Aatrox Feedback

Hey Riot! With everyone giving their two cents on Aatrox (some a little louder than others), I wanted to give my own feedback after getting a feel for him. In general, I think he's really fun to play when his abilities work, but they're a bit too inconsistent which results in him feeling a little unsatisfying to play. If I could describe him in a word, I'd say he feels a little overdesigned. I'll break it down ability by ability to keep things straightforward.

Passive: In general this ability feels really good! It's nice seeing that chunk of health go down on whatever you're hitting. That being said, I do think it contradicts his play style a little bit. Ideally you want to proc the passive as much as you can to get the most value out of it, but while Aatrox is more of a caster, the passive requires him be in auto range.

I think there's a very simple fix to this actually, by just increasing his passive's range to put him in the perfect range for his Q. This way he'll be able to combo directly after a passive proc and he won't have to go out of his way to do it. Perhaps the damage could be reduced slightly and it could slow as well, giving you time to line things up.

Q: Ah, the bread and butter. This one feels great when you land it but doing so is a bit of a hassle. There's so much to focus on League that spending so much attention on landing his core ability is a little too stressful at times. This is clearly the largest sentiment amongst the fans, so I think that regardless of how you do it, this needs to be made easier to hit, plain and simple. That said, here are my suggestions:

While it would feel really good to be able to move - even just a little (10% movement speed or so) - I don't think it's necessary to make the ability feel better to use. The obvious problem to me is that Q1 is too far away. I would bring Q1 in by about a third so it keeps you closer to auto range, and see how Q2 feels afterwards and adjust accordingly (probably by pulling it in a bit as well). The goal for me is to keep him decently close enough to auto range so that I can both weave in autos and more easily land my abilities.

In my hypothetical scenario, you would start your combo with your extended range passive, which puts you in the perfect position for Q1, and then progressively move forward to land Q2 and Q3. On live it gets awkward when you have to move backwards for one Q and then forwards for another. There's just too much real estate skill-wise on landing this ability, and as his core damaging ability it should not be as inconsistent as it is.

The problem isn't so much that it's hard to use, but rather it's unintuitive. Once you figure out how Azir's Soldiers or Aurelion Sol's Stars work, their kits make perfect sense and feel great. But once you figure out how Aatrox's Q works, it feels like you're wrestling with his other abilities just to land it. Maybe making it easier to land means reducing its damage, sure, but first and foremost the champion should be fun and intuitive to play.

W: This ability feels strangely balanced. It's a ranged, skillshot, tether that cannot go through minions but is extremely easy to break. It looks really cool, and feels great when it works (I particularly like pullling someone in right after Q2 for a perfect Q3), but its so slow and easy to avoid that any semi-competent player with a pair of boots will almost never be pulled in by it. Additionally, since Aatrox has to move _back _to land his Q, you risk giving up your chase because should they escape, you've now run in the opposite way the enemy did to break your tether.

I think the ability could be simplified quite a bit while having similar, but much more consistent results. Simply have the skillshot pull the enemy towards Aatrox on impact and apply some damage and a decent slow. This will give him ample opportunity to land a Q without having to slowly wait for your enemy to get pulled to a very specific spot. It'd be great if it also went through minions, but I can see how that could get out of hand so it's not necessary.

E: I actually think his E is fine in terms of what it does, but I think it could definitely be a little more fun/rewarding. Rather than having the charge system, I think his E should in general have a decently shorter cooldown (12-8s or so), while also giving a **free refresh when he lands a Q **in his sweetspot. If we're gonna make it all about his Q, then let's make it all about his Q. Getting a dash reset would feel great and would reward players for proper positioning.

Another small thing to note, the animation really sucks, hah. Compared to his other animations his dash just feels so lackluster. With how frequent you're doing it, having a cooler animation would go a long way to making him feel better, I think. Something more anime like a quick-run, or a spin-dash, or even him some blurred smear frames with speed lines or something. Skies the limit, but what we have now doesn't look nearly up to your guys' typical standards.

R: I think this one's fine, honestly. It should definitely reset his Q on revive though, as that always feels terrible and results in you getting back up just to die again immediately. It'd be cool if it did something a little more mechanically interesting too, like increase his attack range and/or his Q's sweetspot. Making his full Q hitbox a sweetspot during his ultimate would be totally rad but I can see how that could easily be overpowered. Still, a guy can dream, eh?

Animation: Some minor things before I finish: as pointed out in the AMA he could do with some more transition animations when putting his sword away (he just runs in spot for a few frames and it looks... goofy). His jog animation at the start of the game when his sword isn't out kinda sucks too - I feel like there could be a better median between his full on run and his badass walk. Those are just minor grievances though (even if they'd take an animator like a day to fix (this is coming from a fellow animator, hah)).

Closing: All in all I think the rework was a success, but it definitely has problems. Making him feel a little more consistent and cohesive would go a long way, as those moments where you _are _successful as him feel really damn good. His design and sound/voice work are all solid, but I don't think he's up to the standards gameplay-wise that you guys have shown in the past champion releases. Really tight kits that feel intuitive and fun to play are why we play League, and while he's almost there, I don't think he's as good as he could be on that front.

I'm a game developer myself, and it definitely feels to me like this was one of those designs that is interesting for the designers but not necessarily fun for the players. It sucks! Because you want everyone to love the mechanical depth you've created but at the same time, if people aren't having fun they aren't having fun. That being said, Aatrox is real close to being in a solid spot and while I wrote a novel, the changes I'm suggesting are relatively simple to implement and shouldn't require any additional art assets, only minor changes. That's less to say that my changes are the words of God, and more so that fixing him in meaningful ways won't be a hard task, even if they aren't the changes I specifically want.

At any rate, I'd love to see this guy get some love as he's so close to being one of my favourite champions in League. I can see the potential there, so it's just a matter of letting his strengths shine and focusing on what makes him fun to play. Thanks to anyone who read all the way through. Cheers!