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@Harrow; @Classick; @Ripviv; @ohmikegoodness: State of Aatrox. S5

JadeKnightblazer·11/28/2014, 5:43:04 AM·7 votes·2,330 views

Aatrox ''Some fight for honor, some fight for glory. It matters only that you fight.''-- Aatrox

Edit 1: 12/04 Added Call out to @Morello:

Edit 2: 12/14 Added Call out to @All Reds:

Edit 3: 12/26 Added Call out to @Meddler:

Would be great to hear from the awesome Creators of Aatrox and learn if there are any QoL changes coming along for Season 5.

Reason why I ask is because of the newest changes to Melee/Bruiser Champions (Mostly Buffs across the board) working its way to PBE and Live. Seems these changes are helpful for the new jungle, kit adjustments, and tanking/ganking boosts. So.... Mind if us fans ask if Aatrox will be given some love and help Rally fellow members of his team during gameplay?

Some general concerns of Aatrox performance issues are below (Maybe I'll like other like threads here aswell)

-Low Armor and MR: Champion blows up in team fights mostly in mid / late game.

-Passive Revive: Is simply a death trap / useless if Aatrox's target is still living due to Attack Speed Steroid is now gone after the revive (Empty Blood well). Basically revive in these cases feels more like a "Death Replay" rather then a "Second Chance".

-Passive Blood well: Does not scale well into late game, meaning extremely low health upon revive even if stacking health items. (A sneeze kills)

-Passive Blood well: Decay seems too rapid for Jungle ganks. Other junglers can sit in a bush and wait for the moment, if a gank fails the jungler simply looses gold and exp. Aatrox however looses Attack Speed Steroid quickly while waiting, and failed ganks punish him by lost of gold, exp, attack speed (Jungle clear time) and Health to refill blood well back up.

-Dark Flight (Q): Has a very touchy in flight hitbox / interrupt which is not as fluid as other champs with similar Leaps (Kha'Zix). Even during mid flight or about to land at a location, any CC at the start of the animation still connects even if Aatrox is no longer there. This rips Aatrox back at were he started with a blown cooldown.

-Blood Thirst / Blood Price (W): Proc from these two abilities fade when Blood Well Revive kicks in. That extra burst of damage or Health back would be nice after the revive but... its not there.

-Massacre Ultimate: Very rough that is scales only with AP on an AD / AA type champion. Even an Added "+ x% max health" would be better (Aatrox or Enemy HP doesn't matter at this point)

-Massacre Ultimate: Added range is nice, however doesn't help escaping/kiting targets. Mainly that AA champs stop moving per basic attack, which after the ult is over the target is now even further away. If said target has more movement speed and/or some type of slow, Aatrox will never land another basic attack after the first ranged hit.

There are many suggestions to help the cases above, but honestly I want to know from the Creators point of view on what changes may/may not be planned for this beloved/hated champion XD Aatrox

///// Quotes from other threads and stuff about Aatrox:

11 Comments

Elphrihaim11/28/2014, 6:01:49 AM5 votes

imo, it'd be nice if

  • his ult made his w trigger more often
  • his blood well's size scaled with his max HP-- and the AS earned is based on the amount of the blood well, not the % full that it is.
  • some %HP scaling on his kit (like, say, on Massacre's damage?)
  • if the blood well filled based on damage output and not just self-damage, like how it is shown in his login screen-- absorbing the blood of fallen foes to empower himself-- would be super cool

But the last time I played Aatrox I went full AP so my opinion may not be very nice.

Daaaaang12/5/2014, 1:22:01 AM3 votes

As an Aatrox main, I have a bit to say here.

First off, I agree completely that he needs buffs. On the squishyness factor of him though, I've found his e was included in his kit primarily to play the keep away game. Aatrox is NOT a champ that should be used in melee that often. Depending on the enemy, i usually level my w first but poke with e constantly. Once they're about half health, I can usually Q in and destroy them.

Suggestions:

Passive: His passive is the best thing about him. I agree with you on the "Death Replay" to a point, but it's really not that bad. Late game, his passive seems useless because you aren't alive long enough to matter. Once you die in a team fight, you'll die again instantly. Your ASPD is gone, so you do no damage. Your best choice really is to Q or flash away if you have it and recuperate. I would say, after the passive procs and heals him up, 50% of the HP stored in the bloodwell before is the damage caused in a large (20-30 yard) AOE. This forces opponents to play a little smarter against him early, but also gives him some offense late game diving into a team fight. Early game, his passive is what makes him OP (I love diving turrets when they aren't expecting it.. first blood in probably a quarter of my games) but his passive's usefulness diminishes quickly when you're no longer fighting 1v1.

Q: Either make the hitbox a little more accurate, the range a little bigger, or give him a second charge of his Q if he lands it successfully. That allows him to jump into a fight, do some damage, then back away before much is returned to him.

W: It's good, except maybe the values could be tweaked. It hits hard, and doesn't lose a lot of HP, but leaves Aatrox very vulnerable. I would leave it alone, but I would change it's mechanics with his ult. I'll explain below..

E: Why does it scale off AP? Nobody should be playing AP Aatrox, and with a good build you will have 0 AP. I would rather just remove the damage from E and give it more of a slow. Or maybe it could give him a stack of his W so it procs quicker. It's pretty useless aside from the slow and the early game poke.

R: Half of HP should go to Armor and MR. This gives him the tankiness he needs to survive late game. Change the W from every 3 hits to every 5, and apply BOTH effects on 5th hit. The idea is that Trox would be a bit tankier, and take slightly longer to apply his auto's benefits, but he would do massively more damage and sustain.

As he is right now, he's a mid game BEAST (probably the best in the game, IMO) but his early and late game are near the worst. These changes would turn him into more of a fighter, and less of an assassin (which he is clearly NOT intended to be).

Cheers.

SIayton12/4/2014, 10:57:27 AM3 votes

Aatrox Basically revive in these cases feels more like a "Death Replay" rather then a "Second Chance". Aatrox

lol that's exactly what it is. I don't think I've ever been fighting someone, got up from his passive and then killed them. It just forces them to double tap pretty much.

Azaer12/3/2014, 11:19:36 PM2 votes

Been playing him a bit recently and I think he just needs some buffs to his laning/early jungle phase. His passive makes for a very safe seat under the tower when things go rough... But I've noticed things go rough in lane on all the games I've played with him thus far, and these are just normals. When I get shoved off the minions I can't heal myself on W to compensate filling bloodwell as well as keeping me from staying in combat (that's not blowing 5% of my health) to keep my bloodwell from deecaying.

I think the passive is the best place to target on this, either buffing the health he gains back when he revives or, like OP said, making it easier to retain his bloodwell. Maybe making it so just casting an ability allows him to retain his bloodwell for a few more seconds(without hitting anyone, so in the brush you could just cast E in a random direction), upping the time until decay/decreasing decay rate.

That and what you said about E... Happened to me today with a Xin knockup while I was in the air.

JadeKnightblazer12/27/2014, 1:09:47 AM1 votes

Adding a call out to @Meddler :D Please share some light if you could.

JadeKnightblazer12/2/2014, 1:17:40 PM1 votes

Up we Go

JadeKnightblazer12/6/2014, 6:18:55 AM1 votes

Added a few other thread links to the OP.

JadeKnightblazer12/9/2014, 9:17:02 AM1 votes

Added @Morello to the topic in hopes of a Red Reply.

JadeKnightblazer12/14/2014, 8:33:44 AM1 votes

Rise and Conquer

At this point any Red will do, seems the Aatrox Development Team has dropped him... -or- doesn't view Riot Games Forums. D:

JadeKnightblazer12/3/2014, 10:42:23 PM1 votes

Bloodletting