Aatrox Rework and the Darkin

Riot seems to have defined the Darkin now as champions like Kayn/Rhaast. Champions who have knock ups, lifesteal/spell vamp and possibly a form of invulnerability.

Aatrox starting off as the original Darkin champion had a different identity. From the start, he was a champion who had simple mechanics and some crowd control abilities. However, his core mechanic was cycling between empowered damage autos or empowered healing autos. While the mini rework removed most of his health costs that core identity remained.

The new Aatrox loses that tradeoff and for a lot of people loses the core play pattern we enjoyed from the champion. While the rest of the kit fits thematically, there is no option between dealing damage or healing. It takes away the risk/reward aspect of the champion. Now hes a champion who runs at people aimin to hit as many people as he can and heal as much as possible.

While I do enjoy most of what has been added on, it feels like Aatrox’s core mechanic of deciding between healing and damage hasn’t been realized or brought along to his new kit.

I do think Aatrox would feel satisfactory as a spellslinger like he is currently. And from first impressions i do enjoy the new rework. But i feel the key theme which differentiated Kayn and Aatrox has been lost. Now the Darkin seem to be different through if you want to flank and dive (Rhaast/Kayn) or if you want to run through the enemy team (Aatrox).