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Problems & Solutions With Aatrox

Best Aatrox NA·4/19/2015, 8:41:46 PM·1 votes·246 views

I've been maining Aatrox for over a year and half and many people are questioning his viability in season 5 so I'll share my opinion on it. I am currently in silver 3 and don't play a whole lot of ranked, mostly normals. Many people might leave this thread now as they may question my validity, but I'm frequently paired up with, and beat, diamond elo players, so please bear with me.

PASSIVE: Aatrox's passive is great with the added attack speed, and a general life saver with the revive passive. It allows you to play more agressively. I don't believe any changes are needed here. Q: Once again no changes are needed here, a 1 second knockup with a little damage is pretty fair considering it costs 10% of his health. No changes needed. W: Aatrox kind of relies on this ability, so I think there is a possible significant change that would seriously help him out: Keep the doubled healing as it is at 50%, but also make it so that once Aatrox is below 30% healing, the heal is tripled. By time time Aatrox is this low he can easily be bursted down a little further, so I don't really think this would be completely game breaking. If an assassin is unable to completely burst him down, Aatrox should be able to punish them by rapidly healing off of them. I don't really know how overpowered this would be, so keep that in mind. E This is the ability that Aatrox will be maxing 9 times out of 10, so it could also be considered his key ability. I'd keep most of it as it is, but if it hits, it should leave a mark on the enemy that would allow Aatrox to auto attack the target hit for bonus magic damage. This would reward players for hitting their e, which is pretty hard to hit, and entice them to all in and fight, instead of continued poking in lane, or not dealing enough damage on a gank. R/ULTIMATE This is generally the big problem with Aatrox, as it seems kind of useless. There are only 3 things I use it for, and those are taking a tower faster, immediately popping it at 6 to burst my opponent, or with the more recent changes, popping it during a gank to fill up my blood well if I die. I've thought up of 2 solutions for this, both of which have logical counterplay.

The first solution would go like this: Massacre: After channeling for half a second as well as draining 25% of his current health, (can be interrupted by any form of cc other than slow, snare, or root, and Aatrox won't reheal whatever he drained) Aatrox inspires nearby allies and himself to fight within X range for X/X/X seconds, healing nearby allies and himself for X%/X%/X% (+X% Bonus Health) of their missing health, damaging nearby enemies for X%/X%/X% (+X% of Bonus Health) of their maximum health, increasing Aatrox's range by 300, increasing all nearby allied attack speed by X%/X%/X% and slowing all nearby enemies by 99%, rapidly scaling down to 0% in 1.5 seconds. Cooldown: 120/90/60 seconds at levels 6/11/16

This offers counterplay by giving the enemy a chance to interrupt his channel with quick thinking and skill, leaving him with nothing but 25% of his health gone. It also gives Aatrox and his team a significant advantage in what might've been a lost fight.

The second solution would have a lower cooldown but would not be as great of a teamfight changer: Massacre: After channeling for .5 seconds, Aatrox radiates a new lust to fight, giving Aatrox and nearby allies +20% lifesteal (at all ranks) + X%/X%/X% movement speed, + X%/X%/X% attack speed, X% of their health every second. Enemies within X range of Aatrox are slowed for X%. Aatrox is also granted 450 range. Cost: X% of Aatrox's health is drained every .5 seconds. Cooldown:60/50/40 seconds at levels 6/11/16

None of these buffs would be together ofc, but independent of each-other. Note that these are just ideas and I'm no game balanced developer, but these are just ideas that I'm throwing out. These may seem overloaded but at times I really think Aatrox could have some time in the spotlight. These are almost intended to be OP. Feel free to throw out any ideas you guys have in the comments.

TL;DR: You should probably have read.

5 Comments

yukonl4/19/2015, 8:53:03 PM1 votes

There's a reason why Sivir's ultimate was nerfed so that it only granted movement speed and not attack speed.

The new ultimate that you proposed gives so much massive utility that Riot would have to compensate by massively nerfing the other parts of his kit. (ie. the Katarina problem where most of the power is focused on the ultimate)

Though, I do agree with the "e" change. Maybe instead of giving bonus damage, you could have it so that it automatically procs the 3rd hit of Aatrox's "w" on the next auto attack that does not proc the w's bonus damage/heal.

Best Aatrox NA4/19/2015, 11:39:19 PM1 votes

Any other thoughts? :/

DoFr4/20/2015, 8:41:41 PM1 votes

alright, let's see here...

while i do absolutely love the E change, which is basically changes EVERYTHING, like pretty sure you and i, and everyone who has played Aatrox top and in jungle would know how much of a big effect that is, and i completely agree with it, most of his AS goes to waste without an Actual on-hit effect from his kit is included

and that change will help building Aatrox to a full tank, or a Bruiser with 1 offensive item

but i'm also thinking of Adding a Bleed effect to his ultimate, drawing the blood of his enemies by his sword causes all enemies to have 300+(10% Aatrox max health) over 5 Seconds as Magic damage, also Granting him AS and Range

the reason i went for bleed, is because Bleed is a more open room effect, you can have bleed to work with your kit, or as a standalone effect

his sustain is just not that great when you're a melee and can't proc all 3 stacks without your kit's help (think Vi's kit helping towards her 3rd hit countdown, or Vayne's kit helping towards her silverbolts, and so on) and the sustain is absolutely weak when you're at 51% and higher compared to other champions healing.

but mainly i'm all in for an on-hit magic damage on his kit, be it an ult, a mark on his E, an active duration on his W, i really think Aatrox needs it