The Murderbridge-Health Relics

After a spectacular patch, both Pulsefire Ezreal and ARAM have exploded onto the PBE client. Every other summoner has the PFE theme icon and the meager trickle of Summoner’s Rift players have all been diverted to the Proving Grounds, affectionately nicknamed as Murderbridge. As many of you probably know, Riot Games took the suggestions of the community to heart and has appropriated the single lane tutorial map, tuned it up, and released it as an official battle ground for ARAM.

Now, there are plenty of videos out there previewing the map aesthetics and changes, so instead I will be going over a few emerging builds and strategies that have been formed over the past few days. Over the next few days and weeks, I will be discussing a few ARAM topics in depth ranging from bush placement to champion selection. Please PM or email me if you have any requests, suggestions, or criticisms! Welcome to the Murderbridge.





Health Relics

The Basics

The addition of health relics is a map change that many players underutilize. These relics are similar to those first encountered in the five or so games of Dominion played in the late fall before everyone went back to Classic. There are two pools for each team and the relics spawn at 3:10 and respawn every 40 seconds for the outer tier and 50 seconds for the inner. The inner relic pool, as its name suggests, is located between the inner and outer turrets on the bottom side of the lane. The outer pool is just ahead of turret range and a bit more precariously placed. Throughout the game, these relics play a pivotal role as mini-objectives for both teams.



Taking Advantage

First and foremost, use the damn inner relics! While every champ missing half a bar of health will stumble over and grab the outer relic, very rarely did I see anyone go back behind their turret to heal up at the inner. I will chalk it up to the map being new, but really, it is only a few steps back. There is no point in sitting on the front lines with 200 health just waiting to get chunked by a Nidalee. Obviously, I did not quite mind since this meant that I could have them all for myself, but any competitive player should keep an eye on the respawn so that they can weather the constant deluge of harass. That being said, pass the relics off to teammates in greater need (unless they are feeders).

I do not fancy myself as a top-tier player, but keeping my health up and staying alive meant that I was able to get two or three levels ahead of both my enemies and teammates. While I do not recommend staying alive until you are level 16, there is not the old rush to suicide when you have enough gold for a GP10 (or maybe there is and I am doing it wrong!).

Set a gold benchmark for yourself, similar to how an AD carry will wait for enough gold to get his “starter pack,” and then go hard in the paint. After dying, you can come back to lane with that Deathcap, Hextech Revovler or BF item and tear them apart. If you survived, good job Rambo, but we’re going to have to deploy you once again. Very often, dying to get a Blasting Wand is not going to help your DPS as much as gaining a level advantage will, so just save up for a significant purchase.

This next little secret is how I get a good 60% of my kills on this map: camp enemy health relics. As I mentioned before, every time one of those tasty outer relics pops up an enemy player will invariably sneak in to grab it. The fact that teams often let their lower health champs obtain them was quite pleasant for two reasons. The community actually has team players, and I can jump in and snipe the suckers. Since those that seek the relics are low health to begin with, this makes it incredibly easy to get a kill.

As I mentioned earlier, the relics are out of turret range and off to the bottom side. This means that you can get into melee range without fear of turrets, or fire skill shots from a range since most of the minions will be at the center of the lane. I play a lot of AP Ezreal (I prefer All Blind All Mid) and his entire kit is great for picking these kids off. Other champs that excel are Nidalee, Lux, Kat, and Ahri. An inattentive summoner is a guaranteed kill.

Conclusion

A lot of this is pretty obvious stuff, but they are also things that I did not see happen in the dozen or so games that I have played. Health relics are probably the best way to both stay alive and pick up kills in the game. To summarize:

1. Be sure to take advantage of your inner health relic.

2. Set yourself a gold benchmark and die when you accomplish it.

3. Health relics are out of turret range and susceptible to skillshots.

4. Keep an eye on low health enemies, and close kills when they go in for health relics.

Here are just a few other random tips and tricks that may not warrant a full article:

1. Melee champions are much more viable due to the addition of brush on the map. Get creative! I have seen champs like Fiora and Poppy wreak havoc.

2. Blitzcrank is seriously number one.

3. Try to suicide to tower if you need to go back after an ace, or if the team is not paying attention.

4. Push the wave and try to get as much farm as you can. Pushing puts you in position to snipe their relics and takebrush control. Champion kills float around 100 gold depending on streaks, so getting those 4 or 5 minions reallyadds up.

Thanks a lot for looking through this guide. Once again, please give feedback or suggestions as it would all be greatly appreciated. Next time, I will probably have something written up on champion choices and their interactions with the map!

-Achilles