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Why Many Aatrox Mains are Dissatisfied with His New Rework

CorrinFIakes·6/17/2018, 3:10:53 AM·67 votes·20,810 views

I'm sure that people are getting tired of hearing all of us Aatrox mains whine as they rework him into something diffrent. It happens with every rework. Many of the mains get angry how the new rework looks, and after a month or two of it dropping, the rage subsides and we move on.

Though, this rage seems justified. Aatrox, lore wise and game play wise, has drastically altered. This really isn't Aatrox anymore. This rework, along with others in the past (Galio being the worst offender), is a new character being made that shares some of the same characteristics, while deleting the old character at the same time.

Aatrox, before his rework, was regarded as an Auto Attack duelist/diver. The thing that separated him from other AA duelists was his W, Blood Price/Thirst, making the player have to decide if he should have Blood Price toggled on to deal more damage and fill up his blood well to reach his steroid and G.A. in a fight; or, toggle his Blood Thirst on in order to give him more sustain and surviveablilty in a fight. His Ult contributed to this fact, giving him a magical damage burst around him and increasing his attack range. His Dark Flight allowed him to gap close and his Blades of Torment offered poke and a slow to stick on to enemies easier.

Now, what quite a few Aatrox players where wishing for in a rework where changes to his Q (Dark Flight) and his E (Blades of Torment). These two abilities are considered the wonkiest and worst abilities in his kit because his Q radius for his knock up is very small (ontop of it being a small hitbox to begin with) and it offered nothing other than the small amount of damage it does. His E needed changing because of the skill's slow travel speed and weird hitbox. His W and his Ult (his ult, while underwhelming and could use some buff like bonus MS, feels like it doesn't need serious alteration)

What we have now is a Bruiser that primarily uses Abilities to trade and deal damage. The only things that has been kept is part of his Q on his third Q cast, his Blood Thirst being proced on his new passive, and his ult now has his revive. (Oh, and I guess his wonk hitboxes on his first two Q casts)

This is the issue with the rework, instead of being an Auto Attacking Duelist/Diver that could sustain himself or deal more damage, he is now a Bruiser that relies on casting his abilities more than using AA's. He is being mostly compared to Riven as a clunkier version of her.

Given how many Aatrox mains where willing to give their input on how to fix these issues on places such as the boards or /r/Aatrox mains, seeing Riot do what they did with the Galio rework, where they sprinkle in things from his old kit while.It has also been note that Riot has been quiet inside the Aatrox main's committees, possibly giving the implication that they new they didn't really rework him, just rather redo him from ground up. Very few changes could've been made, but they went with this grand scheme of a rework, for reason I can't really find or justify why so many solutions have been made by the community itself.

Lore and character wise, listening to his full VO you can tell they really tried with it, and I will give credit where it is due. With Aatrox's new lore, it fits him nicely and seems to be well done. He's angry at a lot of the champions, specifically the Targonians, but has some really deep and somber lines sprinkled in, giving him more character than "edgy demon who wants to kill everything." Despite him yelling that he is a God killer and World ender, making him sound like a done to death villain, its good in my opinion.

The issue is that its not the Aatrox we know and love (or hate). It feels like they could've done this rework without changing his model or personality. Aatrox was calm and collected. He craved war and bloodshed, but wasn't angry because Zoe existed because he never had had a reason to. They could've worked off of what they had, instead of only keeping the Darkin idea and scrapping the rest of him.

In the end, Aatrox was a Diver/Duelist that relied heavily on AA's that needed fixing. He was considered to be one of the most requested characters to be reworked because of how long since he has been touched meaningfully. What ended up as a result was a complete overhaul of a new champion that shares little characteristics with Aatrox. This has angered many fans of the original Aatrox, as there will be no way to play the old character they fell in love with. This rework will attract many new fans to him, but at the same time, cause many of Aatrox's old fans to leave, being forced to find a new main or stop playing the game entirely as Aatrox gets essentially removed from the game. Such was the fate for other characters, like Galio.

I mean, at least we still have his dance.

130 Comments

ModWulf Helhammer6/17/2018, 6:08:02 AM35 votes

So here's the problem:

The most recent big reworks (Irelia, Swain, Galio) all were done largely from a mismatch in theme and execution. Swain was supposed to be a master tactician, instead he just rode into the middle of a fight and sat there, Irelia was a telekinetic blade wielder who barely used the power, etc.

Aatrox is largely a gameplay update (in fact, that's all it was really going to be at first, but they realized it needed to be a full visual update as well)

The core mechanic of "Auto attack diver who sustains through everything from his innate kit" was not something that was going to work out for balance (as you can see by the Warwick rework, which moved most of his healing to only when he was low health, eliminating the drain tank paradigm).

So I understand that Aatrox players may be upset because his playstyle was so fundamentally changed, but I'm sorry to tell you that that is unlikely to change, as that was the fundamental issue they needed to fix: his old play pattern.

AirKingNeo6/17/2018, 4:37:48 AM33 votes

Aatrox was said to be reworked because Riot kept him historically weak. His passive rework in season 6/7 fixed Aatrox and he became a viable champion, which you see right now.

Aatrox players expected a Warwick level rework, not a new champion called Riven2.

Attticus Finch6/17/2018, 4:22:13 AM25 votes

All 7 Aatrox mains?

Teridax686/17/2018, 1:34:55 PM14 votes

I'm not an Aatrox main, but this is a criticism I very much agree with. I think we can generally agree that Aatrox has some pretty serious gameplay issues, but he also had a distinct style of play that was worth keeping, namely one with a focus on basic attacks and three-hit bonuses, that we've seen succeed on existing kits (e.g. Ekko, Vayne, Vi, etc.). On top of that, Warwick and Irelia are both examples of heavily autoattack-dependent, sustain-based champions whose reworks were successful, as they preserved their general playstyles, including their autoattacking strength and persistent sustain, while making them healthier. The stage was effectively set for the same to happen to Aatrox, and even those unfamiliar with the champion seemed to agree that he mostly needed updates to the less interesting parts of his kit, rather than a complete redo. It is therefore disappointing to see that this does not seem to have even been attempted, as the new Aatrox plays completely differently from his predecessor even in ways that have been proven to not require such drastic changes. The fact that this new kit is also very similar to Riven's, right down to the way his abilities are meant to be comboed, adds insult to injury.

To reiterate, I'm not complaining simply because I feel the rework could've hypothetically been made closer to the old Aatrox. Rather, the features that players are asking for are features that have already been successfully preserved in other reworks. If this were Riot's first ever VGU, maybe there'd be more room for guessing, but we've had many complete champion overhauls that have succeeded far better in preserving their champions' identity, including overhauls to champions with issues very similar to Aatrox's, e.g. Warwick and Irelia. By contrast, we have also had several reworks that are notoriously unsuccessful, precisely because they did not even try to capture the original champion's feel and playstyle: Karma's failed overhaul is still heavily criticized to this day, and whenever Galio stops being OP, he gets exactly the same complaints, as well as a massive drop in popularity that amply demonstrates his lack of a true core fanbase. When these reworks hit, their success was generally easy to gauge even before they hit Live, as players right from the get-go could identify how much integrity and creativity went into the VGU. Within just a few days, the new Aatrox is already largely being seen as Riven 2.0, including by people who tested him on the PBE, and he has already attracted a huge amount of negative attention due to how drastically he departs from the original. This in itself is not great, but it is all the more unfortunate that Riot's development process means he is likely to sit in this state for years. We have yet to see a VGU get reverted, and I fear Aatrox's update will be no different in this respect.

4th3t0s6/17/2018, 6:43:42 AM14 votes

https://i.imgflip.com/2cdccx.jpg

SpecterVonBaren6/17/2018, 9:31:38 AM11 votes

Never thought I'd see the day when "many" and "Aatrox" were used in the same sentence.

rtbf2256182416/17/2018, 5:20:37 PM6 votes

For a titan of a monster who is older than war and desired to inspire men to reveal the horrors within them...yeah, pretty underwhelming.

"I know what lurks within the hearts of men."

Someone who would force them to lose themselves to the atrocities commited by their own hands, revealing the truth. Witnessing it by their own hands...and now he might aswell be Veigar's dad. Great..

Troll for Trump6/17/2018, 6:08:39 PM6 votes

Cuz full-on autoattacking statchecking isn't fair or fun to play against.

That's why he can't keep W.

Shonjl6/17/2018, 7:51:56 PM3 votes

{quoted}

I'm sure that people are getting tired of hearing all of us Aatrox mains whine as they rework him into something diffrent. It happens with every rework. Many of the mains get angry how the new rework looks, and after a month or two of it dropping, the rage subsides and we move on.

Though, this rage seems justified. Aatrox, lore wise and game play wise, has drastically altered. This really isn't Aatrox anymore. This rework, along with others in the past (Galio being the worst offender), is a new character being made that shares some of the same characteristics, while deleting the old character at the same time.

Aatrox, before his rework, was regarded as an Auto Attack duelist/diver. The thing that separated him from other AA duelists was his W, Blood Price/Thirst, making the player have to decide if he should have Blood Price toggled on to deal more damage and fill up his blood well to reach his steroid and G.A. in a fight; or, toggle his Blood Thirst on in order to give him more sustain and surviveablilty in a fight. His Ult contributed to this fact, giving him a magical damage burst around him and increasing his attack range. His Dark Flight allowed him to gap close and his Blades of Torment offered poke and a slow to stick on to enemies easier.

Now, what quite a few Aatrox players where wishing for in a rework where changes to his Q (Dark Flight) and his E (Blades of Torment). These two abilities are considered the wonkiest and worst abilities in his kit because his Q radius for his knock up is very small (ontop of it being a small hitbox to begin with) and it offered nothing other than the small amount of damage it does. His E needed changing because of the skill's slow travel speed and weird hitbox. His W and his Ult (his ult, while underwhelming and could use some buff like bonus MS, feels like it doesn't need serious alteration)

What we have now is a Bruiser that primarily uses Abilities to trade and deal damage. The only things that has been kept is part of his Q on his third Q cast, his Blood Thirst being proced on his new passive, and his ult now has his revive. (Oh, and I guess his wonk hitboxes on his first two Q casts)

This is the issue with the rework, instead of being an Auto Attacking Duelist/Diver that could sustain himself or deal more damage, he is now a Bruiser that relies on casting his abilities more than using AA's. He is being mostly compared to Riven as a clunkier version of her.

Given how many Aatrox mains where willing to give their input on how to fix these issues on places such as the boards or /r/Aatrox mains, seeing Riot do what they did with the Galio rework, where they sprinkle in things from his old kit while.It has also been note that Riot has been quiet inside the Aatrox main's committees, possibly giving the implication that they new they didn't really rework him, just rather redo him from ground up. Very few changes could've been made, but they went with this grand scheme of a rework, for reason I can't really find or justify why so many solutions have been made by the community itself.

Lore and character wise, listening to his full VO you can tell they really tried with it, and I will give credit where it is due. With Aatrox's new lore, it fits him nicely and seems to be well done. He's angry at a lot of the champions, specifically the Targonians, but has some really deep and somber lines sprinkled in, giving him more character than "edgy demon who wants to kill everything." Despite him yelling that he is a God killer and World ender, making him sound like a done to death villain, its good in my opinion.

The issue is that its not the Aatrox we know and love (or hate). It feels like they could've done this rework without changing his model or personality. Aatrox was calm and collected. He craved war and bloodshed, but wasn't angry because Zoe existed because he never had had a reason to. They could've worked off of what they had, instead of only keeping the Darkin idea and scrapping the rest of him.

In the end, Aatrox was a Diver/Duelist that relied heavily on AA's that needed fixing. He was considered to be one of the most requested characters to be reworked because of how long since he has been touched meaningfully. What ended up as a result was a complete overhaul of a new champion that shares little characteristics with Aatrox. This has angered many fans of the original Aatrox, as there will be no way to play the old character they fell in love with. This rework will attract many new fans to him, but at the same time, cause many of Aatrox's old fans to leave, being forced to find a new main or stop playing the game entirely as Aatrox gets essentially removed from the game. Such was the fate for other characters, like Galio.

I mean, at least we still have his dance.

I used to play a lot of jungle aatrox and I hate that they are literally making him into a shitty Riven. Who the fuck asked for that? He needed an update or slight changes. Not a bloody brand new champ. They basically mixed Riven with Swain and called it a day

TyroneWatermelon6/17/2018, 8:22:33 PM3 votes

First of all the change of voice actor and personality. Second of all the passive is there just because of the sustain/shield spam meta, and is kinda hypocritical because he himself relies on sustain Third, Aatrox's new Q instead of Diving in, is a mashup of Kayn's W reversed, Camille's W, and Riven's third Q.

Violet Fields6/17/2018, 11:24:52 PM3 votes

{quoted}

It happens with every rework.

I'm pretty sure they only changed his ultimate when they reworked Ryze.