"This post will be my masterpiece"--Aatrox

In talking about Aatrox, I feel the need to revisit some old criticism of him. Many people said things such as “he was boring to play”, which is opinion. Other things said were “His playstyle is toxic for the game or too binary” Or, “its not fun playing against him when he is fed".

There are interesting comments because they suppose that playing against any fed champion is really fun or fair? Aatrox, who even when fed can easily be shut down with hard CC, especially now that he needed stacks to revive, had very clear weakness. I would say its much less fun to be one shotted by so many champions, or watch Darius do true damage with his ult to everyone on your team, while being a very tanky bruiser. But those things are okay? Or trying to pin down champions with insane mobility who literally stack tilt, that's fine?

Its quite a biased view that people who hated on Aatrox took, while ignoring so many other serious problems with the game. I personally enjoyed the old, and reworked, judgment calls in trying to figure out which trades you can win, and then engaging for the team. Like any champions, there were ways to create situations where you can get the most out of his kit. His win rate was fine, and no one was complaining about him being OP, or really too weak at this point. And in my experience playing against Aatrox, sometimes he was easy to shut down, and sometimes he was a real threat and did well. The experience was never lopsided like it is against so many other champions.

This isn't to say the old Aatrox didn't have problems. He certainly did, as I have pointed out many times in other posts. And apparently Riot agrees with me because in his new kit, he actually has two components that address my old concerns about old Aatrox. They were, in nor particular order:

1. Revive passive was largely useless. Voli getting the same % of health back over time, while still being able to fight or flee, is a much better passive. His revive is the reason for point number 2:
2. As a laner, he was, I think, the only one you would ever see at top lane that didn't have a way to mitigate incoming damage, such as a shield, block, parry, or bonus resistances passively or tenacity
3. He was one of the only champions who had no built in % of health damage, true damage, significant magic damage, or armor penetration.
4. Despite having a dive, his chase was not that good, which is terrible because if he can't keep auto attacking, he loses.
5. His kit pulled him in too many directions. In one sense, its fine because you can build him as damage carry or a bruiser, or even somewhat of a tank. In other sense, it made it hard to do any one thing very well.

Notice Riot gave him % of health damage and movement speed in his new kit. That is the right idea, one that I harped about for years, but, of course, my opinion is that it is poor execution.

The other issue was that his kit did not live up to his lore, which Riot promised to do. Instead they changed his kit and his lore. Which is tantamount to deleting the champion. His lore was that he love and thrived off of combat. He wouldn't have wanted to be a World Ender, because not only did he love war, he loved fighting against overwhelming odds. He got off on it. AND he inspired allies with his courage. Courage is a virtue. Inspiring others is a leadership trait. He is not purely evil.

So from that we can conclude that his passive should have been related to a bonus while being outnumbered, great dueling, and a ult that benefited his teammates. Apparently this was too hard for a top tier developer to handle, so they decided to change the lore. Again:

His lore called for THRIVING ON BEING OUTNUMBERED, BEING A GREAT DUELER AND BEING AN INSPIRING LEADER. Making him a World Ender is gross. The new Aatrox may turn out to be a good champion, but he could have existed on his own as a more monstrous Darkin, contrasted against the stoic and somewhat virtuous Aatrox.

There were many ways that his animation, lore and kit could have remained basically the same while addressing his weakness and lore deficiency. Here are some general ideas. Please note, they are just ideas, so if you think the kit is too strong, it doesn't matter. I am just giving you examples.

Passive: Aatrox gains bonus attack speed for each champion he is out numbered by. Bloodwell=self damage from W and damage from E fill his bloodwell, as well as from R. Aatrox receives increased attack speed as his bloodwell is filled. When Aatrox health falls below x %, his basic attacks heal for a % of his blood well until it is drained.

Q=same

W=Basic attacks heal. Active=for 6 seconds Aatrox grabs his sword with both hands and basic attacks deal bonus damage, some armor reduction or pen, and deals damage to himself.

E=If not on CD, casting on knocked up enemy will cause Aatrox to take flight and smash the enemy downn with is fist, dealing bonus damage. Active=For the next 6 seconds, Aatrox gains bonus attack range. Basic attacks steal x amount of life and slightly knock enemy champions to the side depending on the direction of the swing. After 7 seconds, Aatrox heals for x% of the life stolen. 2nd=cast. Aatrox can forgoe healing and smash his sword down, dealing AEO magic damage and slowing enemies if cast before 7 seconds.

R=Aatrox raises his sword, fearing enemy minions and drawing blood from nearby champions filling his bloodwell, pulling them slightly towards him, stunning them for .25 seconds. Nearby allied champions gain % tenacity and % attacks speed, and overhealing from Aatrox's attacks heals nearby allies.

Again just ideas. There were many ideas posed by many people. My ideas always kept his lore in mind, and the above does that.

I think its very gross and misleading to call some of the reworks that Riot has done, well, reworks. Because when you obliterate the lore and the essential gameplay style, you have simply used the word rework as an excuse to delete a champion and make a new one. Its rather insulting actually, that a company would do that to their customers. We didn't need flashy, button mashy Riven style champion. We didn't need another other-worldy monster. We didn't need another champion smashing things with a big weapon. We needed Aatrox. Thank you for deleting my favorite champion. I can not describe enough how utterly sad I am that, while I expected this fully from Riot, I held out hope that maybe JUST MAYBE, they wouldn't make the wrong decision. And then they come on here and lie about taking feedback from Aatrox players. Right. No Aatrox main would have suggested to make him more like Riven. I would appreciate it Riot if you don't insult our intelligence on top of everything else.