Aatrox is about to be pick/ban in pro play after these changes go through.

WoonStruck·Feb 22, 2017·10 votes·2,314 views

His escape isn't punishing to spam anymore

His healing gets better building tank. W's base heal is twice as high at all times and scales with % missing HP.

One offensive item will be good enough for damage.

You can spam E without any repercussions due to how W's healing works now.

Leaving W on damage has no health cost now.

Aatrox is going to use the new BotRK or maybe BC (due to magic->physical damage E) build full tank, and destroy games. Watch.

Spam E out of combat! Doesn't have to hit anything to fill blood well! Same with Q! Once at 3 from spamming E (if you know you're going to knock them up with Q for 3W's fill), Q in and go ham! Its season 1/2 Maokai all over!

#Yes, Aatrox deserved changes more than possibly any other champion in League, but this is just creating a monster that you're going to have to deal with later.

40 Comments

MaeDoSanFeb 22, 20179 votes

Aatrox atleast give him a chance to come out goddamn

TyrekGoldenspearFeb 22, 20176 votes

Aatrox This battle, will be my masterpiece.

paperbIadeFeb 22, 20174 votes

can you not aatrox is finally going to be viable for once

What Is SmiteFeb 22, 20172 votes

I love how people bitch about a champion before they even see results, I mean FOR FUCKS SAKE THEORIES DO NOT ALWAYS PRODUCE THE RESULTS THEY EXPECT.

WyrmbladeFeb 23, 20172 votes

I want to go back to regular forums. This setup is so fucking circlejerky. As long as you say something with confidence and without offending them they'll up vote fucking anything.

HammermancerFeb 23, 20171 votes

you're wrong, and you shouldn't insult the humble, yet good people of this forum!

Upvotes plz

AhristocatsFeb 22, 20174 votes

GOOD

i don't want champs forgotten for 4 years

and i don't like to do theories about something i didn't try i thought lethality changes were fine at first before seeing the bs

WoonStruckFeb 22, 20171 votes

All Riot needs to do is require Q/E to actually hit something to fill blood well; at the very least E.

He's basically becoming a juggernaut that's also a diver. One that can tower-dive for free by spamming E out of combat then Qing in every 2-3 minutes.

AhristocatsFeb 22, 20171 votes

first aatrox will never be a diver, he just doesn't have enough burst for that he's a skirmisher until his rework

second your change makes sens, i think it will be easy for riot to do it

DynikusFeb 22, 20172 votes

aatrox will never be a diver

??? he's already classified as a diver.

AhristocatsFeb 22, 20171 votes

his current kit can't work as a diver

Big LincolnFeb 22, 20172 votes

they're not even finalized though, it's likely we'll see flat costs re-added to his kit when PBE players start to bitch

WoonStruckFeb 22, 20172 votes

Flat costs aren't going to make a huge difference considering his Q isn't spammed, and his W is just still going to be left on healing the large majority of the time.

Also, this is PBE. How many times have players bitched about something that was obviously going to be a serious problem and nothing was ever done about it before the patch?

Big LincolnFeb 22, 20173 votes

% costs made him too difficult to build and he has a fairly small amount of % missing return.

likely he'll still be vulnerable to burst, but maybe not item 3153 item 3812 item 3072

WoonStruckFeb 22, 20171 votes

He won't be vulnerable to burst...he'll go one damage item into full tank.

%Missing HP recovery and total AD scalings being added. Its pretty easy to see what his optimal build will be.

oSEXYPLATYPUSoFeb 22, 20171 votes

so you are telling me I have to ban jayce and aatrox just to play top lane now ?

WoonStruckFeb 22, 20176 votes

Aatrox is basically being turned into a juggernaut.

Except he has pretty significant diving potential.

Safe diving potential.

Especially if they don't make it so towers do not interact with blood well revive (which would feel extremely arbitrary and bad...), he will end up a major issue. He'll prep by spamming E out of combat, til 60%, Q in, auto auto auto with damage W during knock-up, switch to healing, cast E, and basically have no risks during dives because of it.

All for the low cost of 90 HP.

oSEXYPLATYPUSoFeb 22, 20171 votes

yea its just those champs are bad for the champ I main in top so its an issue...

jayce is busted every one knows and I had issues with aatrox in a game the other day it was painful .

but my secret op counter to aatrox use to be nunu top... with exhaust... I might have to start playing him again top

Big LincolnFeb 22, 20179 votes

% missing champs like Illaoi Darius are absolutely vulnerable to being bursted down at a point where their sustain actually becomes significant. Aatrox will be much the same

ErockandrollFeb 22, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Big Lincoln,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EvTE7fav,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2017-02-22T22:07:04.331+0000)

% costs made him too difficult to build and he has a fairly small amount of % missing return.

likely he'll still be vulnerable to burst, but maybe not

I think his HP Synergy is too much under the current changes, to really stack that kind of sustain item. (More so that Sustain can easily be countered by Executioner's)

Given his HP synergy, I would be more worried about more Juggernaut esk builds. Building any combination of say, BC, Frozen Mallet, Titanic Hydra, and Steracs will net him a good chunk of HP, along with Offensive Utility.

LuggFeb 22, 20172 votes

Aatrox was nowhere near as bad as people made him out to be. He only needed a minor buff to be completely viable.

I agree that he is going to be a huge problem if these go thru.

Twitch ChatFeb 23, 20172 votes

You should be spamming E out of combat on live aatrox to keep blood well up. Also all the big buffs are compensated by the windowed blood well. No attack speed out of blood rush is a big hit to passive healing and jungle speed.

DunkinNoobsFeb 23, 20172 votes

As someone who actually plays Aatrox, these changes look mostly bad. I'll have to play it to be sure but I'm not optimistic.

oSEXYPLATYPUSoFeb 22, 20171 votes

well who ever played aatrox vs me the other day must of been a god on the champ cuz it was a nightmare... no matter how tanky I got and how much armor I got I couldn't really fight him.

seems to me rito likes to put a lot of dps on champs that have some kind of 2nd life aspect to them... aatrox with his passive, tryn with his ult, kayle with her ult. and so on... but in my case that is the 1st time I have seen aatrox in game in nearly 2 seasons so I kinda forgot what his kit does .

it was a painful relearning experience

[zombie-brand-facepalm]

Stars ShaperFeb 22, 20171 votes

I tried Aatrox a couple of months ago, I went horribly in early game but once I got into lategame I was nealry unkillable. He is a weird character right now but the listed changes might give him more consistency.

oSEXYPLATYPUSoFeb 22, 20171 votes

yea I just don't think who I was playing was ideal for him... I did get dove and ganked under turret early and that gave him a lead...

I had to 1st pick maokai top lane with out knowing who or what I was facing...

ended up aatrox top... riven jungle , kat mid, and vayne Leona bot..

I got behind early and he pushed like crazy and I just don't have the dps to fight him... so I let master yi do that... I just ended up stacking iceborn, randiums ,ninja tabs , thornmail and I think I was working on GA final item but game was so far gone ... end of game with all armor I ended up having 2nd in damage on my team even though I was full tank and started off badly

sobi999Feb 22, 20171 votes

just get rid of item 3123 .

Jeddy017Feb 22, 20171 votes

Ha, I want to see that happen. Aatrox goes from being the butt of a joke to a must pick/ban champ. Then people will be begging for Riot to put him back. It be worth a good laugh at the whole situation.

WoonStruckFeb 22, 20171 votes

I mean, that's historically been Aatrox's case outside of this little update anyway.

AcidTheWarlockFeb 22, 20171 votes

Yeah, he should really have to be in combat to fill his passive. Doesn't it decay out of combat though?

WoonStruckFeb 22, 20171 votes

Only after he hits 100%.

Ok sure but whyFeb 22, 20171 votes

oh, great

another champ that heals based on his own health

#TankMeta2017

invisiblecat1Feb 22, 20171 votes

He honestly doesn't seem that annoying to deal with compared to how you are making it out to be item 3123 and some burst damage which every champion has right now and he is dead

WoonStruckFeb 22, 20171 votes

You haven't seen the supposedly garbage current aatrox when he performed decently with tank builds in competitive.

Meep ManFeb 22, 20171 votes

I think this will be the new Aatrox build:

item 3047 / item 3111 item 3053 item 3065 item 3143 item 3742 then either item 3153 or item 3071 depending on how the BorK PBE changes make it

HyperiönFeb 23, 20171 votes

About time. I loved watching Aatrox being played in S4 LCS

48983507DEL1Feb 23, 20171 votes

Okay, you're analyzing this the wrong way.

His Q is still on an extremely long cooldown. I don't think you could even use the terms "Dark Flight" and "spam" in the same sentence without sounding ridiculous. Plus, it's still a very easy-to-counter escape, since it's got a long delay to easily disable him.

His healing numbers got completely changed to where it's more evenly distributed. Before, he'd get massive healing if he was below 50% HP. Now, he won't get that level of healing until he's around 25% HP.

Another thing to keep in mind is he's now highly encouraged to use Blood Price now, as he won't be able to fill his Bloodwell reliably without it. Don't forget, the numbers and stats can still be adjusted at any time.

One offensive item definitely will not be "good enough" because all of his ratios are still Bonus AD, except for his long-cooldown, easy-to-miss, easy-to-counter Q. You also have to keep in mind that he needs armor shred along with attack speed in order to be effective, meaning he'd need at least 2 items.

Spamming E still has problems: Early in the game, it costs too much health to make it worthwhile. Later into the game, it's really awkward to poke with and doesn't have a low enough cooldown to use while chasing.

There's a pretty good reason why Blood Price having a health cost was stupid, which is that it was always unfavorable to use. Why do a little more damage at the cost of your own health, when you can simply gain more health? In a 1v1 trade, that's the only thing that made sense.

His Blood Well now goes down a lot faster, meaning he has to continuously be in combat to keep it up. His cooldowns are literally not long enough to ever keep it filled without constantly attacking an enemy.

You're ultimately forgetting that his kit is still very unreliable and outdated. I highly doubt he'll be able to do much carrying despite these much needed changes.

HammermancerFeb 23, 20171 votes

I used to play aatrox, and I see these changes as mostly... kinda bad.

he's going to be healing for basically nothing, and is getting all the base damage on his q gutted

so he's probably going to still need two lifesteal items, but he wont have any real value for them because attack speed isn't really in his kit against non-champs again

Aatrox was about staying back to heal up and then all inning- then get back and heal up and all-in, keeping your passive bar up to a respectable level with your E of course..

I really don't see this as better in any way shape or form....