How did Kalista possibly get buffed before Aatrox?

Dark Trennow·1/16/2015, 11:24:53 PM·24 votes·3,166 views

Seriously, a champion that has the pinnacle of mobility creep as a passive which has made her nearly immune to melee champions managed to get a buff before a fighter who has been subpar for a while now? Aatrox has been sidelined for so long now with only a nerf to his E and slight compensation to his attack speed buff from his bloodwell.

Not to mention he is countered by most other fighters in the top lane and is countered by all the popular top laners and the ranged invaders. He has so little desire for people to play him other than aatrox mains such as myself who aren't ever going to stop playing the guy.

Would it be too much for riot to at least give QoL buffs like retaining AA proc after leaving bloodwell? Maybe reduce his Q cost to 5% hp from 10%? Maybe even buff his relatively crappy armor/mr scaling?

37 Comments

Fed by Snu Snu1/16/2015, 11:44:12 PM7 votes

He isn't an ADC, so not a priority.

Rebonack1/17/2015, 12:11:13 AM6 votes

Generic Bruiser McFighterson.

I'm still not sure how such a bland champion ever made it through Riot's champ-design process.

Narasimha1/16/2015, 11:54:08 PM5 votes

As strange is it to say, Aatrox is in this really twisted horrible kind of balanced area. He's actually still viable in the jungle, probably more so than in top lane. The main issue comes that any buffs to him would probably be enough to tip him back into the unkillable sustain tank he was at release. He needs a soft rework, if anything.

TotalJerk1/17/2015, 7:46:59 AM3 votes

Because despite people's complaints of mobility creep, Kalista is actually pretty meh.

Her damage is pretty unremarkable
Any situation where her W active(which has an ult-sized charge time) is usuable is far better served with a ward, which your support will have anyway
Herr passive does fuckall about gap closers
Her ult requires far more player synergy than any player can hope to achieve without a mic
Her ult is also useless without her oathsworn around
Her W passive is a large part of her damage output, and it cannot be proc'd without her oathsworn there and focusing the same target.

You might complain that she's safe, but that's the point. Nobody is crying about Ashe's permaslows, or Caitlyn's E making them difficult to catch by melees without gap closers.

aaronconlin1/17/2015, 1:21:21 AM3 votes

I can't remember where or which rioter posted it, but they are looking into changing his ultimate, they agree that he is kind of lackluster and that his kit is limited due to two attack speed steroids.

Krys Star1/17/2015, 5:11:20 AM2 votes

Because she's a creation of CertainlyT, and Riot loves to cater to him. Look at Thresh and Yasuo. :)

junglerboy161/17/2015, 2:46:16 AM2 votes

Kalista has been consistently at less than 45% win rate for weeks, across ALL metrics. Aatrox is in a bad spot, yes, but not near as bad.

Salzigorimando1/17/2015, 4:22:21 AM1 votes

Kalista is newer and people still want abuse her passive. Aatrox is older and a bit lacking in the visuals department.

Lytebulb1/17/2015, 1:38:34 AM1 votes

More like a nerf

FLY Slotmachiner1/17/2015, 5:58:57 AM1 votes

I still think Aatrox is on a great position and assume that he is more one of those underplayed champs rather than underpowered IMO. I do agree that he can use some little buffs, perhaps buff his ult or even maybe his passive. However, he is certainly not in a bad spot, he is jsut being overshined by other champions that are more fun and exciting to play. I do like that suggestion on the comment section stating to change his cost to flat HP. Kalista honestly needed that buff though, not that big by all means, but somewhere around those lines. BTW I am that douche that plays Kalista Top :P

Blade of Justic1/17/2015, 12:42:14 AM1 votes

Aatrox was never a threat.

From the time he was released to now.

My friends and I joke all that time about "If we wanted to lose, we would have picked Aatrox."

So, yeah. Buff time.

Spacesuit Spiff1/17/2015, 8:31:08 AM1 votes

Aatrox should be reworked into a snowbally top laner who either pulls off amazing earlygame dives with his passive, or does fuck all. The Kha'Zix of toplane, basically. I'm one of the minority who thinks that sort of champion has interesting strategic value. But he should never actually be allowed to become strong, he's not someone I'd want to see in every game.

As for the jungle, he's kinda hampered by the fact that no matter what he does, his health will default to 50% because of the weird way his W works. This means that if you're going to gank you're probably going to need to pop a pot first or get bursted by a lot of laners (sure you have your passive, but being out of the game for a couple seconds makes for impotent ganks). I tried to make him work in the jungle every season since his release, and the result I always got was that most everyone else does his job better (at least in soloq, where you never want your laner going anywhere near the enemy tower early).

Gorzke1/17/2015, 1:45:24 PM1 votes

Well, I love playing him as a Sustain Tank (Hydra/BOTRK/SV/Randuins) and he becomes a hard to take down threat to the enemy team, as he can start to deal more damage or increase sustain, according of the focus he is receiving.

j j1/17/2015, 2:39:28 PM1 votes

Aatrox doesn't need much of a buff to become viable again. Something small would be nice nothing big.

BakedLotion1/17/2015, 2:41:06 PM1 votes

BUFF to kalista? HAH That thing was more of a nerf than anything, since her jump doesnt work half the time now

Tendrian1/17/2015, 6:17:19 PM1 votes

They feel they made "game health mistakes" with Aatrox, they don't want him to be strong and won't buff him before he gets a soft rework.