Aatrox Rework Ideas
Hello all, just some brainstorming going on. I had a few ideas for changing him up but I don't actually play him much so I'm more looking for feedback on the potential of these ideas, rather than the ideas themselves. Numbers are for illustration purposes.
What I'm looking at mainly are two things that I often read:
- Aatrox's passive is both underwhelming to utilize and also holds back his kit immensely
- Aatrox's identity as a drain-tank-carry is unhealthy
My current goal is to keep most of Aatrox's current abilities the same, while adding new elements for consideration. The biggest changes will be to his passive; rather than it being a low moment for Aatrox, I want his passive to be the climax. As such, the main focus of this will be something called "Emergence" and not his main abilities.
Passive All of Aatrox’s self-healing is increased by 10 / 15 / 20%, but health that would be restored through self-healing is instead stored within Aatrox’s Bloodwell [up to 100 / 110 / 120% of his base maximum health]. Upon death, Aatrox enters stasis for 3 seconds and empties his Bloodwell to restore his health over the duration, overshielding for the excess health restored (180-90 second cooldown). This shield decays rapidly outside of combat, but the Bloodwell drains much more slowly.
Emergence- While in stasis, or briefly after exiting stasis, Aatrox may cast empowered versions of his abilities.
Q- Same ability as live until further notice. **Emergence- Aatrox hurdles himself in a straight line and attempts to impale the first enemy champion he contacts, dealing physical damage and knocking them back slightly . This damage can critically strike and will apply on-hit effects. ** RANGE: 1100
W TOGGLE PASSIVE: Aatrox applies a bonus on-hit effect on every other hit against non-structures. Blood Thirst TOGGLE OFF – BLOOD THIRST: Aatrox shields himself for up to 6 seconds on-hit. While Aatrox is below 50% maximum health,** shield** is tripled. Blood Price TOGGLE ON – BLOOD PRICE: Aatrox consumes a portion of his health to deal quadruple its health cost as bonus on-hit physical damage. Emergence - For the next 8 seconds, Aatrox gains bonus attack range and gains the effects of both BLOOD THIRST and BLOOD PRICE.
E- Same ability as live until further notice. Emergence- Releases a shockwave of energy, dealing magic damage and knocking back nearby enemies to a fixed distance from Aatrox.
R: Not actually sure what I want to do with this, but I would like to somehow stick to his lore and get some team inspiration going on. Emergence- Aatrox inspires nearby allies, granting 50% bonus movement speed and bonus attack speed while in combat. This effect lasts for up to 8 seconds, ending if Aatrox is killed or leaves combat.
So yeah, all in all I want Aatrox to have a big revival moment when his passive is triggered. People say that when he dies, he just comes back and dies again. I think that by forcing him to delay his sustain until death and by giving him impactful abilities upon death, Aatrox will have incentive to dive headfirst into fights. He dies, he revives, blows back enemies, flings himself quickly at their carry, and inspires allies to fight. All in all I think it sounds cool, but I'm open to ideas.