Aatrox Rework Proposal
I have not been able to post for a little over a week and I feel I have some catching up to do. However I will stick with one rework proposal a day until I either run out or find myself without time to make them.
I am hoping to generate some feedback of course, and my end goal remains to work at Riot or just as a concept creator in the industry.
With each one of these I make I can already see my style growing and shaping.
Here are my other reworks from past days -
Malphite - The Shard of The Monolith
Aatrox - The Darkin Blade
So what is it that Aaatrox does, what fantasy or role does he fill within the league?
He is intended as a lifesteal based melee fighter. Somewhat of an odd role in that it is very hard to balance.
If he is too naturally squishy he dies before he heals, too tanky and he becomes unstopable.
He is in a spot right now that leads to him being more of an assassin than a fighter tank, as he doesnt truely have the tools to tank but can output decent burst damage.
I would like to get him more in line with similar fighter tanks, without just stripping all of his power away.
Skills -
Passive - Bloodwell - Aatrox stores excess health he would steal into his Blood Well, upon dying he becomes immune and revives with health equal to that in the well. This empowers him for a short time granting him bonus attackspeed and movementspeed.
The change here is that instead of using his health to fuel his well he needs to steal health away to fill it. This makes him most powerful when he is trying to stay at full health. The passive attackspeed bonus is removed instead replaced by a bonus granted upon reviving.
Q - Dark Flight - Aatrox flies up then dashes forward slamming into the ground and dealing damage and knocking up enemies caught in the center of the blast. If his bloodwell is charged fully upon activating this ability the cooldown is reduced by a small amount.
Changes here are that it no longer uses health, and it gains a bonus effect from having a full bloodwell.
W - Blood Thirst / Blood Price - Aatrox passively steals health from his enemies on every third basic attack. Aatrox may activate this ability to use some of his stored health from his blood well to empower his next 3 attacks to deal bonus damage and bonus attackspeed. If his bloodwell is fully charged he will instead drain it entirely to empower his next 6 attacks. The passive is lost for a short time after activating this ability.
The change here is obvious that it is no longer a toggle. He also no longer uses his own health but instead his bloodwell. The bonus damage would be slightly higher than before but spread out over 3 attacks. He also gains some bonus attackspeed but only for the 3 attacks much like jayce or Fiora's skills.
E - Blades of Torment - Aatrox fires energy from his blades dealing damage in a cone in front of him ending in a point. Enemies hit are marked by his dark energy for a short time and if he attacks a marked target he consumes the mark slowing them and shreading their armor. If his bloodwell is full he will use half of it to empower this ability causing targets to be slowed instantly and the marks to root targets when consumed instead of slowing.
Pretty big change on this one. He only gets the instant slow like he had before if he can use his bloodwell to empower it, but then he can also gain a root on enemies he can follow up on. The armor shred allows him to be more of a threat in that it not only increases his damage but his allies.
R - Massacre - Aatrox channels briefly then slashes his blade around himself dealing damage and silencing all enemies hit. Additionally he gains bonus movement and attackspeed for each enemy hit by massacre for a short duration that can be extended if he gets a kill before the buff wears out.
The Changes here are that this ability is no longer just instant (Technically it has a .25 second cast time i believe) but now is a brief channel just slightly longer than before. He also gains a silence, but no longer gains bonus attack range. Instead he gains bonus movementspeed since he is melee he should stay melee all the time there is no real reason for him to gain Kayle's fury on his ultimate.
Overall I feel this kit allows Aatrox to control his enemies a bit more like a tank should, as well as reward him from picking his engagments better rather than diving recklessly.
Controlling his bloodwell will be more of a challenge as using some abilities uses it which could prevent him from reviving. His damage should be normalized and steady now and less bursty.
Also he should no longer be dealing any amount of magic damage but instead only physical and scale purely from attack damage. This lessens his worst case overpowered scenario allowing him to gain some extra tanky stats as his damage is set on a slow curve.