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Blood Thirst Blood Price is the corner stone theme of his kit

Brascus··6 votes·679 views

Yet most of his kit doesn't support it at all, it will get him in someone's face and then while he's there he prays they don't have slows or CC, because all he can do at that point is punch them in the face.

To function reliably he builds tanky items, so he gets to punch people after walking up to them and not die immediately, which is irksome because you don't get to really build any items that has synergy with the main ability in his theme.

I feel like his kit is at odds with itself which is why despite him having great art and animation mechanically he doesn't function well. His CC isn't strong enough for him to wombo and his kit doesn't support on hit very well so it's pretty bleh overall.

Aatrox Ha! Haaa! I have dived you, prepare to di- Ezreal Later dude Aatrox Wait come back I'm here to impale you Braum Zyra Thresh You what? Aatrox ' has been cc chained and kited to death ' Aatrox ' passive revive ' Hah! I am rebor- Braum Zyra Thresh ' murder intensifies '

http://imgur.com/JLlBJ2t

22 Comments

Paroe3 votes

@thread AAtrox has two things that are CORE to his concept;

  1. Blood price
  2. The blood well (and its stat buffs)

Everything else is just kind of there as a "diver should have this" kind of thing.

Tobias Brackner1 votes

This. I could do without Blood Thirst. The idea is that he is someone that grows stronger from fighting. That doesn't necessarily mean he heals from it.

Brascus1 votes

I've always wanted Blood Thirst/Price to be his main passive that gives bonus healing/damage on every 3rd ABILITY or auto attack

FurriesAreHot2 votes

My Aatrox build is Rav. Hydra > property cleaver > deaths dance > BoRK > bloodthirster > GA. It works quite well despite lacking tank stats, you make up for it by drain tanking them

Ralanr1 votes

Though honestly when he's rolling he's got what I call "the Riven problem" in where duels boil down to killing you while under his CC.

So less of a duel and more of a can't fight back situation.

Aatrox is weird. He's a sustain heavy champion but dies too quickly when he builds his intended damage route, but also severaly lacks damage and some sustain when he builds bruiser. And personally I still feel like he mainly wins through stats (course I feel this way for a lot of melee carries like him such as Tryndamere or Xin).

Though I'm not good at judging AA heavy melee champions.

TheHappyReaperz1 votes

This is why you forgoe AS. You can keep it in your runes, but you can just pick up TL, grab that bonus 5% CDR in your masteries, and pick up item 3065 item 3742 item 3071 item 3812 item 3074 item 3047 or item 3111 , depending on the enemy team comp. You have pretty good burst, your skills are all on pretty low CD's, making it easier to stack your passive, and you can use Hydra to stack your W faster.

Brascus1 votes

item 3748 works better on him since the W change, he definitely has damage but how he does it is all over the place

DaNinad1 votes

Make that damn q knockup range bigger

Doozku1 votes

I think that part of the problem with why Aatrox is constantly weak is that his itemization sucks and his base stats don't make up for it. The thing with Aatrox is that if you build damage, you are going to get bursted down before you can do anything, especially in a teamfight, since your only form of sustain only kicks in after 3 auto attacks. Note that almost every drain-tank/hyper sustain champion nowadays is generally super tanky and gets access to their healing passively or on demand. Take Rhaast for example. Rhaast's passive applies to every spell he does, so he always gets access to healing so he can sustain more in the beginning of a fight while he's being bursted. His ultimate also gives him an on demand massive burst of health. Kayn also gets to build incredibly tanky while still dealing damage, so he can last in fights way longer for his healing to kick in. Now look at Aatrox. Either he builds very squishy, and he gets blown up, or he tries to build tanky, but then his kit lacks damage and he becomes near useless.

I think that part of the problem is on-hit itemization as well. As of right now, almost every on hit item is really expensive and also gives no defensive stats whatsoever. This means that champions like Trundle, Shyv, or Aatrox have to get really squishy first in order to get their damage going, when they'd rather start getting tanky early on. Compare this to AD Casters like Pantheon, Darius, Illoai. They get to rush BC first which gives them tank stats as well as really good damage. Personally, I feel like there should be a melee only item that gives Attack speed, an on-hit effect, and health. That'd help on-hit bruiser itemization so much since most on-hit bruisers have terrible itemization, Aatrox included.

But Aatrox really just needs a big rework, like the one he's getting soon. Even at his best, his kit will always just be Tryndamere 2.0.

Brascus1 votes

Remember Zephyr? That could have been the melee only attack speed bruiser item but it got removed instead of ohmwrecker

Doozku1 votes

Yeah but it'd definetly need a big revamp. It'd be better if they just added a new item tbh although I don't see why Zephyr was removed. They keep Ohmwrecker in the game because some dev that worked at Riot had the name Ohmwrecker so they can't remove it. Tho idk why they haven't found a new purpose for the item yet...

Ralanr1 votes

Probably to not add fuel to the fire.

Fear the Kayn1 votes

And the new changes on PBE are going to hurt him even more...

He will NEED a buff to compensate, alongside any other sustain-based champion. His entire early game is based around sustain, especially early game. He's already a weak duelist compared Fiora, Jax, and tryndamere. Riot, give him a buff FFS.

Here's a really simple buff that wouldn't be too hard to introduce, and would make him MUCH more viable:

Massacre now removes grevious wounds, increases the healing from blood price, AND changes the bonus physical damage to true damage for the duration.

Boom, Aatrox is a viable duelist and more impactful.

Tobias Brackner1 votes

Aatrox needs a rework they have said as much.

Aatrox is a fine enough champ as he is. He's a really strong guy with good sticking power but gets really hurt by CC. A lot of people do that.

You play him as a split pusher for pick comps. You have some tools for 5v5s if you must do it but that is where you are weakest.

item 3153 will help you run down slippery targets.

Fear the Kayn1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Tobias Brackner,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=0zTYwjAG,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2017-07-05T21:26:20.637+0000)

Aatrox needs a rework they have said as much.

Aatrox is a fine enough champ as he is. He's a really strong guy with good sticking power but gets really hurt by CC. A lot of people do that.

You play him as a split pusher for pick comps. You have some tools for 5v5s if you must do it but that is where you are weakest.

item 3153 will help you run down slippery targets.

He needs some moderate buffs right now, though. He's 'strong' but not when compared to other champions in his class. Compared to Fiora or Jax, he's complete garbage. He's likely not going to get a rework for another year- year and a half, and honestly I think he needs some changes right now. Look above for my idea. Wouldn't be too hard to balance and would make him a much more viable pick.

Tobias Brackner1 votes

Just because he isn't as strong as the meta doesn't mean he's not strong. He just can't go against some of the meta picks. That's to be expected when you have 100+ characters in a game.

And yes it would be too hard to balance. Notice how your advice doesn't give any specific numbers. That's where it gets hard.

Fear the Kayn1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Tobias Brackner,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=0zTYwjAG,comment-id=000600000000,timestamp=2017-07-05T22:28:50.333+0000)

Just because he isn't as strong as the meta doesn't mean he's not strong. He just can't go against some of the meta picks. That's to be expected when you have 100+ characters in a game.

And yes it would be too hard to balance. Notice how your advice doesn't give any specific numbers. That's where it gets hard.

Ok, here's some balance: Grevious wounds removed/invulnerable to grevious wounds for the duration of the ultimate, 50% increased healing from blood thirst, and the bonus physical damage becomes true damage from blood price for the duration of the ultimate. Easy.

Tobias Brackner1 votes

Sounds kinda like OP old Sion ult.

And have you compared what that true damage is like to other champions that deal true damage?

Fear the Kayn1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Tobias Brackner,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=0zTYwjAG,comment-id=00060000000000000000,timestamp=2017-07-05T23:11:51.881+0000)

Sounds kinda like OP old Sion ult.

And have you compared what that true damage is like to other champions that deal true damage?

Sion's old ult wasn't OP. It was just a strong dueling tool. To counter it, you just don't fight him 1v1. No different from Darius. The true damage seems like it would be less than Camille's.

Tobias Brackner1 votes

It kinda was/wasn't. Iirc they changed his ult because it would either be too powerful or completely useless. On account of all the healing (also old Sion didn't have a gap closer like Aatrox does).

Also don't half-ass "seems." Show the actual numbers. Show confidence in your solution.

FurriesAreHot1 votes

Aatrox' ult is already STUPID powerful, his base kit.. not so much.

Big Lincoln1 votes

blood price could be done in more interesting way than a 3 hit passive imo, same for blood well

the rest of his kit can go tbh

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