League of Legends’ Aatrox Update Is Still “Quite a Ways Off”

A progress update for Aatrox was included in the Champion Roadmap for October, but for those who’ve grown fond of the first Darkin champion, the news isn’t as reassuring as Aatrox mains would hope.

Aatrox has been on the table for a champion update for a while now – a Gameplay Update, not a Visual and Gameplay Update like Evelynn recently received – but progress appears to be moving along slowly. Other champions like Xin Zhao have been cycled through the champion update schedule in no time at all, but Aatrox has been waiting at the end of the line, waiting for his number to be called.

But even with other champions’ updates having come and gone, Riot Reav3 says that they’re still working hard on Aatrox, but there’s unfortunately not much else to be said about the update other than the fact that it’ll be a big one.

“There’s not much new to say about Aatrox, but I thought it’d be good to at least discuss his progress a bit,” Riot Reav3 wrote. “Aatrox is planned to be our largest pure gameplay update to date and as such we’re still quite a ways off on his release.”

Saying that he’ll have the biggest Gameplay Update compares the champion to others like Xin Zhao and Azir, not to be confused with the VGU classification that applies to Evelynn, Warwick, Urgot, and Galio. The Gameplay Updates usually don’t involve too many major changes, but considering the feast or famine problems that Aatrox has that usually lean more towards famine, he’s taking a bit more work to get right.

Whatever the end result of the champion is though, they hope that he’ll fully bring the carnage-causing Darkin identity to life.

“We’re still in heavy design iteration, but once we get something more solid, I’ll be back to talk a bit more about what direction we landed on,” the announcement continued. “Know that we are working on him, though, and we want to make sure Aatrox finally delivers on the promise of his Darkin warrior thematic.”

The update doesn’t lend much information about the champion’s direction, but it’s at least reassuring to see that he hasn’t been forgotten entirely.