Aatrox.......

Downward Spiral ·Dec 6, 2016·3 votes·781 views

So why has Riot completely neglected Aatrox? He was too strong so you literally nerf him into the dirt? What kind of sense does that make?

Where is the rework or at least balancing?

6 Comments

HongChongDongDec 6, 20161 votes

I've actually been playing him for about a week now just to test him out.

Overall:

The only viable build path vs anything that isn't an inexperienced player is full damage.

He can win lanes but he's horrible vs good players playing proper meta tops like riven and yasuo.

He's kinda strong early and mid game due to his base damage on his E and R but falls off late because that damage is no longer relevant and his 3 hit passive is counter productive to his kit.

His passive revive is useful in certain situations but other times only prolongs your death.

Will almost always lose lane to dedicated damage champions.

Can only splitpush as to teamfight he'd need tank and his kit doesn't allow you to viably build raw tank items.

Horribly susceptible to CC of any kind.

In summary he's strong enough to still do good with as long as you're not facing anything particularly meta strong, CC heavy, or Damage heavy.

TheHappyReaperzDec 6, 20161 votes

Aatrox main, have been for over a year now:

Full damage is how you build Aatrox against unskilled opponents. It is good only against people who are bad, as they will either give you the time to get the damage off, or lack the skill to understand windows of power.

Winning lane as Aatrox is hard to do, but extremely possible. Yasuo and Riven are by far his hardest matchups, by they are far from meta tops, especially Yasuo.

Early game you build damage/lifesteal/attack speed. Late game you balance this out with some health/resists. You want to be a bruiser, capable of diving in and dealing damage, while being able to take damage, and not melt like a snowball in hell.

Taking objectives/split pushing is something Aatrox excels at. Level six, you can easily 1v1 dragon, and your bonus attack speed and waveclear makes split pushing easy.

A pretty balanced build for Aatrox is: item 3153 item 3124 item 3074 item 3071 item 3742 item 3111

Mastery wise, fervor is the way to go, with two exceptions. If your going up against a sustain lane, Trundle, Nasus, etc, warlords can be useful. If your team needs initiation, cotc is pretty good, and it gives you a nice shield, for when you get invariably cc'd, when you q in.

HongChongDongDec 6, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Aatrox main, have been for over a year now:

Full damage is how you build Aatrox against unskilled opponents. It is good only against people who are bad, as they will either give you the time to get the damage off, or lack the skill to understand windows of power.

Winning lane as Aatrox is hard to do, but extremely possible. Yasuo and Riven are by far his hardest matchups, by they are far from meta tops, especially Yasuo.

Early game you build damage/lifesteal/attack speed. Late game you balance this out with some health/resists. You want to be a bruiser, capable of diving in and dealing damage, while being able to take damage, and not melt like a snowball in hell.

Taking objectives/split pushing is something Aatrox excels at. Level six, you can easily 1v1 dragon, and your bonus attack speed and waveclear makes split pushing easy.

A pretty balanced build for Aatrox is:

Mastery wise, fervor is the way to go, with two exceptions. If your going up against a sustain lane, Trundle, Nasus, etc, warlords can be useful. If your team needs initiation, cotc is pretty good, and it gives you a nice shield, for when you get invariably cc'd, when you q in.

Not sure where you got your information but riven always has been and continues to be an almost unmatched pick when played by good riven players and yasuo is currently a pick or ban champion in high elo even after his ult changes. As for the other information, I already know all of it.

TheHappyReaperzDec 6, 20161 votes

"When played by good Riven players" that statement applies to any champ really. Also, ever since tank Yasuo lost viability, Yasuo is seen mostly in the midlane, where Aatrox is rarely played.

HongChongDongDec 7, 20161 votes

{quoted}

"When played by good Riven players" that statement applies to any champ really. Also, ever since tank Yasuo lost viability, Yasuo is seen mostly in the midlane, where Aatrox is rarely played.

Yasuo is a pick or ban meta top laner right now and by "Good riven players" I mean rivens who've atleast learned her basics and aren't incompetent.

Brutalitops01Dec 6, 20161 votes

He was oppressively strong because of the insane healing and damage his kit could output and Riot is planning on giving him an update when they do the Diver roster update, which right now is looking like it's the most likely class update for midseason 7.

Aatrox's story is something similar to old Yorick's: Riot (before they switched away from a new champion release every 2 weeks) made a champion whose kit was the definition of cancer to play against. I'm not talking something like Yasuo or Riven - who are hard to play both as and against, but who have ways to stop them if you're good enough and can very easily be completely useless if the person playing is bad - I'm talking that they may have had some things to make them difficult, but in the right hands, they were completely unstoppable to beat. As such, Riot was forced to gut him so that they don't mess up solo queue until Riot gets around to reworking him and making his kit a lot healthier for the game as a whole.