How can Riot fix Aatrox?
Amazing design, clutch animations and kit, and overall air of basassery when he's around. But there's something I'm sick of.
He's weak. Disgustingly weak; sometimes I think his only scaling is enemy stupidity. He's not scary, even if he's fed.
He's easy to kill early with his trash base stats, has horrible scalings, and even though he needs AD and attack speed to function he, for some reason, has AP stats tied to his super slow skillshot and ultimate the makes playing him slightly less painful.
I feel like his nerfs were due to his revival passive, but what was done to him was too overboard. Turned him into expensive cannon fodder that just takes longer to kill (I want to say kind of like Zac, but he can simultaneously move, disable, and heal % max health). On the plus side, he makes great bait because people actively prey on his booty expecting an easy kill.
What can be done? I want to play him and not get death glares. I want to play him and carry, or at least be able to. Why can't a master in the arts of war fight like one?
EDIT : The community seems kind of split on where he is, but more people are on the "He's not UP, you're using him wrong" side.
Still dunno about that. The consensus still stands that he sucks versus champions it seems, and for a swordsman/lifesteal duelist that still seems kinda wrong. Base values can definitely use a little boost. A lot of peeps say his passive is good for survival, but that just translates to "double the lives, double the jungle pressure/champions used to kill him." Two lives don't make you tanky or better suited for people that know who he is (because the "hey, I'm not dead trick only works so many times on inexperienced players), they just make people prioritize keeping your life count down to one or lower more than others. That means less experience in lane. That means losing later on, which is not helpful seeing as a ton of people see him as a loss at pick.
So is that what Aatrox is to the community? A rebirthing ultili-tank kinda-bruiser with with a kind-of-decent early game terrible lategame?
Sigh... I'm seeing a larger problem here. It's his identity as a champion. It conflicts with itself as do a lot of supposedly underpowered (and therfore underpicked) champions. Diana and Olaf seem to fit this as well.
is far too weak. He needs a sizeable buff to his numbers at the least. When I am against him I laugh and wish he were capable of putting up a greater fight, and when I am him I immediately regret my decision of choosing to play as this champion.
combined with Rav Hydra
and tank items makes Aatrox a huge threat late game. I understand his reliance on single target damage can seem underwhelming late game, but a proper initiation and a stacked feral flare makes him impossible to ignore with his ult AS buff. He also makes an amazing counter-jungle, because his passive makes for easy first bloods and extra reds/blues, meaning screwing over the enemy jung. I still believe they should try to do something with his skill set - maybe focus on changing his blood well passive for the better. It is waaaaay to hard to fully stack his AS passive by late game at the moment, as he is so reliant on his health costs to deal damage. It seems that riot has ignored aatrox for far too long after his release, i am sure they'll do something soon :)
