Aatrox will no longer revive from World Ender on PBE

Ever since Aatrox was announced back in 2013, the ability to revive has been his way to stand out. No other champion in League of Legends has been as good at tower-diving as Aatrox. A year after Aatrox’s initial rework of the champion, Riot Games returns to the drawing board making big changes to what Aatrox can do. This follows earlier changes to his abilities earlier this year in April. Today, Riot Games has made a change to World Ender that might change the champion forever. 

The changes to Aatrox’s World Ender

In the latest PBE patch, Aatrox’s ultimate ability, World Ender, has been changed up massively. It will no longer revive Aatrox if the current PBE changes go live. Before, if he obtained a kill or assist during the active duration of the ability, he would be revived. Instead, World Ender now increases Aatrox’s total attack damage stat by 20 percent, on top of some other benefits. The increase of movement speed of 60 percent at all levels has been unchanged on the PBE. Also, the fear effect on nearby minions on activation of World Ender is set to remain. The self-healing increase of World Ender has been increased from 40/55/70% to 50/60/70% (at 6/11/16).

The changes, if they make it to the live servers, will be a massive nerf to the champion in the mid-to-late-game stages. While his lane phase will be stronger, he will be effectively useless in team-fight situations. It remains to be seen whether Aatrox, with the new World Ender, will be strong enough to remain competitive. In competitive play, his new role could be as a pure split-pushing champion. 

Another aspect that leaves many disappointed with this potential change is that the identity Aatrox has had for almost six years will be gone. His unique ability and strength in turret-diving situations created many interesting situations for professional play and your average ranked game alike. What will Aatrox’s ability be now? Being able to heal a bit when he attacks? That doesn’t seem all too exciting. While it is far from certain that these changes will make it to the live servers, all we can really do is let Riot Games know what we think.