wins/0 losses). Mathematically Malzahar made it to "God Tier", but I bumped him down to top of Tier 1 because I didn't feel like he dominated that many of those games, although he was still above average in all of them, and I feel like I might have just seen some of the better Malzahars in play.Katarina: Although this is a champion known for her snowball ability, which is of limited use in the new ARAM, she makes it this high because she performed very well in the games I saw her in. I presume her power must come from the fact that she has resetting damage (with kill OR ASSIST), and in a team fight in ARAM it is not uncommon for an enemy to be focused down, or to start the team fight with less then full health, letting Katarina start her reset damage chain to finish off the teamfight quickly.
Karthus: His damage is insane, his ult is really powerful poke at infinite range (although on a long cool down), his Q has a fine range and his wall can catch someone away from the team for free harass or a fine initiation (with someone else on the team landing a hard stun on the slowed enemy). Karthus also has the best death passive in the game, which can easily turn a teamfight, especially if paired with a good tank keeping them in his E, such as Amumu or Malphite. Karthus's greatest weakness is assasins with good mobility, and these are in general, weaker in ARAM.
Miss Fortune: A very solid champion. This is the kind of character that can win ARAM by herself, if only the other team didn't keep on diving 5 champions and a turret to kill her. She has long ranged harass and great tower killing ability, in team fights she offs champions quickly with a slow+bullet time or with basic auto attacks. She however doesn't have any good escape, so enemies can and will focus her before she wipes out the whole enemy team. I moved her a few slots higher on the tier list then my math stated because of the threat she exhibits, her synergy with a good initiator/tank and how often I've seen her absolutely dominate games.
Varrus: I didn't get to see this guy alot, but when I did see him, he did pretty well. He's got that halved healing to counter enemy sustain, as well as long range poke and is hard to counter due to doing good hybrid damage. His passive, W, high auto attack damage and ultimate are also great in a team fight. I essentially found no reason to NOT put Varrus where my data told me I should put him, in tier 1, so I did.
Maokai: His passive is always up. There are 9 other champions around him spamming abilities with increased mana regen, his passive is always up. But that's not why he's tier 1 material. He's in tier 1 because he's great at something, which is his initiation with his root + ult, while he has a host of other useful abilities, such as poke/vision control with his saplings, his passive which keeps his health high if he builds any kind of tanky, and his teamfight ability with his Q and ult and fairly low cooldowns on his skills. In terms of my data he has a pretty good win ratio, a pretty good KDA and was pretty powerful in the games I saw him in, which makes him solid tier 1 material.
Teemo: He has a huge damage potential, with deadly shrooms and strong auto attacks. He also has a high damage blind which is good for harass and for shutting down ADC's during team fights. And he's got mobility, and vision control, also a stealth which can occasionally give him the ability for a free execute if he's really lucky. However he's also counter able, and I've seen him winning games before the other team buys orc's or hextech sweeper, then losing after the purchase. But this tier list is for the average game between average skill players, and these average skill players only buy these items to counter him about half the time, and they only counter some of his stuff. I've seen alot of games with Teemo in them, so I'm confident that, on average, he's tier 1 material.
Corki: I have seen AD and AP Corkis both do quite well in ARAM, both dealing very high damage, and performing well in both team fights and poke fests. I however haven't had that large of a data sample on corki, and I felt like he wasn't as good as some other tier 1 champions, so I dropped him down a number of champions to where he is now. *Note: The only game I saw a corki lose aram (in my sample data) was when he decided to go AP with a full team of AP champions, he personally did fairly well, but his team lost the game.
Wukong: Great initiator, his passive makes him very tanky and his skills give him high damage. His team fights are amazing, but he's a little lackluster in the poke department. He can still jump to an enemy and decoy away, or pull stealth maneuvers with the handy bush nearby. I saw this guy contribute a lot towards winning the game with his team whenever I saw him.
Talon: Here we have an assassin who does not fall off in team fights nearly as hard as many others. His ult was practically designed as a team fight utility, making it hard to focus him, but usually not quite worth it to buy orcs just to kill that enemy talon. He has An AoE slow and great single target damage to kill that enemy miss fortune that's tearing up your team.
Brand: Like the AP version of Miss Fortune. He does a ton of damage, with pretty good poke range, a passive which actually is quite good when they can't heal, and in team fights can wipe the floor with his enemies, but is also pretty easy to focus. Often, if he gets his ult off before he dies, he's done enough damage already to turn the team fight for his team.
Jayce: When first I saw this guy in action in ARAM I thought "this guy is great! He's like Nid in that his poke does slightly less damage, but is AoE and easier to hit with, and in team fights he seems to do more damage/tank better and have more AoE. However in later games, although he still did pretty well, he didn't manage to win it for the team, so Jayce is kicking around in Tier 1 instead of in God Tier where I thought he might of found a home. Looking at it objectivly, he does miss some things that Nid has, including sustain and the vision control.
Taric: Supports can be hard to place on a tier list because of how team dependent they can be, but Taric's auras will almost always effect his whole team, his damage is surprisingly not bad, and his heal works well. He is also really tanky, meaning he can continue stunning and healing through the team fight. It also didn't hurt that my data showed him to have a good win ratio and that he was a dominant presence in a few games.
Akali: Akali did really well in my sample data, although it does appear that she's somewhat of a "win more" champion in ARAM. She can be slippery in team fights with her smoke, but that is counterable with orcs or sweeper, but it still gives her good defensive stats. She can have high damage and stick to a target, but can be focused by the other team. My data put akali quite high in tier 1, but I felt like her win-more nature and weaknesses were too prevalent for this placing, so I bumped her down a few champion slots.
Lee Sin: Baffles me as to how he got to tier 1, but my data showed him winning 7 of the 8 games I saw him in, which is an impressive ratio for any champion on the list. His Q is a little damage, while his W is a good damage soak and can save teammates who were ignited/dotted, or are just about to run into Nid's spear or the such. His E is pretty good in team fights, and can net him some kills. He is also really good at dodging skill shots and can harass with Q->Q->W pretty safely and effectively. My assessment of him knocked him down from his lofty win rate position pretty thoroughly, and I manually knocked him down a number of extra placements after that, but with a win rate like that, he still scores pretty high.
Lux: She is known for being able to lay down huge amounts of damage at long range, while keeping the other team from engaging with her snare and shield. And she does this, but I found she doesn't do this as well as I thought she would. Her damage often seems to be rather average, as is her win rate, and although she can dominate a game I didn't find her doing it that often. Still, knowing Lux's potential, I made sure to find her a tier 1 slot.
Zac: Kind of seems to me like a AP version of Wukong without the immensely powerful team fight passive. His poke is still rather short range, but workable, and he doesn't have to worry about mana (and often not about health either) but he seems to do a little less damage then Wukong and doesn't have all that free defenses in team fights. Still, Wukong is a really good pick, and Zac isn't that much worse then him.
Kog'Maw: A solid ADC with good range and steroids that doesn't have to worry much about getting through the laning phase. His lack of an effective disengage/peel is essentially what kept him from being placed higher on the list. I've also seen Kog's get quite a few kills with their passive in ARAM.
Amumu: Has a long range engage and a game changing ultimate. He can also tank towers pretty well. However this is pretty much all he has, but it's amazing enough to get him as high as tier 1.
Darius: Darius is essentially in Tier 1 because of his team fights. He can build close to full tank and run into a team, eating all their poke, cc or focus, pull a champ and watch his team destroy them, or he can stack up his passive on alot of different enemies and chain ult kill them all, even without damage items. In my experience, Dariuses in ARAM have done pretty well and won 6 of 9 games I saw them in. Bottom of Tier 1 material.
Fizz: I tried not to let my personal feelings about this champion effect where I put him, so I didn't move him from where my data said I should put him. He has a huge amount of damage and is hard to focus with his playful/trickster ability. His ult is good initiation and halving healing is never bad in ARAM with everyone trying to get sustain.
Kha'Zix: Share's Kat's strength of having a reset when champions often engage team fights without full health, but doesn't capitalize on it as well as Kat does. He has somewhat better poke then Kat, and a stealth that can sometimes get him executed for free or backdoor or make him hard to focus in team fights. Overall, he's not quite as good as many other champions in tier 1.
Caitlyn: She has the highest base attack range of any ADC, and can use this to her advantage, however she still has to worry about mages that can poke farther then she can. She has some vision control with her traps and a good disengage with her net giving her some valuable utility for an ADC in ARAM, however her damage is low for an ADC and it doesn't take long for Kog'Maw and Tristana to outstrip her for range, so she's stuck at the bottom of tier 1.
Graves: The good news is that he has pretty good damage, can tank pretty well and has good team fight ability. The bad news is that his poke is pretty bad and his range is pretty short. I've seen this guy do pretty well in ARAM, but he doesn't have the tools to put him up at the level of other tier 1 champions.
