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About the Aatrox nerf... Why gut his E now?

Big Wánk·1/31/2019, 2:32:08 AM·5 votes·4,911 views
Surrender at 20

First, I want to say that this is the first forum I ever made, and I'm sorry I'm only making one because I'm upset, and I'm also sorry that this post is really long. All I want to know is: Does Riot hate Aatrox? and if so, why?

(For those of you who don't know what's happening to him, I posted a link to a website called "surrender@20" which is a website that shares information about the content of up coming patches)

When Aatrox's rework was first released he felt very clunky, hard to control and nothing more than annoying to deal with. One thing that fixed this issue was that someone came up with the brilliant idea of making his E a "basic attack reset" which helped him immensely— It didn't iron out all of his kinks (get it, because he's a sword) however it helped him split push, trade with other players and last hit minions. Patch 8.13's hot fix's helped a lot of people understand how to use the poorly received Aatrox rework, and after the next patch which gave him some well deserved nerfs as people were stating to become good with him. It was at this time that he felt pretty balanced, his kit was well suited for top, mid and even jungle. However, he's been getting barraged with nerf after nerf for the past 2 months, and this patch is going to be the final nail in his coffin for sure.

For those who haven't been up to date, let me explain: Aatrox being strong in the jungle role was seen as problematic, so between patch 8.16/24 they hit his clear pretty hard. You could still play Aatrox jungle, but with your clear speed nerfed it made it so often times he wouldn't be able to get first gank and could easily be contested in his own jungle due to his semi-poor sustain from monsters. By the time you finished your first clear, the enemy jg already had the vision or made a gank that would put Aatrox behind. Last patch (9.2) they nerfed Aatrox's Q damage and E cool down, which I could understand, there were a lot of time in which landing a full combo could over kill the opponent or just deal way to much damage early. These nerfs aren't what you needed to fix him, but it appeased some of the people who complained about him.

However next patch is going to be the one that kills him, again. Not only is he losing an E charge, but he's also losing sustain off of monsters and minions, killing jungle Aatrox, and destroying most of Aatrox's early game means of trading and survival against ganks or ignite/poke champions. Removing 1 charge from Aatrox but lowering the cool down won't fix him, you're just going to increase how clunky he is, this is going to put him back to patch 8.13 all over again but before his hot fix, you know, when he was the worst rework of all time for being clunky and hard to trade with. The removal of a E charge is going to ruin the flow of his combos, destroy his trading, and cut his mobility in half, and the biggest issue I have is that it's not what you need to do if you want to fix him. This is just going to make him nonviable in every role.

What** I think** Aatrox** needs**, and what he deserves to keep him balance:

Aatrox has not 1, but 2 damage boosts in his kit. Why not simply remove his E damage boost? The worst thing about this is that it doesn't even need to exist, he has the highest base damage in the game, he can take sudden impact if he wants his dash to deal more damage. Why not make it so he heals 20% from his E at all ranks, but make it_ heal him for 40%_ of the damage he deals after casting his E? At least sustain like that would make him feel like old Aatrox .

If you want Aatrox to work as a good juggernaut, he needs to be able to front line like Darius, Garen or Illaoi, so how about instead of giving him ridiculously high damage ratios, you trade his Q's AD ratio by lowering it and increasing its base damage, this way people will stop building him full damage and actually try to play his as he was designed (A disrupting, team fighting, juggernaut). His AD ratios on his Q's (maxed rank) are 75/94/112.5%, but it's base damage is only 70/87.5/105 flat. So why wouldn't people build him full damage? If his Q ratios was something like (I'm just spit balling here) 55/70/85% AD ratio but the base was 95/135/175 damage, this way people will have the damage they need to build him as a front liner. If a rebalance like this would come through I could easily see people try to prioritize something like Spirit Visage item 3065 or Randuin's item 3143 on him instead of ~~ Youmuu's ~~item 3142

And if the balance team is really just** hellbent** on removing his E charge system and minion/monster sustain, then at least buff the healing you get from hitting champions, make it start at 25% healing then max at 30%, that way at least it's strong early but the same max rank, because in his current state he's just going to fall off anyways.

Closing Statement Understand I'm by no means someone you can call a real "Aatrox Main", but I've played the old Aatrox for a couple of patches before his rework and I had a lot of fun— however I played way more of him after his rework and enjoyed him way more. Aatrox was always a fun champion before and after his rework as he was rewarding to be good with (due to an advanced kit), forgiving if you made small mistakes (because of his sustain) and cool to play (he's just cool, he says edgy things and makes bad jokes). However this isn't Aatrox anymore, and if next patch goes through, Aatrox won't even be viable anywhere but maybe E sports or diamond+ (if even that).

9 Comments

Worst Morde NA1/31/2019, 3:14:19 AM3 votes

I feel sorry for Aatrox mains.

I picked him up before the rework, than he got reworked.

His rework is cool and all, but how Q keeps you from moving sucks. Now E can only used once, AND Q damage is lowered for a SECOND time?

This is why I stopped playing Aatrox, he sucks now

absentalexander11/31/2019, 4:23:02 AM3 votes

Not entirely..... at first glance at the aatrox rework I thought they gutted him, but it’s more of them buffing his late game and nerfing his laning phase, because he’s just that strong in Laning phase.

Now as an aatrox main, yes I am sad, but does that mean I will stop playing him? No, I mean he can still heal by attacking champions, and they buffed his regen growth triple fold, so your best bet is to buy a deaths dance early on for a major power spike. And for the E..... ok, it’s a pain to use in laning phase, especially when outmaneuvering the enemy. But E as we know it today, can only be used twice in a fight due to its recharge being so long. Now for the new E in patch 9.3, if you were to have 40% cooldown reduction, your dash would be on a 2.8s cooldown approximately, the only difference in gameplay this would make is just slow down your combos, which if you were focused in a fight, would be using that time to position yourself for the follow up.

What’s even better? You won’t be limited; you can just dash over, and over, and over, basically buffing his kiting in late game. I mean cmon, not like you don’t max E second, right?

iqpE3hdb1/31/2019, 1:35:32 PM3 votes

Riot must hate aatrox... :(

On My Kill List1/31/2019, 3:00:19 AM2 votes

your champ belongs in the gutter. get over it.

Nadiiro3/24/2019, 11:09:12 PM1 votes

I agree for the Q base damage increase and removal of the E AD boost .. but i guess they want us to be rewarded with higher damage when we redirect our Q using E (from the E AD boost ) but this is remarkable only if you have 2 charges of E .

so what they should've done is trade 1 E charge for healing even from minions and mosnters damage (which opens jungle Aatrox) or do the vice versa keep 2 charges and have us only heal from damage to champions.

Now the thing is that if Aatrox have only one charge i think they should consider giving his E some Range too , just by a tiny bit because sometimes ur E you save it for the 3rd Q to deal better damage but you find ur self dealing damage in almost melee range .

the actual E passive heal is like Rhaast's Passive but its not limited to ability damage only .. so i feel like Aatrox should have somewhat like a unique way to heal .. like the old Aatrox BloodLust where is healed for flat amount and it scaled out of AD (maybe to balance things out we should have him heal depending on the enemy he damaged or something like that ) and even forget the heal amplification(doubling the heal) when below 50% Health or maybe have him heal whenever he knocks up with his Q edge (knocks up champs only of course)

so imagine Aatrox having base damage so he doesn't have to build full AD Aatrox (so the bit of amount of AD he be building gonna make him sustain in lane ) and probably keep his 2 cahrges and AD boost (which makes him a juggernaut that has everything to help him lane and farm until he get all the tankiness he needs like darius and garen ) how about that like it mate ?

in conclusion :

Aatrox should feel more juggernauty by giving him more heal potential or non damage reliant heal , and have his 2nd E charge back so he can build tanky (higher or moderate ability base damage and lower Ratios) and focus on knocking up enemies and be a pain in the ass in the Top-Lane and even team fight by engaging and being more of an initiator

Fyrijou6/27/2019, 9:50:35 PM1 votes

Look, i am not a hardcore LoL gamer. I rareley play Ranked because i much rather play games for fun, rather then competetively. So i don‘t get the numbers and all that s**t. But i do notice drastic changes when i see them and i saw it with Aatrox‘s Ult nerf...

About his other abilities, i am ok with them. Sure, they feel kinda weaker, but you can adjust your playstyle with them since it wasn‘t too drastic. But his Ult thou... why „remove“ his revive ability from it??? I mean, to actually activate it, you have to first kill a Champion for it to work, which is useless in a 1 V 1 Situation or when you get ganked or Tower dive. His Ult was great for him, especially since before the rework, it was his passive. He could escape Ganks, he could survive Tower Dives, it was a decisive factor in 1 v 1 battles on lanes and you felt always safe with that Ult. But now, it‘s nearly useless...

I mean, Kleds passive is better than Aatrox’s ult right now. Shyvana‘s Ult not only makes her more Tanky and gives her more Damage, but she also gets a leap and added HP! Even Tryndamere‘s simple af ult is better than Aatrox‘s ult now, because none of them need to finish „requirements“ for the Ult to actually get the full potential. His Ult nerf wasn‘t necessary AT ALL, but Rito just shows once again that they know nothing about balance...