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And we're back here again... another nerf/change for Aatrox.

Abandon·8/20/2019, 7:57:22 AM·26 votes·13,037 views

It's time to admit it. This rework has FAILED. He has received change after change ever since he was reworked and they STILL can't get it right. According to U.GG, he has a negative winrate across almost all ranks except high elo (master, grandmaster, challenger). But guess what, they have to balance for pro play where he is still being abused.

I'll spell it out for you. It's not the healing or revive (while they are factors) that makes Aatrox such a strong pro champion, it's how he fundamentally works. He's literally a champion designed entirely for pro play. He has in built sustain, he's safe, he's a CDR abuser just like every new champion that exists (besides reworked mordekaiser who just gets overtuned numbers and can abuse non cdr items instead), he has so many forms of CC even if they are short which enables him to chain/combo off a wide variety of champions - making him exceptionally deadly in good/coordinated hands. It literally doesn't matter what you do, he's either good enough to be abused or he will be dog shit tier and completely unviable, especially in soloq.

Jesus christ, just look at his balance history since rework: 8.13 - Reworked Released 8.13 (hotfix) - Which was a mistake 8.14 - Mostly nerfs 8.16 - Nerfs 8.18 - Buffs 8.23 - Nerf/Buff 8.24 - Nerf for jungle 9.2 - Complete gutting 9.3 - Buffs but he was still pretty bad here 9.6 - Bugfixes 9.9 - Mini rework (weak on release) 9.9 (hotfix) - Quite necessary here 9.12 - QOL changes 9.14 - Nerfs/buffs (removal of revive for more healing -> mostly buffs if you weren't a dumbass) and now upcoming 9.17 nerfs.

At this point what are you going to remove now? If you nerf his healing then the entire mini rework, heck, even the entire rework would have been for nothing. If you nerf his damage he literally can't function. If you nerf his base stats/'tankiness' he literally becomes a gimped version of whatever other juggernaut is there essentially punishing you for playing a champion that takes 'skill'.

Now I'm not saying I don't like the reworked Aatrox (I do) but I think it's high time you give us old Aatrox mains a proper apology and give old Aatrox the justice he deserves. Make a good and healthy version of old Aatrox and before The Ecdysiast comes here to shout about how Xin Zhao is basically the healthy version of Aatrox, no. No Aatrox main wants to play Xin Zhao. Xin Zhao is boring and weak, you can play him if you want to but he can't do shit top lane. Have you seen what top lane is like? We want our silent killer back. We want our underdog champion who has historically been memed as the 'worst champion in the game' back. All these little band wagoners who abused him with rageblade, titanic hydra and conqueror after WE SPENT THE TIME discovering that build and making it work, yeah I really don't care about any of you guys. I just want my champion back, even if he's just a 50% or lower champion. I just want to be able to wipe the floor with all these pathetic meta abusers just because I have a champion who I put all my time into, knowing I can turn the tide of the fight when I set up my conditions well and be able to carry the game. I want to be able to build different items again and not just get pigeonholed into CDR because the game revolves around CDR and abilities. I want auto attacks on my champion to be meaningful again.

#BringBackOldAatrox

Edit: So apparently the proposed nerf is to remove -60hp from Aatrox, leaving him with 520 HP, the same hp as Vel'Koz and even lower than Syndra's (523).

This change doesn't remove the frustration from Aatrox or even address his core issues but what it does do is make him feel REALLY SHITTY to play in the early game. As expected.

68 Comments

Jaspers8/20/2019, 10:09:54 AM12 votes

Just add it as another patch on the list. New Aatrox has had 14 patches since his relaunch a year ago, this includes 3 hotfixes. Old Aatrox had 17 in his lifetime (1 hotfix) and this includes the 7.22 buffs to all AD champs after rune changes.

Sadly, new Aatrox is a success, he's popular and will sell skins. They'll keep changing him and nerfing him but not change his new style of play. We just need to wait for them to release a new champ who plays like old Aatrox just without the healing (if the healing truely was an issue and it's obviously wasn't looking at the new one and 4 or 5 other healing attack speed melee champs).

SpongebobIsLife8/20/2019, 2:39:53 PM8 votes

I don't think it failed, current trox has a significantly larger playerbase, has more levers of balance, and is probably healthier to deal with when fed in comparison to old aatrox. They probably need to change his ult and I think he'd be perfectly fine.

Dracocrash8/20/2019, 6:18:23 PM6 votes

Aatrox wasn't reworked silly! They deleted old aatrox and replaced it with a completely new champion.

Daddy Ants8/20/2019, 8:58:45 AM5 votes

Aatrox is getting nerfed due to pro play.

devil jen8/20/2019, 8:22:53 AM5 votes

Agree with you must be rewritten again because after all this has become a copy of Ravin but a man we need aatrox no 2 ravin

MLDzXnRRR8/20/2019, 9:55:15 AM4 votes

I often see Xin JUNGLE 1v9 the game, so you are underrating him in your post. Manaless (Aatrox fits this) and overpowered or unfun designs (noone would like to play against a Darius one-trick, because you know what happens, right?, so the only smart choice is to pick a ranged champ that can beat not only Darius, but also the non-broken melee champions) have made such champions like Xin not being able to function at all toplane.

Old Aatrox was feeling like garbage all these years - you were more squishy than ranged DPS, because you had comparable stats to them + losing % of your health pool for using abilities... And his Q animation was clunky (new Aatrox is also not very flowing).

SiG DxD8/20/2019, 8:09:21 PM4 votes

same as akali same as kayle same as irelia almost

buff nerf buff nerf ner nerf buff buff

they dont have any fecking idea what do to any longer so they just bandaid stuff

SEKAI8/20/2019, 4:04:30 PM4 votes

My head-canon for Aatrox rework.

Passive: The Darkin Blade - Upon death, Aatrox's sword drops at the location of his host's demise. If an ally champion can get to the location within X seconds to right click the sword, and finish a 1 second channel, they "pick it up" and are given a temporary minor offensive stat buff at the cost of a gradually depleting HP; it lasts to Aatrox's respawn at base or until the affected's death. If the ally champion dies to enemy champion (so execution and dying to just the HP depletion don't count) while under the effect of this passive's effect and before Aatrox's respawn timer finishes counting, then Aatrox will clear his remaining respawn timer and respawn at the location of this ally's location of death after a X second countdown to herald Aatrox's rebirth with a new host. This passive has a X second CD after being used.

Q: Dark Flight - Aatrox take into the air and swiftly dives at a target location (circle AoE cast) a short distance away, dealing an AoE damage to the area; the AoE is divided into the inner circle region and the outer circle region: the inner circle being a danger zone where units hit in this region are knocked down and briefly stunned for X seconds, while units hit in the outer circle receive a decaying slow for X seconds. The ability can be charged to reach more distance from the minimum scaling up with charge time, with the longest distance between about just reaching the side lane brush from under the outer most side lane turret. Aatrox can not move during the ability's charge time.

W: Blood Price and Blood Prince - Aatrox's W is a toggle between 2 on-hit procs, Blood Price and Blood Prince. The on-hit procs trigger at every Xth auto-attack, and the 2 effects are kept on SEPARATE counters. The toggle has no CD, technically a very short like 0.1 second CD. Toggling doesn't interrupt and neither does it reset auto-attack timer. The counters are also not reset upon death. The 2 counters are visible in some way to both the Aatrox and other players in the same game.

  • Blood Price - On effect, Aatrox depletes a X% of his current HP as a cost and unleashes a tide of carnage and blood from his sword as he strikes his foes with his auto-attack in a powerful thrust, dealing an AoE damage in a cone. Damage based on his AD and the amount of HP dedicated as cost.
  • Blood Prince - On effect, Aatrox pierce the sword into the ground before him and pulls it out with great force that shake all living things around him to their core. All enemy units within a circular AoE around him receive a small % current HP damage, and heals Aatrox for a percentage of all the total damage dealt by the AoE combined. The percentage Aatrox is healed by from the damage dealt grows with spell level.

E: Abyssal Judgement - Aatrox slashes in front of him vertically with a powerful force, dealing respectable damage in a line skillshot and impose a small flat slow to units hit, and applying on-hit effects while counting as an instance of auto-attack for the purpose of W's counters (but only for 1 counter of the 2 being selected at the time of the cast of E). The attack has a short but identifiable animation wind-up combined with a respectable range. If this ability is used coinciding with the trigger of Blood Price or Blood Prince's on-hit effects then both E and W (the selected on hit of the 2)'s effects take place simultaneously, with Blood Price and Blood Prince's range increased to match this ability's.

R: The Fallen Ascent: Aatrox's ultimate has a passive and an active component.

  • PASSIVE: Incarnation of Wrath - The Fallen Ascent's active component serves as a temporary steroid to Aatrox. However its active duration is determined by the amount of takedown (kill and assist) Aatrox has before or during its activation. It has an initial starting effective time of 5 seconds, with each additional takedown both before or during the activation being worth an additional 4 seconds, up to a maximum of 15 seconds.
  • ACTIVE: The World in Silence - Aatrox unleashes his full power for a period of X seconds, indulging and fully committing to the destruction at his wake. Aatrox opens his wings and take into the air, receiving a flat size increase combined with a universal flat range increase to all of his attacks, and increased movement speed that scales with ultimate's level. Aatrox would also receive a flat AD bonus that increases with the ultimate's level. During which Aatrox also receive attack speed bonus also increased with ultimate's level, and each auto-attacks will reduce the CD of his Q and E by 1 second; E will also reduce the CD of Q but it can not reduce its own CD. Q's charge speed is also increased by a flat % during the ultimate.

...........

Feel free to criticise and expand/change it.

If anyone likes it and wants to start a Concept and Creation thread by taking or expanding from this idea, it's free so take it to use as you will.

MarcReady8/21/2019, 1:52:48 AM4 votes

What nobody seems to mention, is that new Aatrox is fundamentally broken, in the sense that his kit does not work against half of the roster (namely champions with mobility), while being EXTREMELY oppressive against immobile champions. You cannot really dodge his q, except for the first one, unless you have some kind of dash or speed boost. Aatrox completely zones immobile champions from minions, because they get kited by his q cc or by his chain. On the other hand, mobile champions can all-in him, having to worry about only the third Q.

Aatrox puts all his eggs in one basket: his q, which makes his matchups very binary.

Personally, I welcome every nerf Aatrox gets, because in this way, Riot my acknowledge that they got his rework wrong. I don't know how can they fix it, but I think that 3 knock ups on 1 ability is simply too much: they should probably make his q stun, or slow

BLIGHTBRINGER8/20/2019, 9:18:01 AM4 votes

He's not even that strong anymore because he falls off lategame once the enemy has their core items and Grievous Wounds. As tanky as Aatrox can be, he can't survive all the damage that he absorbs from at least 3-4 people at that point in the game.

Sewer Side8/20/2019, 8:08:56 PM3 votes

So Sion also received several nerfs to his kit, guess his rework failed too. Time to revert.

Wait, no, that’s not how reworks work you ding dong

Raaven The Red8/20/2019, 1:41:23 PM3 votes

Completelly agree with you Abandon. As a One Trick Im getting seriously tired of all of this nerf/change ride. Every time I finally get used to a damn negative change after 1-2 patch a new one comes and I have to swallow it over and over again. The current Aatrox just feels like a junk champ. A completelly gutted, broken, overused, poorly designed prototype which can't even be called a real champion. I want back the Aatrox I always loved and not this junk created by Riot Jag. Give the Old Aatrox Justice and bring him back Riot! You caused enough damage to the Aatrox mains already.

Harden Stepback8/20/2019, 4:21:57 PM3 votes

They reworked him because he was too hard to balance, nothing has changed except alienating his original fanbase.

DuskDaUmbreon8/21/2019, 12:07:49 AM3 votes

>Unironically thinking because a champion needs a lot of balance fixes the champion is somehow fundamentally broken, rather than it just being unexpected high tier strength and Riot working towards making them better.

> Also unironically thinking old Aatrox was somehow healthier than new Aatrox.

iDarkWind8/21/2019, 1:13:17 AM3 votes

Call the rework a failure when his play rate went from probably something around 1.5% or even less to 20% plus. The rework thematic and everything is fantastic. People defending the old abnoxious Aatrox wich consisted of a Drain Tank AA based champion are incredibly hilarious, because those are the same that also complain about other atrocities such as tryndamere or jax that are similar to old Aatrox: You either had stats to kill him with your autos or you didn't. The factor "outplay" never existed.

Other interesting fact is that no one cared about Aatrox, and after the rework suddently everyone cares and mains him, fantastic.

Statchecky8/21/2019, 4:59:12 AM3 votes

Maybe an unpopular opinion among old Aatrox mains but hear me out.

Old Aatrox cannot come back as a Darkin. That concept was bastardized since the release of Kayn and the lore changed even more with the full rework.

No point in deleting the new Aatrox just as there was no point in deleting the old one.

With some creativity Old Aatrox can be reintroduced as a new champion and given his old look and voice over as a darkin skin.

Old Aatrox could easily be a Void Champion.

ImTheJuggernauty8/21/2019, 6:44:36 PM2 votes

old aatrox was not the worst champ in league lol. Old urgot was hands down

SEKAI8/20/2019, 4:19:56 PM2 votes

Holy shit what happened?

What's with that string of spam since now deleted?

Starboy X8/21/2019, 4:31:29 PM2 votes

Aatrox rework was god awful completely alienated his old player base and they have no idea how to balance him. His kit was designed for pro play where his main weakness which is falling off late game usually isn’t exploited so they will just need his numbers until he isn’t viable anymore

Fear the Kayn8/21/2019, 3:58:46 PM1 votes

I want to see him changed to be much more like his former self. I think it’s easier for Riot to balance a squishy, damage dealer like he was before rather than a dominant pro-play focused bruiser.

floo8/21/2019, 3:27:00 PM1 votes

-60 base hp is fucking harsh. Being able to tank an entire auto attack less can decide fights. He has less base hp than Soraka, as a bruiser lol.

Dotty LB8/21/2019, 8:14:55 AM1 votes

That nerf is a joke.

U R Good At Game8/20/2019, 9:29:16 PM1 votes

Honestly, I think his critical hit gameplay is more of the issue that they are never even considering. Sure it's part of his "skill" but at the same time, there are many times when you literally cannot avoid a critical and you lose all your hp and he goes back to full hp. I lost a game a couple days ago because a 1-6 aatrox hit a flash + 3rd critical and killed 3 people from over half hp and then went on to carry the game because each crit hit almost one shot us and healed him back to full. I feel like crits are way too powerful. Not the healing, not the revives. not the leaps. The crits.

I feel like the sweet spot should be a nice little bonus but the jump in power right now is kind of insane.