Aatrox received a hotfix hours after his rework was released to the League of Legends live servers today.
While most of his buffs were stat increases or cooldown reductions, an entirely new mechanic was added to his E, Umbral Dash. Now, using the ability lets Aatrox reset his auto-attack timer, allowing him to basic attack right after using the spell. While this usually would be a giant buff to a champion that relies so heavily on building damage, Aatrox’s Q, The Darkin Blade, is extremely difficult to hit without using his E to reposition. Since the Q is such a large percentage of Aatrox’s damage, players will need to consider the trade-offs between using another basic attack and landing the ability.
The champion had a 35 percent winrate prior to the buffs, according to a Reddit post earlier today. While many new champions are weaker upon release than initially expected, the reworked Aatrox might have been the worst, if the stats are true. It stands to reason that he also received massive buffs to almost all of his kit.
If Aatrox continues to underperform, his designer, Jeevun “RiotJag” Sidhu, tweeted that the cooldown on his Q may be reduced, as well as the cast time between Qs.
The champion was arguably the highest priority top laner in the game prior to his rework, though he only recently started gaining popularity. He has traditionally struggled to hold his own since his release in 2013, although he had a slight resurgence around 2015. If these massive hotfixes are any indication, Aatrox will probably see a large drop in winrate, at least until players learn how to utilize him properly.