@Riot The Darkin Blade: Ideas on how to fix Aatrox's lacking late game.

Heyo, I am a player of the Old and New Aatrox. Played the old one really well despite it being a slightly dumbed down kit compared to New Aatrox. I've been keeping up to date with the talks about Aatrox lately, which is: Why is his late game lacking when he's suppose to be strong in the late game? Well i've figured it out and how to fix it, kinda. You see, I can't say this is 100% the correct way, but more like ideas to throw out to at least generate discussion to come down to the right decision.

The Problems: So, the current problem with Aatrox right now is that he's very oppressive in most lane matchups in the early game. This is because a lot of power is invested into his passive, q's, and his sustain in the early game. The healing was addressed since release (33% effective on minions). As for the passive or q, nothing has been done to them to notably shift power. This is why that around mid and late game, others start to begin outdamaging you by a lot. By not shifting power, he can't fulfill the archetype of bruiser given to him, which is tank with sustain and be disruptive in the front line. He proves no threat in the late game, all he becomes is a cc bot.

His ult isn't useful other than it is his old passive and a AD buff. The MS is unusable in combat, meaning you cant chase down targets. That's fine considering if the fact is he's supposed to be immobile outside of his e. All the R does currently is fear minions, grant Out of Combat movespeed, and give AD. Massacre gave him AOE damage on cast, AS, and extra auto range. There's a clear difference.

The other issue is the fact his healing is gated on how much damage he DEALS, not his missing hp. Considering that, he cant duel someone who can do good chunk amounts of damage, but also possesses a heal kill item, which is anyone who isn't a support considering we live in a meta of healkill and damage. I've found it more likely you dont even get your R revive or it gets popped immediately, and the healing just doesn't keep you alive at all. Old Aatrox could come out of Blood Well and surprise people who didn't think things out.

The Solutions

First off, these are ideas. Meaning if there is a better way, do mention it. They all dont need to be used at the same time, considering if all were implemented, he might become really strong or not. The goal is stronger late, so I believe these work.

The passive should do less damage early, more late. Example would be instead of doing 8 - 16% (based on level) of the targets max hp, it should be 4 - 20%. That way it does less early, but is much more prevalent late game. Also maybe have each skill point in R reduce Deathbringer's cd. So instead of static 25 second, it goes 24 / 20 / 16 (24 to round with the even 2 sec cdr per spellcast or edge hit).

Nerf his early AD scaling on Q, normalize it around midgame, and buff late game more. An example of that would be from 64 / 68 / 72 / 76 / 80% AD to 56 / 64 / 72 / 80 / 88% AD.

(Proto idea, but mainly to be a thing to make every skill in the kit addressed) W slow is increased from 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35% to 30% (or 25%) all ranks.

For E, considering his heal is from 20% to 25%, increased by 1.25 per skill point (and also only heals for post mitigation damage) it should stay that way, but adds a heal effect for 6% missing hp all ranks , but only works on champions. That way if he ends up staying this spell slinger, he can be frontline like he should be and tanking hits while being disruptive. The counters to it is cc, burst, and of course, healkill. Simple, right? So instead of being 20 / 21.25 / 22.5 / 23.75 / 25% post-mitigation-physical damage, it becomes 20 / 21.25 / 22.5 / 23.75 / 25% + 6% Missing Health post-mitigation-physical damage. Something like that.

As for the R, World Ender should do one of three things along side losing 2.5 % AD off of the ult buff early, and gaining 2.5% late: Idea 1- Lose half of the MS and the fear is scrapped for increased auto range (+50, doesn't stack with Deathbringer's Stance) and AS. Idea 2- loses half of the ms and fear time but gains half of the ms in combat and increased auto range (+50, doesn't stack with Deathbringer's Stance). Idea 3- Loses the fear for % increased health and AS. The stating of these things will look something like this:

Idea 1: 17.5 / 22.5 / 27.5% AD Bonus, 60 / 90 / 120 Bonus Movement Speed, +50 Auto Range (Doesn't stack with Deathbringer's Stance), 25 / 35 / 45% Attack Speed.

Idea 2: 17.5 / 22.5 / 27.5% AD Bonus, 60 / 90 / 120 Bonus Movement Speed (Gains half in combat), +50 Auto Range (Doesn't stack with Deathbringer's Stance), Fears Minions for 1.5 seconds.

Idea 3: 17.5 / 22.5 / 27.5% AD Bonus, 5 / 10 / 15% Bonus Health, 25 / 35 / 45% Attack Speed.

The Conclusion

As it stands right now, Aatrox's ideals of being a good late game champ hardly exist. With some of these changes being added in, it could help reshape him back into the late game bruiser he was meant to be. Something has to be done, not immediately, but over time to slowly get him there without breaking the game in his favor. I hope others agree with some of these ideas or have better ones to share and hopefully changes get addressed sooner or later. By, A fan of Aatrox and bruisers like him.

Credit to the League of Legends Wikia for having the current stats and scalings for Aatrox's Abilities viewable outside the game.