Aatrox’s large-scale League of Legends update will be here soon. And since his reveal last week, he’s been through the ringer with testing on the PBE, taking harsh criticism from players.
For the most part, players seem to be a big fan of the rework, but there’s a specific group that have been very outspoken about their displeasure. They’re the ones who’ve invested the most time on Aatrox and feel connected to his old design, and they’re not very pleased with what they’re getting as a replacement.
Riot staff stopped by the Reddit community dedicated to Aatrox mains to discuss what’s being done to address their concerns, as well as to draw a line in the sand on things that won’t be changed to meet their expectations.
For the most part, Aatrox’s biggest fans felt his new design, the actual look of it, was a little lackluster compared to the previous champion model. This is a first—typically large scale champ updates unanimously look better than their predecessors. But this time, Aatrox is a more recent addition to the game, unlike the other candidates for big updates in the past, like Warwick, Swain, and Evelynn. Granted, his release was season three, but even that is significantly more modern than the others.
That being said, it makes sense that the fans are being a little more picky about his new look, which they’ve complained about lacking detail, not being dark enough, and, most commonly, they’ve complained about his wings.
Already on the PBE, Riot has responded to this criticism by darkening his reds and adding more shading to his torso, while adding a considerable amount of more detail to his pieces of armor. In our opinion, it’s nothing but an improvement.
The visual change that might not happen centers around his wings. Many of the old Aatrox’s fans, according to Riot’s Reddit post, have cried out for the new Aatrox to always have his wings out and for them to retain their banner-like shape. Unfortunately, Riot said that his wings only coming out during his ultimate is a great reminder to his enemies that he’s empowered, and that the design team doesn’t want to sacrifice that clarity.
As a compromise, Riot is exploring options for mini-wings or something similar to be out even when he isn’t enhanced through his ultimate, but there’s still a chance it’ll never happen.
Unlike the impressive set of design changes, Aatrox’s abilities won’t be going through many changes. Many complaints have been focused on his inability to duel champions post-update and that this change makes him feel weaker, but Riot said that was intended. This update was never supposed to retain his duelist/drain-tank identity, and instead to completely change his playstyle to that of a fighter-juggernaut hybrid.
Being so binary that the strength of his basic attacks determines his place in the meta is unhealthy, even if he’s strong currently in pro play and solo queue. His new identity may be different, but it isn’t inherently worse. And very few changes, if any at all, will be made to his abilities prior to his release next week.
