When I first started paying attention to LCS, Aatrox had recently come out and he was doing work in Top lane and the jungle. Apparently too much work, because the post release nerfs Riot inflicted on him basically deleted him from the competitive scene as fast as he arrived.

I've toyed withe everyone's favorite Darkin Blade off and on, most recently at the beginning of Season 5 because of the difficulty of the Jungle at the start of the season for champions that lacked sustain. Aatrox seemed a natural fit, but my affair didn't last long as there were things like Warwick that were just flat out better.

However, four things have came to pass that rekindled my interest in Aatrox:

1) Sea Hunter Aatrox - it is only a 750 skin with no significant effects changes, but it looks beast IMO
2) Enchantment: Devourer - Aatrox scales well with attack speed due to the on Hit bonuses he gets from Blood Thirst / Blood Price.
3) in Patch 5.6 the modified Massacre so that when he activates its he fills Blood Well 20% for each enemy champion struck by the AoE damage from Massacre.
4) in Patch 5.11 they modified his Blood Well cooldown to decrease at level 6, 11, and 16.

So he can dive more often as the game progressive and when he gets in he immediately gain some stats that help him do his job.

A fed Aatrox with the right items is actually pretty terrifying as he does boat loads of damage while being a pain to kill since he just heals up everything you throw at him.

That said, in most cases, I wouldn't prioritize Aatrox over other Devourer junglers as I think there are better one's that him, which are supported by win rate. See Shyvana and Xin Zhao.

But if you enjoy playing an under the radar champion and find enjoyment in the craft of utilizing your windows of strength, Aatrox is definitely worthy looking at.


JungleTrox

Runes: Atk Spd Marks, Arm Seals, Scaling MR Glyphs, Atk Spd Quints
Masteries: 21-9-0

Starting skill Order:

Level 3 Dragon - W, Q, W

Level 3 Gank, - W, Q, E

Preferred Skill Leveling Order

R>W>E>Q

Max W first for the sustain. Taking a second point in it at level 3 if you are going to attempt an early dragon. Take a point in E, Blades of Torment, if you are going to go for a level 3 gank.

Early Dragon

You can take the dragon at level 3, albeit slowly. Ideally you would do this from the Blue side, but you can do it from the Red side. You do not need a leash, but it will get you through your rotation and on to the dragon faster.

Start Krugs, Toggle your W to Blood Price and second before they spawn. Smite the large Krug. If you are soloing the Krugs then focus down the small Krug first. If you have help then focus down the large Krug first. When you get to half health toggle Blood Price off so you will be restoring health every 3rd autoattack.

Blood Thirst / Blood Price - if you are at or near half health make use Blood Thirst to maintain your health. If you ever get upwards of Full to 3/4 health you can toggle Blood Price on to clear camps faster.

Move on to Red and focus down the large one first. If you are really worried about an invade then drop a ward in the bush above Red, and then smack Red once and then walk into the bush beside Red so you will be concealed while taking it. After finishing, level up Dark Flight.

Dark Flight - Use your judgement on when to use this ability, because when it is on cooldown, you only have your Flash for an escape if you get invaded. I generally use it on the Razorbeaks, but not on the Red encampment, because if you are going to get invaded, they will generally try to do it at your Red buff.

Then move onto the Razorbeak encampment. Focus down the small razorbeaks first then take out the large one. Put a second point in W, Blood Thirst / Blood Price.

At this point you should be at half health, so walk over to the Dragon bit and use Dark Flight to jump into it from behind. Do not use Dark Flight on the dragon itself as you will want it to use it to jump out of the dragon pit if you are caught. You will auto attack the dragon once and then get buffeted away. Just walk back over to it and continue autoattacking it. You will get low, but you'll get back a substantial chunk of health ever third autoattack via Blood Thirst. There seems to be a break point that I need to confirm where you will want to use a Health Potion. Between the two health potions you have you should have no trouble taking Dragon. Exit the Dragon pit and go heal up on the Scuttle Crab then assess your lanes. Is there an easy gank? If not then either base or walk back into your jungle and continue farming.

Itemization:

Is interesting on Aatrox. A build I like is:

Stalker's Blade with Enchantment: Devourer
Mercury's Treads with Enchantment: Homeguard
Bloodthirster
Maw of Malmortius
Randuin's Omen
Spirit Visage

You can sub in Blade of the Ruined King for The Bloodthirster if their team is full of a bunch of tanks, however, I actually really like the shields he gets from The Bloodthirster and Maw of Malmortius as they give you a window where you simply don't take damage while you are wrecking mayhem in the middle of their team.

Ganking:

Don't start with Dark Flight unless you know you can take them by surprise. Use Blades of Torment first to either slow them or make them move in a direction that puts them in a less than optimal position. You want to try and use Dark Flight after they flash. So in an ideal situation, you slow them and your laner stuns or immobilizes them. If you have Chilling Smite up use it on them after the slow from Blades of Torment has worn off since slows no longer stack. You will pretty much guarantee a flash at that point, then it is time to hit them with Dark Flight.

Remember that you are trying to get your laners ahead, so try and give them the kill if you can and don't steal all their farm after you gank. If you got a Flash and Kill then take no more than 3 minions and leave any cannon minions for your laner.

If your laner needs to back help them push the wave into the enemy turret remember the rules I mentioned above about taxing, if they don't need to back and you can take the enemy turret then do so, otherwise as you are leaving their lane, if you have one, drop a ward at one of the entrances to their lane to give them at least some protection from a gank. Also if you have a charge on your sweeper, sweep for the wards in obvious locations, so you have a window to gank from that position....or at least let the enemy laner entertain the possibility that you might be able to gank from that position.

Teamfighting]:

Preferably you will not be the main form of engage. Yes, you have a knock up, but it only knocks up targets at the very center of its AoE. If someone mispositions however Dark Flight is great for picking them off.

If you are your teams main form of engage, then do what you can to make sure your Blood Well up and is as close to full as possible before diving in and try and hit the squishies in the back line so the initial burst from Massacre is most effective.

Blood Thirst / Blood Price - if you are able to pick someone off then toggle Blood Price on to kill them as quickly as possible. If you are doing a five man dive into their team then leave W set to Blood Thirst. The reason for this is that you are going to get focused when you go in. If you are simply snared, if there are targets at hand, you will continue auotattacking and healing off of them. Whereas if you had Blood Price active, sure you would do extra damage, but that extra damage will come at the cost of your health, which means you potentially go down faster.

If you aren't the main form of engage, then you have two possibilities.

1) Follow-up engage for a wombo combo
2) Hold back and save your CC and damage to peel for your carries

You are going to have to judge how to approach each teamfight depending on the current situation. E.g., Your carries are fed? Then go for option 2. Have a Malphite on your team? Then go for Option 3.

Blood well

Holds between 105-870 health. The blood in the well decays at a rate of 2% per second if Aatrox has not dealt or received any damage in the last 5 seconds.

Aatrox fills the Well by using abilities.

Dark Flight costs 10% of his current health. That goes in the well.

Blood Price when toggled on costs 15/23.75/32.5/41.25/50(+25% bonus AD) in health. That goes into the well.

Blades of Torment costs 5% of his current health. That goes into the well.

Massacre fills Blood Well by 20% of it maximum value for each enemy hit, so if you hit 5 enemy ?champions? you Blood Well will be maxed out.

I'm going to try to expand on this section in a future post as even after writing it out, I can't 100% say what the best way is going to be to keep your Blood Well topped off in a given set of circumstances.

The obvious thing is that if you get a five man ultimate off your Blood Well will be topped off.

But what situations where your teams are in a stand-off poking at each other? This part I'm not sure about.

Combo's

You basic combo without considerations around your Blood Well are:

Blades of Torment for the slow, which gives you a better chance of hitting
Dark Flight for the knock-up
Massacre for the AoE damage and attack speed boost
Blood Price until you drop to about 50% health
Blood Thirst to start sustaining back up.

Tips and Tricks

Blood Price - with enough lifesteal you will not lose health if you leave Blood Price toggled on. I'm not sure what that point is or if is a viable mechanic in terms of survivability. My impressions from the other guides I've read is that going completely glass cannon is not really effective on Aatrox.

Dark Flight - can be interrupted when your are launching, so keep that in mind when trying to use it as an initiation or an escape.

foxdrop recommends starting Q and why

The reason is that you fill your Blood Well by using Q at the 1:40 mark. This gives you bonus attack speed with which you can use to take out the camp faster.

In the future, I'll update the mini-guide to reflect this handy tip.