My Aatrox plans, revisited
So. I NEVER really played Aatrox. (Wow thats a bad intro with a title "Aatrox Plans") But I think I get a glimpse on why Aatrox is struggling and how can I improve that. Aatrox started as (and remains as) a auto heavy healing tanker. Since his passive and his w are the only means of his healing, he has much less sustain compared to other healing type tankers, like Voli, Mundo, etc. Problem with Aatrox is that he lacks a constant damage source that allows him to deal damage without building tank items (or at least build 1 or 2 of them). Mundo deals max and current health damage, while Voli deals missing health damage and some reliable CC with his q and e. Compared to these 2, Aatrox seems like he is in a very awkward position now. His recent "changes" made him both extremely unreliable on damage output and almost impossible for him to survive through mid game without stacking more than 2 or 3 tank items. He also has some serious skillset issues: especially with his Q and E. (Thank GOD there is no 10% current health cost on Q) but Q is generally considered a poorly designed ability, at least in my opinion. Q has awkward range and a seriously weird range on airborne. Its cast time makes it easy to predict, and its airborne range makes it even worse. This makes him quite dependent on his Q (remember one game in Challengers Korea 2016 Spring where top Aatrox and Jungle Yorick came out? Yeah.) E, on the other hand, is just so out of his general kit concept that I always laugh whenever I see the ability description. AN ABILITY DIVING DEPENDENT AUTO ATTACKING MELEE who maxes RANGED ABILITY for FARM AND HARASS? I think that is just absolutely ridiculous. To make him viable, there are some problems that must be addressed and others with options: MUST-SOLVE: Passive unreliability, Q, E Optional: W damage output fix, R general reliability So, here are my plans for Aatrox:
Passive: Hellbent duration increased from 4 to 8 seconds when triggered, Aatrox removes all CC and becomes immune to CC for 1.5 seconds. duration increases by one second every time Aatrox hits a neutral creep with his ability; increases by 0.5 sec. on basic attack Revival- now triggers outside of Hellbent (good ol' passive.) 30% max health changed to 35%-45% max health (scaling with level) Q (Complete overhaul: TENTATIVE) First cast: rises up to the air after a short delay; becomes untargetable (rising up motion not interrupted by crowd control, but is affected by CC after the second cast landing animation) Second cast: dashes to target area (don't worry, this WILL be quick) , dealing physical damage and airborne all enemies in the area. Has minimum range ; if cast in the minimum radius, Aatrox quickly lands down, slowing all enemies in a larger radius but no airborne. W- same (let's see the reception to the new E) E- Blood Link (again, TENTATIVE) medium range targeting ability when cast, target bleeds constantly for dot physical damage (missing health scaling) when he stays in the cast radius (like how Karma W works) (time not yet determined- please help!), he will apply heavy slow, and auto will deal (either 20-35% true damage or 6-9.5% max health damage) for the next few seconds (time not determined yet) R- deals magic dmg (same) instantly gains 300/450/600 bonus health (like how Renekton/Nasus works), and 70/85/110 bonus health per every enemy champion hit. No more AS steroid, but instead has empowered and increased duration on Hellbent. (tentative) at max level- becomes unleashed; if fatal damage is taken during the duration of R, he gets a free revival (no cooldowns after the ult).
Everything in this is TENTATIVE. Please, feel free to make comments, suggestions, criticisms, corrections, etc. (I hope people even read this thing). Thank you!