Some things I've identified about new Aatrox's kit.
Warning: Wall of text!
I just wanted to get a discussion going about his kit. It kinda seems like he has an identity crisis, not truly fitting any role. It also seems like he's ultimately still just a stat check at best and an unreliable feeder at worst. Hear me out, and let's have a friendly discussion about it:
What his kit says about him: His only damage is his Q and everything else in his entire kit is just meant to supplement it. His Q needs both his W and his E in order to ensure it hits all three procs, and his ultimate is not an attack. So you have to use the whole kit in one combo, and it's on a long cooldown. Furthermore, he doesn't have consistent damage like other Juggernauts such as Darius' bleed or Illaoi's spammable dunk-thing-that-makes-tentacles-slap-you move. Hold onto that thought.
Meanwhile, unlike Darius or Illaoi who get flat heals just for successfully hitting their thingies, Aatrox heals for a small percentage of damage dealt, obligating him to actually have large numbers in order to even come close to sustaining the way other Juggernauts do since theirs aren't tied to damage (except Nasus but his kit makes him not have to externally supplement it with items). Aatrox is thus forced to sacrifice significant tankiness to ensure he has hefty damage. This is even worse for him because he already has significantly less base armor and health, and dramatically less base regen than real Juggernauts like Darius or Illaoi. So what does he do? He aims for CC, damage, tankiness and healing, but his kit doesn't give him any good ways to obtain all four of these things since his healing relies on damage items and he has zero inherent tankiness. Hold onto that thought too.
What does that mean? So unless I've gotten it all wrong, it seems fair to say he's obligated to be able to nuke someone in order to be useful, yeah? He's got to get that kill, and it's obligated to happen in one swift combo. So... he basically needs to oneshot with his combo, right? Death over 2-3 seconds from 100-0 in one combo while consistently Crowd Controlled. I mean otherwise he's just standing there for 8 seconds flailing at you with what amounts to a pool noodle since it isn't supported by any in-kit passive buffs or extra effects and he certainly won't be building for autos anymore so it won't be granting him any real healing since it's completely damage reliant. Well that or he runs away I guess, which he can't do well. If he somehow survives long enough to get another Q, his proximity to the enemy renders it unusable. A smart opponent who's already on top of him will just walk behind him as he's casting Q (like dodging Illaoi's tentacles), so the best he can hope for is blowing his E just to keep you in the cruddy part of the AoE. Needless to say, he doesn't fight prolonged battles well and instead relies on nuking you in one combo. So isn't he... (remember that first held thought?) an immobile Assassin with Catcher elements? If I want an Assassin, I already have plenty of better options, so let's assume he's supposed to build some tankiness and be a disruptive front line force. Remember that second held thought? What combination of items would make him worth picking over Vladimir/Nasus/Warwick/Mundo/Illaoi/Rhaast/Cho'gath/Maokai/Darius/Garen? No matter which strengths you choose to emphasize and how you intend to play him, I don't see how one of those couldn't do it overall better.
Also here's a big question:
Isn't his Q a bit of a Catch-22? Since all of his usefulness is jammed into that one single ability, how do you manage to balance it? Right now it feels unreliable and useless against an intelligent opponent, but lets say people get good with his E and figure out ways to force it to hit most of the time even against intelligent opponents. Wouldn't that mean it lacks counterplay since it mostly just depends on the user and not the opponent? This is like 90% of the character's damage over like an 8 second span we're talking about here. He doesn't deserve for so much of his damage to just miss all the time, and his opponents certainly don't deserve not to be able to avoid such a death sentence.
As for the fantasy he was supposed to fulfill: He doesn't feel like a powerful melee fighter because he's terrified of actually being within melee autoattack range. What kind of Juggernaut thinks to himself, "Oh boy! If I can just get up to him, I can counter myself!"? So he definitely doesn't feel like some godslayer who keeps beckoning every enemy he sees to "COME!" In reality, he should be saying "COME! But not too close. Don't actually get all the way up to me- no no no wait stopstopgetbackHELP!"
I don't really see how to make a kit like this viable without being toxic for lack of counterplay. What do you guys think?
