What makes a champion well designed; an analysis of new Aatrox

In light of the recent Aatrox rework, there has been lots of discussion of what makes a champion well designed and whether or not Aatrox is. I would argue that there are 6 key factors that make a champion well designed or not: thematics, interactivity, balance, viscerality/fun, skill expression, and uniqueness

Thematics:

This one is pretty simple: the way a champion is played along with their abilities and visuals should line up with their lore. Two really good thematic characters are Warwick and Kled. Warwick with his w especially feels like a blood crazed wolf man on the hunt; Kled rewards aggressive play so his high mobility but tanky kit along with his wacky animations fit that really well. I would argue that overall, Aatrox does this alright. He definitely feels like a demon with his contorted animations and ult, but beyond that there isn’t much.

Interactivity; while this is going o vary depending on the purpose of the champion, in general both the player of the champion and the opponent should feel like their efforts contribute to whether or not they win or lose in lane. Assassins have low interactivity which is why fizz and Yasuo are frustrating to play against; a well played Yasuo is extremely hard to beat. On the other hand, I would argue that new Aatrox is overly dependent on your opponent messing up, which contributes to his clunkiness. I would say that fiora is very well designed in this respect; it feels like you can defend your vitals and play around her stun with mindgames, but a good fiora can consistently hit vitals and time the parry right.

Balance: a champion should usually sit at around 50% winrate with a decent play rate. New Aatrox is underpowered, but this issue can be fixed with numbers changes

Viscerality/fun: this is very subjective but a champion should just feel fun to control. In my opinion Darius is the king of this; his brutal animations just feel fun to use and I get a thrill every time I get a multikill on his ult. I would argue that even as he feels clunky aatroxs hot and q just feel fun and satisfying to use.

Skill expressive: you should feel like you can make a different based on how well you play. Though he is overly reliant on enemy mistakes, a new aatrox does need to have good timing and aim making him fairly skill expressive. Nunu on the other hand feels not very skill expressive as he has no skillshots and few decisions to make

Unique: champions should thematically and gameplay wise fit a unique role. Aatrox does not feel this way; he is too much like riven and rhaast. I would say that Kled with his mounting mechanic is a very unique champion.

So there yo have it. New Aatrox is skill expressive, solidly thematic, and visceral, but is too interactive, underpowered and not very unique. These are just my thoughts of course.