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Is anything at all going to be done about Aatrox?

Akesgeroth··1 votes·779 views

When he was released, people lost their minds thinking he was going to be OP because of the idiotic champion spotlight he got. I even made a thread about it back then:

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=3544709

Anyway, they nerfed him almost immediately because of the complaining then said they would review his kit soon. Since then, they gave him 4 armor and haven't touched him.

He has less damage than most bruisers, doesn't burst as hard as most bruisers, is squishier than most bruisers, his mobility is subpar, he has no true CC, his sustain is a joke and if all that wasn't enough, he needs to hurt himself to use his abilities. He only gets good in really late game, and even then he's no better than a Tryndamere.

So, what gives? It's been a year and a half now, are there any plans for him? Hell, he was meant to be the first in a series of about 5 champions IIRC, and so far nothing more has come from that.

10 Comments

DefenderOfFaith2 votes

Aatrox conceptually has a nice kit -- conceptually -- is the keyword. He just needs more raw numbers behind what he does. I feel like he is swinging a turnip and not a sword.

He is pretty cool in that his Q is a short knockup that can be done more or less on demand, and serve as a gap closer or an escape - so cheers for being in the mobility club. His E is a poke, which is absolutely awesome (again, conceptually -- it still hits like a wet noodle) on a melee champion. His W alternation is kind of a cool idea and stands to make him a good melee, until he runs into the likes of Riven, Jax, Irelia, or.....anyone. I bet Garen would school him. It either doesn't heal enough or hurt enough, but is conceptually not that bad of an idea.

For a demon lord of war, he is somewhat of a biscuit. He is kind of like crushing a squishy mage. He could use a little firming up or healthing up.

Heh, just my 2 cents. I'd like to see a dev blog about him why he is fine the way he is or what he needs.

Akesgeroth1 votes

This is something I agree with. His kit would be fine if it did more damage, if the heal on his W was better and if his passive was available more often and healed for more. If they don't buff his brute force, then they need to change his kit to make him more versatile.

Knight SoIaire 2 votes

personal opinion of mine is a rework

aatroxs kit is too complex in itself and building ... whatever items you chose they backfire on you realy hard in some areas (pick damage and lifesteal = easy burstable, pick tankyness= skills cost more and you dont heal, both tadeoffs are so big that you lack a lot whichever path you go try to pick everything by a little at the same time = you dont do anything good till the late game )

playing aatrox and thinking aboput it lead me to a point where i concluded that aatrox's kit simply requires too much stats to stand on par with others because his tradeoffs are simply too high (even his passive has an insane tradeoff ... you didnt stack it you cant fight, you revived you cant fight which leads to his passive being more of a commitement without reward than a passive)

if we look at champs like vi or darius we just pick 1 or 2 offensive items and we can go tanky aatrox needs to commmit more to either offense or defense than others to attain good results

if we give aatrox numbers as other ppl propose i feel like he will be always strong whatever he builds and does

Akesgeroth1 votes

Aatrox is definitely complex to build. Best build I've found is BotRK, Ninja Tabi, Spirit Visage, Randuin's Omen, Zephyr and either Black Cleaver or Last Whisper.

But you're right that he needs too many stats. He needs attack speed to proc his W and make it useful; he needs health to tank the health cost on his W (never mind that his other skills have costs based on % max health meaning stacking health doesn't reduce their relative cost); he needs armor and MR not only because he needs to be in the fray as a fighter, but also because his passive doesn't scale with max health meaning that no matter what, you'll always revive with almost no health and your survival will depend on your armor and MR; he also needs to be tanky because the heal on his W relies on him being low on health to proc decent amounts; he needs attack damage to scale too; he also needs armor penetration, like any physical damage character; he needs lifesteal to compensate for the health costs on his abilities.

iateurdoughnut2 votes

Aatrox is one of my favorite champs but yeah if he builds a mix of tank and dmg he doesnt deal enough dmg nor is he tanky enough. He does need buffs to his scaling and numbers. Most of the meta top laners simply eat him even with his passive as their dmg is much higher than his. Buffing his scalings or numbers would be nice.

Akesgeroth1 votes

The only way I've found to make him tanky and still deal a lot of damage is to stack attack speed on him and keep his W on the damage toggle. Attack speed is a relatively cheap stat and you can get a lot just from Zephyr and BotRK, and Zephy also provides you with Tenacity. Even then, you're right that he's underwhelming.

DefenderOfFaith1 votes

{quoted}

Aatrox is one of my favorite champs but yeah if he builds a mix of tank and dmg he doesnt deal enough dmg nor is he tanky enough.

Yeah, this assessment as well as other posters have said, there is no real build synergy possible. Whether a person goes defensive or offensive or a hybrid of the two, he simply won't do any of these nearly as well as someone else who does the exact same thing, and they'll have at least as much utility to boot.

Some of the other posters said "because Riot" this or "because Riot" that. I don't really know what Riot thinks, I've seen no links to red posts here, so I can't say. I'm curious what they think, or if they are thinking anything about him at all.

Granted, an Aatrox buff gone wrong can very quickly make him overpowered because his kit is actually very good and if he had some serious power and build synergy behind it then he could very quickly go into permanent ban status.

I'm sure Riot and/or the community can think up plenty of decent ideas though.

Raptamei1 votes

Riot believes he's toxic due to his resurrect, so they won't buff him.

Akesgeroth2 votes

You mean like Zilean? Or GA? Or Anivia?

iateurdoughnut2 votes

U frgt zac

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