Aatrox has struggled to find a place on the Rift in the new season with split pushing on the rise and fewer chances to flex his team fighting strengths. We're giving him some additional power this patch, primarily in the jungle, where his growing audience has been kneecapped, as well as in the top lane where he could use more ways to benefit from experience. We hope this satiates Aatrox players, especially those with Endless Hunger.

Here's a fun story: Aatrox's VGU was slated for the jungle for part of his early development before being shipped as a top laner. He's a very interesting champion with fun mechanics to play around, so we're alleviating some max-HP caps and adding some jungle juice to see how he performs in this new role.

Our goal was for Aatrox’s changes to be power neutral last patch, but he ended up a bit worse off than anticipated. So we’re back this patch to follow up with some small buffs that should keep him happy to soak up damage on the front line.

We'd like Aatrox to feel better about some conventional fighter items like Black Cleaver, and now that we have more levers to tune fighter-vs-lethality builds, we're returning W's damage to physical, which should allow him access to more fighter items like Black Cleaver. He's also the current top dog of top lane, so we're adjusting some of his strengths to make landing Q sweet spots more important for both his damage output and healing.

Aatrox has been one of the best low-MMR top laners, and players have discovered new tech with Spear of Shojin, which will raise him up even farther, so it's time to bring him down to size. We're siphoning off a bit of his late game raid bossing in order to narrowly target lower MMR play where he's overperforming.

Our goal with these changes is to return Aatrox to a successful heavy frontliner who deals lots of damage. Not a tank, not even a juggernaut, and certainly not an assassin. We're retuning some of his numbers to incentivize health purchases and further ramp up his self-healing, coming at a small cost to his damage since he likely won't be buying lethality any more. This should result in slightly less E healing overall, but more from his passive and item effects like Sundered Sky, Death's Dance, and maybe even Ravenous Hydra.

Aatrox’s most common build right now is Duskblade into Serylda's, which leaves him incredibly squishy when it comes to team fights, making Aatrox very feast or famine. Switching his passive and W to magic damage means that lethality and armor penetration won’t scale his damage or self-healing as much since that healing is post-mitigation. Lowering the opportunity cost of tankier options like Goredinker, Stridebreaker, or Black Cleaver should allow him to play a bit more like a juggernaut and less like a diver-assassin.

The Aatrox buffs from last patch went a bit aa-wry, so we’re back to tone it down a little. This nerf is meant to dial back some of the big damage numbers he got last patch without changing the much-needed wave clear buff he received.

Aatrox hasn't been on his Aa-game since the end of last year. Not only is his win rate for most players quite low, there is also a criminal lack of A Darkin Carry (ADC) in Pro play. In all seriousness, Aatrox has been lacking since we took down his self-healing. We'd like to give Aatrox players power in ways they'll appreciate without it being simply more sustain, so we’re bumping his AD ratios and wave clear power up which should keep him on AD builds and increase his ability to carry come late game.

Aatrox has been struggling to make an impact in top lane. To bring him back in line with the power level of his peers, we’re increasing the scaling damage he gains from his Deathbringer passive and increasing the bonus movement speed he gains from his ultimate, allowing him to better stick to targets.

Aatrox was slightly overnerfed as a reaction to his dominance last season. We felt that his Q and E were relatively capped on power and didn't want to put strength back into those skills, so instead we opted to make his W scale into the late game better. As an important tool for catching enemies, the slow needs to be more powerful to pull enemies later in the game when movement options are faster and more plentiful. The R buff is another way to give some scaling power back into his kit as well.

Aatrox has been bringing death to the top lane for a while now, and with Preseason shipped and the new season kicking off, now is a great time to address his strong presence in top. We’re tapping down his damage, healing, and move speed which should help bring the Darkin more in line with other top laners.

Aatrox's Passive not only gives him tons of damage, but also tons of healing when Lethality amplifies his percent max health damage. While the Eclipse nerfs last patch did weaken him a little, he's still too powerful when picking up Eclipse and Goredrinker. We're taking his healing down a notch so that he'll need to rely more on landing skillshots to sustain himself.

With the Grievous Wounds nerf in patch 12.11 Aatrox’s life-stealing drain tanking has gotten a bit out of hand. We're shifting his power a bit by bringing down his overall healing in favor of increasing the Darkin's baseline durability.

We’re still keeping an eye on the changes to the fighter item system, but it’s clear that Aatrox drew the short sword. This buff should hit the sweet spot.

Aatrox's W cooldown was heavily nerfed in patch 9.9 in an effort to reduce his Pro domination. He's not running over the Pro scene anymore, so we're loosening his chains a bit.

Champions like Aatrox and Olaf are able to reach a scary state with massive burst healing from items (Goredrinker and Ravenous Hydra) and runes (Conqueror and Ravenous Hunter). The moments where they feel untouchable aren’t healthy, so we’re shifting their healing to be sourced more from their kit rather than from systems.