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Aatrox: reworked and revamped

BeatinWarDrumz··1 votes·299 views

After the release of Kayn to the PBE, Riot has updated its development schedule - it is now looking for

So, to figure out how Aatrox should be reworked, we should start big picture - power fantasy.

What is Aatrox's power fantasy? He's a godlike warrior, who leads his allies to victory through a relentless onslaught. Kit-wise, lifestale should be quite important to his kit, as it allows him to be on the front line and still do damage. He should also be a good teamfighter, and a good duelist. This means, however, he needs some defined weaknesses. What should these weaknesses be? Well, I propose a few things:

Aatrox should not have CC or much mobility. He's not a "relentless chaser" - he thrives in battle, but doesn't relentlessly seek it out. Additionally, he should not have as much burst as he does - he's a sustained fighter, not a bursty all at once one.

Here is my proposed kit:

Passive: Blood well.

Basically the same as is. BUT, the blood well should fill faster and stay longer, focus more on autos than abilities, and he should not return with 100% of his blood well.

Q: Deadly strikes

Aatrox empowers his next three autoattcks, having them deal extra damage. The faster they come, the more damage they deal. This would encourage strategic use near full bloodwell/during ult, and encourage building attackspeed.

W: Blood Thirst/Blood Price Same as is

E: Dreadful presence

This ability can only be activated when Aatrox's blood well is full. It fears the most recent enemy to attack him and does some damage.

Ultimate: Inspiring Arrival

Aatrox jumps into the fight (like dark flight currently), buffing the damage of allies in a radius by 5/10/15% for 6 seconds. He also buffs his attack speed by 40/60/80% for 6 seconds. This also triggers the active on his E.

What do you think?

3 Comments

TheDevice1 votes

I'll be honest, I don't like it at all.

I think we need to move away from this sustained fighter fantasy considering a simple grevious wounds or some focused cc is too easily found in the game.

The kit looks boring and has zero outplay/counterplay potential. You're just wack-em bot.

Champions like Yi, Trynd, and Jax have become hard enough as it is to balance without them having a built in guardian angel to boot. Aatrox will return to his former state as an unbalanced mess.

Aatrox should have some mobility to catch fleeing enemies. Every melee champ needs this. This is vital. Otherwise he'll just get kited all day. You're also dealing with your "sustained fighter" who needs to be attacking to survive. If he can't stick to enemies he's pointless.

I think I'll stop there.

Aatrox needs to be a little more bruiser based for his early/mid game. He should have a strong late game (much like fiora) who can maneuver around the fight and deal explosive damage. He should have burst attack speed, not sustained attack speed if we're still trying to make him rageblade-worthy. He should keep his skill-based cc but also needs a little wiggle room to outplay his enemies who would try to end his day with some cc (right now he doesn't have anything like that). I'm not saying he needs vlads blood pool or anything but I think he could use some kind of counter-move similar to Fiora's. Some sort of attack that might also serve as a counter-ability.

People draw up this very unlikely profile of what a "blood-thirsty warlord" is. As if they are just swinging their weapons wildly in the air. Aatrox' lore even described it as being more elegant and precise. He shouldn't have as much mobility as, say, riven or yasuo or a few others but should have mobility that matters. Thats why I always liked the better half of his Dark Flight effect (the worse being that he is too easily shot down). He should have some sense of real fighting ability. Not some mindless auto-attacking zombie.

It's difficult to balance somebody with so much lifesteal but the way I've always looked at it is he should just be more like a melee version of vlad. Instead of having a spammable, long-range Q, he should have some sort of attack speed steroid that also acts as a life steal buff. He should have one good mobility skill (like he does), but also have one good anti-cc ability (lacking). The fact that he is melee should be enough to balance this out.

BeatinWarDrumz1 votes

Then Riot should delete him. There is no way he can ever fit his power fantasy in your book, period. He thrives in battle and is better than almost every other character AND has lifesteal so he needs to have a counterweight.

TheDevice1 votes

{quoted}

Then Riot should delete him. There is no way he can ever fit his power fantasy in your book, period. He thrives in battle and is better than almost every other character AND has lifesteal so he needs to have a counterweight.

It's true, that's a lot of stuff to fit in one kit. I think something similar can be done. The revive passive might need some looking at again but still, I think he can be made into a good champ with clear weaknesses. I don't think cc or grevious wounds should fall into that category. the reason why grevious wounds isn't as deadly vs champion like vlad or warwick or swain or mundo is because they have some sort of defense. I think I could maybe provide a concept some time later to perhaps go on but at this point I feel like his rework is already underway at riot and would be rather pointless.

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