Revision: Aatrox
This is a new format I'm trying out to share my ideas on existing champions when it comes to their ability kits.
Feel free to disagree with what I've got to say here, but I would love to discuss the ideas that you guys have too, as you may think of something that I haven't.
The idea here isn't to make the champion or his abilities perfect, but to give Riot Employees a resource they can browse through to get a feel for what we want in a champion, so even if they don't use any of these ideas specifically, they can get the gist of things by reading through what we've got to say here.
Aatrox is an interesting character in the game, his lore describes him appearing on the losing side of many conflicts throughout history and turning the tide of battle in their favor, then disappearing abruptly afterwards. Here is Aatrox's reveal for those that haven't been around since he's been released.
In game, Aatrox sadly doesn't reflect lore very well (Current abilities and stats can be found Here for those that are rusty)
So with those things in mind, I've seen discussion both recently and some time ago of what people would like to see in his revised kit, most seem to agree that he needs to be someone that can initiate a fight while providing his allies with some sort of boost for being near him. I've tried to capture this in the below, but let me know your thoughts!
P - Blood Well -
PASSIVE: Aatrox's blade drinks the blood of his enemies, storing 5% of the damage he deals through basic attacks within it, forming Aatrox's Blood Well.
- The maximum amount of Blood that can be stored in the Blood well is determined by Aatrox's current level, and his bonus health. The Blood Well depletes by 3% of it's current level per second if Aatrox hasn't dealt damage in the last 5 seconds.
- Blood Well Maximum: 105 - 870 + (20%BonusHP)
Aatrox's spells cost a percentage of Aatrox's Current Health, however the Health cost is first deducted from Aatrox's current Blood Well level.
- If Aatrox suffers no health damage when casting an ability, the ability marks enemies that it hits with "Exposed" for 2 seconds. Allies that strike "Exposed" targets during this time with basic attacks consume the mark, dealing additional physical damage to the target, applying a 35% slow decaying over 1 second, and granting Blood in Aatrox's Blood Well equal to 5% of the damage they dealt (Including the mark damage). Aatrox himself cannot trigger the "Exposed" debuff.
If Aatrox falls below 25% total Health, he gains a shield equal to the current value of his Blood Well, consuming it in the process. The shield rapidly decays over 2 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 90 seconds.
My intention with the changes to this ability is to solidify Aatrox's role as a supportive fighter.
By removing the link between the Blood Level, and the Bonus Attack Speed it provided, we can afford to bump up Aatrox's base attack speed, making purchased attack speed items more valuable. However with that link gone, I needed to give the Aatrox player a reason to care about their Blood Level.
I did this in two ways, the first was by removing the revival passive. Many people may dislike this change, however I feel that it held up a lot of Aatrox's power budget without giving very much in return, as the revive healing didn't scale with anything Aatrox did, and as such you could expect to be on the defensive when you revived in teamfights later in the game. To compensate for the removal of this, I allowed Aatrox to gain a shield when his health fell too low. By having it based on Aatrox's current Blood Well, it should encourage players to keep the Well topped off should things go south on them.
The second thing I did here was allow the Blood Well to absorb the health cost of Aatrox's abilities, and giving him a bonus if he managed to pull off. Completely negating the cost of the ability by allowing his allies to deal more damage (and briefly slow) their targets should incentivize coordination (extra damage alone isn't that great of an incentive, but if you had a soft cc like slow to it it becomes more noticeable.) between Aatrox and his allies while clearly conveying to enemies that Aatrox wants to hit you with spells while his Blood Well is high. However they can starve him of his Blood Well by zoning him from a fight and letting his Well decay (as only dealing damage bars the Blood Well from decay), forcing him to make the decision to back off, or to jump in now to give his allies the bonus damage/slows off the bat when the fight begins.
Q - Dark Flight ACTIVE: Aatrox rises into the air briefly before slamming down onto the targeted location, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemy units, if an Enemy is struck in the center of the ability, they are slowed for a short time, and the cooldown of Dark Flight is cut in half.
- Cost - 10% of Aatrox's Current HP
- Cooldown - 20 / 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 (Seconds)
- Damage - 70 / 115 / 160 / 205 / 250 (+ 60% bonus AD)
- **Slow Strength - ** 40%
- Slow Duration - 1.75 / 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 / 2.75 (Seconds)
- Range - 650 / 225 / 75 (cast/damage/slow)
WOT! WHERE'S MY KNOCKUP!?!
Dark Flight is a really cool ability, visually powerful. When I think Aatrox, this is one of the first things that comes into my mind, but the knockup served little purpose in his kit aside from simply providing some form of CC for you to get some free hits in. By removing it, and adding a slow instead, I can make the ability occur more frequently by rewarding landing people in the center, and allowing me to make changes elsewhere, as two forms of AoE crowd control is crazy, three is a nightmare. As Azir says: "Trust in me!"
W - Blood Price ACTIVE: Aatrox's next basic attack gains 75 range and cleaves all units in a cone centered on the original target, dealing physical damage to each target struck and applying on-hit effects to the original target. Aatrox gains 5% of the damage dealt to each target as Blood in his Blood Well.
- Cost - 5% of Aatrox's Current Health
- Cooldown - 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 (Seconds)
- Damage - 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 + (100%TotalAD) Physical Damage.
- **Range - **225 (150 Base + 75)
I've yet to meet someone that liked the Old Blood Thirst/Blood Price ability we have now.
The problem is that it offers little decision making, use the former until you're ready to go in, build up to the third stack, toggle, Dark Flight in and hit them with Blood Price, then slow with E, disengage or go for kill, then switch back to Blood Thirst. The two offer no dynamic where choosing one in one case is really better than another depending on your goals, so I've removed the toggle effect and added an actual ability
The intention of Blood Price is twofold, provide strong, consistent area of effect damage, and to allow Aatrox to fill his Blood Well in a pinch. The ability also acts as an Auto Attack reset, so it has that function as well. Though this is honestly the most bland of the skills I have up here, it has it's purpose.
E - Living Blade - ACTIVE: Aatrox charges his blade over up to 3 seconds, slowing himself by 20% in the process. When the ability is released, Aatrox extends his blade in the direction of his cursor, dealing physical damage to all enemies struck by the effect. The distance the blade travels increases based on how long the ability was charged up. Aatrox then pulls his weapon back to him, pulling all enemy units caught in the effect in the direction of the blade (Roughly the distance of Thresh's [Death Sentence] if it were all at once), dealing the initial damage dealt by this ability a second time.
- Cost - 10% of Aatrox's Current Health
- **Cooldown - ** 16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 (Seconds)
- **Damage - ** 75 / 110 / 145 / 180 / 215 (+ 60% AP) (+ 60% bonus AD)
- **Range - ** 600 - 1200 (based on channel duration, channel is complete at 1.5 seconds.)
NOTE: This ability has no cast time, as such, Aatrox can manuver himself via Dark Flight (or Flash) as he extends his sword, allowing him to cover angles he wouldn't normally be able to.
This is it? Isn't that Thresh/Blitz/Naut's thing?
Kinda. The idea here is to give Aatrox some sort of area control that he can work with in the middle of a fight, by allowing him to reposition himself and the 'chain' his sword makes to an extent, he can effectively zone some champions for a short time by threatening it during the charge-up period. The ability allows him to disrupt multiple enemies fairly consistently in a fight while itself being fair, as the charge up provides sufficient warning if you're at a reasonable range. The projectile would be fairly slow, especially when compared to other skills of similar nature. Similar to Ahri's Orb of Deception, enemies furthest from him (towards the end of the ability's range) would be pulled first, while those closest would be pulled last, creating a decision that must be made with the ability, as longer chains would be slower overall to hit nearby targets.
R - Massacre ACTIVE: Aatrox draws in the blood of his foes, dealing magic damage to nearby enemy champions, causing terror (fear) in all enemy units around him for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 seconds. He fills his Blood Well by 20% and gains 20% bonus attack speed for each Enemy Champion hit. The attack speed lasts 10 seconds, and during this time Aatrox gains bonus attack range (This range stacks with the bonus provided by Blood Thirst [W]).
- Cost - None
- Cooldown - 120 / 100 / 80 Seconds
- ** Damage** - 200 / 300 / 400 (+ 100% AP) (+ 60% BonusAD) Magic Damage
- Range - 550 / 325
NOTE: Your enemies are pansies during the fear, and are not slowed by it, they run at regular speed.
See your enemies cower before you! I've seen the fear suggestion for his ult pop up fairly often, and it makes sense to me personally. The combined ranges of This ability and his W, Blood thirst, is 400, which is 100 shy of the shortest ranged ADC's.
That's all I've got for Aatrox. I really enjoyed brainstorming these ideas. Ultimately, this version of Aatrox could be a powerful supportive fighter, and is intended to be such.
What do you have in mind for Aatrox? I want to hear your thoughts and opinions on the subject!