I have played with all 167 champions that currently exist. Here is what I have learned.
TL;DR: variety is good, some champions are better than they seem, and some are clear winners (Swain, Brand, Garen, Vi). Please be creative with your builds. A lot of the outcomes depend on your opponent but there is a lot of room to eat their ass raw in the battlefield. Play enchanter + carry or Vi + another diver for easy wins.
I've been playing League for about 14 years, since I was a snotty brat. Well, I may still be snotty, but I am a brat no more. This damned game has been the source of many positives and negatives throughout my life, mostly negatives I believe, hence why I stopped playing it until they announced the Arena game mode for summer 2023.
I instantly fell in love with the game mode and played on two different accounts until Gladiator and some more. It was fast, it was fun, I could play with a friend without having random shitters on my team, and the fact that it had a RNG component + Battle Royale feel meant that losing the game didn't feel as harsh. The second iteration of the game was released and it was a big pile of shit; the revive mechanic is one of the worst things I have experienced in a PVP game, and the cameos sucked. Now, in the third version of Arena, they fixed the revive mechanic but the cameos are still a whole lot of nothing since they either don't do anything or give a win to an undeserving team.
When Riot announced they'd be shipping a new title called Arena God for the ones who achieved first place with all champions, I was thrilled. It was a big challenge, one that I was looking forward to. I didn't know how the fuck I would get first place with Azir or Zeri, but it was a problem for my future self. Unfortunately, Riot reduced the required games to 60, of which I was halfway done by the time I finished my 167th champion.
Before I talk about my experience playing with all champions, I think we need to address the prismatic items and the augments. The prismatic items are awesome and the best ones can dramatically shift someone's build (Fulmination and Reality Fracture anyone?). The problem is that players suck at their best champions and aren't adept at improvising and trying new builds, even from a losing position where you have nothing to lose.
I remember playing a game with Vel'Koz, a champion I barely have any experience from a handful of ARAMs, and receiving the ADAPt augment at first and then getting another crit augment (Vulnerability, I believe). I ended up building Navori to increase the damage of my skills while building the other AP crit item. We got 8th place but that was 100% me being bad and not the build. There's also Marksmage being extremely broken and pivoting from a regular AP build to one with Nashor's Tooth and dealing a shitton of damage due to how broken dealing 100% AP damage in your autos is.
Now, about the champions within the game mode: if you play enough times you are bound to unlock a broken build and/or have shitty opponents, thus creating a weak lobby that will let you win. With this out of the way, I have to say I feel really few champions felt bad to play (Akshan, Blitzcrank, Sion) while others are meta for a reason (Swain, Garen, Vi, Brand, Lillia, Gragas and Fiora are the best duelists in the game mode).
There are a few outliers in both sides of the spectrum, however, and I shall point them out while mentioning other fun observations about other champions:
Cassiopeia is extremely strong if paired with Singed, for obvious reasons, as she can punish assassins with her miasma and her petrify while melting tanks and most bruisers with her E. She's become one of my favorite champions to play in the Arena.
Hwei is... what the fuck is this champion. You need a PhD to know what it does, and even then I was unaware of a lot of shit, but I kept winning rounds because it can do it all. It can shield, it can poke, it has CC, this fucking twink is so annoying and probably one of the best mages in the mode.
Kalista has the upside of infinitely stacking her E, making her deceptively strong in the early game while a competent Kalista can kite most divers while killing any tank after her 300th spear.
Lux I had little faith playing with, since it seemed she'd just die to any character that got close to her after she missed her Q, while being unable to kill tanks. While that's mostly true, she can easily maintain distance and abuse the choke points and her damage is fucking high, deleting half of a tank's HP randomly. A pleasant surprise.
Qiyana made me feel like an anime character. I sucked at her, and with each round I slowly got the hang of it and started doing better. By the end it was too late, we got like 4th place or something, but it felt so good to see such quick improvement between rounds.
Riven is a champion that I can barely play. A friend of mine said it was very easy, just click on the ground to cancel the animations and you can be decent at her. No, I cannot be decent at her. I was dealing decent damage but it was frustrating to know that I could do so much more. I popped a random YouTube guide and was watching it as I played. I did not get first place.
Shaco is a piece of shit. Please stop playing this champion. AP does mosquito bites and is mildly annoying while AD may one shot your ADC (not guaranteed) and then die because it fucking sucks. I love the clown but it has been overnerfed. Just avoid it or farm the poor people who want to have some fun.
Vex was a surprise. I wasn't very experienced with her, but it's not like she's a high skilled champion. She does a lot of damage, has good mobility on her R, and punishes dashes accordingly. Very underrated champion in the Arena.
Zeri is a champion that I mentioned earlier. It seemed hard to play. I still think it is. But I got 200 haste on my W and played poke until they got low enough for me to divebomb them, and won first place on my first try.
I ended up the challenge with 38 first places out of 167. Some champions I played more than once, of course. If you want a quick achievement just play Vi + another diver or burst champion (Garen, Zed, Evelynn, Udyr, etc) to dive the carries or just play a carry and an enchantress (adc + Nami, Udyr + Karma, you know the deal).
So go to the Rings of Wrath and have some fun! May I suggest you to play either broken comps (Swain and Illaoi), strategic comps (Jayce and Lux poke), or thematic comps (Annie and Jax).
To finish all of this pile of words, let me show how my first places by the order I got them:
- Poppy (with Mordekaiser)
- Caitlyn (with Alistar)
- Cassiopeia (with Singed)
- Evelynn (with Sett)
- Udyr (with Garen)
- Vi (with Garen, probably the easiest first place I've ever had)
- Ashe (with Thresh)
- Nocturne (with Rammus, Darksteel Talons carried me)
- Bel'Veth (with Rakan)
- Lucian (with Braum, obvious synergy)
- Malzahar (with Vi, we were sick of these piece of shit ADCs running away with their supports)
- Karma (with Swain)
- Teemo (with a Karma)
- Smolder (with Renata, as a first time ever playing it and good God is it broken)
- Shaco (with Malphite. I don't know how we won, this champion is so shitty)
- Vex (with Zac)
- Rumble (with Kayle)
- Ivern (with Rengar)
- Brand (with Singed)
- Garen (with Galio)
- Kha'Zix (with Mordekaiser)
- Jhin (with Singed)
- Lillia (with Galio)
- Janna (with Sivir)
- Singed (with Lillia)
- Zyra (with Illaoi)
- Bard (with Shyvana)
- Shyvana (with Galio)
- Rell (with Samira)
- Briar (with Shen)
- Urgot (with Veigar)
- Fiora (with Cho'Gath; having Mystic Punch and Navori made my Q refresh on impact)
- Twisted Fate (with Urgot)
- Samira (with Diana)
- Naafiri (with Sett)
- Xayah (with Rakan)
- Zeri (with Pyke)
- Kai'Sa (with Shyvana, got my ass kinda carried)
- Ezreal (with Vel'Koz)