@Riot An idea on the Aatrox situation

Using this reddit comment as inspiration, I've developed an idea on how Aatrox could be reworked, slightly, to give him some much-needed love.

As an Aatrox main, I've seen him fall out of meta, people dominate with him, and people flounder with him. He is very item-reliant and his Q is near useless in most situations, if your opponent isn't brain-dead.

I like his current passive, with maybe some changes to the blood well generation and usage, but here is my proposed changes to his passive:

Passive- Blood Well Cooldown (275/250/225/200) (Can be reduced by cooldown reduction) Whenever Aatrox consumes a portion of his health, he stores it into his Blood Well, which can hold up to 50% of his health stat (At level 1, it would be 269 base stat, and at level 18 it would be 992 base). The Blood Well depletes by 3% per second if Aatrox hasn't dealt or received damage in the last 5 seconds. Aatrox gains 0.20% - 0.40% (based on level) bonus attack speed for every 1% in his Blood Well, up to a maximum of 20% - 40% (based on level) bonus attack speed. Upon taking fatal damage, Aatrox is cleansed of all debuffs, enters stasis and drains his Blood Well, healing himself for 50% of Blood Well's current fill over the next 3 seconds for 36.75 - 304.5 (based on level) health (+ 100% of Blood Well's stored health). Through the duration of this revival effect, he rises into the sky while drawing in the stored blood from the well, and when the duration ends, he slams down into the ground, dealing 100/150/200/250 (+40% bonus AD)(+20% Aatrox's maximum health) Physical damage in a 250 unit radius and knocks up all units in a 100 unit radius for 1 second.

His passive is buffed in almost every aspect except his cooldown, which is nerfed in base value. However, giving him the incentive to build health and cdr would push him to be built like a bruiser or tank, and become a front line for the team instead of a backline or diver setup who dies immediately. Black Cleaver, Death's Dance, and Spirit Visage already puts him at the cap. The revival effect gives him a new purpose, as almost all, if not all, revival effects return the champion in a peaceful manner, where enemies are free to just dance around their to-be revived body and kill them where they stand. This new revival forces melee champions to run away from him, and the scaling on the damage may be overtuned, but at base values deals 442 physical damage at level 18. To put this in perspective, Mini Gnar at level 18 has 1645 base health, so this effect could deal nearly a quarter of his health from just his passive, but he also has 65.5 base armor, meaning Gnar would take about 267.07 damage if my math is correct, which is about an eighth to a sixth of his health. Of course, Gnar normally stacks on health and armor, and even squishy targets normally build lifesteal or emphasize sustain in their builds.

His Q would then be redundant by this revised passive, so I would then suggest a change to his Q:

Q-Dark Flight Cooldown (24/22/18/15/12) Cost: 10% Current Health ACTIVE: Aatrox dashes towards a target area in an 800 unit radius. If he collides with an enemy minion, monster, or champion, he deals 100/130/160/190/220 (+120% AD) Physical Damage, after which his wings expand in width, which means his collision box for the damage is also widened, but he deals 11/20 of the damage he would have dealt normally.

This ability is akin to Caitlyn's Piltover Peacemaker, but instead of a projectile, the champion itself is the projectile. This makes him a little bit more mobile, yet it is gated by a long cooldown. It also helps him dive if need be, but can be used as a powerful tool to chase. It can be used to start a trade, but would negate a huge amount of damage output to do so. The abnormal fraction is a balance between 50% damage and 67% damage, but can be either one. I felt he would need more damage on a dash, and those numbers seem to be too low or too high.

His W would stay the same, with changes to the heal:

W-Blood Thirst/Blood Price Cooldown (0.5) Cost: 15 / 23.75 / 32.5 / 41.25 / 50 (+ 25% bonus AD) Health PASSIVE: Aatrox applies a bonus on-hit effect on every third hit against non-structures. TOGGLE OFF – BLOOD THIRST: Aatrox heals himself on-hit for (30/35/40/45/50) (+25% AD) (+2% Aatrox's missing health). While Aatrox is below 50% maximum health, heal is tripled. TOGGLE ON – BLOOD PRICE: Aatrox consumes a portion of his health to deal quadruple its health cost as bonus on-hit physical damage.

I've had difficulty finding the right scaling for health, but I think that missing health scaling would give him back 6% of his missing health when below 50%. I haven't completely done the math so I don't know how overtuned that is.

His E stays the same, as I think it is quite balanced and fair.

His R would stay the same, as it is very balanced in my opinion.

With these changes, my proposed build would consist of:

Core: Defensive: Offensive: Jungle: Boots:

The optimal build would be a balance between damage, 40% cdr, and tankiness, which is achieved through Black Cleaver, Death's Dance, and Spirit Visage. If you were going for a more glass cannon build, you could go Essence Reaver, Infinity Edge, and Phantom Dancer, but to not fall off damage-wise you'd need offensive defense items like Sterak's Gage or Maw of Malmortius.

That about wraps up my proposed Aatrox rework! Please let me know if I posted this in the wrong section and feel free to give your two cents about this proposal! [slayer-jinx-catface]