Aatrox mini-rework proposal

Hi everyone from a plat 1 player ! WARNING HUGE TEXT INCOMING.

First, I would like to apologize for my "angrish". English is not my native language and I hope I will be understandable :D

CTRL + F [NEW] to find the modifications.

When came out, I played him a lot. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I liked a lot the concept of a big bad demon / god of war / vampire (????) that could heal himselves with a living sword. I played him so much that in the end, I was bored of him (especially after the nerfs on his passive and his E I must admit :D ) and I didn't touch him since the end of S4.

I tried again playing him (almost only toplane) and I found him ... terrible. Low base stats, little utility because of how his Q is unreliable (and even his E is now a lot less interesting in teamfight since the very recent slow stacking change), average scaling, has to chose between damages and healing etc. I had some success with him but my overall feeling was "meh".

First, I thought about some crazy buffs (my mindset at the time was "AATROX IS SO WEAK PLS RIOT BUFF HIM") and then I realized there was a big problem with Aatrox.

He is potentially super toxic mainly because of his sustain mode (W Blood Thirst) and I think this is why Riot is scared of buffing him : they think (and I think they are right) that if they just buff his numbers, they will have a big problem.

This is why Aatrox needs a mini-rework.

And here is my mini-rework.

[NEW] BASE STATS :

Unchanged, except for health.

580 (+89) (up from 537.8 (+85))

=> Aatrox is VERY squishy in early game. His base stats (and especially his health) are terrible because of his free sustain and his passive. But the goal of this mini-rework is to make his sustain less opressive in lane and in teamfight when he is ahead. Therefore, I think that he deserves a little boost.

Remember, with this buff Aatrox will have only 42 more hp than Renekton at lvl 18 (2093 for Aatrox, 2051 for Renekton) but Aatrox is inherently less tanky than many fighters champions because of how his kit works (huge health costs, no bonus HP or armor/magic resist in his kit) and when he comes back to life thanks to his passive, he is incredibly weak because he lost all of his bonus attack speed and most of the time, his Q and W are still on CD thanks to their very long CD.

PASSIVE - BLOOD WELL: Unchanged.

[NEW] DARK FLIGHT (CD / health cost / damages unchanged) :

Aatrox takes flight and slams down at the target area after a brief delay, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies within a 225 unit radius upon landing and knocking them up briefly (think Quinn's Vault ability for the duration). Enemies in a 75 unit radius epicenter are knock up for 1 second.

=> the goal is to make his Q more reliable in teamfight and in lane and at the same time, keeping the counterplay (you can still avoid it with flash / a dash or you can still interrupt it).

[NEW] BLOOD THIRST :

Toogle off : On every third basic attack, Aatrox heals himself. When Aatrox is below 35% (down from 50%) of his maximum health, the amount of health restored is enhanced (instead of tripled).

Heal : 15/18/21/25/30 (+ 20% of bonus AD) (down from 20/25/30/35/40 (+25% bonus AD)). Enhanced heal : 60/75/90/105/120 (+75% of bonus AD).

=> the goal here is simple : to make Aatrox less oppressive in lane because of all the free sustain he has. I kept the high sustain when he has low health but I nerfed the maximum health requirement in order to nerf his snowball potential : when Aatrox is ahead, he can simply be unkillable in skirmishes and in lane thanks to all the attack speed and sustain he has : he will simply AA you to death thanks to his incredible sustain especially when he has less than 50% of his maximum health. This nerf is to keep his sustain really strong when he has low health, but since he will now need to have very low health, he will only be able to slow down his death most of the time because a well placed burst will now almost always bring him down, only buying time for his teammates (which is great !).

I did a couple of games as Jungle Aatrox and I don't think his jungle effectiveness will be nerfed too hard (I abused Blood Price and I never had a problem healing back even when I had only 10% of health before switching to Blood Thirst). But I almost never play jungle with Aatrox and I need your advices on this !

BLOOD PRICE : Unchanged.

BLADES OF TORMENT : Unchanged.

[NEW] MASSACRE - 650 Range (up from 550) - Cooldown 110/90/80 (up from 100/85/70) :

Active : Aatrox draws in the blood of his foes, dealing magic damages to all nearby champions, enhancing his attack speed, his range, his abilities and his allies lifesteal and spellvamp.

Aatrox gains bonus attack speed as well as 175 range (325 total range) for 12 seconds. For each champion struck, Blood Well is filled by 20 of its maximum value.

[NEW] For the duration of Massacre, nearby allied champions (650 range) gain 10% lifesteal and spellvamp. Also, for the duration of Massacre, Aatrox abilities cost 50/75/100% less health but he still stores the amount in his Blood Well.

Magic damage : unchanged. Attack speed : unchanged.

=> I never understood why a champion who is supposed to be some kind of god of carnage / war / slaugther / fury, never had a ultimate that could buff his allies. The small 10% spellvamp and lifesteal boost is here to give Aatrox more utility in teamfight. To prevent Aatrox from abusing lifesteal with Blood Thirst, he does not benefit from it but instead, his abilites have reduced health cost, making him more durable when going "full offensive mode".

That's it ! Thank your for reading and please, tell me what you think of this :)