Ideas for an Aatrox's rework - Help me out!
I really like
's concept, but I don't think it's well-represented in game.
His 3 main characteristics are:
1- He's a mysterious demonic figure that weilds a giant sword: check
2- His living weapon sustains him by draining the blood of his enemies: check
3- He shows up unexpectedly and leads weaker armies to victory over their enemies by increasing their violence and bloodlust: NOPE.
In game,
is played as a duelist/splitpusher and not as a teamfighting champion. That is my main issue and I don't really know how much it's shared in the community, therefore let me know your opinion!
Anyways, if we wanted to fix that, how could we possibly do it? Well, maybe we could give him a hard engage... but what about an aura buff? I know, I know, Riot's game designers aren't too fond of them because it's hard to identify and balance their value but this is just a concept I'm making for fun and I'm asking for your help (and your criticism too, the negative one is especially welcome!) to give it a realistic shape.
So, let's drop the bomb: what if
's ultimate buffed his allies and therefore buffed himself too?
Here's my idea: instead of giving him a self-buff, Massacre now buffs nearby allies in a ??? radius around Aatrox, granting them Bloodlust for ??? seconds. Champions affected by Bloodlust gain ??? bonus movement speed towards enemy champions, ??? bonus attack speed, ??? bonus cdr and their cdr cap is also increased by the same amount. If any of them scores a kill or assists Aatrox getting a kill while having the buff, their own buff duration is refreshed. If any of them leaves the Massacre aura around Aatrox, their own Bloodlust buff decays twice as fast. Until there are champions affected by Bloodlust inside Aatrox's Massacre aura, he gains the same Bloodlust buff and bonus attack range for an indefinite amount of time.
What do you think about it? I wanted the aura spell to be something that affects the entire team and puts every single player under the pressure to keep it going, simulating the frenzy of battle that
should bring on the battlefield. In my mind, it should feel like throwing a chunk of bloody meat inside a tank full of piranha.