What Kind of Things Does Aatrox Need?

A lot of people have made posts like this, so I thought I'd follow suit. So, Aatrox, yeah. He's weird. He feels clunky, his stats are bad, and when he's good he can be toxic to fight. An unkillable drain tank that does a shit ton of damage, not fun is it? I'm not an Aatrox main, but I do like the champion, he's one of the few that fit my playstyle of bruiser/juggernaut style champions. I want to say what I like about Aatrox and what I think should change, we all have different opinions, so the other posts people make on Aatrox may not address my ideas. I really don't want Riot to fuck up Aatrox more, because sometimes they tend to make mains of certain champions lose interest in their main because of reworks, some Malzahar mains might get what I'm saying.

#Riot's Current Thoughts on Aatrox > * Shifting the passive to a windowed one (proc that grants AS/AD and revive if off CD for a duration, with some downtime). Goal is to offer periods of comparative strength and weakness (lot of the issues we've had with Aatrox's game health have been due to the nature of his revive passive)

• Removal of % health costs, probably a flat health cost on E. One of Aatrox's big issues is that he's pretty feast or famine, stat checking people hard with a drain tank pattern or just dying. Giving him the flexibility to build defense more (health) without getting as punished by his kit for it gives some good fallback options/alternate builds.
• Changing the W heal so it's not dependent on his AD, or as extremely different above/below 50% health. Ties in with the build path options above, with a % missing heal looking like a fairly likely mechanic.
• More details and context next week.

#What I Like About Aatrox

• Drain tank. Is that a toxic playstyle? Yes. Does he get countered by one item? Three, actually. I play Aatrox to try and be this hard-to-kill blood god with tons of lifesteal.
• Passive, I like the revive mechanic integrated into his kit, as well as the AS bonus. I'm OK with changes to it, but try to keep the core of the passive being the revive and AS.
• Top and Jungle capabilities. Aatrox is decent enough top lane and jungle, but he's lackluster unless you know the champion completely. Aatrox is supposed to be a top laner, but hopefully his rework does address his jungle and keep it viable too.
• E - Blades of Torment. It's actually a pretty solid ability that I like. Gives Aatrox a way to poke out, generate Blood Well, and slow people. Aatrox doesn't have much CC in his kit asides from his Q - Dark Flight, which is really clunky, more on it later. I hope E - Blades of Torment either stays unchanged or receives small number changes.

#What I Think Should Change About Aatrox

• His base stats. I remember someone else saying that Aatrox's stats were too low to be a bruiser or a melee ADC. Aatrox's stats are pretty bad, less than 2000 base health at level 18 and some other poor stats, Aatrox is very item reliant and can't cover all his flaws at once. Buff some of his base stats or move around some power.
• Q - Dark Flight feels really clunky. It takes forever to land, has a small hitbox, and it feels weird to get hit by some bullshit like traps during the flight. I suggest completely replacing the ability. Give Aatrox a mobility spell, but not this clunky BS. Perhaps a drilling attack where Aatrox flies forward, stops on the first champion/monster hit, and knocks them up while dealing physical damage? It'd be cool to see Aatrox drill through the air.
• W - Blood Thrist/Blood Price needs changes, Riot is right. This, and a lot of other things in Aatrox's kit, is feast or famine. That's the kind of playstyle left for assassins or just anyone in this fucked-up meta because of how quickly games end. Perhaps have Blood Thirst scale off of health and Blood Price off AD?
• Aatrox's ultimate, Massacre, is probably his most badass ability, from a thematic and gameplay standpoint. You become the embodiment of war, growing huge and devastating everything in sight. As cool as the ultimate is, it needs changes doesn't it? What if Massacre caused Aatrox's basic attacks to strike in a cone? (not like Titanic Hydra behind the target, but just a big sweep in front of Aatrox) Or Massacre can buff allies with bonus attack speed and health regen something something. Aatrox, by his lore, should be a GREAT teamfighter, since he just jumps into fights and urges his allies to bring forth blood to feed his blade.

Aatrox could be an awesome champion, and he has one of my favorite archetypes. A literal war demon that rushes into battle headfirst with his only goal being to spill blood. Keep that idea in mind and Aatrox could end up as a good champion, hopefully. I'm super excited for his changes, which may even be the size of a mini-update like Alistar or Shyvana. I love Aatrox, but I don't play him more because of the state he is in. He's fun, and amazingly powerful under the right conditions, but that doesn't mean there isn't problems. You know who else is fun and amazingly powerful under the right conditions? , and we all know people hate him a lot. (Could we make him less annoying, don't even really need to nerf him, just make him less toxic.)

Here's to Aatrox and hoping Riot doesn't ruin their game more. Oh, and for all the shit I say, Riot isn't actually that bad. You can tell they're trying, they just aren't really doing the right thing yet, but it's getting there. Good luck to the players and Riot's balance team!

And since I love to include pictures at the end of my long posts: http://img08.deviantart.net/7244/i/2014/185/b/0/aatrox_by_alimika-d7p9jjo.png