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New Aatrox doesn't seem fun to me

SanKakU··3 votes·2,568 views

As an Aatrox player, who played Aatrox when he would be free to play before I could afford to own him and played him after his rework only to find out from reliable sources that the rework was going to be removed later so he would have a bigger rework...

I feel like opinion must be put out there. Because I respectfully abstained from playing the reworked Aatrox for a long time knowing that he was soon going to be replaced so I wanted to enjoy the new Aatrox without feeling like I can't get used to him like what happened with Taric.

Taric's rework was exasperating. But overall, I was pleased with it. Aatrox's rework doesn't seem pleasant at all to me.

Taric still had key features of his kit intact. Yes, the old Taric is no more and would be missed, hoped to see arise in future game modes as 'flashback to the past' but so far such things Riot has not even hinted they might do for us.

Now the Aatrox, which IMO was actually more fun than ever, got removed from the game.

The new Aatrox is cool, I'll grant that. I like his new Q. They could have slapped the W mechanic for new Aatrox onto Aatrox's E, so it's a skillshot that would follow up with that chain thing. They could have turned his R into the new Aatrox's Q. So that you have to complete the cycle before you can transform. They could have made Q become like a more fun version of new Aatrox's E. They could have made his Blood Pool require more charges perhaps to make up for all this extra Blood Pool incrementing abilities. And he'd be fine. He would have changed massively, but he'd still be the same guy. Instead of that...they basically removed everything we knew about him and called it a rework. And they've done it in the past and they will do it again.

The new Aatrox is not Aatrox. And it makes me sad because I spend all that time respectfully waiting for his rework to come and it didn't. They just removed him from the game.

18 Comments

Linna Excel3 votes

{quoted}

The new Aatrox is not Aatrox. And it makes me sad because I spend all that time respectfully waiting for his rework to come and it didn't. They just removed him from the game.

ritoworks strike again.

Hethalean2 votes

So the main issue of an auto attacking drain tank with a revive would have still persisted? I'm decently sure that was why he was so unhealthy. Early access revive, drain tanking as an on hit thing. It made him the most stat checky champion in the game. Not drastically changing the kit would not have solved it.

SanKakU1 votes

Can you explain to me what's fun about his R transformation? Or what's fun about his little dashing? I outlined ways in which those would be fun. I didn't mention what they would do with the W...maybe that would be his new revival mechanic? He still has a revive, and he still has free lifesteal, he's just not fun right now. I don't see how they 'fixed' anything with this champion deletion. His new W isn't fun, his new E isn't fun, his new R isn't fun. The only thing about the new Aatrox that is fun is his Q, and IMHO, it doesn't deliver in practical value. What if landing his Q's sweet spot 3 times on an enemy champ was what triggered his revive for 12 seconds? Would be a lot more interactive than 'just press R' which is how it is now.

Also, I didn't want to be especially specific about this, but showing how little you understand of the champ, apparently I have to be...

...new Aatrox's revival is vastly inferior to Aatrox's revival. New Aatrox's revival is a strictly much worse version of Zilean's ultimate. It is far below the standard of what we've come to expect from the new champions that Riot has released, and matches more closely with the paltry rework attempts like what they've done for Sejuani and Galio.

Aatrox could keep on fighting and if you left him to it, his revival would be at the ready until there was nothing to attack. New Aatrox means 'press a button that makes it painfully obvious that you will be reviving if you die so everyone stays away from you until you transform back again' which lasts all of 12 seconds meaning even if you were 'too powerful to confront' then there is an all too easy way to deal with you. Even Annie's Tibbers isn't anywhere near that pathetic, lasting far longer. And to top it all off, you're not actually a big threat while in your R, you don't have any fantastic way to stay alive. Your new Q knockup range is vastly inferior to the old Q knockup range, so your utility in fights is inferior to old Aatrox's. Furthermore, your W can hit minions and doesn't go through anything, making it vastly inferior to old Aatrox's E which slowed everything in its relatively short and not too wide sweeping path. Aatrox was in a pretty good spot balance wise. If they simply wanted to make him more interactive, they could have done so by giving him this new Q(attaching it to his R) and not doing all this other stuff that they've done to downgrade his kit.

Hethalean1 votes

His lifesteal is much more gated now. His drain tank before was on hit which seems to tend towards not being super good for a game. imagine if Warwick or Xin Zhao had revives on their kit. Doubly problematic if it was one of those things available from lvl 1. New Aatrox has to hit his abilities realistically to get lifesteal. Sure his AA's still do it, but he's far from Rageblade abuse levels. That part is fixed.. or seems to be at this point. He might not be 'solved' yet as a champion so we'll see.

I had zero input on whether or not new Aatrox is fun. A champion can be fun and unhealthy or unfun and unhealthy. I don't really care if he is or not. You can be insulting as much as you want insinuating I don't understand the champion, but if you want to be like that, explain how he wasn't super unhealthy stat checky champion in complete contradiction to what I've heard from Riot and high ELO players. Those complete feast or famine champions are very unhealthy. They WILL get reworked with time and they will change a lot. I'm assuming ones like Akali are coming soon.

For one, it's not 'free lifesteal'. It's part of the power budget. If you want to get on people about 'how little they understand', it's part of his champions kit. Not much on champion kits are 'free'. It's part of the budget so to speak a kit has especially when you don't see much of the differences between the two champion forms.

Is he less fun than Aatrox 1.0? That's opinion question and not really convincing at all. You spent a lot of time talking about how 'fun' things are in the game. Which is fine. I was merely responding to how your 'solution' didn't solve some of the fundamental issues old Aatrox had. If he still has issues now, they're fundamentally different. Ability based healing is much different than simple AA based drain tanking

SanKakU1 votes

I think my biggest problem with this assertion that champs that are 'stat-checking' you to death are not fun is that stuff like Master Yi gets a free ride while relatively well-balanced stuff like Aatrox has to be removed instead when they aren't even terrorizing the game.

New Aatrox isn't even a champ in my book, just like Sejuani and Galio aren't. That's more than just a problem.

People are talking about Aatrox as if he's a weaker version of Riven, well I think he's like a different flavor, and a more complicated version of Rift Herald. Do you want to play Rift Herald? I didn't think so.

TheDevice2 votes

New Aatrox isn't even a champ in my book

Old aatrox wasn't a champ in Riots book or the community as a whole considering his playrates over the years. Lots of people didn't like playing a champion they knew where either on the bench or freelo. His kit was also not that interesting for a lot of people. Riot has said that themselves, proving it through playrates.

If more people had played old aatrox, he would have been nerfed into the dirt, then all the auto attack players would have just moved on to Trynd or Yi or Jax to get their wins. I don't believe many of them really cared that much about the champion other than how oppressive he was after he got the mini rework. He had the highest winrate for top lane after riot tried to manage his kit. The mini rework didn't work. It just made him too strong. If they reduced his numbers he'd fall back to his low winrates and nobody would play him. Sure, some people would complain on boards, but once they admitted how op he was they'd just move on to one of the champs I listed previously.

SanKakU1 votes

Why would I play him if I know they promised they are changing him again? That would be investing time in something that was guaranteed to be lost forever. I can't contribute to the play rate if I know my investment will be a waste. He's still a 6300 blue essence champ? It was unfair to him to delete him. Delete someone older.

TheDevice1 votes

So you're complaining about a champion you didn't play?

SanKakU1 votes

I played him enough to know that I liked him. But then Riot promised us they are changing him again so I stopped playing him. Why would I waste time on something that's guaranteed to change? Why?

Lord Malpercio1 votes

{quoted}

Can you explain to me what's fun about his R transformation? Or what's fun about his little dashing? I outlined ways in which those would be fun. I didn't mention what they would do with the W...maybe that would be his new revival mechanic? He still has a revive, and he still has free lifesteal, he's just not fun right now. I don't see how they 'fixed' anything with this champion deletion. His new W isn't fun, his new E isn't fun, his new R isn't fun. The only thing about the new Aatrox that is fun is his Q, and IMHO, it doesn't deliver in practical value. What if landing his Q's sweet spot 3 times on an enemy champ was what triggered his revive for 12 seconds? Would be a lot more interactive than 'just press R' which is how it is now.

Also, I didn't want to be especially specific about this, but showing how little you understand of the champ, apparently I have to be...

...new Aatrox's revival is vastly inferior to Aatrox's revival. New Aatrox's revival is a strictly much worse version of Zilean's ultimate. It is far below the standard of what we've come to expect from the new champions that Riot has released, and matches more closely with the paltry rework attempts like what they've done for Sejuani and Galio.

Aatrox could keep on fighting and if you left him to it, his revival would be at the ready until there was nothing to attack. New Aatrox means 'press a button that makes it painfully obvious that you will be reviving if you die so everyone stays away from you until you transform back again' which lasts all of 12 seconds meaning even if you were 'too powerful to confront' then there is an all too easy way to deal with you. Even Annie's Tibbers isn't anywhere near that pathetic, lasting far longer. And to top it all off, you're not actually a big threat while in your R, you don't have any fantastic way to stay alive. Your new Q knockup range is vastly inferior to the old Q knockup range, so your utility in fights is inferior to old Aatrox's. Furthermore, your W can hit minions and doesn't go through anything, making it vastly inferior to old Aatrox's E which slowed everything in its relatively short and not too wide sweeping path. Aatrox was in a pretty good spot balance wise. If they simply wanted to make him more interactive, they could have done so by giving him this new Q(attaching it to his R) and not doing all this other stuff that they've done to downgrade his kit.

I'm sorry, as an OLD and NEW Aatrox player speaking, I've to say you're just supremely salty.

There was absolutely nothing skillful about old Aatrox's kit. It was a statcheck, pure and simple. The only skill that took any mechanic was his old Q, and that was it. A champion that survives literally just by healing for absurd amounts from auto attacks is a miserable concept to play against. Old Aatrox was as toxic as they come in terms of champion design, arguably worse than Udyr and Jax.

New Aatrox has INCREDIBLE layers of depth to the champion. At first, I was very skeptical, but the more I play him, the more amazing he becomes to me. Every ability ties in together so well, for an amazing variety of combinations you can use. It's no longer jumping in and statchecking people.

It's deciding whether to use your QE Sneak Combo to try to catch someone off guard, or reserve your E for mobility purposes.

It's deciding whether to attempt your full Q-E+Auto-W-Q-Auto-Q combo.

It's about whether to use your W to try and kill someone, or or to save it to peel someone off your squishies.

The New Aatrox may not feel the same as a champion, but that's completely intentional. They PUBLICLY POSTED they had no intentions of keeping Aatrox's design. This should not come as a surprise to anyone. He's in a much better, healthier place as a champion, and can be adjusted to feel even better from here on out, unlike old statcheck machine.

SanKakU1 votes

There was skill required in triggering his revival. There was skill required in landing his E. There was skill required in knowing when to toggle W. There was skill required in knowing which items to purchase. It was more than just the Q. And you couldn't answer the question I posed.

There's nothing more fun about this new one. His new Q is cool but arguably less fun than the old Aatrox. I'd rather have his 3 Q abilities just be his Q, W, and E than just be Q, Q, Q. At least then he'd feel more fluid to me. Call me crazy but I feel like the new Aatrox is extremely limited in what he can do. And you didn't even mention anything about his R, which I personally find to be a joke and apparently it doesn't impress you, either.

Lord Malpercio1 votes

{quoted}

There was skill required in triggering his revival. There was skill required in landing his E. There was skill required in knowing when to toggle W. There was skill required in knowing which items to purchase. It was more than just the Q. And you couldn't answer the question I posed.

There's nothing more fun about this new one. His new Q is cool but arguably less fun than the old Aatrox. I'd rather have his 3 Q abilities just be his Q, W, and E than just be Q, Q, Q. At least then he'd feel more fluid to me. Call me crazy but I feel like the new Aatrox is extremely limited in what he can do. And you didn't even mention anything about his R, which I personally find to be a joke and apparently it doesn't impress you, either.

How was there skill in auto attacking minions to get his revival? You could basically have it up 24/7 if you wanted. It was literally rewarded just for auto attacking. And if you had Guinsoo's, it was up in like, 3 AAs if you combo'd someone. Hell, if you teamfight your ult could instantly trigger all 5 stacks required by itself.

His new ultimate allows him to be the SINGLE MOST AGGRESSIVE turret diver in the game, right up there with Alistar. It's god damn amazing, and you're practically invincible when ulting.

If you are finding him clunky and slow and unresponsive, it's likely how you're playing him and what you're building on him.

https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/8-13-world-ender-aatrox-jungle-guide-533298

Here. This is my jungle Aatrox guide. I honestly think lane Aatrox is very poor, and his jungle ability is far superior.

Lord Malpercio1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lord Malpercio,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=N6uEFMnd,comment-id=00000000000100000000,timestamp=2018-07-10T16:22:19.793+0000)

How was there skill in auto attacking minions to get his revival? You could basically have it up 24/7 if you wanted. It was literally rewarded just for auto attacking. And if you had Guinsoo's, it was up in like, 3 AAs if you combo'd someone. Hell, if you teamfight your ult could instantly trigger all 5 stacks required by itself.

His new ultimate allows him to be the SINGLE MOST AGGRESSIVE turret diver in the game, right up there with Alistar. It's god damn amazing, and you're practically invincible when ulting.

If you are finding him clunky and slow and unresponsive, it's likely how you're playing him and what you're building on him.

https://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/8-13-world-ender-aatrox-jungle-guide-533298

Here. This is my jungle Aatrox guide. I honestly think lane Aatrox is very poor, and his jungle ability is far superior.

Edit: Also his first Q can have 1350 range if you know how to use it. It vastly outranges the old Q. Just thought I'd let you know.

SanKakU1 votes

I'm not referring to the distance traveled. The knockup range is what I meant earlier.

SanKakU1 votes

If you tried to do that, you'd be burst down. He needed to get at least 3 blood pool charges before going into a fight. That meant hanging back and trying to hit people with his E for a bit and that kind of thing. I didn't bother to play him after the Rageblade changes, probably would've been super powerful.

Your build listed here, looks like it's definitely worth trying out. I would advise against Gathering Storm in any case. I rarely take that keystone so I'm dubious about it being good for him, but can't know for sure unless I try it.

Lord Malpercio1 votes

{quoted}

If you tried to do that, you'd be burst down. He needed to get at least 3 blood pool charges before going into a fight. That meant hanging back and trying to hit people with his E for a bit and that kind of thing. I didn't bother to play him after the Rageblade changes, probably would've been super powerful.

Your build listed here, looks like it's definitely worth trying out. I would advise against Gathering Storm in any case. I rarely take that keystone so I'm dubious about it being good for him, but can't know for sure unless I try it.

I honestly enjoy Gathering Storm on a lot of champions. I mean, sure, the odds of it aren't the best, but if you DO get into a 50+ min match, you're getting more stats than ANYONE.

Like damn, this thing gives 100 AD or 160 AP down the line. HOLY SHIT.

The Stabby Tabby2 votes

Oh boy do I feel you, I loved playing Galio and Urgot. The only thing left on those champions is, (sort of) Galio's Q, and Urgot still kind of has his Noxian Corrosive Charge, even if it is a bit different.

Just 4 Memes1 votes

dodging his Qs gives me brain tumor.

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