7.4 vs 7.5 FULL AATROX ANALYSIS & REVIEW + MATH

PMMEAATROXBUFFS·3/10/2017, 4:18:46 PM·83 votes·12,870 views

##Aatrox - The Darkin Blade

Brief Introduction
Over 300k on Aatrox, and I think these changes are very poor. Even Riot does as well to some extent with them mentioning it briefly on the boards. The new passive does not fit his kit and his ability to fill it at will, leaving him more vulnerable to repetitive deaths. He feasts less and famines more.

THIS IS A RATHER LENGTHY ANALYSIS, IF YOU WANT TO SEE SOMETHING RELATIVELY SHORTER, click here.

Cross Posts: r/AatroxMains r/leagueoflegends

DESIGN THEORY

In a meta where a tanks' combined team utility and survivability are nearly unparalleled, Aatrox could serve as an excellent pick into them and opponents that cannot burst him down effectively.

Practically every champion in the game has some form of respectable sustain nowadays, through combat skills, passives, core items syngergies, or runes and masteries like Warrior's Bloodlust and/or Grasp of the Undying. Hec..arim, even junglers have great sustain now with all jungle items {even the starting ones} giving decent sustain and the new watermelons that spawn.

Toplaners {a large chunk of them} take teleport, and so have access to a full fountain heal every 5 minutes, if anything. The goals for my Aatrox rework idea wants to solidify him has a lategame melee carry, with exploitable weaknesses and a weak early game, further tying into his theme and lore as someone who can turn a seemingly unwinnable situation into a full 180.

Misconceptions about Aatrox

For the most of you that do not play Aatrox, our abilities having health costs isn't something that actually affects us all too much. So I don't understand why this was deemed such an unhealthy component from non-Aatrox players enough so that by removing it, it would shift his power budget to be "sufficient justification" to subsequently nerf his healing.

Pre-nerf Aatrox actually had a fairly fantastic <50% sustain mechanism, with either common lifesteal items {BotRK + RH}, crit items {Shiv / PD + IE}, tank items {gg'rot, sv} negating or helping us get back the health we lost. I have calculated the combinations of the QE combo and determined:

Q -> E Combo:
1983 - (10% x 1983) = 1784.7
1784.7 - (5% x 1784.7) = 1695.465
1983 - 1695.465 = 287.535
287.535 / 1983 = 0.145 -> 14.5%

By my calculations, 287.535 is actually 14.5% of Aatrox's current health, not 15%. This is bigly important. Anyways, if pre-nerf Aatrox with BotRK, RH, and Runic Armor had just used his QE combo onto an enemy with 2000 HP {the avg lvl 18 HP} he would steal:

Natural Talent
23.76% x 225 = +53.46 HP
8% x 2000 = 160
23.76% x 160 = +38.016 HP
53.46 + 38.016 = +91.476
287.535 - 91.476 = 196.059
91.476 / 287.535 = 0.31%

Vampirism
25.92% x 215 = +55.728 HP
8% x 2000 = 160
25.76% x 160 = +41.216 HP
250 + (60% x 100) = 310
(2 / 3)% x 310 = +2.066 HP
215 + (60% x 100) 275
(2 / 3)% x 275 = +1.833 HP
55.728 + 41.216 + 2.066 + 1.833 = 100.843
287.535 - 100.843 = 186.692
100.843 / 297.535 = 0.33%

33% of the original health cost healed. That's ONE THIRD of the health costs negated simply through the FIRST auto attack after a pre-nerf Aatrox engages with QE with Vampirism as opposed to Natural Talent.

7.4 - Pre-nerf Aatrox, "Literally Unplayable" -reddit sillyheads xD

Assuming Aatrox is level 18 with no AD runes, and with BotRK and Hydra, voted best and the most popular damage items for Aatrox top:

No Fervor OR Natural Talent
Q: 250 + (60% x 100) = 310 phys dmg
W: 200 + (100% x 100) + 115 = 415 phys dmg
E: 215 + (60% x 100) = 275 magic dmg
TOTAL: 1000 dmg

Natural Talent
Q: 250 + (60% x 110) = 316 phys dmg
W: 200 + (100% x 110) + 115 = 425 phys dmg
E: 215 + (60% x 110) = 281 magic dmg
TOTAL: 1022 dmg

Fervor
Q: 250 + (60% x 164) = 348.4 phys dmg
W: 200 + (100% x 164) + 115 = 479 phys dmg
E: 215 + (60% x 164) = 313.4 magic dmg
TOTAL: 1146.8 dmg

Fervor & Natural Talent
Q: 250 + (60% x 174) = 354.4 phys dmg
W: 200 + (100% x 174) + 115 = 489 phys dmg
E: 215 + (60% x 174) = 319.4 magic dmg
TOTAL: 1162.8 dmg

7.5 - Post-nerf Aatrox, "Playable Aatrox" -reddit sillyheads xD

Assuming Aatrox is level 18 with no AD runes, and with BotRK and Hydra, voted best and the most popular damage items for Aatrox top:

No Fervor OR Natural Talent
Q: 120 + (110% x 230) = 373 phys dmg
W: 150 + (75% x 115) + 115 = 351.25 phys dmg
E: 230 + (70% x 115) = 310.5 phys dmg
TOTAL: 1034.75 dmg

Natural Talent
Q: 120 + (110% x 240) = 384 phys dmg
W: 150 + (75% x 125) + 115 = 358.75 phys dmg
E: 230 + (70% x 125) = 317.5 phys dmg
TOTAL: 1060.25 dmg

Fervor
Q: 250 + (60% x 294) = 443.4 phys dmg
W: 150 + (75% x 179) + 115 = 399.25 phys dmg
E: 215 + (60% x 179) = 355.3 phys dmg
TOTAL: 1197.95 dmg

Fervor & Natural Talent
Q: 250 + (60% x 304) = 454.4 phys dmg
W: 150 + (75% x 189) + 115 = 406.75 phys dmg
E: 215 + (60% x 189) = 362.3 phys dmg
TOTAL: 1223.45 dmg

Blood Rush
Q: 250 + (60% x 258.75) = 405.25 phys dmg
W: 150 + (75% x 115) + 143.75 = 380 phys dmg
E: 215 + (60% x 115) = 310.5 phys dmg
TOTAL: 1095.75 dmg

Fervor, Blood Rush & Natural Talent
Q: 120 + (110% x 332.75) = 486.025 phys dmg
W: 150 + (75% x 189) + 143.75 = 435.5 phys dmg
E: 215 + (60% x 189) = 362.3 phys dmg
TOTAL: 1283.825 dmg

"Literally Unplayable" vs "Playable Aatrox"

No Fervor or Natural Talent
7.4 vs 7.5 = 1000 -> 1034.75 = +3.47%^

Natural Talent
7.4 vs 7.5 = 1022 -> 1060.25 = +3.74%^

Fervor
7.4 vs 7.5 = 1146.8 -> 1197.95 = +4.46%^

Fervor & Natural Talent
7.4 vs 7.5 = 1162.8 -> 1223.45 = +5.21%^

Blood Well vs Blood Rush
7.4 vs 7.5 = 1000 -> 1095.75 = +9.575%^

As you can see, the initial burst from the engage is on average 4% higher, but the passive attack speed removal + nerf and W nerfs hurt his DPS significantly; after all, he is a DPS basic attack champ. Not an AD Bruiser melee caster. They tried to turn him into a Warwick, but failed.

Stats:

Health: 537.8-1983 (+85) -> 586-1861 (+75)
Health Regen: 6.59-15.1 (+0.5) -> 6.06-14.56 (0.6)
Movement Speed: 345 -> 330

##Blood Well & Blood Rush

They removed the old passive attack speed from blood well {+0.30 - +0.55% attack speed} in exchange for relegating it to a windowed attack speed and base AD "steroid" that's arguably worse than it previously was before. The reason I say worse is because not only does it give you LESS... attack speed {20/30/40/50 %}, you do not even benefit from the base AD steroid {which albeit is pretty shit in itself by the way} because the 2/3 spells you have scale off of BONUS AD, not base.

The only benefit you get from the steroid is in your auto attacks and your Q, Dark Flight - but you engage with your Q, so it's impractical to have it buffed by something that you use at the start of your rotation and likely won't have up again to fit in another time. It would be better if you could siphon the Blood Rush steroid into power you can then exert through Blood Price, instead of just his auto-attacks.

Another important thing to know is that Blood Rush does not refresh on minions, monsters, epic monsters or towers. This means that Aatrox can no longer splitpush reliably compared to his already unreliable splitpush capabilities. Using his spells leave him extremely vulnerable to being immediately caught out and killed without a revive passive. It is also impossible to jungle with him, since he has no passive attack speed to kill monsters effectively. Both W's are also weaker, so he sustains lower than what Dong Huap was already incorrect in saying was never going below "half health."

His Blood Rush passive is very gimmicky and poor, a true shadow of it's former self. You get +25% Base AD {15 - 28.75} and {20/30/40/50 %} attack speed plus the 180/160/120 second cooldown revive. It's important to note that you only get to revive if you have Blood Rush active, because it falls off after 4 of depleting. Fervor stacks last longer. Guinsoo's Rageblade lasts longer. Not only that but you gave him a windowed steroid that's weaker than a non-windowed steroid??.. The attack speed from pre 7.4 only matches 7.5 Aatrox at level 7.

I have noticed that if Aatrox does die with his revive active, he can possibly still revive in time to refresh the Blood Rush and continue to sustain or finish off his opponents. And while that's appreciated, his W stacks still fall off after reviving, which I've noticed could've saved me from a fair amount of deaths. Not only has his revive been done so, so so poorly, {seriously, reusing guardian angel effects? You couldn't even change the color or anything?} there is now TWO prerequisites to his revival rather than just one.

All in all this passive was very unprofessionally handled and pretty embarrassingly at that. You took almost the exact concept from Vladimir, a spell caster and tried to slap it onto a melee auto-attacker who inherently has a more difficult time sticking to opponents. It's almost like a worse Gnar-Bar, because at least Gnar is viable out of Mega-Gnar form.

It should be buffed by allowing each skill to contribute 25% OR Dark Flight contributing 40%. Either way, it needs to last longer and not drop off so quickly. If you get hit by one CC ability or even a slow you won't be able to refresh your Blood Rush. This needs to be buffed or completely removed. The rest of my suggestions apply to 7.4 Aatrox, building from there and not from 7.5, with still some reflection upon the 7.5 changes if you chose to again, not listen to us and keep it.

##Dark Flight

Overall buff, yet nothing was done about his long cooldown times and rampant bugs in this very clunky spell. I do not think it should be telegraphed. It is already easy to dodge just by walking, can be interrupted, and has more than half a second of cast time to react to {0.3 rise, 0.3 flight}; which; for high level players, or any champion with a dash, is a pretty long time.

Speaking of a long time, 16 - 12 seconds for a simple engage / disengage is unacceptable for what Dark Flight offers when you have champions like Camille that hold your hand and guide you to locking on to your opponents on a 16 - 10 second cooldown... with her incorporating cooldown reduction into her build regularly. I also think that if you were to incorporate my Q and E ideas, you use the 7.4 versions, as the 7.5 versions would too overloaded.

Besides that, a lot of CC, including knockups are NOT being telegraphed to the enemies nowadays. Malphite's ultimate, Yasuo's tornado, Riven's third Q, etc. I think it's very inconsistent to have some champions that have telegraphed CC, meanwhile others do not. What ever happened to clarity?

Q: Dark Flight:
Health Cost: 10% current health
Cooldown: 16/15/14/13/12 -> 18/16/14/12/10

Aatrox's flight portion of his Dark Flight renders Aatrox untargetable and can no longer be interrupted, however the rising part still can be interrupted.

First Cast:
Aatrox ascends into the air, gaining 8% movement speed for 4 seconds and ignoring unit collision. Dealing or receiving damage disables this movement speed and puts Dark Flight on cooldown. Aatrox uses his Ghost animation for this animation.
Second Cast:
Aatrox descends to the ground, knocking up enemies in the epicenter. Enemies hit by the outer ring are now slowed by 30% for 1 second, but are dealt 50% less damage.
Hold:
Aatrox ascends into the air and dashes to the target area, knocking up enemies in the epicenter {current version}

##Blood Thirst & Blood Price

I don't know why you felt it was necessary to buff the aspects of Aatrox to make his spells stronger then go and nerf the bread and butter of his kit, his Blood Price & Thirst. It was entirely unnecessary, and is not cohesive with the rest of his kit. Blood Thirst & Price is weaker in every aspect possible, despite the latter not costing health anymore.

I find a large part of the problems with Aatrox come from people that look too much at his numbers and derive that he is killing himself more than he actually is. The maximum tank items you should be building on Aatrox is two; namely, Spirit Visage and Randuin's Omen, or Guardian Angel and Zz'Rot Portal.

The reason why full damage Aatrox players like u/coolkipp {diamond aatrox main, crittrox originator} can get away with building full damage is because their heal synergizes with all of the bonus AD they are building and so do. Not only that but like most Skirmisher's like Tryndamere and Fiora, Aatrox has one very powerful defensive tool, his revive. {You can sometimes use your ult to scare people away but this will probably only work in lane}

To be quite honest, you could've simply allowed Aatrox to apply lifesteal through Blood Price or his spells and a large portion of his (what people that don't play Aatrox consider a problem) health cost problem negated if you thought it was such a huge deal. Also, his Blood Thirst is now WORSE believe it or not when below 50%.

Typically, you would use Blood Price above 50% and Blood Thirst while below 50%. Of course I say typically because it's entirely feasible a situation would arise where you would be better off outright killing your opponents before they killed you / popped your passive than trying to sustain through the impending finishing blows. Now, it's more worth it to use Blood Thirst above 50% and top off on your health than it is to do it while below. Again, gimmicky, incohesive and clunky.

It's also quite depressing that you're trying to shoehorn Aatrox into a bruiser archetype with the shift to 5% Missing Health, and not a scaling relative to AD. You would have to have 3000 MISSING HEALTH to heal even remotely closely to what Aatrox could regularly heal prior to this pitiful rework

7.5
90 + (5% x 3000 = 240) vs

7.4
120 + (25% 174) = +163.5 HP
25.92% x 274 = +71.0208 HP
8% x 2000 = 160
25.92% x 160 = +41.472 HP
163.5 + 71.0208 + 41.472 = +275.9928 HP

I really don't understand what Riot finds so hard about making drain-tank kits when you made Warwick a infinitesimal amount of times much better drain-tank than Aatrox ever was or is.

W: Blood Price / Blood Thirst:

Allow Aatrox to toggle between Blood Thirst and Blood Price while in his stasis and under crowd control effects, as it cancels your subsequent Blood Thirst/Price attack if its animation has already started; and on someone with relatively high attack speed and a <50% HP sustain mechanism, this aspect is very often crucial to survival.

Aatrox's Blood Thirst heal is now doubled when under 50% rather than tripled, but now tripled when under 25%.

##Blades of Torment

While the damage on Blades of Torment has been increased, it has shifted from pure magical damage to pure physical damage. This is half of the reason why tanks were such an easy matchup for Aatrox. Not only could he sustain better than them during the lane, extended trades and all-ins - he could also harass them with something they would be unlikely to itemize for in the start of the match.

While this does allow Aatrox to finally somewhat benefit from building Black Cleaver and Death's Dance, it comes at the cost of the E damage falling off severely lategame after everyone's build adjusts and is ready for all of the physical damage Aatrox outputs. This isn't really too bad, but since you have nerfed his main source of damage {auto-attacks}, it's not as appreciable of a buff than what people claim it to be.

I would appreciate it if it did mixed damage instead of physical, so I can wholly benefit from building items that would indicate I've gotten hit across the head a few dozen times, like Guinsoo's and Gunblade. Another possible addition would be an armor shred component on his E. I've seen it mentioned a couple of times, and thought it to be a rather interesting tool to help him stay relevant against tanks that would hold the upper hand against him lategame in a teamfight scenario.

E: Blades of Torment
Health Cost: 5% current health
Cooldown: 12/11/10/9/8 -> 14/12/10/8/10

Aatrox unleashes two converging dark waves of energy in the target direction, dealing increasing magic damage to all units hit and slowing them by -30/35/40/45/50 % according to the quadrant of the blade they are hit by, for 1.75/2.0/2.25/2.50/2.75 seconds. Enemies {including monsters} struck by the dark energy are marked: "Tormented" for the same duration of the slow. Aatrox's next empowered Blood Price strike against a tormented target will cause the enemy to flee away from Aatrox for 0.75 seconds. Aatrox's next empowered Blood Thirst strike against a tormented target will heal Aatrox additionally (by a lil bit).

Dialogue when fearing an enemy:

"Cut the courage from them."
"Teach them them fear us."

##Massacre

R: Massacre

Instant Cast

Aatrox draws in the blood of his foes, dealing {200/300/400 -> 125/250/375 + 100% AP} magic damage to nearby champions and filling his Blood Well by 20% {33% on Twisted Treeline} of its maximum value for each enemy champion hit. Each champion kill in any version of Massacre mode extends the duration of Massacre by 8/10/12 seconds and reduces the cooldown of Dark Flight and Blades of Torment by 2 seconds.

R: Bloody Massacre

Hold

Aatrox thrusts his mighty sword into the ground and kneels, while beginning a channel for 3 seconds, desecrating the earth around him. When the channel is complete, Aatrox reveals his true form, terrifying all nearby enemy champions within 550 units away from him for 1 second and dealing bonus magic damage based on how full his Blood Well is {Blood Well % x 1-100} magic damage. Aatrox expunges all of the blood in his Blood Well and gains bonus attack speed and attack range for 12 seconds.

R: Turning the Tides

When in revive

Aatrox can now use his ultimate within the first second of entering his stasis, like Karthus can, however its components {damage, attack range and speed} will only be applied after his 3 second revival is completed. {As a visual queue, a sanguine-crimson chroma stretches from Aatrox to all nearby enemy champions within 550 units, like so that looks like Yoricks Maiden's auto-attacks, and the area to be affected is telegraphed like Varus' ultimate.}

Aatrox's sword violently drains the life source from nearby enemy champions, healing himself additionally. If Aatrox reaches full health the life source is siphoned into nearby his allies, prioritizing low health allies first. Aatrox's allies also gain 10% additional movement speed and UP TO 2% Life Steal and Spell Vamp based upon % missing health for 12 seconds.

Aatrox then erupts in a violent bloody explosion, knocking back any nearby enemies to the outer limit of his ultimate's blast range. If enemies are hit into terrain they are stunned for 0.5 seconds. Aatrox does not gain any blood into his blood pool by casting his ultimate while in his stasis form.

Dialogue:

Laugh -> "Now we turn the tide."
"True warriors are born in blood."

Lore

Solidify his lore, specifically, his relations with other champions. For someone who is currently contesting the title of the oldest {vs Anivia} champion, and easily one the strongest champion in all of League of Legends, it's very lame that the only lore relation he has is to a splitpushing toplane zombie piece of shit aka tryndamere.

He's been to Shurima, he's been in Demacia, hell, he's even been in Noxus. And I'm deadset on believing he had something to do with Darius' essentially 1v9 with Demacia; especially with him arguably being present within Darius' original splash art. That and there are multiple references to him that Ezreal discovered within Noxus that portray him in a positive light. He's even engraved within the stone tablets on Summoners Rift ffs and yet he's dogshit in game.

One thing that should persist if his lore gets an update is Aatrox's enigmatic personality. Some things should just remain in a grey area with Aatrox I feel, seeing as he comes in, changes the tides of battle, and is never to be seen again. Too much certainty in his story would tarnish it, but him only being associated with Tryndamere when he's been in practically every large-scale war is undoubtedly pathetic.

Didn't want to go overboard, since Aatrox is a pretty grim and apathetic character, but here are some quotes and interactions I made up.

Taunting an Enemy Tryndamere:
"I will show you fear, Tryndamere."
"Let fear become fury, Tryndamere."
"A slaughter? No, this is my masterpiece."

Fearing an enemy Darius:
"I do not tolerate cowardice."

Taunting an Enemy Vladimir:
"True warriors were born in blood, not bathed in it."

Pentakill:
"Violence is elegance."
"War reveals what is within us."

When enemy team surrenders:
"Honor will not save them."

##Closing

I don't think the designers that worked on Aatrox should ever work on Aatrox or any champion at all if they are so hellbent on not understanding the champion even at the bare minimum; and not taking constructive criticism through either responses on the boards or twitter, like they did with Aatrox. It's been over two years with a plethora of suggestions and FREE ideas ripe for picking, and all they could muster up was this? Warwick got better. Much better.

It's a very frustrating experience when you get someone that has the power to dictate how your champion is going to now be played yet not even adhering as to how it compares from the people that play him/her the most. The designers did not respond at all and just ignored our attempts at dialogue and rushed it out the door to boot. Those of us who DID receive PBE Access reported that no PBE feedback was even considered. As a result, his kit now is still incohesive, clunky and feels very incomplete.

New Skins

Blood Prince Aatrox {Reference to a Dremora Lord from The Elder Scrolls}
Blood Lord Aatrox {Reference to Lord Harkon from The Elder Scrolls, continuation off of Vladimir's Blood Lord skin line}
Demonblade Aatrox {Continuation off of Tryndamere's skin, since Aatrox's weapon is already considered a living weapon}
Soul Reaver Aatrox {Reference to Draven, how their personalities are both ones that place an artistic value on slaughter}
Eternum Aatrox {Continuation off the Eternum skinline, where Aatrox is more of a symbol of timeless, eternal strife and warfare}
Underlord/Soulstealer Aatrox {Illidan Stormrage reference}
Sea Hunter Aatrox Chromas {Sea Here}