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Some ideas for Aatrox

Mind Colosseum·8/9/2015, 5:47:34 PM·55 votes·3,510 views

I've played Aatrox a lot, I think his concept and design are superb, and is easily one of my favourite characters in the game. However, as many people before and even Riot have stated, he is in a pretty bad spot right now, something I am inclined to agree with. He is an extremely binary champion that has very little opportunity to come back from a bad start, his stats are a bit on the mediocre side, his abilities are pretty underwhelming and most of them have no connection at all to his lore and, as bruisers go, he is pretty much the weakest of them all. Since I really love this champion, I would definitely like to see him have a much more interesting kit, something that rewards investment, has an actual connection to his amazing backstory and actually give him more options, other than forcing him to win the early game or become a load for the rest of the team. With this in mind, I had thought of several changes that could make his kit more appealing. Most of them are ideas I read from other posts, but I believe these, with proper tweaking, could be implemented to great effect.

Passive: Blood Well This ability is pretty unique and I would personally leave it as it is.

Q: Dark Flight NEW EFFECT: Aatrox is immune to crowd control effects for the duration. This is pretty much a QoL change that would really help his effectiveness while in the middle of a teamfight. As it is now, Dark Flight serves very little purpose outside of engaging, as diving head-first in the middle of the entire enemy team and then trying to use it to disable more enemies or trying to disengage only to have someone stun you in the middle of flight pretty much dooms Aatrox and gives him a single chance at all: you miss it, and you die. Note that the change is for the start of the flight only, and even then, he can still take damage during the flight, giving his enemies a chance at killing him before being knocked up again; as it stands now, Dark Flight is heavily sided against the caster himself.

W: Blood Thirst/Blood Price Blood Price: -Cost changed to 15 / 23.75 / 32.5 / 41.25 / 50 (+ 7.5% current health) from 15 / 23.75 / 32.5 / 41.25 / 50 (+ 25% bonus AD) -NEW EFFECT: Now does additional damage based on the percentage of current health consumed (but not the base health cost). Given that Aatrox has the need to build a lot of tank stats to survive in fights, this change should help him deal more reliable damage when toggling his W for damage, and prevents him from becoming purely a meat shield when forced to build more tank than damage. The fact that it also scales exclusively on the % Current Health cost prevents it from becoming unbearable in the early levels of the game against lane foes, particularly if maxed first. It is also pretty thematical given the theme of his other abilities: use your own blood as a source to do damage to your foes.

E: Blades of Torment NEW EFFECT: If an enemy champion is hit by Blades of Torment, all nearby minions focus their attacks on it for X seconds. This change is the real direction I would like Aatrox to take: give him a real connection to his lore, where he becomes a changing force of sorts, turning around a losing fight. Forcing minions to attack a champion hit by Blades of Torment not only makes this a more interesting ability than merely "do damage to you and slowing you" like so many others already implemented in the game, it gives Aatrox an interesting tool to swing a lane in his favor that doesn't revolve exclusively on jumping straight to the enemy champion without a second thought, and turns him into a "minion commander" of sorts that matches with his lore much better. Attacks from minions can indeed be very overwhelming, particularly in the early levels, and as such, some tweaking to Blades of Torment's numbers could be made to prevent it from becoming too overpowered in the early stages of the game.

R: Massacre -Damage lowered. -No longer grants bonus Attack Speed. -NEW EFFECT: Enemy champions hit by the ability are feared for X seconds. -NEW EFFECT: Allied champions in range have their Attack Speed increased by X for X seconds. -NEW EFFECT: Aatrox gains X Attack Speed for every enemy champion hit for X seconds. And with Massacre, we get the "minion commander" philosophy applied to the bigger picture, turning Massacre into a truly game-changing Ultimate that actually rewards him for following his intended playstyle. The possibilities for such an ultimate ability would be impressive: diving head-first into the entirety of the enemy team and applying the fear for your team to catch up, joining later in the fight to give your teammates the chance of obtaining the attack speed steroid, or my personal favourite, finding yourself in a case where you are focused down and forced to use your passive, and then casting Massacre to turn the fight around. This changes would really make Aatrox into the legend he was painted as in the lore, a creature capable of changing around the outcome of a fight all by himself. Of course, these numbers may be a little too much, and several tweaks could be necessary to prevent it from becoming too powerful.

So these are my thoughts. Aatrox is a champion that has a lot of potential through his backstory, but as he is now, he is pretty much a generic bruiser that is perhaps even inferior to the majority of his peers.

Sharing your thoughts would be most appreciated.

46 Comments

The HeraId8/9/2015, 6:23:02 PM18 votes

I already love aatrox, and this is the fantasy I have always imagined Aatrox. Aatrox's lore presents him as an angelic hero to his allies, and a demon to his enemies, and this fits into that. Especially his ult, he inspires his allies to greater deeds and drives his enemies into absolute terror.

I love it.

Rito Staff8/9/2015, 6:18:51 PM14 votes

oh boy oh boy I stopped reading at his E -- "If an enemy champion is hit by Blades of Torment, all nearby minions focus their attacks on it for X seconds."

This alone would be an unique and quite thematic characteristic to give him .

Lowvyr8/9/2015, 6:53:38 PM6 votes

Aatrox main here, I approve.

Mob Psycho 1008/9/2015, 7:46:07 PM5 votes

As someone who has been playing Aatrox since his release, here's some of my opinions:

Q: A majority of the time mid-flight, I never found crowd control as the problem, but dying at the top of his escape is. Rather than him being immune to CC, it'd feel a lot better as a player to not die at the top of his flight vs getting cc'd. Give him invulnerability at the top of his flight, adding some dimension to his ability.

W: If you remember, the reason Aatrox got nerfed after his release was because he'd build 1 or 2 damage items, then full tank, and completely destroy any opponent. The reason this isn't exactly the best change, is because it just goes back to pre-nerf aatrox, where you wouldnt have to build damage, to deal a ton of damage.

E: His current E is fine. This change would just make him a complete lane bully, able to poke literally anyone out of lane, especially at early levels.

R: I like all of these suggestions, but having them all would be kinda OP. Maybe with low numbers it wouldn't, but then it might feel underpowered and not noticeable. I feel there would be no middle ground for balancing all of those stats. My suggestion: Get rid of the fear, not needed, he'd have CC, sustain, and damage, too much for a melee adc. Keep the aura for allies. That is something needed, especially connecting his lore to his gameplay. Maybe not make it attack speed especially, but maybe a group tenacity or an all stat buff that scales higher the closer they are to dying. I'd keep the damage on his ult, but make it scale with his health, rather than AP.

Another thing I've been thinking, and probably a lot others, is when he ults, he heals. The ability literally says, "draws blood from his foes" so why not give him some health, based off of how much damage he deals at activation.

Aatrox needs some QoL and a lot of people know this, but doing too much can be overbearing. Good suggestions and very original Ideas (:

JMoormann8/9/2015, 11:40:58 PM4 votes

He is also my favorite and first champ, and I think that he is still capable of wrecking opponents. But you're right that he is too binary: either he is ahead and he beats his lane opponent (but still remains vulnerable in teamfights) or he is behind and can do nothing else than poking with his E and trying to get some CS.

Meddler said "Aatrox definitely needs some work, agreed, he does some fun stuff, but it's too general overall" which I completely agree with. He can be really fun, but I feel like there is little incentive too choose him over other bruisers; he isn't a bully like Darius, ha can't splitpush as good as Tryndamere, he isn't as tanky as Shen or Malphite, he can't assasinate squishies like Jax. He can do a bit of everything, but that's exactly what Meddler said: he is too general. He needs to be pushed in a certain direction, and because of his lore I feel like that should be a frontline bruiser bully: single handedly turning the tide of a battle.

Another thing I noticed, is that a huge part of the champion guides lists him as medium, and they all say the same about him: great sustain, dodge E, absolutely avoid being knocked up by his Q, don't let him get ahead or he might showball. Though there are various who list him as easy (obvious ones like Jax), I haven't seen a single one yet who considers him hard: he is too general for that.

Those listed changes seem great, pushing him in a bully direction, controlling the lane with his E, bullying with his 3rd W hits, and when teamfights break out, he can dive headfirst into the fray and using his ult, which can then actually turn the tide of a battle, similar to Amumu's or Galio's ults, and when he gets focused down revive and clean up the messes. That is how Aatrox could be, and should be.

Spizzle90008/9/2015, 9:48:09 PM3 votes

I like your ideas, but I personally think his ult would turn him potentially into a support. Like, he has a slow, a knockup, and then he gets an AoE fear and AS buff for allies. I don't want a demonic being turned into a support like Mordekaiser is getting turned into.

I think the AS buff should affect him too if the damage is removed and his allies should get a weaker form of it. I'm just worried that if his ult is changed to this, his 1v1 potential would be greatly lowered. I think he should definitely inspire his allies with an "unhinged bloodlust" like in his lore, but he should also be able to cut his enemies down like the pathetic mortals they are.

IPTONY8/9/2015, 6:33:06 PM3 votes

<3 Love it

Lapis x38/9/2015, 7:12:08 PM3 votes

These are awesome ideas, especially the E change!

:3

General Keith8/9/2015, 10:15:54 PM2 votes

This is really good work! I myself actually thought that implementing Fiora's new heal into Aatrox's kit instead would fit better thematically.

Pikmints8/9/2015, 8:48:36 PM2 votes

Mechanical question about your E suggestion. Lets say that he were ganked and that his E hit both targets, how should the minions handle the situation? Prioritize the first/last target hit, they attack the target closest to them, the minions split themselves into 2 evenly sized groups that go at each target?

IxtaliKing8/9/2015, 7:48:25 PM2 votes

Excellent ideas, the E in particular. Riot should put you on their ChampUp team xD

ErrantLord8/9/2015, 9:06:25 PM2 votes

I love these ideas, I've tried to get into to playing aatrox but he just feels like he's lacking some things at the moment. I think these changes would make him more unique as well as more fun to play.

Ace Access 8/10/2015, 4:11:05 PM1 votes

Aatrox I approve of this way of warfare and massacre

bump

DirkTarTar8/10/2015, 4:17:23 PM1 votes

I really dig his R adjustments. I always felt he need some sort of hard CC on it.

His E seems super interesting too... like a forced aggro tool... nothing like being raped by those nasty purple caster minions....

SteelStallion8/10/2015, 7:48:27 PM1 votes

Q: Dark Flight NEW EFFECT: Aatrox is immune to crowd control effects for the duration. This is pretty much a QoL change that would really help his effectiveness while in the middle of a teamfight.

Sorry, pet peeve here, but I really wish people would understand what "QoL" (Quality of Life) means. This isn't a quality of life change. This is a BUFF. A major one at that, though not one I disagree with.

Quality of life = Give an AoE indicator for your cursor when targeting with Fiddlestick's ult. QoL is not something that directly affects numbers or gameplay.

BurningRice8/11/2015, 10:06:43 AM1 votes

These ideas are really good. +1 and I hope a rioter sees this

Only Aatrox8/24/2015, 11:39:44 AM1 votes

I love it. I hope Riot sees this! #PrayForAatrox

Rain NT8/24/2015, 12:04:44 PM1 votes

If anything tweak the number so E does less base damage early, since minions does do alot of damage early and decrease its width. And his ult fears for 1 second cause anything more than that would be too long of a fear making that one ability broken (since it gives an attack speed aura). For his blood thirst/price I think one should scale off hp and one should scale off AD so it wouldnt turn him into another build hp = more damage champion or do damage with hp and dont need to build any AD type champions, I would like to see blood thirst base off current hp and blood price with bonus AD. So this way he can reliably build hp for more healing and AD for more damage. And lower the duration of his knock by .25s or something since it can't be interrupted no more

So I can see him doing well in laning phase, he can sustain himself with how much hp he has and do more damage with more AD. He can lane bully with his E-Q combo too or Q-E. In teamfight he can just Q-R-E, knocking everyone up and then fear for 1s giving time for your team to engage with champions like (Yasuo, Vayne, Shyvana, Kayle or any champions that does really well with attack speed) Since he only need botrk to do damage and then he can build full tank, he will be decent at all stages of the game. He wont do as much damage as he does right now, but he will fit the bruiser role better now (do decent damage with decent tankiness). Not to mention broken ass passive.....

Orangesilk8/9/2015, 10:47:00 PM1 votes

He is in a good spot however, not all champions have to be competitively viable, and specially due to their nature of their kit, it'd be for the best if many champions -weren't- competitive viable.

In the case of Aatrox he has a solid fanbase that has pushed him to a decent, nice, 51.5% winrate in plat+ ranked across the globle, he's balanced, a bit on the strong side if you know how to play him, but overall he's in a good spot, we're not talking about a Kassadin/Olaf scenario.

ModKnightsKemplar8/10/2015, 1:58:39 AM1 votes

I thought he was greatly helped by the addition of devourer. Have you played him in jungle recently, and with any success? I find him to be effective there, even without being very practiced at the champion.

shadecrapper8/10/2015, 3:23:00 AM1 votes

Yeah, right now Im not sure how you lose to an Aatrox nor how you win as one... Unless you get fed as fuck, of course.

Troll for Trump8/10/2015, 3:46:43 AM1 votes

Aatrox was kinda like a hybrid Fiora rehash. With the new fiora rework, Aatrox is basically the old fiora, except with a shittier ult and better passive.

Meeks0118/10/2015, 3:52:22 AM1 votes

It would also be cool if his Bloodthirst healed him for 7.5% of his missing health or a lower amount. Currently there would be no way Aatrox could keep up with the 275 hp max he's draining every third attack.

metaworldpeace108/10/2015, 5:19:07 AM1 votes

I really like this thread. I am in no way an Aatrox main, but I have played him at least 20ish times and I really enjoy his kit. One frustration that I have with the current Aatrox is how useless he becomes after his passive has been procced. I feel like I just revive, then die immediately after, prolonging my return to lane. I'd personally like to see him still be ramped up even after reviving, just so that he stands a fighting chance.

PokladnicaZla8/10/2015, 6:07:33 AM1 votes

I don't play Aatrox,but would love to see more of him,beacuse as a character he is really interesting.

I'm just concerned that you actually gave him too many ˝buffs˝.Maybe it's just in my head,but oh well.Hope you get a RED.

RangoTangoGanko8/10/2015, 6:33:53 AM1 votes

I dont like it if anything his e should have % health dmg or armor shred

Schlachsahne768/10/2015, 8:02:02 AM1 votes

His Q should finish before he dies. It happend so often where i died in mid-air and i couldnt do anythiing about it.

Cogito Ergo Sol 8/10/2015, 8:28:03 AM1 votes

All good but I must say that on his E and R you were a god. Nice one. +1

SSSSSSSOL8/10/2015, 11:27:47 AM1 votes

thats would be great