Taking ideas from the class updates to contextualize Aatrox

So there's been a relatively consistent stream of threads surrounding Aatrox and demands/ideas for reworks. I just thought it'd be fun to analyze Aatrox through the lenses of the Juggernaut, Marksman, and Mage Reworks' criteria.

Juggernaut Rework Goals:

• Every game of League should feel meaningfully different based on the champions in it
• Each champion in League should feel distinct from one another

Marksman Rework Goals:

"Give each marksman a specific meta-agnostic identity" "We want to give each updated champion a unique reason to be brought to a game, and we want each champion to feel different whether playing against, as, or with"

Mage Rework Goals:

Distinct - offer a unique reason to be picked Cohesive - deliver on their core thematic and gameplay fantasy Healthy - balance-able and fun to play as and against at all skill levels

So 7 things to compare and contrast. What does Aatrox's current kit do well/poorly with these goals, and what can be improved?

Every game of League should feel meaningfully different based on the champions in it

From a strategic standpoint, his auto attack based kit with built in healing and wave clear makes him an excellent split pusher and (pending on his stats) duelist if he chooses, giving him a clear macro strategy to play with. As a Health based champion, he doesn't need Blue Buff, meaning that Jungle Aatrox or a theoretical Mid Aatrox would add far more flex to the team comp in regards to the Jungler and the Mid Laner's usage of Blue Buff. As a Heal based champion, he even has a presence on build paths. Finally, say what you will of his passive, but the fact that he can revive once from death where the vast majority of champions can't certainly does stand out in a game. While I wouldn't say that the game necessarily plays different because he is in it, he does have the building blocks there to do so.

Each champion in League should feel distinct from one another

This is a slightly larger problem. His W is more or less a stat stick, and his E is unmemorable; neat, but not a defining element of his kit. His R's a bit more interesting in that it wants to hit multiple people within a small self centered AOE, but its output is, at best, just a bigger stat stick. His Q's an interesting dash in that other dashes don't move in the particular timing that it does, but given that his Passive is basically the most distinct and unique aspect of his kit relative to most every other champion of the game, all it says is a champion that will recklessly throw itself into danger since it won't die anyway, and we have other champions that already exist to do that with other interesting gimmicks attached to that within their kits:

"Give each marksman him a specific meta-agnostic identity"

Take everything I said in the first point, and look at Tryndamere. If those are some big defining strategic points for Aatrox, what effectively makes him different from Trynd from a strategic identity perspective?

Tryndamere is the biggest and most prevalent parallel to Aatrox in my opinion, but really, Aatrox just doesn't have an identity that another champion doesn't already do just as well, if not better. As a playable character in a video game, Aatrox doesn't have much of an identity at all.

"We want to give each updated champion a unique reason to be brought to a game, and we want each champion to feel different whether playing against, as, or with."

So we can effectively cross off the first half of this, and I already said he has the building blocks for the second. Aatrox's execution on how he handles the latter goal just needs so much more work and polish, and he needs a clear goal to achieve if he wants to meet the former goal.

Distinct - offer a unique reason to be picked

Heh

Cohesive - deliver on their core thematic and gameplay fantasy

So apparently Aatrox is a being that drives people to charge ruthlessly into battle...how?

I guess Aatrox's gameplay fantasy is to be a Drain Tank. Just like every other Drain Tank.

Healthy - balance-able and fun to play as and against at all skill levels

As long as GW exists, kit based healing will forever be binary.

His W and R being colossal stat sticks also greatly hinders his overall healthiness, methinks.