[REWORK CONCEPT] Aatrox, The War Bringer

So, I got really revved up when Kayn/Raast was announced and their specific 'transformation' methodology revealed. It spoke to a really cool split process of gameplay fantasy, but even more than that it helped clearly define, in my head anyway, what the darkin actually were.

At first glance, Raast seems to be a lot like Aatrox if you only take the surface meaning of his various voice lines - he wants you to fight, he wants people to get hurt, etc. But he actually wants death, specifically, whereas Aatrox wants war. Aatrox's perfect vision is a world constantly enthralled in endless wars, which is why he (it, really) has gone about the world attempting to inspire war in the hearts of various people who sought the strength to fight.

I got this idea in my teeth that, since Raast either is or is in the scythe wielded by Kayn, then Aatrox either is or actually lives in the spine-sword-whip thing that he uses. I know the original treatments talked about how his weapon should seem more like a living thing, like the weapon is hungering, and what not, so that helps reinforce the idea that the evil/power lives inside the sword.

And then it occurred to me, hey, we buy swords in League of Legends all the time. I mean, -- there's a lot of swords.

Then I looked closely at the image of Death's Dance:

There's an eyeball in that there blade's crossguard.

So what if Aatrox is an item in the shop?

Hear me out, now, but the basic idea is that when you pick Aatrox, you spawn into the game and have an item kind of like the Black Spear, except it's called The Blood Pact. You offer it to someone, and if they accept, they can then buy The Darkin Blade from the store.

The Darkin Blade is a scaling starting item. It would look something like this:

The Darkin Blade (x)g [[Thinking something like 350, but maybe 400 makes more sense.]] +12 AD (+4 growth) +40 HP (+1.17 growth) +10% healing and regeneration in combat (+0.88% growth) Unique Passive - Thirst for War: Dealing damage to enemies empowers this blade, increasing its power. 10% of the damage dealt to enemies by champions bound by a Blood Pact is recorded by this sword as experience (half for ranged characters).

Deal (per level XP threshold * 10) total damage to enemies to increase the power of this weapon. Damage dealt to enemy champions or large monsters counts for 200%. [At level one, deal 2800 damage to enemies (or 1400 if attacking champions or large monsters]] to increase this sword's level.

At level 2, you'd have to deal an additional damage worth 10x level 3's experience mark. So on and so forth. The more you fight champions, the faster the sword powers up.

The neat thing is that it's all champions "Bound by a Blood Pact," which includes whoever has the weapon and Aatrox. There becomes a world where Aatrox support is a thing.

When Aatrox reaches level 6, the sword gains a new property:

Unique Passive - Reborn in Blood: Aatrox can merge with you, enhancing your capabilities and statistics with his own. For the next (x / y / z) seconds, Aatrox becomes untargetable and invulnerable as he inhabits you, granting you 40% of his bonus AD from items, all passive effects from his kit and items, and allowing him to activate certain items, abilities, or summoner spells as though originating from and/or targeting you.

Then there's the abilities... I'm of the opinion that Dark Flight is kinda crap, but I'm open to the idea that's wrong. I presented a different kind of Q here that I think satisfies a few things that Aatrox wants to do.

** Q - Three-Pronged Assault** > Aatrox empowers his next three attacks, granting them bonus range and causing them to deal damage in a line drawn from him to his target. The first empowered attack slows his target, the second attack deals [x] bonus physical damage based on Aatrox's missing health, and the third restores [y] health for each enemy it hits (to a cap).

Suggested Numbers: Total Range: 250 Slow: 70% decaying over 2 seconds. Bonus Damage: 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 (+15% bonus AD) to 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 (+60% Bonus AD) Heal: 5% of missing health.

Three-Pronged Assault is a nod to the fact that Aatrox's weapon has 3 blades, and also that he basically has 3 things he wants to do - hit an enemy, slow them, and heal himself. I put it forth that these don't need to be separate abilities. 3-hit wind-ups feel fun as heck on Mordekaiser, can't believe this would be any different, plus it gives him slightly more AoE without taking away his AA focused style.

W - The Blood Well Passive:** Aatrox's spell hits fill his blood well. When the blood well is full, Aatrox or his host become Empowered, gaining 30 - 50% (based on level) additional attack speed, and your attacks heal you for [x amount of Total AD]. Each time he or his host damages an enemy champion after becoming empowered, the Blood Well will refill completely.

If Aatrox or his host is reduced to 0 hit points while the Blood Well is full, they will be placed into stasis and regenerate [8 / 10 / 12 / 14 / 16% maximum health] health over 2.5 seconds. (180 / 170 / 160 / 150 / 140 second cooldown).

The cooldown of the Blood Well iterates twice as fast if Aatrox's damage is fulfilling his Blood Pact.

The Blood Well is a powerful enough ability to warrant being affected by cooldown reduction.

E - Blades of Torment A field of spectral blades explode out from Aatrox, slowing and damaging nearby enemies that come into contact . Aatrox can reactivate this ability to launch each of the 5 blades toward a target location, dealing physical damage to each enemy they pass through. Subsequent blade hits against the same target deal reduced damage.

This functions a bit like a Taliyah Q, except the blades continue to hover around Aatrox until he reactivate them to fire them off. They have a similar shape to the original Blades of Torment when fired, just that they don't necessarily stack as much damage. Suggested damage numbers would make this hit pretty hard, but it's real strength is in being able to build up Blood Well easily with it.

R - Dark Flight / Reborn in Battle Aatrox rises in the air, channeling over 2.5 seconds, gaining increased vision range as he does so. He can reactivate this ability to dash to a target location, slamming into the ground, dealing physical damage and knocking nearby enemies away. An enemy caught in the center takes bonus damage.

Damage: 100 / 175 / 250 (+80% Bonus AD)

If Aatrox is within (units) of a champion bearing The Darkin Blade, he can reactivate this ability to dash to that champion and merge with them, applying the knockback but not the damage while temporarily becoming untargetable and invisible. The champion gains 40% of his bonus AD as Bonus AD and benefits from all of Aatrox's passive, item active abilities, and summoner spells, with the exception of Flash and Teleport. Aatrox can reactivate this ability early to emerge from his new host a short distance away. If Aatrox's host dies with Aatrox still inside him and cannot revive, Aatrox also dies. Aatrox cannot exit his host if he cannot cast spells or use abilities (such as if stunned or silenced).Duration: 5 / 6 / 7 seconds. Cooldown: 140 / 130 / 120 seconds.

This is basically a slightly better Dark Flight that lets you actually separate a team, or at least create some space. The second piece - Reborn in Battle - is the absolute bread and butter of the rework. This is similar to other partner champion abilities - like Kench or Taric or Kalista - but inverts it. Instead of Kalista calling you back to use you as either a shield or knock up, or Kench grabbing you and taking you somewhere or saving you, or Taric ulting you or using you as an anchor for a stun, this is has great potential as an offensive maneuver, and makes Aatrox into a very different kind of Diver.

With this system, if it's available, you could use your Ultimate to hitch a ride with a Tryndamere who's whirly-birding into a fight, granting him a huge boon to his stats based on yours, plus giving him some room to operate if he can position himself just past the front line. Then, when Tryndamere "dies," your Blood Well brings him back and then he can just ult himself and continue going. Plus, you can be casting Blades of Torment to hit other allies, firing from Tryndamere as he moves, or striking out at enemies with Three-Pronged Assault.

Since Tryndamere bought your Darkin Blade early on, you can optimize your build around what Tryndamere needs. Maybe Tryndamere is building more Raw AD and crit - you could give him BotRK, Sterak's Gage, and Guinsoo's Rageblade while unified. Or if he needs to run people down, you could give him Frozen Mallet and Youmuu's. Maybe you need to keep him alive, so you give him Death's Dance or Bloodthirster.

This would open Aatrox up to operating in potentially 3, maybe 4 different positions. He's still a viable jungler, as he has the sustain necessary to get through it with Three-Pronged Assault and Blood Well, plus whenever he's farming within range of his newly designated host, he can help them stack up their Darkin Blade. Alternatively, he can be in the top lane and give his Darkin Blade to a jungler, who will stack it faster just due to the easy of power farming. Last, Aatrox could be our second-ever Fighter Support (Blitzcrank is or was at one time designated a fighter), by truly working as a support to empower his carry to fight. He'd probably take little bit more of the farm in order to get himself to the point where he could offer additional resources - like a Death's Dance or a Bloodthirster, for example.

Remember, the only _stat _ that conveys from Blood Pact is Bonus AD. Otherwise, it's just +Passives and +Actives from items. Maybe you've got a Hecarim you want to empower. He can feel comfortable taking flash and building a little tankier, because you can offer him Ghost + Youmuu's or Righteous Glory. Or maybe you want to give Lucian a TriForce even though it's typically outside his build, or give Vi a Black Cleaver.

The last complex piece of Reborn in Battle is the fact that Aatrox can die with you. This is a balancing act so that you don't have to deal with both of them if you successfully kill the first one.

Mechanically, I think it opens up a good number of possibilities. Yes, the other Champion in Aatrox's blood pact can technically get something like 40% more Items if Aatrox exclusively builds items with some AD, but they've had to sit with a sub-optimal weapon eating inventory space for a while before that's potentially a problem, and Aatrox really needs some things to work on his own that don't translate - such as attack speed and tankiness. Also, if both Aatrox and his carry are that fed, you might deserve to lose.

What jazzes me most about these aren't the possibilities of seeing Melee Carries in the Bot lane with something like this (though, you can more easily see how that might be possible), but rather in Aatrox partnering with another Diver, a Slayer, or a Juggernaut, not just out of the bot lane, but even in the jungle or elsewhere.

For what it's worth, those stats on The Darkin Blade equal out to +80 AD, +60 HP, and +25% healing and regeneration while in combat.

I'd love to hear feedback and ideas; Particularly if you're an Aatrox main and really hate it - if you hate it because it's different, I wonder what it would take to convince you that not having to move your character but still press all your buttons and reap the rewards of your itemization is fun. Otherwise, what is it missing that makes you sad/mad/confused.