Aatrox doesn't need a full rework, just tweaks

OlafRagnarson·Dec 19, 2015·6 votes·1,018 views

Aatrox is nearly fine, for many reasons. Everyone wants to rework him, but I would hate to see him become fundamentally different.

He needs some tweaks.

1)The knock up area of his Q dive should be slightly larger. Many other champions enjoy much larger margins for error on their CC.

2)His bloodwell needs to drain a little bit slower and not start so immediately after he's out of combat.

3)His W needs to scale better with AP, so that option becomes more viable if someone wants to go an AP route

4)His ult AOE damage should also effect minions and monsters, so he can steal dragon with a dive and an ult. Other champions can damage dragon with his ult, why shouldn't he be able to?

EVERYTHING stops aatrox's Q dive. Its very annoying. Even things that are ground based. He needs to have a little protection from certain abilities that shouldn't effect someone who's in the air.

7 Comments

AyRe CoNteMpTDec 19, 20153 votes

maybe slightly, yes. very slightly.
it should start draining later but it should drain a bit faster
nothing on him should scale with ap at all, remove all ap scalings
i agree, it should
thats just normal for all dashes and it should be the case for him too.

a) make his ultimate attack range scale on bonus ad in some way (+1 range per bonus ad or so)

b) aatrox was extremely good (top 5 toplaners) by the end of season 5 and his biggest downfall in preseason is that he hates all the new masteries. very sad. he would need a ton of base stats to compensate. increase his base ad by 5, increase his base armor by 3, increase his base hp by 50

Dark NephthysDec 19, 20151 votes

I wouldn't say that he hates all the new masteries, but more so that he doesn't get a huge buff from the masteries as some of the other top laners do. Vamperism and Runic Armor are great for him and won't force him to go far down worthless tree's to obtain them. Though he could use a better keystone but I guess his best ones would be Fervor of battle (if going damage), or Grasp (if you're going as tank/off-tank).

Though I do feel increasing his base stats should be fine, and the amount you suggested is probably a fair amount. Considering that he is easy to counter now for AD champs being able to get grievous wounds, I feel increasing his base stats and/or increasing his Q's range would be a good option.

Stand Alone WolfDec 19, 20151 votes

I HIGHLY agree with the base stat bumps. I've been saying this for quite a while, & I'm glad someone else finally sees this. I honestly feel like all he would need is some base stat bumps, & he won't be a Glass. . . well, Glass! His knock-up isn't hard to land on targets, but if it get's bumped up, it may as well be the cause of everyone's hatred. "omg Aatrox knock-up is broken now"

AtheosisXDec 19, 20152 votes

That would qualify as a rework honestly.

BeuhlakorDec 20, 20152 votes

No he will still be garbage.

Aatrox suffers from many things :

No flexibility at all regarding builds. He has too many mandatory items and too many average or bad items. His kit is at fault, you can't build jack shit with a kit like his.
He is least reliable champion of the diving fighter class (reminder => according to Riot, diving fighters are melee champions that are supposed to be very good at picking one target and "diving it", Riot consider Aatrox, J4, Irelia, Xin Zhao and Jax to be diving fighters). Mainly because his sticking power is garbage (E CD is too high, too slow and you don't build a lot of CDR on Aatrox because it sucks on him), his engage varies from "OMFG AWESOME Q U KNOCKED UP 4 ENNEMIES PLS AATROX CARRY MY BABIES" to the most common "Aaaaaand again my only way to engage / escape has been interrupted by a random displacement effect and this time it was Anivia's wall right on my face. Anyway, it's not like I can hit easily thanks to the long animation time lol. Fuck this shit".
His kit is a messed up pack of shit. He is supposed to be a DPS champion but since he pays a huge price for his stupid sustain and passive, he has garbage base stats making it so that you DON'T WANT to do long trades when you play Aatrox. On the other hand, his E and R do heavy AP damages in early and midgame and as a result, you play Aatrox as a burst champion because it is far more effective. Oh, but you still need AS because coming lategame, the AD ratios on his skills except W fucking suck. Yup, that's totally coherent. Oh and multiple AS buffs feel like "meh".
Back in S4, Riot stated that they don't want to buff Aatrox except some QoL buffs (like the two we got recently) because they are scared shitless of infinite perma-sustain champions. I'm too lazy to search again on the old forums, but I very remember the last sentence "If we buff Aatrox, we're gonna have problems".
This is why I want Riot to rework Aatrox. I love the champion (thematically only, his kit is boring and toxic), but as long as he has his revive AND infinite sustain, Riot will keep him "average" at best.

EDIT : don't even get me started on his fucking E and kit as a whole. His E is some "pew pew magic" that does not fit the champion AT ALL. Aatrox has a living sword and we know thanks to his ultimate that he can expand it. Instead, we have some weird kamehameha skill that deals (bad) magic damages but is obnoxious in laning phase. Also he is supposed to inspired bloodlust and rage in the heart of his "allies" but he got NOTHING to buff his allies. J4 fullfill Aatrox fantasy better than Aatrox. Yup yup yup.

OlafRagnarsonDec 20, 20151 votes

Try rushing a mallet. You will be surprised at the results.

KetiDec 20, 20151 votes

Aatrox is complete cancer with his current kit. He can't be allowed to be good, so he'll need a rework to see viability again, not just straight buffs.