Game Design and Balance on Drain Tanks (involves Aatrox)

What is a drain tank? A champion that recieves a significant portion of its survivability from stealing back health through spells (spellvamp) or attacks (lifesteal). Prime examples include: Old (spellvamp tanks included)

Why do they tend to be problematic? If they are weak, they deal weak damage and are easy to kill. If they are strong, they deal strong damage and are hard to kill.

Old AD Sion with his 100% lifesteal on ult would qualify as the shining example of a drain tank. Pathetically weak without items, nigh unkillable once he had them making balancing Sion equivalent to balancing a laptop on an axe's razor edge (hence the rework which I'd say Riot's done a great job with).

Similar situations (although to a lesser degree) have happened with most other drain tanks.

- Significantly nerfed several patches after he came out. Received a few love-tap buffs from Riot, although ultimately even Riot admits it's only a temporary change for Aatrox. "Long term we'd still like to do some significant work to Aatrox... - Meddler

- Considered OP back in season 2. Received nerfs. DFG removed. Considered on the underpowered side nowadays but Riot doesn't quite seem to know how to buff him back properly.

Remember those "better nerf " threads? Tenacity synergizes well with autoattack-based lifesteal hence why Riot was so afraid of her.

- > v1.0.0.97 - Released > v1.0.0.98 - Nerfed > v1.0.0.99 - Adjusted (both buffs and nerfs) > v1.0.0.101 - Nerfed > v1.0.0.102 - Nerfed > v1.0.0.105 - Adjusted > v1.0.0.106 - Nerfed > v1.0.0.110 - Nerfed > v1.0.0.111 - Nerfed > v1.0.0.118b - Nerfed > v1.0.0.120 - Adjusted > v1.0.0.132 - Adjusted > v1.0.0.134 - Nerfed > v1.0.0.143 - Nerfed > v1.0.0.152 - Buffed (technically not a buff since all other champions received the same +25 movespeed) > September 18th - World Championship Hotfix - Nerfed > v4.11 - minor QoL buff (can now cast zhonyas in pool)

The only solace Riot seems to be able to attain with a drain tank is by repeatedly nerfing them into unviability (after all people complain more about OP champs than underpowered champs).

How do we make balance-able drain tanks? Amidst the list of drain tanks, there is one champion that has remained surprisingly consistent overall. > v1.0.0.106 - released (not too long after vlad) > v1.0.0.150 - buff > v5.5 - Thematic change with some QoL changes > v5.9 - Buff to pillar. None to damages.

And a very big reason for this consistency is due to the nature of how his lifedrain works: > PASSIVE: Heals for % of dying enemy's maximum health. > ULTIMATE: Drains a percentage of an enemy champion's health, armor, and magic resist

Rather than trying Trundle's drain abilities with his own strength eg. heal more the more AD you have (looking at you Aatrox), his drain abilities are tied with his enemy's strength (heal more/get stronger the more durable your enemy is). If Trundle is ahead, his draining abilities won't drain any more than they did before. If Trundle is behind, his draining abilities won't drain any less than they did before (short of dying prematurely, but that's another story). This very consistent form of life drain ultimately leads to a much more balance-able and thus enjoyable champion.

tl;dr health draining is often a pain to balance, but there are ways to make health draining more healthy.