What's Going to Happen to Aatrox?
I can't find where it was said, but I remember Riot mentioning the topic of mini-reworks and class reworks. With these showing up and being discussed more and more often, I was thinking that Aatrox may be a good candidate for either of these kind of reworks.
Why would a mini/class rework be good for Aatrox?
Aatrox's gameplay, inherently, isn't flawed. He's in that limbo some other drain tanks seem to go through where they can win games, but have their limits (
, and possibly 
) Aatrox's kit works, but sometimes feels weak. He's meant to be this drain-tank that works as a diver and/or a duelist. His visuals aren't anything to ignore either, his model fits well with the rest of League's art style. So to make it clear, Aatrox only needs a small rework since his kit and visuals feel modern and can fit well into League.
Why does he need a rework, anyways?
I think the main issue with Aatrox is his reliability. By no means is Aatrox a terrible or unplayable champion, but more like flipping a coin. You either get fed and devastate in fights, or get behind and are more like a mosquito buzzing around. I'm not exactly an Aatrox expert, but sometimes I find issues with his itemization. You either build damage and get a lot of lifesteal, but die squishy; or you build tanky and don't have much damage to compensate. There's the healthy balance of both by building items such as 
and 
along with 
and 
, but it seems to feel like never enough. Someone more experienced in Aatrox would likely disagree, knowing more about the champion and their builds than me. But potentially to the common player, Aatrox may feel unreliable.
Well, what will fix him?
When going into a fight, Aatrox can be a bit weak. He has one form of engage which is hard to land, and he only reaches his power spike in the middle of a fight. He needs to build up his attack speed with Blood Well to get anywhere, and when he revives, he loses all that attack speed. If Aatrox could retain some attack speed, he may feel better in a fight. What would I recommend for him though?
- Look into attack speed changes, so he feels more useful at his weaker parts
- Keep him away from a feast or famine playstyle if he has one
- Q might want to be looked into, it may/may not need changes
- E could do with a more drastic change
- Let players use ult during passive revive? The idea of recovering from the brink of death just to kick ass for the rest of the fight seems amazing
Or, a more interesting idea? Give Aatrox a larger rework to tune him towards being at sustain teamfighter.
In the lore, Aatrox doesn't just really duel people, to say. He shows up in times of war and kicks ass, making everyone else kick ass. If he was geared towards team fights, it'd fit his thematic more. Think something like 
, not necessarily a support, but helps out their team while being a threat on their own. In this case, I brainstormed a quick idea for a new E.
E - Cry for Bloodlust
Aatrox shouts a powerful war cry, temporarily increasing his attack speed and granting the Rage passive from 
to him and nearby allies for a short time, causing them to gain bonus flat movement speed for 2 seconds when they attack an enemy. The movement speed could increase per level, and decrease the cooldown.
That was just a quick thought I had to really make Aatrox feel like that guy who starts shit when there's already shit happening. These are just my ideas and opinions, and something I wanted to talk about. Thanks for reading this f'kin novel on one champion, but that's all I got.
