Aatrox the Darking Blade Rework

Captain Anarchy··8 votes·1,544 views

When I first started playing the game, one of my first, and most played champions was Aatrox Aatrox . Being at that ELO, doing random shit doesn't matter too much. But even as you get closer to lvl 30, the flaws in his kit are already exposed. He is still my highest champion mastery, however I haven't played him in a very long time, as there is always someone better. His kit is very toxic as he either dies quickly and does nothing, or survives forever and is impossible to kill. I preferred tanktrox item 1401 after a while, as it was more early game efficient compared to devourer item 3931 and he was very hard to kill. That still didn't seem to do enough. He just doesn't fit in well at all as the game is now.

Another problem with his kit is that it has almost nothing to do with his lore. He inspired armies to succeed in otherwise unwinnable conflicts. In game he is much better as a solo split pusher (when building devourer). His passive is totally self centered, and so is his ult and half of his w. He has almost no cc or anything else helpful to help his team. This is completely different from his lore.I believe much of this can be improved.

Passive [Complete rework] Bloodlust:

All of Aatrox's abilities spill his blood (the cost of the spells) on the battlefield, and on his opponents. Any enemy champions tainted Aatrox's blood take 2/3/4/5/6% extra damage. Any allied champion walking on the blood on the ground gain a small movement speed buff.

Q [Partial Rework] Dark Flight: Range:(dash)650/(flee radius)100 - 10% of Current Health - Cooldown: 22/19/16/13/10 Active: Aatrox takes flight and slams down at a targeted location terrifying enemies, forcing any in the radius to flee for .5 seconds

W [Complete Rework] Sunder: 5% of Current Health - Cooldown:14/12/12/10/8 Active: Aatrox empowers his next auto attack (autoattack reset), then slams his blade down on his opponent shredding 5/10/15/20/25% of the targets armor and deals 30/40/50/60/70 (+75% Bonus Attack Damage) physical damage.

E [Partial Rework] Blood Thirst: Range:1000 - 5% of Current Health - Cooldown:10/9/8/7/6 Active: Aatrox thrusts his extending blade in a straight line, impaling any enemy champions(up to 2) in a straight line dealing 100/120/140/160/180(+80%Attack Damage) physical damage and slowing any hit by 20% for 2 seconds, and if it hits 2 champions, they are pulled together and knocked up for .25 seconds, and take 50(+50% Attack Damage) additional damage. Aatrox is also healed by 18/20/22/24/26% of the damage dealt.

R [Complete Rework] Blood Pool: Range:1000/1250/1500 - No Cost - Cooldown:150/110/70 Passive: When standing in his blood, Aatrox gains 10/15/20% lifesteal Active: Aatrox calls back his blood and 2% of any nearby ally champions health, healing for 75/100/125%% of the blood value, and gaining 10/15/20% of allied, damage, armor, and magic resist. Any enemies hit by the blood are slowed by 25% for 1.5/2/2.5 seconds and hit for 100/150/200(+50% Attack Damage)(+100% Ability Power) magic damage.

I believe that an Aatrox built much more around team fighting fits much more into his lore. I tried my best to "balance" the abilities, but as I'm not too familiar with the total value of everything, the kit probably needs a fair bit of number tuning. The main emphasis is on the new abilities. These are my thoughts, and if you have any ideas please share them with me.

Update : I do realize that the ult is ridiculously broken in its current state, the damage and buffs are not remotely equal the cost, damage dealt to teamates, and cooldown. I also realize that his w right now is very bland and needs some work

19 Comments

Tohob2 votes

my opinion divided by ability -

PASSIVE: Passive abilities don't scale 5 times like active abilities, they commonly scale 18 times, though in some rare cases they scale 3 times. also what is blood? is it a separate resource or is it just health?

Q: i don't see any damage numbers, did you remove the damage from it entirely? also good fear duration. people tend to enjoy making fears last 1-2 seconds for some reason.

W: feels like it's just a wukong Q without the bonus range. overall less interesting than his current W, i think this ability could use some more work and brainstorming.

E: excellent ability, i love that you turned his E into a really cool ability without fundamentally changing it too much. the knock up is very conditional and fair. i think you should add more damage numbers to the knockup aspect of it though, or set it as a % of the original damage. something like 40/45/50/55/60(+50% AD) even, or just have them take an additional 50% of the damage of the initial ability.

R: the damage taken by enemies from the blood returning to you looks like it's too high, depending on how much blood there is around you on average. also, does it DAMAGE your allies? idk how to feel about that. the buffs it gives him also seem like they would be far too overwhelming in a 5v5 teamfight.

overall, very good rework idea, have a little up arrow

Captain Anarchy2 votes

Yeah, I kinda forgot about Wukong, whelp. I has having trouble with his new w. I had wanted something that just had to do with blood price (slamming your sword onto your opponent), and i originally wanted something like Darius' w, but i do agree now looking at Wukong it isn't too creative either. On the other hand, Yes I thought the ulti was a little ridiculous later, which is why i removed a fair bit of damage from the kit, such as the q. That probably still isn't enough though. The passive i kinda forgot was a passive with the scaling, but the blood is the physical representation for the cost of his spells. All that being said, your input (and +1 ;P ) is greatly appreciated.

Tohob2 votes

glad i could help! i feel you, coming up with unique ability ideas is hard (really tho, that E is GREAT)

i think the idea behind switching between more damage while draining your health and less damage but healing you was a solid idea, and i'd suggest trying to follow that idea better because the 3-hit passive aspect of it is a bit boring.

Captain Anarchy1 votes

Maybe something along the lines of a riven q would work for that. The first shreds armor or slows or something along the lines, there is a transition move that just deals damage, then the final is a dive-like motion (dash maybe) where he again, impales you (like his current blood thirst) and heals again. My main concern with something like that is that I already partially accounted for the loss of health steal in his other abilities (E and Ult).

La Barbotte2 votes

actually without a full rework he should have his abilities buffed to have meaning passive should give him way full HP for total bar (but may take longer to build up) Q should have him untargetable while mid air and his ult initial dmg should give him small cleave kinda like malphite W, that would make him a really good pick while still be countered by burst, cc and grievous wounds as well as dodges (looking at you shen/jax) and blind (lookin at you quinn/satan) and dissengage supports (janna, nami, raka) because he only has one hard engage ability that give enough time to react to his landing for most of league of legends champion pool

Captain Anarchy1 votes

My one problem with that, is yes his kit does need some tune ups, however, the kit still leads to the same problem of dying quickly or not at all. My main reason for changing him as I did was so he fit into his lore much more. Instead of being the split pusher he is right now, I feel like he should be the god that lead armies just like his lore.

On the other hand, thank you for your insight. All help is appreciated.

Captain Anarchy1 votes

Just realized I screwed up the title. Autocorrected to darking..... Welllll shit ._.

Kensue1 votes

[deleted]

Captain Anarchy1 votes

In my personal opinion, I believe that he needs at least a tune up. I just thought that instead of a tune up, I could work with his lore and make him a team fight focused champ.

Kensue1 votes

[deleted]

Captain Anarchy1 votes

Yup, that could work. These are just my ideas of what a rework for Aatrox could look like

Not Sungben1 votes

DARKIN BLADE*

Captain Anarchy1 votes

Please refer to my previous comment

Just realized I screwed up the title. Autocorrected to darking..... Welllll shit ._.

GeorgeKnightRT1 votes

Aatrox is a bad tryndamere

Captain Anarchy1 votes

He deserves a rework, don't you think?

GeorgeKnightRT1 votes

i don't know who needs a rework more though, tryndamere or aatrox? their lane performance of both comes down to if they are able to push harder than the opponent , if they win lane they just proceed to split push for ever , if they lose lane they turn the game into 4v5 unless they can farm really well. they both have a very binary play style. as for aatrox he really needs a rework, they said something about a incoming rework planned around when they look at dive fighters class a few patches ago .

Captain Anarchy1 votes

Both of them probably need a rework, however, I only know Aatrox so I made this. I've heard a lot of speculation about an Aatrox rework for a while now, but I'm not sure if it will happen anytime soon. A big reason I've wanted to change his kit, instead of a tune up, is so that he fits more with his lore. His split pusher status completely goes against his lore of a leader who lead armies to slaughter their opponents.

GeorgeKnightRT1 votes

Lore doesnt mean much, if lore was relevant on how a champion plays in game, jax would be unable to be beaten and malphite would be bigger that the sr map it self

Captain Anarchy1 votes

Lore has inspired the kit of many a champion though. If Aatrox needs a rework, why not follow his story this time. of course the lore is a story, but you can represent them FAIRLY by resembling the lore, but not sticking to it 100%

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