It took a full rework...
It took a full ability and visual rework for me to realize how truly disgusting OP old Aatrox was. Like I always knew he was OP but...,
Alot of people are going to hate but his skill expression was primarily when to fight (based mostly on a specific item powerspike) and when to toggle W between healing and damage. Like..., that's not really skill expression, it's just knowing to farm and enough experience to know when Aatrox could brute-force win engages. New Aatrox requires a TONNE of skill. I think the major difference is his execution is so much more difficult..., he's essentially been transformed from 'freelo' to 'you need to one-trick this' level of experience necessary.
Must suck for all who played him, you have my sympathy. Btw there another no mana, auto attacker with good sustain and who's difficult to kill that requires approximately double the skill to stomp with (which is still less than most champs). Challenge yourselves.., for a change.
Btw, this post is just to poke fun at those super salty about the change. His archetype of sustaining brute-force carry made him too difficult for riot to balance. He existed either as overtuned or gravely undertuned. (Because his balanced level was under appreciated and considered UP). Yeah i get it that your champion you abused is gone but you need to admit internally that this was a champion you abused and that's what you got your kicks off of. 90% of the community didn't play him when he was considered UP so it's not like it's the playstyle that heavily attracted his fan base. It was the ease of abusing the (#rolleyes) high skill of when to toggle W. Kinda tired of hearing that tbh.., if that's skill..., idk mayne idk.
Riot messed up designing a champ that only has fun appeal cuz they brute-force out damage or out-sustain engages successfully. Turning him from one of the lowest skill requirement melees to one of the highest is the kind of karma that everyone else will secretly appreciate. But current Aatrox is overtuned though. Partially to compensate for everyone's inexperience with him but Riot is going to need to nerf him once the good players start getting hang of his ranges and gimmicks. The one-tricks will be very pleased with this champ.
