Some Kit Tweaks for the War Demon

"Nobody understands me! They called my work a hack job."—.

Aatrox has been in a messy place for a while now (in and out of competitive, usually only when he is statistically very strong, but also lacking a certain degree of individuality). I have been a big fan of his character since I started playing shortly after his release, but the experience he brings in game is lacking. All that Aatrox has received since his release are a nerf to his E, a nerf to his passive, a bug fix (nerf) to his W, and the most recent change to his ultimate. Now, I'm not an amazing player and I'm not an Aatrox main, but I still would like to suggest some changes that could help him out, both in terms of making him more viable, but also making him more balanceable. I'd be thrilled if we could get any Rioters from the balance team to take a look at these changes.

First, I'm going to outline the biggest problems that Aatrox struggles with:

1. His damage scales very poorly for a champion intended to be a high damage threat fighter.
2. His kit has excessive "false power" (high AP ratios).
3. His kit has redundant AS steroids, leaving both feeling sub-par when balanced, or over tuned when noticeable.
4. His design suggests building high damage, but his kit does not support that play style (poor scaling and a tendency to explode when squishy).
5. His kit suggests building durability, but does not offer the utility necessary to succeed in that capacity.
6. He doesn't offer any team supporting characteristics that his lore implies he should.
7. His kit lacks significant depth (Right click ftw).
8. He has both really strong early game sustain and strong early game damage, which is a bad combination (when strong, leaves him a powerful lane bully, when weak, he can't lane effectively)
9. For the amount of counterplay his kit has (interruptible dash, narrow skillshot, grievous wounds, etc.) he does not have much reliability except that his damage is loaded into right clicking.
10. For such a cool concept (demonic warrior that constantly toys with death, using his own life to cast abilities and sustain himself) he is surprisingly vanilla (largely due to being a right clicker).
11. He feels like a "ball o' stats" for most of his abilities.

Ok, now for my kit adjustments:

Passive, Blood Well: Aatrox gains 0.6 / 0.7 / 0.8 / 0.9 / 1.0 / 1.1% AS—>0.7 / 0.9 / 1.1 / 1.3 / 1.5% AS for every 2% of blood in his Blood Well, up to a maximum of 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50 / 55%—>35 / 45 / 55 / 65 / 75% bonus AS. Upon taking fatal damage, Aatrox enters a stasis and begins draining his Blood Well, healing himself over the next 3 seconds. The amount of health restored is equal to 35%—>20 / 35 / 50% of the Blood Well's content limit, plus its amount of stored health upon activation. Static cooldown: 225—>240 / 225 / 210 seconds (4 / 3.75 / 3.5 minutes). —For this ability, I wanted to make the AS steroid a little more noticeable, and also slightly compensate for taking the AS off of his R. Additionally, I think this is a good place to transfer his high early threat of being able to tower dive on a whim with little retaliation into his late game where the revive often has little impact. This should help keep him from becoming too overbearing in an early duel, but late game when he is surrounded by enemies, he will heal for about 100-150 more health when reviving, while having the revive be available for more team fights.

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. Damage: 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+60% bonus AD). Range: 650. Cost: 10% current health. Cooldown: 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 seconds. AoE: unchanged—>Impact radius increased by 25 units, knock up radius increased by 12.5 units. —This ability is already in a pretty decent spot, but for the amount of counterplay it has, it lacks much "oomph". Increasing the AoE makes the ability more rewarding when it isn't interrupted, without directly buffing his stats.

W, Blood Thirst/Blood Price: TOGGLE OFF: On every third basic attack, Aatrox heals himself. When Aatrox is below 50% of his maximum health, the amount of health restored is increased by 200%. HEAL: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 (+ 25% bonus AD). ENHANCED HEAL: 60 / 75 / 90 / 105 / 120 (+ 75% bonus AD). TOGGLE ON: On every third basic attack, Aatrox deals bonus physical damage at the expense of health New effect: When Aatrox is below 50% of his maximum health, the bonus damage is increased by 50%. BONUS PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+ 100% bonus AD)—>40 / 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 (+ 80% bonus AD). NEW INCREASED DAMAGE: 60 / 105 / 150 / 195 / 240 (+ 120% bonus AD) HEALTH COST: 15 / 23.75 / 32.5 / 41.25 / 50 (+ 25% bonus AD). —This change adds a little more decision making to Aatrox's game of death. You are below half health, do you: Toggle to the heal to stay alive? Or toggle to the damage to get that last burst for a kill? This change cuts back on Aatrox's one-hit trades in lane, but makes him more powerful in a full on fight, meaning he is slightly less inclined to simply play a passive game of attrition in lane. In the jungle, this change only slightly slows his clear, but has no effect on his sustain, leaving him just as viable in that role. Late game, a tanky Aatrox can afford to stay below half health for longer without using the heal, meaning that he can take fuller advantage of the bonus base damage, while a damage Aatrox has to make a careful decision about the risk of fighting at such low health values, but can reap large damage bonuses for playing the situation well.

E, Blades of Torment: ACTIVE: Aatrox unleashes two energy waves that converge in the target direction, dealing magic damage and slowing enemies by 40% for several seconds. MAGIC DAMAGE: 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 / 215 (+ 60% AP)(+ 60% bonus AD)—>55 / 95 / 135 / 175 / 215 (+ 50% AP) (+ 60% AD) SLOW DURATION: 1.75 / 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 / 2.75—>1.5 / 1.75 / 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 seconds. Range: 1000. Cost: 5% current health. Cooldown: 12 / 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 seconds.  —This ability just has a lot of false strength. It has a decent AP ratio, but Aatrox never builds AP, it has a very strong slow, but visually and thematically ought to deal more damage. Reducing the AP ratio and slow duration slightly take away some of what is eating at his power budget, while changing the AD ratio to total AD instead of bonus AD increases its game long scaling (which is also why the earlier ranks were adjusted to a lower damage to compensate for his base stats).

R, Massacre: ACTIVE: Aatrox draws in the blood of his foes, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemy champions. Aatrox gains bonus attack speed as well as 175 attack range (325 total range) for 12 seconds. New effect: Aatrox and all allies within range of Massacre when cast deal % increased damage for the next 12 seconds For each champion struck, Blood Well is filled by 20% of its maximum value. MAGIC DAMAGE: 200 / 300 / 400 (+ 100% AP)—>(+ 10 / 15 / 20% of Aatrox's own missing health) ATTACK SPEED: 40 / 50 / 60%—>Increased damage: 10 / 15 / 20% for Aatrox, 5 / 7.5 / 10% for allies. Range: 550. Cost: 0. Cooldown: 100 / 85 / 70—>120 / 100 / 80 seconds. —Again, this ability has a lot of false/redundant power. By removing the AS buff from this active, I was able to make the AS from his passive more impactful. Additionally, I changed the scaling from a relatively useless AP ratio to a % own missing health ratio, to better enforce Aatrox's role as the fighter who plays with war and death, balancing survival with damage (this also allows a tanky Aatrox to still have an impact on a fight, because he has more health for the scaling to work with). With the AS buff gone (and the passive increase only compensating for a third of that amount), I also felt that there was room for more supportive, team fight oriented changes, which is why I added the effect that allies nearby deal increased damage. This captures Aatrox's identity of inciting armies to feats of glory for a short while, and allows Aatrox a decent amount of utility even when built for durability.

This is by no means a "perfect" solution, and I tried to keep as true to his current kit as possible while removing the bad parts of it. Most of these changes are inarguably buffs, and I am not going to hide that, but they are also important in that they allow for better balancing in the future, through more tuning levers. To summarize, here are the points I think that these changes cover:

1. His damage scales better whether built tanky or damage heavy (slightly lower early, a little higher late).
2. He has limited "false power".
3. He doesn't have redundant steroids anymore.
4. His kit now allows for higher damage without necessarily being completely squishy.
5. He now offers more utility to his team (outside of CC) allowing him to not become useless when built tanky.
6. He offers a strong team buff in tandem with his lore.
7. His kit has increased depth (choice between damage and sustain increased, choice between initiation and cleanup increased, ability leveling options increased).
8. He still has good sustain, but his early damage is lower, making him less likely to become oppressive in lane.
9. His Q has increased reliability, without significantly changing the amount of counterplay it offers.
10. He is less Vanilla because he has more choices, both in role and play style (heavy damage or tanky team supporting), as well as in moment to moment decisions (damage vs sustain, risking low heal for maximum nuke power or diving in as the initiator).
11. He is still a very stat oriented champion, however, this is slightly decreased.

Thank you all for reading. Giving a +1 so that a Red might see this would be appreciated. Any comments or suggestions anyone has would also be great. Please keep your comments civil.

"Violence is elegance."—