Reworked Aatrox JG is Destroyed

The AQUAMIST··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 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.

Sgt Karil III1 votes

Jungle aatrox could duel anyone but Elise on level 3, q+w+w. Thats how i invaded the enemy jungle for a million first bloods

Jungle aatrox can fight off shaco who invades him on level 3 with ignite.

or atleast he could...

if u ran anything but 8 armor 35 AS runes as jungle Aatrox you are a complete retard.

The AQUAMIST1 votes

It is true that Aatrox was able to defend invades, but I mean he WAS able. Anyway, if you have any more ideas about how to counter invades in this patch, please do share with me.

The AQUAMIST1 votes

What a constructive comment! Thanks.

I think tank Aatrox is probably what Riot wants in this patch. It's sad though because my skills were totally about playing squishy sustain fighter (but in team fights his role becomes more like an assassin), which means I might have to start over to learn how to play him now.

In this patch item 3751 might help, but then your first four items will be boots, one item 3751 based item, one item 3077 based item, an AS item (after all, you are an Aatrox). At this point, the total bonus health is around 1000, which is still not quite enough to heal him well based on the new 5% healing system. So I wonder how you play tank Aatrox. Can you share some skills with me?

Btw, I actually will prefer item 3153 over item 3078 . First, As a tank, % damage is actually a good way to deal damage with high AS. Second, the spellable passive of item 3078 cannot be used to the fullest since Aatrox's W dose not count as an ability. Last, the 250 mana from sheen is wasted at this point, which is economically not as efficient. And yet, I do agree that the 250 health might be quite useful in this patch.

Thanks for the comment again and what do you think about my points?

Matake2 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 III2 votes

you are either stupid or then you actually never had a good aatrox in your team or bothered to play 10 games with him.

you would be one of those people who spamm ping me when I stack Q in base and leave it when minions spawn, laughing at me and calling me a troll and raging that i should start with W for sustain (yeah someone really flamed me for not starting with a sustain spell on first camp)

you still propably wouldnt be able to tell me why I stacked Q in base or which jungle routes to take or which runes for effective clear.

EDIT: you just talk shit about things you dont know

Arghast1 votes

Yeah I can tell straight away that you've never played him Jungle or have had someone terrible on your team. Aatrox has always been a decent jungler as he got AS from his passive and sustain from his W. How in the hell is that not viable, that's like saying that xin is not viable in jungle even though he gets sustain and AS from his W.

Honestly you just seem like one of the people who will defend Riot to the death even when they make bad decisions like they have here.

Vreivai1 votes

{quoted}

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

Never?

Go tell that to Season 3.

The AQUAMIST1 votes

I would say he might be bad if you are not skilled. It really took me a long time (about half of my LoL games) to learn every single detail of this interesting champion, and it was worth it. I got Mastery 6 at him and I can kill LV6 Lee Sin at LV5 as Aatrox, solo dragon at LV4 and do many epic plays after I got good at him. So I'll disagree that he's not good. However, after this update, it is truth that I'm now really doomed. I would have to either practice a whole lot as Aatrox or find someone similar to old Aatrox to replace him.

Sgt Karil III2 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.

The AQUAMIST1 votes

Yeah the new Aatrox cannot really camp clear really well, and W active farming is no longer possible at this point. the thing that troubles me the most is actually the W change. Is there any method to farm faster and safer?

darkdill1 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.

Sgt Karil III1 votes

thats why you invade them.

not being able to fight off everysingle invader any time doesnt make a champion bad, it makes the player bad if he cant control the jungle 1v1

darkdill1 votes

I still stand on my "fall behind, stay behind" point.

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