If you have been following Worlds 2022 in recent days, you might have noticed that Aatrox has been continuously present in this tournament. Specifically, Aatrox currently has a 100% ban/pick rate and a 74% win rate at Worlds 2022, numbers that indicate this champion is in an excessively strong state and nearly uncontrollable.
What’s notable here is that Aatrox hasn’t undergone any significant changes since patch 12.14. In fact, during the summer tournaments, Aatrox was not picked very often and only appeared occasionally. So what has caused Aatrox to suddenly become so exceptionally strong? Let’s explore.
Flawed Aatrox Adjustments
First, we need to look at the adjustments made to Aatrox this season, particularly in the tank update. Specifically, Aatrox received increased damage from his Q ability on the blade and significant boosts to his defensive stats like base health and health per level. This change fundamentally improved Aatrox’s ability to tank and deal damage compared to before.
Players then discovered an extremely annoying item build for Aatrox, which involved using Galeforce. Essentially, when Aatrox naturally became more tanky, Bloodthirster became less effective. Instead, the higher damage from Galeforce interacts extremely well with the empowered Q abilities.
As a result, Aatrox has turned into an “unstoppable” type of champion, possessing both strong damage and impressive tankiness. With this new item build, Aatrox has almost no weak moments and can contribute significantly to the overall gameplay of the team from start to finish.
Severe Nerf to Healing Reduction Items
However, these changes are only half of the problem. What has made Aatrox unexpectedly strong also lies in Riot’s nerf to healing reduction items. If you didn’t know, in the same tank update, Riot Games significantly reduced the strength of healing reduction stats and effects from healing reduction items.
This has rendered healing reduction items incredibly weak, and players will almost completely overlook them. This seemingly small change has meant that Aatrox is no longer countered by champions that possess healing reduction effects, which are now extremely few. As we have seen, the consequences of these flawed changes have led Aatrox to completely dominate Worlds 2022 with no counterplay available.
Conclusion
The increase in defensive stats for all champions, along with the nerf to healing reduction items, has turned Aatrox into a true “balance nightmare” as this champion is nearly impossible to counter at the current stage.
Hopefully, Riot will make more reasonable adjustments in future patches, or at the very least, they should nerf Aatrox as soon as possible.