A Huge Nerf to Aatrox

Hey there,

My name is Supes and I'm a devoted jungler with rank 7 on . I don't post here much, so I wanted to clarify that this isn't an "I HATE CHANGE" post. Rather, it's just the thoughts of one confused Aatrox player who believes the changes will hurt him overall. Simply put: I'm seeking .

Firstly, I want to make it clear that I AM aware that these changes are only to hold us over until a larger rework can be done. That said, I can't find anything positive to say about these changes other than the fact that you can now build tanky and still hit things very fast. These changes seem to focus far too much on helping a behind Aatrox (sort of -- I'll get to that later) while substantially nerfing an even/ahead Aatrox.

Here's Riot's goal in a nutshell (from what I can gather): They want to allow Aatrox to build tanky -- primarily to help when he's behind -- so they're adding a flat 20% of passive bar building to each of his abilities. This puts less reliance on stacking attack speed items to fill his passive bar with W, and puts more of the focus into using his other abilities. Or so you'd think.

Great. Fast passive bar building -- that's excellent! Wait, you mean to tell me that he doesn't gain a certain % of attack speed for every 1% of his bar filled anymore..? That he only gains an AD and AS buff once the bar is filled to 100%? Sorry, what? So, not only did you remove the triple healing when he's below 50%, but you've made it so his passive bar means absolutely NOTHING unless it's full? Well, this seemingly causes a few gameplay related problems:

a) His bar still takes a long time to fill, especially on revival. Think about it... -> Proc revive. -> Use Q to gain 20% bar. -> Use E to reach 40% bar. -> Attack 3 times with damage W to reach 60% bar. -> Previous step for 80%. -> Previous step for 100%. Seeing as his Q and E both have substantial cooldowns, he'll rely a lot on that W to fill his bar anyway. And it won't be fast -- especially early. Thing is, most times he'll be dead before he even reaches 60%. Oh, and don't forget: He NO LONGER gains more AS the more his bar is filled. Only once it's filled to 100%.

b) Now he has to manage his bar below 100% while doing jungle camps. As long as his passive bar doesn't have a cooldown, this shouldn't be a huge cause for concern as you can just spam everything on each camp and continuously maintain it. However, he'll have to regulate it if he suspects he'll get counter-jungled, or if he's planning on doing the countering. Meaning he won't be getting the AS buff while clearing camps. He now has a very pre-determined and readable playstyle, and is now a situationally weak duelist.

c) One of Aatrox's weakest points is blowing ulti -> proccing revive passive -> reviving and being completely useless until you die again immediately. On live, he currently loses all of his bar when he revives. This leaves him with pathetic attack speed and the inability to do a whole lot of follow-up. That said, you STILL have triple healing on W seeing as you're below 50% HP.

With the pending changes, he'll revive again with 0% of his bar, but this time he won't have a triple heal to rely on for keeping him safe. You say he'll be tankier now with his new item path, but that's not at all what Aatrox is at his core. He's a sustain tank. Forcing him to build tank items to utilize his new changes seems rather counterintuitive, no?

I think better changes to hold us over until a rework could be as such:

• The triple heal from W while under 50% is no longer active when his passive is on cooldown.
• Give him 50% bar filled on revival.

What this does, is it still gives him the ability to DO something once he revives. He has some of that bonus attack speed to work with, but it's not an overpowered addition because since his revive is on cooldown he won't be benefiting from the triple heal of W. It keeps him from being overbearingly powerful when ahead, but also useful when he's behind and when he revives. It also fits quite well into the fantasy of his kit. The triple heal on W while under 50% HP is very strong and very unique, but if you don't manage it properly while Aatrox's passive is READIED, then you'll be punished for it once his passive goes on COOLDOWN.

TL;DR -- Removing AS per 1% of his bar filled and the triple heal on W while under 50% HP IS not the answer.

Edit:

It's worse than I thought...

Aatrox CANNOT prevent his passive bar from depleting against minions/monsters... only champions.

Jungle Aatrox is doomed. Don't bother.