Aatrox Vs. Thornmail - TLDR Buff Aatrox
Riot seems to give out buffs to champions who get crippled by item changes, be it their core items getting nerfed or items that (heavily) counter them. For example, if they nerfed Tri-Force and then buffed Jax to compensate. Then there's Aatrox. Somebody who builds a bunch of tank items to increase his healing, or go over the borderline and build a bunch of LS/damage to heal through that instead. If you do both Aatrox still feels insanely underwhelming against a opponent with Thornmail. Bramble Vest doesn't seem to bad to fight, but once they got Thornmail, that damage reflection really screws Aatrox a new one as his damage is really bad without items. Not helping is how cheap Thornmail is and how quickly it will be completed. With the tank meta being how it is, if Aatrox's lane opponent completes Thornmail, he is really unplayable. No matter what build path you will take, the tank champion with Thornmail will win.
Suggestions that will be ignored instantly: Give him some sort of innate armor pen. I'd say give him more power in his Hellbent as it is extremely underwhelming and even when somebody doesn't buy Thornmail, Aatrox already questionable to begin with. Here's what I think (which will be ignored because #aatroxmainsdontexistandiftheydotheycanwaitnextyear)
>Passive: Just increase the damage with how difficult it is to charge that shit up with Aatrox's non-existent AS. (UH YOU CAN JUST ULT FIVE PEOPLE AND FILL THE PASSIVE INSTAN- First off given they don't interrupt Aatrox's garbage Q, it is highly situational for 5 people to just cluster up like that) Make it %bonus AD. Because 25 AD at level 18 ain't anything Vs. Darius' 300 AD or Jax's fluid and not clunky 80% AS passive.
>Q: While Hellbent, if you manage to knock someone up, the CD is lower than usual (kind of like Fiora's Q but you need to land the knockup with Aatrox's Q and not just simply "hit something", in addition to being Hellbent to begin with).
>W: While Hellbent >Price- Increase the base damage so at least if you don't have Hellbent you at least have some damage out of it since just like Darius, with semi-reworked Aatrox, chances are Aatrox is building very tanky with very little damage (so you don't you explode). >Thirst- No problems here, just the many many items that invalidate it or outclass it
>E: While Hellbent, enemy champions hit will have their armor reduced by the slow % amount.
>R: While Hellbent and in combat with enemy champions, when Massacre's buff's natural cooldown is over, it will not expire until Hellbent is over.
===== = ===== For someone who gets buffed as a crutch until he gets his actual rework, getting his arms removed because of Thornmail isn't helping. That crutch doesn't mean anything if you have no arms to hold them with. ===== = ===== I posted all this since all the Aatrox mains seem MIA here and having him be ignored again is really annoying. Bruh, you "rework" him to keep him "relevant", then release a easy to build item that makes him irrelevant anyway.
But no seriously, Hellbent is hella useless for what it is suppose to be.
TLDR: Buff Hellbent, its garbage. 60% AS 7(+) seconds in, through a fight? Oh that sure is useful when everyone is already dead. Oh but 25% base AD how *insanely *wonderful. Meanwhile Darius gets 300 and has decent damage prior to successfully stacking Noxian Might. At least make is % of his bonus AD so if you build damage it actually causes damage to the enemy team and not your mental state. Bare in mind at level 18 that is ABOUT 25 AD. Early game it's even worse. Save our boi Aatrox.
