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Aatrox's state and two QoL ideas!

Jasiwel·7/14/2016, 6:12:48 AM·2 votes·538 views

Dear LoL Boardians and Rito Officers, prepare for a long post,

The Slight Discussion on the State of Aatrox It's no secret that Aatrox is one of the least played champions in the game. He has an abysmal pickrate (Rarely goes above 2%, usually 1%) and a relatively low winrate average (46-48%). In higher ELO, there are many days it does not reach 1%. Given that particular correlation usually means a higher than average winrate, Aatrox is apparently on the lower end of the champion spectrum and isn't even a meme like our friends Galio Yorick Urgot. Generally speaking, a lofty rework awaits our Rage incarnate champion, as he's approaching several years of being here in the game and a relatively outdated kit to accompany him.

I've been playing a lot of Aatrox lately. I find him to be a great deal of fun and his kit isn't that bad. item 3812 item 1419 are exceptionally powerful on him, and the changes to item 3072 item 3065 make them great choices to followup. His AP Ratios also allow for some interesting burst from items like item 3146 item 3115 item 3124 that give him stats/passive he makes incredible usage of. Then of course there are the classic item 3153 item 3074 item 3026 still around as well. Against AD opponents you can always build item 3075 item 3512 item 3143 to mitigate their damage and supply additional pressure for your team.

That all being said, the lack of regular updates on Aatrox has left him in the dust. Most top laners have had reworks of some kind or their items straight buffed into their favor - item 3153 has been nerfed and put down compared to its old self, item 3124's new form isn't nearly as potent as its old form due to the high cost and other limiting factors, and Aatrox does not synergize well with an over-abundance of HP meaning item 3053 item 3078 item 3071 item 3068 just aren't optimal on him. He has innate Lifesteal in his W's Blood Thirst and Attack Speed through his passive, but he needs itemized forms of Lifesteal and Attack Speed to truly exert his strengths over the enemy.

Quality of Life Suggestions After playing him far more frequently (in the jungle, I might add), he has some clunkiness issues that extend from more than the typical "AA canceled unexpectedly" to the almost constant "Massacre's Range buff seems inconsistent compared to Kayle's E". While those two examples could easily be explained in terms of functionality and mechanic prowess, Aatrox has two issues I want to primarily address here.

One cannot use Blades of Torment (E) reliably right after Aatrox lands from his Dark Flight (Q).

This issue might not seem too major at first, but allow me to explain. When Aatrox engages with his Q, he has a couple of precious seconds to attempt locking down his targets. If he does not land his Q's knockup, however, the best followup is to use his E to slow them. At close range, Aatrox's E is easy to land and a great chase tool. Yet, one cannot use his E reliably after Aatrox lands from his Q. Why is that? It appears that Aatrox is in some kind of animation lock (OH BOY) when he hits the ground and that prevents him from chaining his E right after his Q.

In some instances, I have seen his E fire off right after his Q lands. When the instances occur though...I'm not sure. The main point isn't that Aatrox can or cannot use his E immediately after he lands from Dark Flight, but rather that using it reliably is just difficult. It's way more difficult than it should be, in my opinion, and it makes engaging on your enemy quite difficult. If Aatrox were in a top tier state, then I could understand the need for uber mechanics here, but he's not even close to that level of power.

The solution? Allow Aatrox to queue Blades of Torment (E) as he descends from Dark Flight (E) in a similar manner that Kha'Zix can use his Spike Racks (W) or how Rengar can cast (E)bola Strike as he pounces on a target (but definitely not as weirdly as Bola Strike please). The possible animation lock could also be reduced to allow a quicker chance to use Blades of Torment (E).

Dark Flight (Q) is frustrating to use in so many situations.

Oh man, where do I begin? Dark Flight feels horribly, horribly outdated for how fluid most champions gapclose now. It has a good premise - a mild ranged gapcloser that knocksup any target in its epicenter. It is ABSOLUTELY integral to Aatrox's ganking and anything revolving around engaging. The problems start flowing in, however, when you factor in the odd animation time he has when he ascends to the highest point of his "flight". It's not even a second, but it can royally screw over Aatrox's chances of actually hitting his target. The fact of the matter is that Dark Flight is often not reliable enough.

And it's not so much a skill issue as it is a feasibility issue considering how much champion mobility and forms of Crowd Control have evolved since Aatrox's release. While Aatrox tries to jump to or from someone, any kind of displacer or hard CC will stop him in his place. Now understand, most of his competition in Top lane have a large armament of displacers and hard CC. Aatrox is also entirely targetable during his Q, so he's not immune to damage like Fizz or someone else. Furthermore, the epicenter radius for knocking someone up isn't even half of the ability's total radius (75 vs 225), so you seriously have to land on the champion you're aiming for. What is problematic here is that Aatrox (unlike a lot of other champions) has an odd wind-up time that makes engaging or escaping difficult purely because it's more telegraphed and easily disrupted than gapclosers from so many other champions.

While these implementations may all be quite valid during the early game and laning phase, later in the game it can become exceptionally difficult to hit anyone. Given how carries are becoming more mobile each season, not to mention how much more reliable the gapclosers of Fizz Gragas Irelia JarvanIV Jax Khazix Kassadin Vi XinZhao MonkeyKing Yasuo Renekton Gnar are at accomplishing their own ends, Aatrox could use some help in terms of making his Q a reliable engaging/disengaging tool. That doesn't even factor in his Q's 10% health cost, lengthy CD, and skill-reliant knockup epicenter.

Solutions? Increasing the epicenter to 100 (just a bit) or even_ increasing it by level (75/85/95/105/115)_ could cure any reliability issues, while also requiring the former level of skill. Many times I have landed on the target and they just don't knockup - bug potential or not, enlarging the epicenter will help a good deal.

Another potential, yet more drastic solution, is to give Aatrox immunity to displacers during Dark Flight. It's a huge buff to the ability, for sure, but so often do the amount of displacers in the game make it so ridiculously difficult to use his Q effectively. While I think enlarging the epicenter would be a safer solution, I don't think this one should be thrown out. Generally speaking, Aatrox has a lot of competition and many champions that conflict with his role - many simply perform it better and Aatrox is extremely item dependent once the early game is gone.

The Inevitable

I have my own ideas about how to improve his current themes and mechanics (which I think are definitely cool, even if they clash with new Pantheon), but who knows what direction Riot will take. He's a fighter that has the engage of front-liner, but dislikes HP. He behaves like a drain tank, but lacks the inherent tankiness to be an actual tank. He can no longer build one item (BotRK) then go mostly full tank - those days are behind. He had one patch to be strong, then was slowly phased out as more champions arrived and as old ones received reworks, bringing them up to speed instead. He has received among the fewest changes in the game and lacks some serious levels of power that his competition brings to the table. Aatrox is going to be reworked. It is inevitable.

Thoughts? Ideas? Critiques? Please be thoughtful and let's improve a champion that seriously needs the help!

7 Comments

Revive Aatrox7/14/2016, 6:34:42 AM1 votes

As an Aatrox main. Is Q gotta be the worst part of is kit. Engaging on an enemy drains your life. It can be cancelled so easily like you said and you still loose Hp( have you ever experience a trundle Dropping a pillar underneath your flight. you jump of the screen almost and still targetable...almost as high as poppy knock up ) is W seems pretty subpar compare to Xin's W which get more sustain and more damage with out the compromise of sustain or damage. is E is on a long Cool down and has really low base damage. He's not rewarded for build Hp, he's not rewarded to build pure AD he really need to attack fast as he lack mobility once he engage. He's not rewarded ti build crit has is W can't crit. And his passive is kinda weird. I mean it doesnt scale with health... Maybe you can give him flat Hp amount on Q and E. and make his passive be a % of max health. So that way your rewarded to be tanky. plus you know its wrong they call him a secondary tank when tryndamere got more base hp then him.

Revive Aatrox7/14/2016, 7:34:31 AM1 votes

Last time Riot talked about Aatrox in a patch was in 3.13. : ''Any champion can be frustrating to play against when they’re capable of building very tanky while still outputting considerable DPS, so we're lowering some of Aatrox’s innate damage. With this change, Aatrox must build items for damage and won’t be able to simultaneously tank and smash face as easily''.

I feel like they were talking about Nasus.

Revive Aatrox7/14/2016, 7:56:32 AM1 votes

Another thing Aatrox lack is Armor reduction. Since is ult and E are magic damage it doesnt synergize well with black cleaver he's really not rewarded for building it. Maybe the damage could be change to physical like they did to darius bleed to have a better synergy with black cleaver. Or maybe they could make a witts end that shred armor instead of mr. no wait that would be too op on Trundle. But yeah some way to deal with armor staking people would be nice. Like all top laner got. is Q should automaticly reset when his passive pop. ( not that it would help him get away more anyway since its such an ureliable spell )

Statchecky7/15/2016, 6:29:15 AM1 votes

I think Steraks is an amazing item on Aatrox only problem being that he doesn't have any base ad ratios. Also Rageblade, as wonky as it may be, has the potential of giving him Blood Thirst x6 when low on health. If Rageblade had some regular attack speed instead of only the passive stackable attack speed it offers right now or if the phantom hit from it was moved to a different item that did not need stacking to obtain it Aatrox would be in a better place. But so would Jax and he just mops the floor with Aatrox so I guess itemization is not the solution here.

I said in the past that Dark Flight's HP cost should be reduced but I'm second guessing myself. On the one hand it would be less punishing when getting interrupted or just in general but on the other the high HP cost is the reason why this ability fills your bloodwell the most.

There are a few ways that I think Dark Flight could be improved:

  1. As stated here, auto attacks reduce the cooldown just like Shyvana's Q or Master Yi's.
  2. After Aatrox flies to the top and starts descending, Dark Flight becomes an active attack and knocks up champions it collides with. So for example if you Dark Flight into a Vi's Vault Breaker, she would still knock you up as usual but she would now also be knocked up.
  3. A knock up could be added to the take off part of Dark Flight's animation giving that initial windup a purpose. This would give Dark Flight a defensive use as you could knock up champions that either jump on you or pull you to them just about instantly as opposed to how currently you can Q in place to knock up defensibly but its really slow and very likely to be interrupted.

Any of these would be great, my personal choice would be #2.

One last thing I would like to see, but potentially might be too much, a slight AOE knock back on Massacre (picture janna ult but smaller). Anywhere from 200 to 300 range knock back would do, this would improve his initiation. This ofcourse would be too much displacement if change #3 got added to Dark Flight.

Statchecky7/16/2016, 8:37:52 PM1 votes

I'm not sure why you see the lack of HP on Maw vs Steraks as a positive. If there is any reason to take Steraks over Maw it is the HP and the flat shield it provides. But yes, Maw is better vs a team with a good mix of damage or heavy AP burst and just overall meshes better with Aatrox's kit and with bloodrazor and botrk.

About Jax, the way I see it is Jax is an attack speed fighter just like Aatrox and in a game with many champion roles (fighters, tanks, mages, etc), at the very least, the champions should be balanced within these roles (fighter vs fighter, tank vs tank, etc). But in the case of Jax vs other auto reliant fighters, Jax's E means only he gets to auto attack for a time that is followed by a stun. The best I can do vs a Jax as Aatrox is trade his stun with my knock up or jump away with and avoid the fight.

On my #2 suggestion for Dark Flight, the reason I'm Ok with it still being interrupt-able is because in this version it would trade with whatever champion interrupts it, unless its a projectile or a wall that does it. But overall it shouldn't be as reliable as Malphite ult for obvious reasons.