Intense Aatrox Rework Idea

So as the title suggests this is my theory on how Aatrox could be reworked, if he ever is, and it's a tad drastic in how it alters his playstyle.

Also this is a VERY long post, so if you don't want to read it just stop here and don't both commenting "bruh this was too long!" Cause I know, that's the fucking point, it's a theorycraft of sorts, so either be ready for a long read that gives a good imagine of my idea or just leave now and save yourself the time.

The thing is right now he is not in a good place. People were arguing that he was fine just a couple patches ago cause he had a good winrate when using devourer in the jungle and rageblade in either top or jungle, not too mention almost all of his good winrate builds incorporated the now removed double shielding tactic of sterak's and malmortius together. Now with all these adjustments even for experienced Aatrox players the winrates have fallen a ridiculous amount, nearly 10% with just some item changes. That means he was only doing fine cause of OP items and item combos, now that they're gone his true state is clearly visible.

His problem is mainly his design in general, a splitpushing drain tank that uses auto attacks to accomplish that and has the base stats and scalings of an adc.... I mean it's just not well thought out and he's left a suboptimal choice for literally everything he can possibly do when compared to another champ who performs the role you're looking for.

Thus I started thinking of possible ways to redo him, make him relevant hopefully, and try to capture his identity that is portrayed through his lore but rarely if ever shows up in actual gameplay..... by that I mean he's supposed to be some kind of immortal being that single handedly sways the outcomes of wars with his shear ferocity inspiring the forces he chooses to side with.... and not some squishy dude who just swings his sword at you a lot.....

This concept came to my mind while I was playing SMITE actually, and more specifically Hades. He is more of a control type mage in that game, if you didn't know, but he has some drain tanking mechanics that I thought would be neat on someone like Aatrox.

The biggest thing would be that he'd scale on AP like most other tanks instead of AD, like Zac, Amumu, Maokai, Malphite, etc. I know that may not seem appealing to many Aatrox players who enjoy the right click happy playstyle, but I'm thinking of this with my own preferences and attempting to make his playstyle more akin to his lore, so I apologize to anyone who doesn't want him to change like that, just keep in mind he probably and most likely will not, so don't get too worked up over my ideas lol

Passive: His passive would remain similar but simpler, in that it would still be his revive mechanic, but it wouldn't give him attack speed anymore. The amount healed during your passive revival would still scale on how large the bar is as well as his max HP, but it would also have a small AP scaling. On top of that, since it no longer grants attack speed, it would instead do an AoE blast of damage with a small knock back once his revive happens after the charge time completes, again with some AP scaling.

Basically in this proposed rework he won't be reliant on autos and thus won't need attack speed, so I removed that, and one of his biggest drawbacks to his passive right now is that once it's popped people just stand over your head and blow their load on you as soon as you revive, often times making it pointless. The small knockback would give you some leeway, but it being small means people can still CC you upon revival so it still allows for counterplay.

**Q: **His Q would largely remain the same, except that the people on the outer rim of his landing spot would also be slowed just enough to equal the time the people he hits in the middle are knocked up. This makes his CC more reliable, which is one of his biggest problems at the moment. It would also scale on AP instead of AD.

It would also still cost a slight amount of health to cast. We can't have free casting, that's just poor design that makes imbalanced champs! coughRivencoughGarencough

But seriously those two are either stupid OP or insanely weak, and I believe it's largely due to them not having any kind of resources, so I think it would be a good idea to keep the health costs on Aatrox's abilities, a way to balance him need be.

**W: ** This ability would be completely different, mainly since he will no longer be required to auto attack targets and it would not be a toggle. Instead this will be an AoE burst of damage that sucks the HP out of his enemies around him (dealing reduced damage/healing to/from minions ofc). This ability synergizes very well with the rest of his proposed kit, as you'll see, in that it gives him that reliable form of drain tanking that he currently only gets if he's allowed to just wail on someone with his autos, which doesn't happen too often especially with all the mobility and peel currently in the meta.

It would also empower his next auto attack, kind of like his blood price toggle on his W right now, just not with as high a health cost and only a single attack after the ability is cast, but it would still cost health once it hit his target, that cost being offset if he hit enough people with the initial W cast. This will allow him to trade in lane, without it he wouldn't be able to do all that much.

Both would also scale on AP with some more missing HP scaling on the heal amount, so he'd heal more at lower percent health just as he does right now.

E: His E will still be a skill shot but will work entirely differently. It will, instead of being a slow moving and awkward to land line that slows targets, be an instantaneous cone that fears targets for a short amount, like much shorter then a fiddle or nocturne fear, just a quick little fear in a cone in the direction you aim the ability. Damage scaling on AP.

In his lore he's supposed to inspire fear in his enemies and give his allies an opening or desire to keep fighting on, but he lacks that entirely in his current kit, so this ability not only works as a form of CC required for tanks and skirmishers but also helps create his identity, the one he currently lacks.

And yes the damage would scale on AP, kind of like how Cho has a cone silence that lasts ages and deals damage, but it's a much shorter fear instead of a silence. It would also cost HP to cast, ofc, probably his highest costing ability.

**R: ** If you thought his W was a big change then buckle up, and you might already have an idea of what my idea is if you've played as or against Hades in SMITE lol

Upon activation Aatrox would raise into the air, pulling in all enemies nearby and GROUNDING them (that new mechanic Cass has that denies any kind of movement abilities to be used) and dealing damage overtime as they get sucked into him, increasing the closer they are to him in the center. He will also be healing himself a flat amount for a certain number of enemies caught within (reduced for minions and monsters ofc), as well as a portion based on missing HP, once again bringing it back around to his one defining characteristic in his current kit, on top of making this ability viable.

I say viable cause his ult would be a channeled ability, like he can't move or use abilities while casting it, but the enemies caught within can still attack him or any of his allies within or near them while they're in the ult, they just can't jump out of it, so he has to have some way of surviving through it.

On that note, since his enemies can attack him while he's ulting, they can cc him. Instead of just completely nullifying his ult, which would make him kind of useless, it would instead alter it. If he were to be hard cc'd, instead of cancelling it the grounding effect would just be removed, likely shown by a change in color of the effect in game, so people caught within could then try to dash out of it or even flash out, but if they don't have a movement ability they would still be pulled in. Aatrox can then also move around within the circle and attack or use abilities, and it would still deal the damage over time but wouldn't be healing him anymore, and if he steps out of it himself then the ability cancels. This means the ability can't be hard countered by certain champs to the point he could never get it off, but it wouldn't be healing him so if he stays within and in range of his enemies then he might die, so he'd have to leave to survive, also releasing those caught inside.

His W will also help him stay inside longer to keep the ability going.

Keep in mind if they're running directly away from him they'll simply stay in spot, it's not like they'll be pulling in no matter what, so if he gets cc'd they'll still be able to escape with some kind of dash, but the radius would have to be roughly the same size as a Galio ult or else it won't be an effective teamfighting tool, at least not as effective as it should be. Basically it should be just barely beyond the length of a Lee Sin kick, so if Aatrox ults a Lee Sin he can't just auto cancel it by kicking Aatrox out, but it should be close enough that any other ability after that will be enough.

With this kit he would be the definition of drain tank, he'd have the cc in order to perform his duties as well as a teamfighting ulti, all synergizing with the identity of draining the blood, or the life, out of your opponents.

So any thoughts? Ways to improve this idea and build on it? Or even take away if you think it would be too strong? And yes I know rework concepts that change the playstyle of champs are typically taken quite negatively, but hey let's face it, he's super weak right now and his identity in game is complete shit, something has to change, and I personally thought this would be a neat way of doing it, if not very far fetched lol