[Alpha]

Alright...*cracks knuckles* here goes nothing: for my first game with him, I went 4/0/12 the entire time, but it was a bot match, so can't say too much. His heal and revive passive kind of remind me of Zac's around his release, but Aatrox is built to be a bit tankier and dish out tons more damage with the aid of his W when its active. His ult is similar to Yi's in that it gives bonus attack speed with the bonus of damage to enemy champs as well. Honestly...I love him! He will definitely get nerfed, but until then...woohoo!

[Honey]

Yeah, he seems pretty good, and agreeably similar to Zac, except that his passive can't be interrupted so he can regen the health, or at least that was what it looked like with the champion spotlight video they released. He looks like a very strong champion to play though, I'm debating whether to get him with all my ip or not.

[Alpha]

I think he can still be attacked, but at the same time it happens a bit faster, so you aren't as vulnerable as Zac is. He really is quite strong...especially with the toggle on his W adding in damage.

It's really up to you...if you enjoy playing melee champs, I have a feeling you would enjoy him. There are tradeoffs with him though....he can die very quickly if you don't keep an eye on his health.

Edit: I stand corrected...he is indeed invulnerable while reviving.

[Honey]

Very interesting. I saw a bunch of people in bot games playing him yesterday. He seems so strong with that passive, and if you build up your hit points on him he can no doubt be a real bruiser. I might wait until he's free to try him out, but I'm definitely interested in giving him a go.

[Alpha]

He's stupid strong for sure....will definitely get dropped down a couple of notches in the next patch. If he's played right, you can go an entire game without dying (maybe once or twice if you get careless....).

Not a bad idea....he's good, but if you don't like him then it's not worth the buy.

[Lucid:]

I don't like his passive from a design standpoint.
Zac, Anivia, and Zilean all have revive abilities, and on their own they are fine as long as they have counterplay. Counterplay is something that the champ designers have been talking about for a really long time in balance discussions, so I am VERY surprised that this guy slipped through in this state.

Zac's passive has a 300 second CD, and after you kill him, you have 8 seconds to kill all his bloblets. They can be killed by any kind of attack including smite, and it is plenty of time to kill him if you decide to focus him. If you don't want to focus Zac's bloblets, that is a decision and he will respawn after 8 seconds with 50% health or less.

Anivia's egg has a 240 second CD, and the egg actually has NEGATIVE armor/mr until level 12 at 5 armor/mr, then level 15 at merely 20 armor/mr. Those are all less defenses than even the squishiest champion base values, not to mention typical runes/masteries/items. Anivia will come back from her egg 6 seconds after death, but again, whether or not to focus Anivia egg is a CHOICE.

Zilean's Ultimate is, well, an Ultimate. Although the CD is reduced by CDR and his W, it still costs a nice chunk of mana, and it takes up his ultimate slot. Only one of Zilean's spells actually does damage, so it's fair to have a 180 second CD on the revive. The amount of health revived is also fairly low unless Zilean builds AP, in which case it scales with 2x his AP as extra health restored. Zilean's ult revive has a 2 second stasis period, same as GA.

Speaking of GA, it costs 2600g. The stats it gives do not make the item efficient on its own; the armor/mr on the item are only worth around 1500, which makes the revive passive (30% of your health restored) cost 1100g. GA also has a 5 minute CD.

Now let's compare all these abilities to Aatrox. Blood Well has a CD of 225 seconds, which is shorter than either Zac or Anivia. This reduces the opportunity time to make plays on Aatrox while his passive is down. Aatrox is completely invincible while reviving, which means that you have NO CHOICE whether you want to focus his corpse down or not. There is no way to stop his revive, prolong his revive, or reduce the amount of health he revives with. The only counterplay available at all is to burst him down before he uses spells to build up his blood well. This is very poor because you can't stop him if he engages with a blood well already charged up, such as coming from the jungle. His blood well revival scales twice with his level. On top of this, Aatrox gains offensive stats (attack speed) from his blood well, making it both a defensive and offensive ability with no counterplay.

I heard a suggestion today to change his passive from complete invulnerability to something more like Yi's meditate, where he regens and gains a ton of armor/mr, but he can be targeted, ignited, interrupted by CC, you know all those things that let you make decisions on how to deal with him. I would love to see it taken in that direction because honestly I just think the passive does too much, with too strong of numbers.

The rest of his kit doesn't really bother me (except maybe having a knockup. A slow would be fine, but hard CC on a melee carry with a gapcloser is a bit much). Hard CC screws him up and ranged kiters can usually keep him at bay.

[hyjin]

this guy speaks to me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD7VayT4KqQ

[Alpha]

I hear ya on that hyjin....he really does to me as well.

Lucid: I agree that something should be done to balance his passive (this coming from someone who loves playing as Aatrox) since it does seem unfair and makes it entirely possible to go an entire game with no deaths at all or much fewer (assuming you play smart and keep an eye on things).

[Lore]

The problem with Aatrox is, he's very poorly designed. He's not tanky enough for top. He has sustain, but only if you let him. And CC destroys him. His Q is his only real advantage because if he didn't have that, he'd just be kited harder than he is currently.

His passive makes up for his underwhelming kit and what he can do with it. Take that away and you have a squishy auto attacker who can't cause damage.

I personally take him bottom as my team's ADC with my girlfriend playing support. We found an overwhelming pair in him and Nami because with his Q and her bubble, you're CC'd forever. And ADCs are squishy enough to die pretty easily to that. I don't think he's a good top though because he's countered by most of the popular top laners.

To "fix" his flaws, they'd have to redo his entire kit. I don't think they should remove the invulnerable part of his passive, but it definitely has to be toned down a bit.

[Alpha]

I've done quite well with him as a top and as jungle as well. That being said, you pretty much have to build a ton of lifesteal and health (maybe some armor and magic resist thrown in as well) for him to be able to really survive in a fight.

[Alpha]

Hmm.....well, Lucian has been officially announced and the details released. Thoughts?

[Lucid:]

I think he looks really cool and I think I will buy him. I like his concept and I love his lore a lot.

[Alpha]

Definitely love the lore...didn't see Thresh being his arch though. Love the abilities for sure. Seems like a pretty good mesh of all the other ADCs out there right now...in terms of abilities that is. Can't wait to see how he plays...definitely going to get him. Don't like the look of his other skin on release though.

[Lucid:]

I think the other skin looks alright, but I'm cheap so I wouldn't get it. I pretty much only have skins for a couple supports and Orianna, though. :3 Supports have pretty skins.

[Alpha]

I have a few skins....not too many. Mainly the ones that I really like. Hmm....seems I tend to get the skins for melee or ADC champs mainly.....

[Tiva]

People are jack asses in ARAM. You get a champ that is free to play, and you have never played them and no rerolls and suck the whole game and people keep on bitching about how much you suck. Remember that it is ARAM and you can get dealt any champion, including ones that you don't play.