Reworked Aatrox JG is Destroyed

The AQUAMIST·3/9/2017, 5:41:09 AM·6 votes·2,343 views

As an AatroxAatrox main, I have to say that my beloved Aatrox JG is now totally destroyed, and I no longer know if I can still play him well anymore. I'm putting down my analysis to this phenomena below, and sincerely hoping players can discuss with me and figure out what we can do better to get over this situation.

General Comparison: Q cost: 10% health cost from Q no longer exists, which makes it harder to stack up blood well quickly in early game. W heal: Aatrox used to have a great healing ability through his W, now he does not. This make him way more unhealthy in the jungle. Passive: It's now actually harder to stack up Blood Well quickly in early game in the jungle. Furthermore, he no longer has his AS buff and revive buff constantly, which makes him way weaker than before and also slows down his CS. A good Aatrox player could have almost full health and full Blood Well buff (30% AS and revive potential) all the time, but now these are no longer available. The impact of this different is (1)slower CS (2)more risky fights and ganks.

Detail:

  1. CS: Aatrox's Blood Well no longer provides him the AS constantly, as a result, his camp clearing is now way terrible than before. Moreover, the cancel of triple heal under 50% health not only makes him even more unhealthy to stay in the jungle, but also slower Aatrox's CS. (He used to be able to CS with his W on, dealing more damage, and then get his health back by turning off his W again. This skill can faster his CS a lot, but now he can only use his W heal all the time.)
  2. Jungle Surviving: When facing counter jungling, Aatrox is now in a more dangerous situation that before. In the past, he could easily fight back as long as the player does stack up their Blood Well properly. However, Aatrox can now only get his reviving effect when having the Blood Rush, which is quite hard to stack up fast enough in early game before he dies to the enemy jungler. In other words, a good Aatrox player could stack up his Blood Well fully for the whole time before this rework, which is equal to having Blood Rush for the whole time, and now you only get 4 seconds, while your enemy jungler can appear at anytime and kill you before you get your Blood Rush.
  3. Ganking: Since the new Blood Well runs off too quickly, Aatrox mostly loses all of his blood well stacks before actually showing up in lane for a gank. It does seem like it is way easier to stack up his Blood Well after the rework, and yet, in early game, Aatrox was actually able to stack up way more than 20% of his Blood well in early game through a single Q before. As a result, even if Aatrox stacks up 60% of his Blood Well by EQW combo right at the beginning of his gank, he still does not have AS buff and tower dive ability (which is his passive). After all, who will be stupid enough to let you auto attack 6 more times in a gank to stack up the last 20% of Blood Well? (At least, I've never seen anyone so stupid that they let you auto attack 6 times in a gank anyway.)
  4. Dragon: Honestly, in the past, if the vision shows that it is safe enough, Aatrox can just solo the Dragon at level 4 even without going back for the first time. Now, since his W heal is greatly nerfed, there's no way he can do the same thing, or it will be super hard to do so.

Facing such big changes to my favorite champion, everything seems so chaotic and unreasonable for me. And yet, I do believe that there must be a way to play him well. I'm trying my best to be positive about this rework and hopefully we can find our way out of this nightmare.

14 Comments

Leaf on Bush3/9/2017, 8:01:57 AM3 votes

I also gotta say that jungle Aatrox was always kinda weak, now he can at least work with cinderhulk and not be a free kill.

You need to rush item 3077 so you don't fall behind, like warwick or shaco you can start with item 1006 to get there a little faster.

Then depending on how well you are doing you can finish item 1413 or go for an attack speed item first. item 3078 is nice for attack speed because it's not completely squishy, just a bit expensive, but i think the mix of health, attack speed, sheen is really good. I don't like item 1419 at all, because you are really squishy if you build it after item 3077 . item 3153 is situational because you don't need lifesteal.

After that you can add 2 more tank items and finish your item 3748 somewhere in between.

I played my very first game in this patch as Aatrox jungle and ended 13/1/17 against Zac Ahri Alistar who are not exactly easy opponents.

Matake3/9/2017, 8:27:39 AM2 votes

aatrox has never been a viable jungle and with the jungle changes i don't think he would have survived at all

i think lulu jungles better than him

Sgt Karil III3/9/2017, 2:13:35 PM2 votes

[{quoted}](name=The AQUAMIST,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EvauYuJL,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-03-09T05:41:09.309+0000)

  1. Dragon: Honestly, in the past, if the vision shows that it is safe enough, Aatrox can just solo the Dragon at level 4 even without going back for the first time. Now, since his W heal is greatly nerfed, there's no way he can do the same thing, or it will be super hard to do so.

Aatrox OTP 1035 ranked matches seasons 5-7 combined plat-low diamond

Aatrox could solo first dragon on level 3 (3 camps before) using only 1 health potion. My regurlar jungle route was, if good dragon: Red, wraiths golems, dragon (timestampt 3:50), gank bot, clear entire jungle, clear enemy jungle or counterjungle or base and buy red smite and recurved bow

Aatrox could solo dragon on level 2 but the new jungle spawn times made it not worth to wait the dragon to spawn. In old jungle i took red wraiths and dragon on level 2, timestamping it on 3:42

OLD aatrox can solo Baron isntantly at 20:00 if he gets AS jungle item, Rage blade and Spirit Visage sided with 1-2 useful elemental dragons. soloing took around 20 seconds and it was a huge pressure. The new one cant really solo it even after +1 item on top of the old items.

darkdill3/9/2017, 6:05:50 AM1 votes

Jungle Aatrox was never even that stellar to begin with. Too easy to fall behind and get left behind.

Getting invaded would also really suck for an Aatrox.