Hey guys
This guide is so I can teach people how you play glass cannon Aatrox.
Aatrox is a really good champion in all levels of play as with this build he can esily distract 3 people, whether in a teamfight or splitpushing.
If you want to know more about how to play aatrox or if you are pro and want to learn how to win more games then read on and I hope you learn something.

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.

Pros:

One of the best 1v1s in the game
Can distract 3-4 people with his q
Split pushes like mad
Snowballs really well from early game

Cons:

You can get screwed over against ranged champs
Needs a good early game to do well

There are really only three types of runes that you should get for aatrox:
Marks of attack damage: These mean you have more attack damage early which means you do more damage to your opponent so you win your lane.
Seals of Armor: These reduce the amount of damage you take early game, which helps you in duels and when they poke you. You don't need seals of scaling armor because late game youre going to be critting everyone to bits.
Glpyhs of magic resist: This is pretty selfexplanatory really. Same as above.
You can also consider replacing your seals of armor and glyphs of magic resist with Seal of Scaling Attack Damage and Glyph of Attack Damage

For masteries go 21-9-0 with all the attack damage and attack speed masteries.
For the defending tree get all the points in durability and armor, one point in magic resist, and one in veterans scar.

Why not 9-21-0 or 21-0-9?
These masteries are not useful because a) Aatrox has no mana and b) this is snowball aatrox not tanky aatrox.

Like before you can consider putting as many masteries in the offensive tree as you want.

Start off with boots and 3 pots or a dorans blade for the attack damage. Once you have 1550 gold go back and buy a BF sword, then farm until you can get berserkers greaves.
By the end of the laning phase you should have built a Bloodthirster and gotten a good amount of stacks on it. Then you can follow up with the remaining 4 items, buying them in the order: Attack damage, Attack Speed, Attack damage, Attack speed, depending on whether you need crit chance or lifesteal from ravenous hydra first.

Optional items:

Guardian angel:
Replace Phantom dancer with this. The fact it brings you back to life and is another passivemakes it a very good item for Aatrox.

Zephyr:
Mostly gotten for the CDR reduction, although attack speed is good too.

Youmuus: If they stack armor a lot, then get this.

Pretty simple again:

Max W by level 9 for the increased duelling power in fights.
Max Q starting at level 2 and then max it by lvl 14 so you can snowball and initiate easily.
Max E last with 1 point at lvl 4 for the poke.
And max R whenever possible.

Jungling as Aatrox is pretty simple to do.
Start with your w, and a hunters machete and 3 health pots, or a dorans.
First you want to clear red then take a health pot and if you are lvl 2 get your w and gank top. Then you want to go down to blue buff via wraiths and possibly wolves and gank bot, before returning to gank mid. If you continue to take these jungle monsters and gank lanes, then you should have a lot of kills and few deaths by the time the laning phase ends, and be able to snowball into midgame pretty easily. Once you are in mid game, it is important to sell your machete so it doesn't get in the way of all your other items.

Ignite ]. This is basically the spell you have to get for snowball Aatrox. This is really important because you can pick up 1-2 kills with it early which really helps.

Exhaust ] Another really good spell for duelling tough matchups like Tryndamere or helping you get kills on the easy ones.

Flash ] This is a useful spell on many occasions. Doesn't really help you snowball but its useful for getting away etc.

None of the other spells are really useful for snowball Aatrox but you can pick them if you want.

Smite ] You may as well take this if you are jungling unless you REALLY want to pick ignite-exhaust in which case go ahead. Take it with ignite.

I hope you learnt a little bit about another way to play Aatrox from this guide, and I hope I might get to paly some of you in the near future. :)