My ideas for an Aatrox rework

theracody·9/16/2016, 6:52:47 AM·2 votes·405 views

Wasn't sure where to post this, so I figured champion concepts would work alright. Okay, so I haven't been especially active playing league for a few months, and as a result I'm not entirely certain what the power levels of a majority of champions are right now. That said, the discussion about an Aatrox rework got me inspired, so I figured I'd chip in a few ideas and see if it could get some discussion on it. Now, it's my understanding that Aatrox is intended to be a diving fighter for initiation, and a powerful force in longer-term duels and skirmishes. As he is, he clearly doesn't do that too well. I feel like one of the things that really hampers Aatrox is the fact that he needs to be balanced around his Blood Well from the very beginning of the game. We tend to see this from revival passives. They tend to be on relatively weak early game characters, because otherwise they'd just be ridiculous. That being said, here is the main idea I set up in a half hour.

Passive- Blood Well Aatrox thrives in the heat of battle, filling his blood well with the health cost of his abilities and by attacking enemies. When empty, Aatrox gains no additional effects and may not activate his ultimate. The blood well grants aatrox armor and magic resistance per percentage of the blood well filled. His health regeneration is also increased based on the percentage of the blood well, beginning once it passes 50%.

Q- Dark Flight Aatrox flies high into the air, becoming untargetable at his peak. Reactivating the effect makes aatrox quickly slam down on a target location, causing damage and applying a slow to enemy champions hit. Enemies in the epicenter of the collision are knocked up briefly, and take a small amount of bonus damage. (Damage scales AD) If not reactivated, aatrox falls back to the ground, losing a percentage of his blood well(scaling with ability level), in return for longer invulnerability.

W- Blood Price- Toggle Aatrox draws on the strength of his fallen foes, granting him a guaranteed critical strike every second (or third, if we’re continuing that joke)auto attack, draining 10% of his blood well per critical strike. If his blood well is completely full, activating this effect grants aatrox a large movement speed boost when moving toward enemy champions. Enemies affected by Aatrox’s E will also take a percentage of their maximum health as bonus magic damage(scaling with AD based on the level of Blood Price).

E- Jaws of Defeat Aatrox slices in a semicircle in front of him(short channel), slowing enemies hit and reducing their armor by a flat amount(scaling with ability level). If the blood well is full, this ability stuns the first champion struck, and increases the armor reduction for all champions hit. (Damage would scale AD)

R- Darkin War Cry Aatrox expends the contents of his blood well to empower himself and nearby allies for 6/8/10 seconds. The strength normally given by Blood Well(Passive) is increased by (percentage of expended blood well), as well as greatly increasing his attack speed and damage(scaling with ability level). Nearby allies are granted 5/10/15 movement speed, 10/15/20% increased attack speed, 5% Cooldown reduction(ignoring CDR cap), and a 100/150/200 health shield. (Alternatively, it could just be buffs to spellvamp and lifesteal, instead of one of the aforementioned effects.) If aatrox is slain during the duration of this buff, he enters a stasis, restoring 10/15/20% of his maximum HP over 3 seconds. If Aatrox enters stasis as a result of this effect, the buff falls off immediately for all affected champions.

Now, I've avoided adding too many numbers in there, this is obviously incredibly vague as far as that goes. I specifically want to highlight the E. If nothing else, I feel like that would be a reasonable addition to his kit as it is on live. His e in its current state is...underwhelming, to say the least. Given that Aatrox thrives in duels, but is also a big initiator, I didn't want it to heavily favor either of those playstyles. Obviously, its full effect is strong against a single target. That effect can also be played around in teamfights, perhaps with the support attempting to block the beginning of the slash. It may not have been clear, but I envision this effect similar to Smite's Chang'e. She has an ability called Crescent Moon Dance, which has an effect which sweeps over the target area quickly, but not immediately. Essentially, the visual for Jaws of Defeat would be somewhat similar to that.

I also like the R a bit more than his current one. While the buffs would probably differ if this did become a focus of the rework, I do feel that a buff to allies is an important part of Aatrox's kit, based on his lore, which he lacks. With this version of his ult, he could be more like a flagship than a destroyer. If that makes sense. The rest of the kit (Passive Part 1, Q, W?) is relatively minor, and could probably be ignored. I just figured I'd want to go all the way while I was so inspired.

Of course, if you want to play less supportive, he has his solo strengths as well. His crits can allow for a full-damage build more easily, while his ult lets you use it alone without feeling too bad about it.

As I stated in the opening, I also feel Aatrox's revive passive is a tough cookie to balance around, so I figured that instead, if he's taken down at his peak strength he could come back. Makes a bit more sense, and also allows him to be stronger in the early game, if need be. Anyway, yeah! I seriously don't mind any feedback on this and if a Red notices, I wouldn't mind your thoughts as well!

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