Hi guys, my name is Agrios js. Welcome to my first guide here on Mobafire (probably my last). I bought Aatrox when he was released and absolutely loved him. There are many ways to play Aatrox and I like to show you how I like to play Aatrox . Do you want to strike fear in the enemy's heart?, Do you want to inspire you fellow warriors?, read this guide and you will know what to do...

Feel free to use parts out of my guide in the game.

Here is some general information on Aatrox:
Release date: 14-06-2013

Attack power: Strong
Defense power: Average
Ability power: Weak
Difficulty: Average

Attributes: Fighter, melee
Costs: 7800-6300 IP, 975 RP

Lore:
Aatrox is a legendary warrior, one of only five that remain of an ancient race known as the Darkin. He wields his massive blade with grace and poise, slicing through legions in a style that is hypnotic to behold. With each foe felled, Aatrox's seemingly living blade drinks in their blood, empowering him and fueling his brutal, elegant campaign of slaughter.

The earliest tale of Aatrox is as old as recorded history. It tells of a war between two great factions remembered only as the Protectorate and the Magelords. Over time, the Magelords won a series of crushing victories, leaving them on the brink of obliterating their sworn enemy forever. On the day of their final confrontation, the Protectorate army found themselves outnumbered, exhausted, and poorly equipped. They braced for inevitable defeat.

Just when all hope seemed lost, Aatrox appeared among the ranks of the Protectorate. With but a few words, he urged the soldiers to fight to the last before throwing himself into battle. His presence inspired the desperate warriors. At first, they could only watch in awe as this unknown hero cleaved through their enemies, his body and blade moving in unison as if one being. Soon, the warriors found themselves imbued with a potent thirst for battle. They followed Aatrox into the fray, each fighting with the furious strength of ten until they had won a most unlikely victory.

Aatrox vanished after that battle, but the Protectorate army's newfound fury did not. Their surprising triumph led to many more until they were able to finally return home victorious. Their countrymen hailed them as heroes, but though they had saved their entire civilization from destruction, darkness lingered in the mind of each warrior. Something within them had changed. Over time, their memories of battle faded, only to be replaced with a grim revelation: their acts of heroism were, in fact, brutal atrocities committed by their own hands.

Tales like these appear among the myths of many cultures. If they are all to be believed, Aatrox's presence has changed the course of some of the most important wars in history. Though these stories remember him as a savior in dark times, Aatrox's true legacy may be a world filled with conflict and strife.

"Some fight for honor, some fight for glory. It matters only that you fight." - Aatrox

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Pros / Cons:


Pros:

+ Good sustain with Blood Thirst / Blood Price and Blood Well
+ Good amount of CC with Dark Flight (knock up) and Blades of Torment (slow).
+ Good champion to engage with if Blood Well is up.
+ Good in one on one fights.
+ Strong champion if played correctly.
+ Pretty low cooldowns exept for Blood Well


Cons:

- Will get focused in teamfights and will receive a lot of damage.
- Abilities cost health.
- Weak against heavy CC.
- Sometimes hard to place Dark Flight and Blades of Torment

MY SUMMONER SPELLS: I choose for my two Summoner Spells Flash and Ignite. I choose Flash Flash because it is in combination with Dark Flight an amazing gap closer and escaping Spell. I choose Ignite because it is a good spell to finish enemies with after you have poked them with Blades of Torment.

OTHER USEFULL SUMMONER SPELLS: For the people who like to use different Summoner Spells, here are some options

This Summoner Spell will in most cases be taken instead of Flash. With Ghost it is easy to stick on enemies and deal heavy damage with auto attacks and Massacre. I took Flash over Ghost because you already have enough movement speed from Ninja Tabi and Zephyr to chase down enemies. You also have the slow from Blades of Torment to stick to your enemy.

This Summoner Spell will in most cases be taken instead of Ignite. With Exhaust it is easy to stick on enemies like Ghost and the enemy has also reduced attack speed witch makes it easier to go one on one with champions like Irelia and Olaf. I took Ignite over Exhaust because I like to use ignite to finish enmies without going one on one. It is more a personal choice.

This Summoner spell should be take versus heavy pushers like Mordekaiser or Heimerdinger or champions that are hard to kill (counters like Teemo, Jax and Riven ). With this Summoner Spell you can make a quick recall and be back in lane without missing much CS.

This Summoner Spell can be good in one on one fights but i wouldn't recommend this Summoner Spell for Aatrox.

Blood Well: This is Aatrox's passive it will make him nearly unkilleble. With this passive you can withstand ganks, heavy burst and much more. His passive is a lot like Zac passive Cell Division but you can't be killed during your activated passive. If your passive is on cooldown you will have less attack speed. Aatrox gains 1% attack speed for every 2% blood in the well. Try to have a full well when using your passive. You will get more health back.

Dark Flight: This is Aatrox utility skill. You can use it for an escape or engage. It knocks enemies in the center of the impact up.

Blood Thirst / Blood Price: This is the skill that makes Aatrox, Aatrox. With Blood thirst you get every third attack hp. Blood Price does a lot of damage at the third attack at the cost of health. Try to use Blood price while attacking champions and Blood Thirst to heal up on minions. You can also only use Blood Thirst during the game but i won't recommend it.

Blades of Torment This skill is early game so important on Aatrox. It deals heavy damage on enemy champions. use this skill to poke and finish with: -> -> -> auto attack with -> finish of with Ignite.

Massacre: This Aatrox ultimate. When activating Massacre you will get bonus attack speed and range. His ultimate will deal MAGIC DAMAGE.

SKILL SEQUENCE:

UPGRADE ORDER: -> -> -> LEVELS 1/3: You start in the top lane with your w skill Blood Thirst / Blood Price to have sustain against poke champions like Gangplank. You spent your second point in your e skill Blades of Torment to poke your enemy to lower health. You spent your third point in your q skill Dark Flight. After you hit level 3, you can engage with Dark Flight. LEVELS 4/18: Max out Blades of Torment out first because it will be your primary damage source early game. Max Blood Thirst / Blood Price out second. Max Dark Flight out third. LEVELS 6/11/16: Don't forget to upgrade your ultimate Massacre at these levels.

SKILL COMBO'S Here are some skill combo's that you can use in one on one fights and team fights. ENGAGE ONE ON ONE FIGHT: -> -> -> auto attack with -> finish of with Ignite. TURRET DIVE: -> -> -> -> -> auto attack with -> finish of with Ignite. ENGAGE IN TEAMFIGHTS: -> -> -> get your health back with .

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Defensive:

I put in total 21 points in Tree 2.

-The first, four points go in Durability , Durability will increase your health with 6 HP every level. In total 108 extra Health.

-Three points go into Hardiness . Hardiness will increase your armor with 5.

-Three points go into Resistance . Resistance will increase your magig resist with 5.

-Two points go into Unyielding . Unyielding will reduce the incomming damage from other champions by 2.

-One point goes into Veteran's Scars . Veteran's Scars will increase your health by 30.

-One point goes into Block . Block will reduce incomming damage from basic attacks by 3.

-Three points go into Tenacious . Tenacious will reduce CC effects by 15%. Together with Zephyr will Aatrox have 50% CC effect reduction. This will help him greatly in teamfights.

-One point goes into Defender . Defender will grant 1 armor and magic resist for every nearby enemy champion.

-Two points go into Legendary Armor . Legendary Armor will increase bonus armor and magic resist by 3.5.

-The last point that goed into Tree 2 will go to Honor Guard . Honor Guard will reduce damage taken by all sources by 3%.

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You can always choose to go more offensive with Aatrox by using 21-9-0 masteries but you will be squishy early game with these runes. 21-9-0 will probably look something like this.

These Are the runes that i use for Aatrox. You can always use other runes if you think those are better for you and your playstyle.

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Marks:
For Marks I use Greater Marks of attack damage and Greater marks of armor penetration.
These Marks will give you 5.70 attack damage and 4.98 armor penetration. The Armor penetration Marks will work good against tanky champions like Shen.

Seals:
For Seals I use Greater Seals of Armor.. The Armor Seals will help you against champions with attack damage especially early game.

Glyph:
For Glyphs I Use Greater Glyphs of Scaling Magic Resist and Greater Glyphs of Magic Resist. This will increase your magic resist. Early game you will have a little extra magic resist. At level 18 when the enemy AP carry will do a lot of damage you will have an extra 25.7 magic resist. This will help you to sustain better in teamfights.

Quintessences:
For Quintessences i use greater Quintessences of Attack damage. An other great choice for Quintessences will be greater Quintessences of Armor Penetration.

These Runes will help you early game and during teamfights. You can always change the runes to your own playstyle.

When I fight against a normal Top lane I Probably will build those Items in that order. I will start of with Boots, 2x [Health Potions]] and a sight ward. I try to get my Bilgewater Cutlass first, then my situational upgraded Boots. Most times I will buy a Giant's Belt as third Item. When i got my Giant's Belt I will have enough sustain for a while so I will try to build my Blade of the Ruined King and Zephyr. With those two Items I will have enough attack speed for in the game but not enough damage yet. Because of the lack of damage i will build a Bloodthirster and finaly a Ravenous Hydra.

I use this build against AP enemies. This build will grand you some extra magic resist and a shield against magic damage if you are low. The only disadvantage of this build is that you will have less attack speed.

These are two setups for a build. You can always add other items of this list:

Defensive items:

- Warmog's Armor You should buy this item if you get focussed a lot in teamfights or if you have a hardtime in lane. This Item will give you a nice amount of health and healt regen and you will be harder to burst down.

- Randuin's Omen You should buy this item if you have to go against a heavy AD team. This item can sit in for Frozen Mallet

- Runic Bulwark You should buy this item if the enemy team has a lot of AP or their AP carry is fed. This item is the nightmare for AP champions. You will get 25 magic resist and allies close by will get 12.5 magic resist.

- Sunfire Aegis You can buy this item if you need armor and health. I wouldn't recommend it.

- Frozen Heart You should buy this item if the enky team has a lot of AD. I do not recommend this Item becasuse the mana would be wasted on you.

- Guardian Angel You can buy this item if you play really aggresive and Blood Well isn't enough for you. Guardian Angel also has a nice amount a armor. This is a pretty good item for Aatrox

Offensive items:

- Maw of Malmortius You should buy this item if you are against an AP top champion. This item will grand you attack damage, magic resist and a shield against AP.

- Phantom Dancer You should buy this item if you think that you haven't have enough attack speed yet.

- Mercurial Scimitar You should buy this item if you want some extra magic resist, attack damage and an unique passive that will remove all debuffs and that will grand you 50% movement speed for 1 second. This item will give you an unique passive that can save your life many times. I would recommend this item if your enemy champion on top has a lot of CC (stun, slow, Ignite et cetera).

- Black Cleaver You should buy this item if your enmey stacks a lot of armor and health (like Shen). This item will grand you a nice amount of armor penetration that will help you to burst down champions with no problem.

There are still a lot of other items that you can use on Aatrox but i haven't had the time yet to try them all out.

Boots:

- Ninja Tabi You should buy this item when you want some extra sustain against AD champions. This item will grand you an extra 45+ movement speed, 25 armor and it will block 10% damge of besic attacks. I would definitely recommend this item.

- Mercury's Treads You should buy this item when you want some extra sustain against AP champions. This item will grand you 45+ movement speed, 25 magic resist and a very usefull unique passive. This unique passive will reduce CC, what is good for you because you are weak against CC.
I would definitely recommend this item especially against and feeded AP carry.

- Mobility Boots You should buy this item if you like to roam around the map to help your teammates. This item will grand you +45 movement speed and if you are 5 seconds out of combat your movement speed will be increased to +105.

- Berserker's Greaves You should buy this item if you have an easy game. With an easy game you won't need a lot of extra sustain. This item will grand you +45 movement speed and 20 attack speed.

- Boots of Swiftness This item will grand you +60 movement speed and will reduce slows by 25%. I wouldn't recommend this item since there are better boots for Aatrox.

- Ionian Boots of Lucidity This Item will grand you +45 movement speed and +15% cooldown reduction. I wouldn't recommend buying this item because the cooldown on your skills are already low.

- Sorcerer's Shoes This item will grand you +45 movement speed and 15 magic penetration. Don't buy this item. Remember, only your ultimate is Ap and you will be building AD.

The Enchantments will be your own choice. It will depend on the game.

Early game top:

Normal / easy lane:

When you are laning top with Aatrox against a easy or normal laner you should early game start poking your enemy when you hit level two with Blades of Torment. Try to lure him into engaging at level three. When he starts attacking you use Dark Flight to knock him up. Slow him with Blades of Torment and auto attack with Blood Thirst / Blood Price. Somtimes it is even possible to get first blood that way.

Hard / impossible lane:

When you are laning top with Aatrox against a nearly impossible laner the only thing you can do is wait for your jungler to come and get as many farm as possible by freezing the lane just out of range from your turret.

Mid Game:

Mid game is were the team fights begin. If you have Blood Well up you can engage like this:
-> -> -> get your health back with .

Try to take the AD or AP carry out first because they will deal the most damage. Aatrox is more then capable of that.
Of course don't forget to farm because farm is more important then some kills.

Late Game:

Late game the only thing that really matters is getting the Baron and Dragon for extra advantages in team fights. Try to ward the most important places of the map.

Sooo.. this is it now. I will update this guide as soon as possible. I will try to fix grammar mistakes but don't blame me.. I am dyslexic and English isn't my main language.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and learned some new thing about Aatrox.

cya!

To do list:

-Formatting this guide. (Almost halfway)
-Explaining the masteries.
-Jungle guide.
-Mid gudie.