Aatrox Rework CONCEPT
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/9/92/Aatrox_OriginalSkin.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131016154403 Alright, here is my idea on how to make an effective Aatrox Rework, not only to give him more of a strategic niche, but also to give him a chance to shine more truly with his lore. {My attempt to put this in a pretty format: Click here, in retrospect, this probably didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped from the beginning. So stick with the full text below in order to see all of my proposed changes.}
Passive: Blood Well Unchanged. Stays exactly the same.
Q: Darkin Inspiration NEW Passive - Damaging an enemy champion with an attack or ability will cause all nearby allied minions to focus the damaged champion. Active: Increase the AD of all nearby allies for 7 seconds. AD INCREASE: 10/14/18/22/26 + (1 - 18 based on LEVEL) RANGE: 650 COST: 10% CURRENT HEALTH COOLDOWN: 20/18/16/14/12
W: Blood Thirst / Blood Price PASSIVE: Aatrox applies a bonus on-hit effect every third basic attack,_ in addition to reducing his basic ability cooldowns by 1 second_: BLOOD THIRST: Aatrox heals himself. The heal amount is tripled while Aatrox is below 50% maximum health. HEAL: 20 / 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 (+ 25% bonus AD) BLOOD PRICE: Aatrox deals bonus physical damage. BONUS PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 60 / 95 / 130 / 165 / 200 (+ 100% bonus AD) COST: 15 / 23.75 / 32.5 / 41.25 / 50 (+ 25% bonus AD) HEALTH COOLDOWN: .5 seconds
E: Blades of Torment Completely unchanged.
R: Call to Arms NEW Aatrox channels the blood of his nearby allies, gaining 10% Blood well for each, then he duplicates all nearby allied minions, except for Siege minions. Additionally, Aatrox gains bonus attack speed and attack range for 12 seconds. ATTACK SPEED: 40 / 50 / 60% BONUS RANGE: 325 AOE RANGE: 550 COOLDOWN: 100 / 85 / 70 COST: 10%/5%/0% CURRENT HEALTH
Notes on Changes: First and foremost, remember that this is a rework to make Aatrox more similar to what his lore depicts. With these changes, Aatrox would be an inspiration for allied forces, and he even causes armies to seemingly double in size! He would retain the life-steal based build and focus that he has today; however, he would be trading his gapcloser for a potent AD steroid for all allies in an AOE. This causes him to both boost the power of others, while allowing himself to drain even more off of the same number of attacks. To support the jungle playstyle, his W now has an additional CDR element, which allows his Devourer build to become even more scary as he is able to quickly double or triple stack his Q inspiration, if given the chance! But the main goal of these changes is to solidify Aatrox as a Drain Fighter who's main purpose in a team composition is to splitpush via minion manipulation. Right now we have items for that and high-waveclear champs, but the best I can think of in terms of minion boosting is Alistar's mass heal. So there is definitely a bit of design space in this area.
While this may not solve all of Aatrox's problems, especially with Grevious Wounds being a thing again, it would cause Aatrox to have a bit more diversity in builds. It would also allow Aatrox to be able to hit like a truck using the minion aggro, and that's a neat mechanic that I think would prove very interesting, especially on a champion with a self-revive passive. After all, the goal with a rework should be to try and get a champion into a better niche and more accessible by more players, so why don't we give him a shot by solidifying his potential to splitpush and duel? But at the same time, these changes would not lock him entirely into this frame, because his Q affects your other champions as well, so Aatrox would fill a more 'support' role in teamfights, although one that focuses on boosting damage of the team instead of keeping your carries alive.
Last note - I am definitely not an Aatrox main, so you guys will probably disagree with this direction, but what other directions do you think that Riot can try with him without completely and utterly blowing his current identity? And yes, this was designed in respect to the new AD items, and yes, I do realize that you can easily reach +100 or so AD using his Q and W CDR. I don't know, I think this would be a decent way to solve the issue of buildpaths for Aatrox, but that's just my idea on it! Feedback would be awesome, thanks!
