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@Meddler Adding a Blood shield in Aatrox's Q

IllumanatiObama·5/6/2015, 3:41:20 AM·17 votes·2,130 views

Hey Meddler, I was busy one day and looked up Aatrox Base stats. How come a bruiser with an initiate have less base health compared to other bruisers like Darius andRenekton ? Even Fiora and Riven who are known for being glass cannons have higher base health than he does. I know his Blood Well passive and Bloodthirst make up for it but it still not that great. I was going to suggest possibly buffing Aatrox base health to be in line with the other bruisers in terms of tankiness but I've come up with possibly a better solution which may synergize with his overall kit. If he lands his Q on an enemy, he should receive a blood shield which scales based off the percentage of blood well stored. Here's how I would implement it.

Q. Dark Flight. ACTIVE: Aatrox takes flight and slams down at the target area after a brief delay, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies upon landing and knocking up enemies in the epicenter for 1 second. If Aatrox Knocks up enemy champions or large monster(Jungle Aatrox ), Aatrox Surrounds himself with blood spilled on the battlefield for 4 seconds. Shield strength increases with ranks in Dark Flight, by 25% of current Blood Well, and 5% of max health. Base shield 60/70/80/90/100 +(25% current bloodwell)+(5% of Maximum health).

I think this change will help Aatrox have better synergy with his all in play style type of kit, fits into his thematic of an ancient warrior fueled by the blood spilled in the battlefield, Rewards players for landing the knock up and adds another layer of complexity and counterplay toAatrox. This is how it works, in laning phase and team fights, if Aatrox is at max blood well and lands the knock up, he'll gain a beefy shield that will help him effectively win trades against the enemy top laner and help him absorb the initial brunt of the enemy team's counterattack, giving him a chance to get a few shots in before getting killed or entering his revival animation. However if Aatrox has low Blood Well or none at all, he gets a weak shield which gets popped almost instantly. And if he misses his knock up, he gets no shield and is left at the enemy'w mercy and gets blown up. Another thing, his Dark Flight can be interrupted by knock ups such as Chogath Q or Malphite ult, he can get knocked back making his initiation worth nothing or even preventing it such as Vayne E or Vi Q, He can be suppressed by Warwick Skarner and Malzahar, and champions with dashes such as Riven Ahri Leblanc and Zed can avoid the epicenter which negates the knock up and shield activation. Add that with the fact Dark Flight has a relatively long cooldown early until he gets some ranks into it and a decent amount of CDR. Plus, if he uses Dark Flight after reviving, his shield will be low because of having none stored into it. Also, if he waits around too long trying to find the perfect moment to initiate, he will start losing Blood Well and have to charge it up with his E which cost a good amount of his health.

So what do you think Meddler? Good idea? Bad idea? A possible position on Riot's balance team(The last ones a joke)? I'm probably not going to get a reply on this from you or any other Reds here but if you ever see this, can you run it by the Balance team and see what they think? Of course you may want to tweak some numbers if it sounds too strong. I really like the concept behind Aatrox but I feel he is lacking something in order to make him a true tank or bruiser. Thanks everyone for reading and if you have any thoughts, leave it in the comments below and have a good discussion on the subject.

Edit 1: So I've gotten a few suggestions from fellow board members saying the base shield is too strong. I'm inclined to believe them. Endgame, the shield would have 501 base strength with max rank and blood well which is no where near as big as the other shields but I can see how it can be abused early levels considering those other shields need items to really get to that point while Aatrox needs a full blood well and max rank in Q. Maybe increasing the shield's overall scaling and reducing the base shield may be the way to go. Agree? Leave any comments below on how the shield should change strength wise.

Edit 2: Made adjustments to the blood shield, it is stronger late game but weaker early on. Shield strength is 514 at max rank and full blood well. If you still feel like it's too strong, leave thoughts in the comments below. Here's the equation for how much blood well Aatrox gains per level if anyone is curious 60 + 45 x Champion level

Edit 3: changed it to be a percentage of both max health and current blood well. base shield lowered.

17 Comments

Chibi Chobi dash5/6/2015, 3:47:01 AM6 votes

i'm not a rioter and i've not seen a few comment on boards but the reason he has lower base hp is because he/it has more sustain that most other champs. Champs such as Darius and Fiora have a resource bar so they'll eventually need to back meanwhile Aatrox can just proc his healing W and stay in lane

IllumanatiObama5/6/2015, 5:06:03 AM1 votes

Don't be shy folks, leave any comments or ideas you would like to add or change.

DomainSpecific5/6/2015, 7:41:11 AM1 votes

I think that all Aatrox may need is better ratios.

He only has .6 bonus AD ratio on his E and Q, so he tends to fall off extremely hard late game.

The Ecdysiast5/6/2015, 10:09:02 AM1 votes

TL;DR. But I agree Aatrox needs some sort of buff, and having destroyed Aatrox's with Mordekaiser (before his "compensation" for DFG, of course), that passive should not be taken as a replacement for HP. Because it's not. Mord's was.

48983507DEL15/6/2015, 1:42:28 PM1 votes

Lower the sheilds base amounts and it might be viable. Honestly Riot just needs to give him a better identity. The first step is to decide if he is a fighter/tank or a fighter/assassin (basically a Fiora or a Renekton), and by the decision they either neeed to increase his tankiness and/or utility, or buff his damage stats depending on which they choose. The next step is implementing things that can actually turn the tide of battle for his team. Changing his ult would be a pretty good idea, maybe giving them extra attack speed and possibly movement speed. The most recent buff improved his margin for error, but he still needs something that connects with his lore about changing history through his pressence. Maybe make part of his passive or a team effect whenever he hits his Q.

Even if they don't change his stats, I really think he should have some sort of team aura effect to strengthen his identity. Even if Riot has to nerf something else about him, I'd rather have his Q do no damage at all if it means increasing some stat of nearby allies that will help win teamfights. I really hope something is done about him, since he's one of my favorite champions to play, but right now he just feels lackluster.

IllumanatiObama5/6/2015, 5:11:40 PM1 votes

Still taking suggestions if you still want to add them.

Hard4Hamsters5/6/2015, 9:28:13 PM1 votes

I actually suggested this/other changes that could happen to Aatrox in another post. It revolved around a rework to his kit that incorporated the use of his W stances more. Giving more utility or damage based on what stance he was in. Basically, in Bloodprice mode he would do more damage with his abilities at a slightly higher cost, and in Bloodthirst mode, he would gain some sort of damage reduction (to himself) on his Q and an empowered slow on his E and while in Bloodthirst mode his abilities could even take blood out of his well if it could be balanced around this push and pull of using your abilities to keep a high bloodwell while having Bloodthirst abilities take away from it. There was also a suggestion of the empowered auto reducing the CD of one or more abilities.

For his Q, I did think that a Bloodwell shield would be fitting for Aatrox. It makes sense at least.

On a side note. I know that a rework for Aatrox would be a long way away as other champions are in more need, but I think he just doesn't deliver on what he is supposed to be based on his lore and he is simply outclassed by other fighters at any job that Aatrox is trying to do be it split-pushing or being a teamfight initiator. He kind of has an identity crisis.

IllumanatiObama5/7/2015, 7:23:44 PM1 votes

Made some changes to scale off health. Base shield lowered.