A possible Aatrox rework by someone who actually knows the champion. (Very large post.)
Riot has touched on the fact that Aatrox, who technically is still my main champion, doesn't really deliver on his promises of a demonic fighter, and I know everyone wants to see him that way. Some time ago, I created a possible rework for Aatrox that could change that. I main the champion, and I think I have some ideas that others, who don't play Aatrox, might not think of as easily. I would love to see some recognition for people that know the champions and know how to change them, so please, read the rework I thought of. It would also be great if my idea got considered for a possible rework. Hint Hint
This is what I came up with: (Damage and numbers and stuff is negotiable.)
Passive: "Hunt for Blood" Aatrox stores the blood from his opponent, to inflict damage. Every third consecutive attack feeds on the already inflicted damage, dealing bonus physical damage equal to 1/2/3/4%(+1% per 50 bonus ad) of the targets missing health (at lvls 1/6/11/16), and fills up his blood well with 1 stack of "Blood"(stacks up to 4 times). Each stack of blood increases this damage by the base damage (up to 5/10/15/20%(+1% per 10 bonus ad), and gives him 10% bonus attack speed. After being in combat with champions for at least 4 seconds, Aatrox' hunt becomes the only thing that matters. He refuses to die, and taking lethal damage instead puts him into a stasis, regenerating 30% of his max health over 4 seconds. (240/200/160/120 seconds cooldown, reduced by cooldown reduction) (at lvls 1/6/11/16). This buff ends after leaving combat with champions for 4 seconds.
Q: "Dark Flight" (14/13/12/11/10) seconds cooldown Aatrox flies into the air, becoming briefly untargetable (OR maybe, new mechanic: Dodges all ground-based abilities, for example Morgana's Tormented Soil). He then dives down, dealing 30/60/90/120/150 +(.6 x total AD) + 3% of Aatrox' max health physical damage in an area, stunning enemies in the center for 1 second, and pushing them to the edge of the center, while also slowing all enemies hit for 25/30/35/40/45% for 2 seconds
W: "Thrill of Carnage" (20/17/14/11/8) seconds cooldown after the buff expires Passive: Dealing damage to enemy champions marks them with "Bloodshed" for 5 seconds. Aatrox gains 20% bonus movement speed and ignores unit collision towards marked enemies.
Active: Aatrox targets a marked enemy champion and challenges them. He doubles the passive movement speed towards them, and heals for 10/15/20/25/30 + 2% of Aatrox' missing health every hit against the targeted champion for 4 seconds. Dealing damage to enemy champions resets the duration of this buff, and the passive blood gain is doubled.
E: "Swords to Plowshares" (10/9.5/9/8.5/8) seconds cooldown. Aatrox throws his sword in a line up to 800 units far, dealing 40/75/110/145/180 +(.7 x bonus AD) physical damage to all enemies it passes through. Aatrox then becomes "unarmed", gaining 100% bonus attack speed, but dealing 60/55/50/45/40% reduced damage to non-minions. After 4 seconds, he recalles his blade, dealing the same damage (40/75/110/145/180 +(.7 x bonus AD)) in a line, arming himself, and losing the "unarmed" debuff. If Aatrox gets close enough to his sword in this 4 seconds, he pulls it out of the earth, desecrating the earth in the process. This desecration spreads over 2 seconds in a large area, dealing 40/75/110/145/180 +(.7 x bonus AD) physical damage when it hits an enemy, and slowing all enemies on desecrated earth by 40% until they walk off of it.
(Aatrox gains his W: "Thrill of Carnage" passive bonus movement speed towards his sword, if it hit an enemy champion.)
R: "Massacre" (120/100/80) seconds cooldown Aatrox pulls out some of the blood from the enemies around him, dealing 200/300/400(+.2/.5/.8 bonus AD)(+1.0 AP) damage to all enemy champions around him. He uses this blood to his advantage for 10 seconds, doubling the damage from Passive: "Hunt for Blood" and increasing in champions size, gaining a shield for 5% of his max health for each enemy champion hit. Allied champions can now rally to him, gaining Aatrox' W: "Thrill of Carnage" passive bonus movement speed towards Aatrox and all enemies marked with "Bloodshed".
Ideas about how and why: Aatrox' current W: "Blood Thirst/Blood Price" is by far his most powerful ability, but not even remotely his most important for his identity. (This is either his Q or R). I decided in this rework to add "Blood Price" to his passive, and turn "Blood thirst", together with the current passive buff into his W. I also made a completely new E ability, since the current one feels clunky, which is weird, because it was super hyped up when released. (I know what you're thinking, look it up.) I also tried to give his abilities some internal synergy, so his W now works well with his E and R abilities, and some other combos I'll talk about later.
For his passive bonus damage, the current "Blood Thirst" animation would be appropriate. The "Blood Price" animation feels weird, as if he's knighting the enemy instead of murdering them.
The idea that his passive cooldown reduces with cooldown reduction was to make sure that it was always up if he absolutely needs it in the lategame. Waiting for 2 minutes after using it is way too long, with the constant fighting going on. Instead of flat out reducing the cooldown, this would push Aatrox to itemize cooldown reduction, which is already a decent pickup for him with this rework.
His current Q: "Dark Flight" feels decent, but good players can cancel it. It feels super strange to get cancelled by for example a Gragas E: "Body Slam" while mid-air. I would love to see him being able to dodge grounded abilities, but maybe this is too difficult to do, or maybe it doesn't give Aatrox enough counterplay. In either case, the current Q is decent. I believe the max health scaling seems appropriate, since he pretty much drops onto his opponents, so I reduced the AD scaling in favor of that. Also, dropping into a group of enemies really shouldn't knock them up, unless he lands on a trampoline, or maybe an allied Zac. The new Q should be more mathematically accurate.
The old W that gives on-hit heal or damage is no more. Instead, he can use his new W to sustain through fights, while maintaining his damage, you used to be forced to choose either one. It also got some nice utility, in the ability to maintain fights by running down an enemy. This can also be used in teamfights, to run down the immobile squishy in the backline. Since his survivability is quite decent, he can be quite effective to engage and try to kill the opponents backline.
His new E is called "Swords to Plowshares". (Notice not only the play on words, but also the historical background and accuracy. If you don't understand the history, please look it up, since it's actually really good.) Aatrox' only real ranged ability remains, but now it can be used in a lot of different ways: Use it to push a wave super easily, but Aatrox is slightly vulnerable during the push. You can use it on top of yourself, reducing the damage it deals, but giving a massive AOE slow. You can use it on top of an opponent and jump after it immediately for a great engage. You can even bluff all of these when the ability is up. Maybe there are some other great combos, but this is the general idea. Note that, in general, "Unarmed" is a debuff for Aatrox, because it's hard to make use of that much attack speed when the opponent is even remotely trying to kite you, and it should decrease his over-all damage.
His R: "Massacre" is already doing quite well as something a real Darkin would do: Dealing damage, and using it to better themselves. The only thing I missed on it, which was in his lore, was the ability to rally teammates to the cause. In the lore, these people were corrupted by it, but that's not something you can reasonably do in this game. I went for just a bonus movement speed buff, and not what I originally had (which included the entire W ability), to make sure Aatrox isn't overpowering everyone as an engager. It now also gives him inceased survivability, based around trying to do as much damage as possible
New Identity Aatrox has transformed. From a splitpushing damage dealer that relies on his passive to survive, he is now a teamfighting Juggernaut. Someone who wants to jump into the midst of battle, or more accurately, create the midst of battle. His damage scaling shouldn't be too massive, so an all-out damage build shouldn't be the main role anymore. Instead, I wanted to push a more tank-based damage dealer, that needs some damage to function, but can survive for very long. This is accentuated by the fact that Aatrox needs to survive for some time to allow him to revive again. His role in a team also changed. Aatrox used to be primarily a lane bully, outfighting most toplaners, and using this advantage to splitpush effectively. His teamfighting presence was limited, due to the difficult time he had against tanks, and mobile squishies. With this rework, Aatrox can itemize quite well into tank stats, due to some great damage and utility from his abilities, and he can turn the tides of any battle, with his survivability and sustained damage.
A new build for him could be: Black Cleaver -> Mercury Treads -> Guardian Angel -> Maw of Malmortius -> Dead Man's Plate -> Warmogs Armor, or in the jungle: Challenging Smite: Cinderhulk/Warrior/Bloodrazor -> Black Cleaver -> some of the items noted above. (As you might be able to tell, I'm a toplaner) In game, his earlygame got weakened a bit. Laning shouldn't be freefarm most of the time anymore, and he has reduced kill or dive pressure against most laners. Instead, he can set up ganks quite well with his new ultimate and slows, either when he is the laner, or when he is the ganker. This can get him ahead, or get his team ahead. After a couple of items, Aatrox should be quite tanky, so finding winnable fights should be somewhat easy. Fighting is something Aatrox should always pursue to get most out of his kit.
I would love to hear any changes people would make, with some reasoning behind it at least, so please, tell me. Also, for anyone who got this far, you're awesome, and I hope you've enjoyed reading this.
EDIT: Some of the numbers were increased, E became physical damage, and passive now stacks with the damage it deals, giving him back his blood well.
