Why Aatrox?

One of my favorite champions of all time that I honestly feel has been left in the dust with all of the updates is none other than the dark winged beast himself, Aatrox. To really understand why I thoroughly enjoy the blackball of league society you have to understand me personally, I wake up most mornings not really sure what I want to do during the day. In the same way Aatrox has to decide what role he wants to play out on the rift. Is he a top lane fiend? Does he try and roll against the recently updated marksmen as either an adc or support? (I'll make my case for a support later) Is this they time you try and test your prowess in the every eventful middle lane? Or maybe attempting to secure a couple dragons for your team all the while pillaging the opposing teams jungle camps fits your fancy. You see it really doesn't matter, he is pretty decent in all of these rolls. So as a filler champ you cannot got wrong in any sense. But therein lies the problem, Aatrox is only decent. He doesn't really excel nor does he even come close to the sort of production of other champs in those roles to even be a viable pick.

Let’s start at the top lane shall we. Aatrox's passive "Blood Well" gives him nearly all the outlast he needs to land the killing blow versus nearly any over aggressive top laner, at least that's what it looks like at first glance. The simple truth of the matter is that is passive accomplishes nothing more than a time period in which you have to sit and stare death right in the face. Maybe you get a person that has never played against Aatrox before or maybe they simply forget about is life granting passive at first, but in the end after one successful attempt at cheating death, nobody in the match ever forgets about that portion of the passive ever again. So what is the other little tidbit his passive give him? The more blood he has in his well the faster he can attack. Yes he is granted an attack speed ramp, this portion or his passive already sounds amazing. "Man the more he uses abilities the fast he can attack, that's dope," wrong. His attack speed boost does little against an enemy tank but really excels against the ever dangers minions. Since all of his abilities, even his passive, are reliant on him "feeding" his sword his own blood. To even begin filling up your "Blood Well" you have just put yourself at a major disadvantage against any self-assured tank. Now to his wimpy base stats Aatrox begins the game with a base 538 health, attack stat of 60, and an armor stat of 25 you would almost be lead to believe that he is a potential contender as a top lane menace. It is at that exact moment that you would have to remember who he would be going up against.

Aatrox, at his core, longs to be a warrior assassin much like a Master Yi; able to deal out quick decisive strikes that leave your opponent reeling and scurrying back under the safety of their nearest turret. But here is the kicker, everyone he is trying to harass is a tank. What are across the board skills required for a good top lane champion? First they need to be able to either stun, slow, knock up, or incapacitate, even in the slightest form, their opposition. Two of Aatrox's abilities grant these long sought after skills (which is why most people make the mistake of placing him realm of top lane champions). "Dark Flight" knocks your opponent up in the air yes, but at the cost of 10% of your current health. If your go in full steam ahead with full heath then good luck. Not only have you positioned yourself right underneath your opponent but you now have no good way of escaping if things turn nasty against you. Then you have "Blades of Torment" which costs 5% of your current health. Although it is able to hit like a hammer it also slows your opponent’s movement speed. But then let’s remember that nearly all top lane champs have a slow and a gap closer so any sort of initiation against a full-fledged tank is not only foolish but is rather ill-advised. To cast those two abilities you have not only lost 15% of your current health but your also now getting hammered by a much more capable champion.

To all of you that just read that and thought to yourself "Just build tank you dumb-ass, problem solved" let me remind you that Aatrox longs to be a warrior assassin dealing quick death to anyone foolish enough to venture to far away from help and should help arrive he wants to outlast nearly anything you throw at him. His W is proof of this. Titled "Blood Thirst/Blood Price" it’s a toggle ability granting him either life every third hit or extra damage every third hit depending on which one is active (you can tell which one is active by looking at his sword). This ability is completely reliant on his attack speed. Again you’re in the top lane, tanks do not care about damage because damage doesn't even phase them. So go ahead and get that attack speed up, Darius dunking on you is just as painful if you have 2.38 attack speed or if you have 0.683. A magical Garen sword falling from the sky is just as effective when you’re trying to run away as it is when you’re trying to outlast him. He is out matched, it’s a simple fact.

Tired of getting creamed in the top lane by Juggernauts? (I think we all are by now). Want to see if he has a home in middle lane? Well you better call a real-estate agent because he is going to have to move real quick. This is probably the second best position for his ult which not only deals some crazy damage to those around him but also grants a ridiculous attack speed, movement, and attack range boost. So when that pesky jungler comes to dethrone you, and grant an ever dangerous gold amount to the enemy midlaner you can now know that your safety is almost assured once you get to level 6. Yet sadly other than a base magic resistance of 32 you are going to be outclassed every single time. What are the qualities of a good midlaner? A champion that can rack up PentaKills by the droves. So while Annie stuns you into oblivion and proceeds to drop Tiber's in your face just remember that you’re the only person to blame for current situation. And in all fairness is any self-respecting Summoner going to choose mid Aatrox over Brand or Katarina? I think not!

So someone then suggest that Aatrox was really designed as an adc. Sounds legit enough to be real so you decide to give it a try. Before you even think about trying to carry your team to victory remember one little thing, a good adc has range for days. If you’re not a marksman and try and adc for your team, you should never be allowed back into the bottom lane ever. It’s plain and simple, he not only lacks the range to harass the other team; any good support from the opposition has some form of a Blitzcrank Q to throw your way. So a melee fighter trying to carry their team from the minion front line is just asking to get hooked by Thresh and destroyed by the safely out of reach marksmen chunking your health.

Well now we only really have two places to potentially put this supposed God of War, the jungle or into a support role. As I mentioned earlier he plays like someone who longs to play the warrior assassin. The jungle would be the perfect place to realize this dream. And in all fairness he is a decent enough jungler. Between being able to blow up jungle camps with his "Dark Flight" to gain life through his "Blood Thirst" and hammer any adversaries with his "Blades of Torment" the jungle looks like a viable option. The problem is his ridiculous cool downs. Now every champion starts off the match with higher cool downs than where they end, Aatrox seems to be plagued with the worst of them all. He is such a non-factor until level 6 and in that time a game can either won or lost. Because of his slower starts he is often out jungled before he even begins to hit his stride. But as I said before it is a viable option, but with champions like Udyr and Shyvanna as stellar junglers is he the best option? The answer to that question is simply no. As fun as he is to jungle he does not offer enough assassin like qualities to really give any team the proper bang for their buck.

So then we have the role of support. As I promised I am going to make to case for him as a support. A support is able to not only take care of themselves but help secure kills for your adc. As an adc Aatrox is absolute trash, change the mentality of what you are trying to accomplish down below and the game drastically changes for you. As a support you can punish any pesky Lulu looking to harass your adc by swooping in on your "Dark Flight". Tired of Karma being a bitch? Throw some "Blades of Torment" her way and she will have to seriously rethink her strategy. Need to stay in lane, farm some health off of those minions with your "Blood Thirst". Blitzcrank giving you grey hair? Maybe think about flying his way and then dropping "Massacre" on him and just let your adc take care of the rest. The options are endless just make sure you don't Kill Steal from your adc, I've heard they don't enjoy that too much.

Finally think you have found the home for him? Let me begin to apply some reason to this current daydream. Aatrox longs to be your team’s number one. He should be the most feared badass on the Fields of Justice, which means he refuses to sit in anyone's shadow, not even Draven's. Let’s get real practical, what most supports offer is a way of securing kills from the safety of your minion line. They don't force you to compromise your lane position, they drive the enemy back with their constant harassing and offer calm kill secures during team fights. None of these criteria Aatrox fills.

So what is really left for him? In the long run he doesn't have a roll that he can play repetitively with major constancy. When Aatrox has a good match it is usually situational, either he was able to win a couple skirmishes in the early game and got on a roll with gold or was able to harass a champion that was unsure of his abilities. The simple fact is Aatrox is decent but not spectacular, and if you read his lore this really is a sad revelation. Aatrox is supposed to be the embodiment of war, killing and slaying to his heart’s content. He is supposed to be utterly feared on the Fields of Justice, but instead he ends up being a mismatched cog in any good team. He is great time in the blind picks but in ranked he falls off way to hard in his potential.

Are there any solutions to right his sinking ship? To this question I would say yes. He was developed to be an utter menace from the top lane and still has the potential to do so. I honestly believe that a good hard look at rebalancing him would bring him back to the days of his youth. I know there are those that believe that the only way that fix him is a total rework, which I don't fully agree with. Reworks are cool and all but it seems like the community has become to enthralled with the idea that if any champion fails to fully satisfy their roll then they need to be tossed into the rework bin and hope for the best. Would a rework help him? Based on Riot's track record I would say yes, but I also believe that rebalancing him would be just as effective for an immediate fix. What would a rebalancing accomplish? Well for starters grant his base stats in key areas to really be effective, if he is destined to remain up top then stop his abilities from growing off of AD and AP stats, give him more armor, change the reliance of his self-sacrificial ways, and change the cast time on "Dark Flight"(you’re really going to tell me that a he has been flying around Runeterra for uncountable millennia and yet it take like 2 seconds to get his ass in the air? Some "god" this guy is).

In the long run both are viable options but not until the other Darkin are unveiled. Aatrox is 1 out of 5 remaining Darkin in Runeterra, a race that loves war and conflict. Yet amazingly Aatrox is the only one to find his way to the Institute of War so far. Remember his full name is Aatrox the Darkin Blade. Does this mean that there is a Darkin Sheild? Darkin Wand? Darkin Dagger? I don't know, but develop an area where he has a specific niche and a clear way to helping his team secure the win. Write Your Thoughts