How did the perception on Aatrox change so drastically?

Need Gold 4 Tent·Jul 26, 2018·8 votes·4,389 views

It seemed like only yesterday when everyone was crying about how trash he was, and now he's broken?

29 Comments

AhpeJul 26, 201818 votes

Because people don't like taking the time to learn a new kit before complaining about it.

ModKnightsKemplarJul 26, 201812 votes

People didn't even play the new kit before complaining about it in many cases.

ValiantKillerJul 26, 20184 votes

{quoted}

People didn't even take play the new kit before complaining about it in many cases.

Right they complaining about it from the teaser video.

Z3SleeperJul 26, 20182 votes

People finally realized that if they calm down for a second and stop pretending he's Riven 2.0 then complaining he's trash and actually use his skills properly he's actually extremely strong.

The Q range changes helped though.

His biggest strength is definitely the low risk high reward moments when he ults and finds his way into the center of the enemy team, even under turret. This part of him was present before the buffs too.

Automated RivenJul 26, 201812 votes

I still think he is trash. His entire power as a kit sits on his q ability. Meaning it has to deal oppressive amounts of damage to be remotely viable. And that makes extremely bianary to play as or against. Add in how easy it is for mobile champions to simply not get hit by it and you have a pretty garbage (design wise) champion.

Z3SleeperJul 26, 20181 votes

His R is definitely a massive asset though. 20%+ increased AD, super high ms to get in and 12 seconds of no fucks given ima just waltz into their team under tower is pretty good.

Also I've never had an issue with Q. It's not super unreliable, if anything, it's pretty damn reliable even against mobile people as long as they aren't just running away.

EW1Q1 Q2 W2 PQ3E feels so good to land and all strings together nicely if you land the initial EWQ.

Automated RivenJul 26, 20181 votes

It isn't how reliable or unreliable it is. It's very bianary and opressive, and there is no way for him to be viable without it because he essentially had an ability that does damage. And then an ability so he can land that ability. And another one to help land that one. And then his ult which makes his ability that does damage hurt more.

Oh and his passive. Which is basically jarvans.

Z3SleeperJul 26, 20182 votes

Binary isn't inherently bad. It's a sort of buzzword we associate with bad designs that typically involve pure statchecks. But in this case it's not the same kind of binary.

There's 2 kinds of binary:

Binary feast/famine targeted damage output. Ironically, this is old Aatrox in almost a nutshell.
Binary in the sense that damage is not guaranteed (aka skillshots). Don't think I need to explain why skillshots are better than targeted abilities design wise in most cases.

For champs/things that fall into the 2nd one it's all about how reliable it is to land for the player and how easy it is to dodge for the opponent and how much pay-off there is for landing it. Aatrox's Q is both reliable enough for the player and telegraphed enough for the enemy to be considered good binary imo.

xxxDogmanxxxJul 26, 20188 votes

In this case, it wasn't a knee jerk reaction to change or people's lack of patience in learning his kit. Aatrox actually was kind of bad when he was released. Then Riot hotfix buffed him TWICE in a short period of time.

The first hotfix buff on June 27, 2018: +30 Base HP, +5 Base Damage per Q cast, +5% Healing and +50 Range on E, -20 sec CD on Ult. The second hotfix buff on July 3rd, 2018: + 25 Range and +25 Width per Q cast.

Aatrox was oppressive in top lane in 8.13 and thus received nerfs this patch 8.14. He's not broken right now, he's actually quite balanced at around 50-51% win rate.

It's just like what happened to Ornn when he was first released. Ornn was terrible on release day. He had a 36% win rate. Riot consecutively buffed Ornn seven times, and after that Ornn became the most dominant top laner for four straight patches.

Reworked Aatrox was never as terrible as release Ornn, nor was he as broken as buffed Ornn was back then. Looks like Riot learned from their mistake on Ornn and nipped the problem in the bud.

Done25Jul 26, 20185 votes

He was trash. He had to be emergency buffed twice in a row.

OurLestradeJul 26, 20184 votes

Online games always have knee jerk reactions to every little thing. Remember the plant outrage and how much screaming there was about that?

Need Gold 4 TentJul 26, 20181 votes

I understand the standards of the general LoL population but even high ranked streamers were saying he was bad too at some point. Especially hash who mains him. Now he calls him an anomaly on the winrate chart.

OurLestradeJul 26, 20181 votes

[{quoted}](name=Need Gold 4 Tent,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=hz5KEZPB,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2018-07-26T13:26:29.336+0000)

I understand the standards of the general LoL population but even high ranked streamers were saying he was bad too at some point.

Tends to get them the clicks, outrage culture is good for that. Did Aatrox get a hotfix after he came out? I don't remember :O

Automated RivenJul 26, 20181 votes

Two actually. In like a week or something.

MarothennanJul 26, 20182 votes

Plants still fucking suck. People just got used to them because there was no other choice and forgot about them.

TheCodeisCupCakeJul 26, 20183 votes

I perma-ban him as a toplane main, so does my opponent. He's banned by both sides, because he's broken as fuck.

Pika FoxJul 26, 20183 votes

People played more than 1 game on him.

Rins Thigh SocksJul 26, 20183 votes

Boards opened their mouth about something they know absolutely nothing about. Again.

It's a very recurring theme.

DW DianaJul 26, 20182 votes

New = Bad until proven otherwise at which point it's broken. That is sadly the way most of the community views things. Added to which their opinions are normally gained through watching someone play it on youtube at which point their opinion is not actually their own but someone elses like Aatrox being Riven Mk2 (Thanks Anklespankin! xD).

MarothennanJul 26, 20182 votes

I still think he's trash. 90% of his Q's shouldn't hit anyone competent.

AirKingNeoJul 26, 20182 votes

because he was given like 7 buffs?

AyzevJul 26, 20182 votes

When a champion's kit sucks, but you keep giving him raw numbers until he starts beating people to death, then eventually he's probably going to start beating people to death, but that doesn't mean the kit stops sucking design-wise.

Beatrice fallsJul 26, 20181 votes

Because as any new released champion, people don't take time to learn it, and only a few dedicated players will try too, and Riot wants it to instantly be played a lot by overbuffing it

It happens with every single released / reworked champion and Riot is still isn't learning the lesson, it all started with Yasuo and it's been like what ? 3 years ? And it keeps happening

NyarlathοtepJul 26, 20181 votes

I dont know about the community but i still believe that aatrox is trash. His kit is easy as fk to deal with as long as you have eyes. With that being said, i still love him.

Modl Ryden lJul 26, 20181 votes

That's the boards for you. In here, we take everything at face value. Once we're faced with the truth we withdraw and shut up so we can't be proven wrong.

SanKakUJul 26, 20181 votes

Why wasn't Master Yi reworked? I don't like the Aatrox rework. Bring old Aatrox back, please.

Maaster Yi, the fourth remaining Darkin.

0DESTROYERZ0Jul 26, 20181 votes

his kit may have looked bad and clunky, but anything with good numbers is not trash

LordGeovanniJul 26, 20181 votes

Adcs and mages dont want to learn to Dodge spells they want to stand one place and shread it look at every good aatrox game you got mages and adcs who just sit there and take it becuase they figure im fed enough. Aatrox still feels bad He just has a positive winrate because fighters have been playing with gated underpowered stuff since season 4 its nothing new to them.

Teridax68Jul 27, 20181 votes

Generally, when a champion receives two large hotfix-buffs in a row, one would expect their performance to improve. As it happens, the majority of complaints also pointed to Aatrox's clunkiness, not just his performance, an issue that persists to this day. The OP is clearly trying to paint critics of Aatrox as irrational, but seems to hold to the even less rational notion that one's perception of a champion's power level cannot be allowed to change, even after said champion receives significant buffs.