Aatrox Impressions

Aatrox Impressions

New champions are always met with huge skepticism; is he really that strong or is it the unfamiliarity with his kit that gives him power? This has happened with recent releases in particular, as Riot has been releasing champions with increasingly higher skill caps (Lissandra, Zac, Thresh etc) and few have fallen out of favour once they have been streamlined by nerfs and the widespread understanding of their kits allows for effective counter plays (e.g. Vi, Rengar, Syndra). Aatrox comes to the Fields of Justice with much fanfare; most have seen the gameplay previews and are reminded of old school Irelia and Shen’s infinite sustain and effective harassment at top. Some are attracted to the notion of melee carries making a return, while others find his combination of crowd control, sustain, damage and mobility intriguing in a single champion. So far, the general consensus has been that he is overpowered, having too much damage and sustain with few items. Having played Aatrox for 10 games and having faced Aatrox for 10 more, I have to agree with the notion; Aatrox just has too much free damage and utility from his base kit at the moment and Riot should be looking to fix this soon. 

Strengths

 

Infinite sustain and burst damage in one spell

Aatrox gains monster sustain from taking a single point in his W skill and last hitting minions. I tried taking only one point in this for 12 levels and found that the healing from W was quite substantial, especially below 50% HP. The AD scaling heal is one of the strongest abilities to ever go live (build more damage, get more sustain AND damage), and is probably the single best auto attacking ability in the game even without its toggle, Blood Price. Tacking on a 200 damage AD scaling burst hit to a sustain spell makes it impossible to outtrade Aatrox outright and most current top laners will be able to handle the pressure of having infinite sustain. Seasoned veterans who have faced release Irelia and Shen will know what to do and what to build so its not an end-of-the-world thing but I think Riot should make some number changes on the sustain part of this ability in the very near future.

Manaless Ranged Harass 

If you plan to give a champion strong late game power, you will need to give him a weak early game or laning phase to counteract it. You see this in Nasus, Irelia, Vayne and most other late game monsters; getting bullied in lane is a part of being labelled a late gamer. Aatrox however seems to be an exception to the rule. Blades of Torment, his E ability, gives him a ranged 40% slow with an insane 1000 range at 5% of his current health (which is like maybe 50HP early-mid game) every 8 seconds. Oh, and it has 255 base damage at rank 5. I max this first as top lane, and I can play mind games with my opponent because I can either use this to harass them and heal off the minions after, or I could follow them with the 40% slow and use Blood Price to all-in on them at any time, using my Q knock up as an escape or a finisher. After several repeats, your opponent should be backing off everytime he sees you move nearer. After trying many different setups, I believe one of the main reasons why Aatrox is scary at top is due to this single spell. Free harassment, a chance to kill at any moment, almost free to cast and 1000 range. Other Aatrox that I have met who didnt max this spell find it difficult to last hit in peace, while those that max this have always had the lead, even if I played perfectly. Riot should be lowering the base damage on this spell and possibly giving it an incremental slow to encourage it to be ranked (something like 25/30/35/40/45% increments)

Crowd Control

Do you hate Malphite’s ult? Do you hate Chogath’s Rupture? Then your nightmare has been answered! Aatrox has a Malphite ult in his Q. At only 350 range shorter but on a 12 second cooldown, Aatrox has the option to initiate fights for his team or burst down fleeing foes with his insanely mobile crowd control. He is the only melee carry that has some sort of hard crowd control, and has the option to build like a bruiser to become a pseudo tank for his team. Even Nasus doesnt have that sort of power, and we all know how Nasus can turn into a beast late game. Couple that with his AoE slow and his AoE ult, and you have an insanely capable AD carry with enough staying power to last ages in battle.

Rebirth

So you’ve managed to Ignite Aatrox to lower his healing, and spammed your ultimate to finally bring his HP to 0. Oh?! What’s this?! He comes back to life?! Yes, on top of everything that Aatrox already has, he gets a free Guardian Angel as his passive, and charging his passive gives him bonus attack speed (up to an additional 50%). To put that into perspective, 50% attackspeed is a free Phantom Dancer at level 1. Ignite doesnt reduce the healing recieved when he goes into Rebirth mode AND he is invulnerable while in that mode, unlike Anivia’s Egg or Zac’s Passive. It’s insane that Riot neglected to give this passive any counter play while Zac and Anivia are killable during rebirth. 

Weaknesses 

Has to hit to survive

Aatrox’s main flaw is that to be tanky, he has to continuously hit something, and hit fast. That’s why first items on him will always have some sort of attackspeed. His survivability solely depends on not being stunned or having his attackspeed slowed, and much like everything else, Exhaust completely shuts down Aatrox. It’s not really something huge as Exhaust and stuns counter everything but its a testament to how strong Aatrox is if the only way to beat him is to not let him hit anything. 

Massacre (Ultimate) is lacklustre

Aatrox gains a bigger sword, bigger wings, and 175 attack range along with a 400 damage burst at level 16. Big woop? Aatrox’s ultimate is not meant to be anything flashy unlike other melee carries like Yi and Tryndamere, but it gets the job done. Attackspeed and range increase synergize with the rest of his kit pretty well, but you get the feeling that they just lost the plot with this ability. Earlier iterations had him stealing hp from everyone around him and adding it to himself, a la Evelynn’s Pit of Malice, but doing that would just edge Aatrox into the realm of broken OPness. I’m generally fine with his ultimate being the way it is, but you really dont feel its presence when you cast it. Even the visual upgrade is just a bit meh. Playing AP Aatrox solves this but unless you’re sure you wont get reported for trolling, you really dont want to be playing AP Aatrox in solo queue. 

Thats it for my impression of Aatrox. Completely overpowered and in the hands of the right player, completely unstoppable. Riot should immediately be changing up numbers on the test realm as we speak so it wont be long before Aatrox’s power level is brought down a bit. What’s your thoughts on the Darkin Blade?