Since being completely reworked in terms of appearance, skills, and storyline, Aatrox has always been associated with the image of a powerful warrior. In terms of gameplay, this character is also linked to the Fighter role dealing physical damage in the Top Lane (sometimes even in the Mid Lane). However, with the upcoming patch 13.17, Riot has made bold decisions to change this character.
Specifically, the damage dealt by Aatrox’s passive and his W – Infernal Chains will be changed from physical to magical. Just with a few simple changes like that, Riot Games has left the League of Legends (LoL) community in disbelief.
Riot’s intention behind these changes may be to reduce the potency of the current Aatrox lethality playstyle. However, the primary damage that this character deals comes from his Q – Darkin Blade. Therefore, these adjustments from Riot may not significantly weaken Aatrox’s lethality build. This is also the first reason the community opposes Riot’s changes.
Furthermore, this change raises concerns among players about a wave of “experimentation” with magic penetration items for Aatrox. It’s important to note that even though the damage type has changed, the skills of Darkin Blade still scale with attack damage. The trend of experimenting with magic Aatrox could render this character extremely weak, becoming a burden for teammates.
Additionally, the “new” passive of Aatrox may make it more challenging for this character against opponents in the laning phase. Many players facing Aatrox will rush Steelcaps to counter him. With the damage from the passive changing to magical, this itemization will no longer make Aatrox worry about being countered.
In summary, the League of Legends community seems to be largely unsupportive of the aforementioned balancing decision for Aatrox from Riot. It’s true that this champion needs adjustments, but adding magical damage capabilities to Aatrox doesn’t seem to be the correct solution. We hope that Riot will make more reasonable changes for this champion in the future.