Thoughts on Aatrox hot fix @meddler
"Aatrox hotfix
All going according to plan we should be putting out a balance hotfix for Aatrox today. We concluded he was definitely in too poor a state to leave until the next regular patch and wasn't likely to recover enough just based off relearning. Changes include increased starting health (580, was 537 and had been kept low historically because of the impact of the previous revive in lane), Q CD down (13-11, was 16-12) and W damage up (45-185, was 30-150). Suspect it's likely we'll also make Aatrox changes in 7.6, though we'll need to see where these put him first of course."
You won't see these changes impact his win rate much. Here are the reasons:
1)5 stacks still will take long to get. 2)Bloodwell will still drain too fast. 3)Conditional revive is still too weak. 4)Blood Rush is underwhelming. 5)All or nothing passive buff means he will often have no bonus and enemies will target him with burst damage to kill him before he gets Blood Rush, and when he gets Blood Rush they will target him with CC and kite away from him so his blood well drains.
Look at the above champions. Unlike Aatrox most of them have built in resistances, shields, block and parries. That is to say, they can mitigate damage while still moving or attacking. The few that lack any of these built in defenses have built in magic damage, true damage and % health damage and armor pen or reduction or critical strikes , in various combinations. Aatrox has none of those as well.
Aatrox is a very bare bones champion. His sustain used to compensate for that, along with his always ready revive. This hotfix doesnt change this fundemental problem.
If you lower the cool down on his E also, I might be a little happy, as it will help him get stacks faster.
However, taking away his scaling magic damage from bonus AD is still a huge blow to him. He is even more bare bones than ever now.
Having his passive be so conditional makes him easier to take out. Even with tankier items, the enemy will have clear windows on when to focus him with damage and when to focus him with CC.
Aatrox has even less of an identity now. This buff doesn't change that. Buffing numbers won't change anything really. Riot needs to Address his mechanics. And they could do with with him now, but apparently they are lacking ideas and creativity.
