Hey there guys! This is Fimbulhoeggr hailing from the LAS server. I welcome you to my guide to Solo Top Aatrox. It is intended mostly for Bronze and Silver Ranked players who are having a hard time trying to carry their teams or going up in the Ranked ladder; however this build functions accordingly at higher Tiers since it is really versatile.

When I began playing Aatrox I soon realized that he has the potential to win most lanes with ease, by making use of an excellent kit which has pretty much everything you'd want in a top laner: persistent damage output, infinite sustain and handy engage/escape tools. Also, if he begins snowballing he'll become a serious threat to the entire enemy team. So get ready to dominate your lane, slay your foes and carry your team to victory!

I have updated this guide for Season 5, after a somewhat long absence. As always, any constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading and I hope you find it useful!

Pros

Cons

Awesome early game harass Insane sustain Effective carry and viable tank Free Guardian Angel with Blood Well Pretty much ungankable He's a horned demon WITH A GIANT SWORD!

Somewhat hard to master due to his skillshots Susceptible to bursty champions Extremely Autoattacking reliant Ignite can shut him down

My goal here with this guide is to provide with an AD Offtank/Fighter Build and Role, which I believe is the most balanced way to play Aatrox in Ranked Games. With this build you will deal a fair amount of damage but also be able to survive even more.

However one good thing about Aatrox is that his kit permits him to tweak his build and fit in another role in any given match. For instance, you can lean to a more glass cannon build if your team needs a damage dealer, or you can even leave most of the damage items aside and become a tanky initiator. Always remember that when playing Ranked, your capability to react to different scenarios is what might mean the difference between certain defeat and a comeback victory.

This is all explained in detail in the sections below; however the key will always lie in your discernment. So, as the great Bruce Lee once said about being flexible: "be water, my friend".

Note: Skip this chapter if you've been level 30 for quite some time now.

I've decided to include a brief section about commonly used abbreviatons or expressions in League of Legends, for the sake of newer players or those not that familiar with any of these. So here it goes:

HP: Health/Hit Points
MR: Magic Resist
AP: Ability Power
AD: Attack Damage
AS: Attack Speed
CS: Creep Score (the minions and jungle monsters you have killed)
LS: Life Steal (note this only procs with autoattacks and not with champion skills)
AoE: Area of Effect (any damage or effect applied to an area - the contrary of single targeting. This abilities are usually skillshots).
CC: Crowd Control (status effects of any type: stuns, slows, fears, snares, silences, etc).
Split Pushing: pushing lanes so that your team may take another objective, make ganks or take a turret down before the enemy can react.
Backdooring: sneaking to a pushed lane and taking out turrets/inhibitors or the nexus. Be aware that this is not a common mechanic and it is frowned upon in Ranked games, as it might leave your team at a tactical disadvantage.

I think that's it, if you just began playing Ranked and have any question just ask in the Comments tab or PM me!

That is my rune set of preference as it provides:

• harassing and last hitting efficiency with the 9x Greater Mark of Attack Damage and 3x Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage
• flat Armor from the 9x Greater Seal of Armor which are a must against the typical Top AD Bruiser, since everyone seems to be using these instead of flat HP nowadays after the starting Armor change.
• scaling Magic Resist is usually the most balanced option, specially if you feel that some extra Attack Speed from Glyphs doesnt't make that much difference. You can never go wrong with these, as they are most useful for late game teamfights.

Other viable runes

Extra Attack Speed from the these can help when trading with your opponent AND when trying to recover some Health by hitting minions faster if you are being pushed hard (Edit: this has now become even more useful since the AS nerf to his passive Blood Well).

Same as the above, except that using these runes instead of AS Glyphs will have a much better impact (15% versus 5%). This should provide a bit of the missing Attack Speed from not rushing Blade of the Ruined King.

You can take these if you are facing some AP champion like Rumble, Vladimir, Kennen, Elise or Singed. These have grown even more viable now with the rise of champions like Ryze and Lissandra in the top lane.

A nice option to pair up with the AD marks and a Doran's Blade. You'll get the most profit with these when laning against another manaless melee champion ( Riven, Garen), as they'll help you get your HP back faster between the constant trades.

An alternative when fighting against AP champions, paired up of course with flat MR glyphs. This, combined with a Doran's Shield, will neglect a lof of incoming damage in your early levels. I suggest using this only in very hard lanes when you can't farm effectively and getting in close range is not an option; it'll help recover your HP from the harass you take when trying to last hit.

I wouldn't recommend taking Greater Quintessence of Armor Penetration or Greater Mark of Armor Penetration, as your skills scale off of flat AD, and in teamfights you shouldn't be focusing high-armor targets. This way, AD Runes mean more damage on your Blades of Torment but also on your autoattacks. You'll find this really usefull in your first levels, as the best way to play Aatrox in my experience is to dominate your lane very early on by harassing your opponent A LOT and trying to deny his farm; therefore with flat AD your Autoattacks and skills get the job done much better than Armor Pen.

21-9-0

9-21-0 Alternative

If for some reason you:

• got counterpicked,
• think you will have a tough laning phase,
• your team needs someone beefy or an initiator for mid/late game teamfights, or
• simply suits better your play style,

then you might want to take a 9-21-0 approach on your masteries. With this setup your early game harass and last hitting capability should suffer very little, but you may find yourself being quite a bit more tanky at later levels. Also, this is a little more cohesive with the Life Steal/HP Regen setup I propose with my build and explain with detail in my Itemization section:

As usual for many top laners, Flash and Ignite make the best summoner spells. Flash has many offensive and defensive uses, while Ignite will add some extra damage when you go in for the kill, and besides it will reduce your opponent's Health Regeneration. This really is a must against champions with massive Life Steal or HP Regen like Dr. Mundo, Olaf or Vladimir; and when the teamfights begin it will also aid you in killing faster the enemy AD carry.

Season 5 has however seen Teleport as sort of a standard summoner spell for top laners, because of its potential to gank the bot lane by teleporting to a ward in a bush but specially for helping in the first fights for Dragon -which with the changes to its buffs it's become a crucial objective-. This can become a severe game changer so keep it in mind by planning with your teammates and then choose accordingly.
Additionally, Teleport might as well serve as a split-pushing or back-dooring tool in late game too.

Regarding mobility, you may consider taking Ghost over Flash. Aatrox is by nature an Autoattacker, so this spell may help you stick to your target for a bit longer while chasing (very useful against the likes of champions like Tryndamere or Singed). However I would only take this if the enemy team doesn't have too much crowd control though.

Ability Leveling Sequence

In most lanes you'll want to max your E ( Blades of Torment) in order to maximize your harassing potential, which will also keep your opponent quite zoned out due to its long range. Once he/she sees your Blades of Torment actually hurts, you'll have little problem controlling your lane.

But there is one case in which you may want to level up Blood Price first; and that is when you find yourself in a lane trading damage with your opponent too frequently. This may happen if you face a melee champion such as an overly-aggressive Tryndamere or say an Irelia. This will vary greatly according to your opponent's playstyle, so study them carefully first.

Skill by Skill Explanation

Blood Well: Aatrox's passive is just plainly awesome. Using your skills grant you Blood Well stacks, which will be consumed if you take fatal damage, reviving you with some HP so that you can escape to safety or slay the foes that dared attack you. These Blood Well stacks also provide a percentage of Attack Speed which slowly depletes itself just as Mordekaiser's Shield.

Dark Flight: This is the skill that will serve you as gap closer, as escaping tool (can be used through most walls in the jungle), or simply to add some crowd control in a teamfight (it knocks enemies up when landing). Downside is that its range may seem a little bit short, but it has so many uses that you're gonna love it.

Blood Thirst: Your main sustain tool. It's a passive skill that heals you on every 3rd hit. Just use it this way almost all of the time to keep your HP full, and it will make you stay in your lane practically forever. Don't underestimate the power of the Dark Side of this skill since it has the potential of turning the tide of a 1v2 situation and grant you a double kill.

Blood Price: If you toggle Blood Thirst you'll hit harder every 3rd hit, at the cost of some HP. Use this only when at a clear advantage in trading damage on a 1v1 situation. I suggest using this in teamfights once you have played quite some games as Aatrox and are familiar with how much HP this skill costs.

Blades of Torment: Your bread & butter skill. Use this to harass, to zone your enemy out, to slow your enemies so that you can land your Dark Flight more accurately. You can even use it to last hit minions from a safe distance! One important thing is that it deals magical damage so it can't be really countered early on. It's a skillshot kind of hard to land at its end, it takes practice to get used to it but is soooo rewarding once you get the hang of it.

Massacre: Aatrox's ultimate. When cast, you deal a fair amount of AP damage, and you receive a nice Attack Speed boost AND 175 bonus range on your autoattacks for 12 seconds. During this time it is your duty to bring mayhem on to the enemy's lines. You'll wreck their carries with this, then your teammates can clean the carnage left on the field. Blood will run, but it won't be yours.

I would have liked to include this in the Itemization section, but this topic is very debatable and I'd like to explain my point of view, which can't be summarized in few words. Also, I should have included this section long ago, because the comparison between the two items can make you see the benefits of each of them, perhaps even make you change your mind about it.

Most people rush Blade of the Ruined King as the first item on Aatrox. It makes great sense because it can give you all an autoattacker needs: a nice Attack Speed buff, some Life Steal, a little AD, and last but not least, the famous and most useful active from Bilgewater Cutlass first, then the enhanced unique active from the BotRK itself.

On the other side, Ravenous Hydra provides a nice chunk of 75 AD, decent Life Steal, some Life Regen, and a precious active with burst and AoE Damage.

They serve very different purposes. So here are some of the benefits of each:

Exceptional split-pusher Increases your burst damage More damage on skills Clears jungle camps very fast Adds AoE in teamfights

Formidable dueling capability Turret wrecker Prevents enemy from escaping Secures your escape

In the balance, I believe Ravenous Hydra provides more overall damage. Not only for the 75 AD, but because of its active which resets your autoattack timer. If you autoattack, then immediately use the active, then autoattack right after again, you will have damaged your opponent 3 times in around one second. That's actually a lot of damage and it really leaves you with a fair advantage as soon as a duel begins.

Hydra also excels at pushing very fast; and because of this you will see your gold income increase at a very nice rate as soon as you go back to lane. You can literally make a minion wave disappear in around 2 seconds if you use Blades of Torment on as many minions as you can, then the active from Hydra and 1 or 2 autoattacks to kill the remnants. This will leave you lots of time for ganking mid lane, help your jungler, or invade the enemy's jungle and take their camps, which means even more gold.

You sum all this and that's why I believe that Ravenous Hydra is optimal as first item for Aatrox. I think people are quite fanatized about rushing Blade of the Ruined King and, hey I'm not saying it's a bad item or anything because it's not, but I just see it more like a situational item if you are to build it first (say, if the other team is building pure HP or have too many tanks). You should buy it sometime during the game anyway as it's sort of a core item for you; the Attack Speed steroid and the extra Life Steal will turn you into a killing machine (try taking a turret down with Massacre on, the AD from Hydra and the AS from BoTRK and you'll see what I'm talking about).

This is how your build should look like around 60-70% of the games, with a few tweaks in the building order which I explain below. The logic behind all this is the massive Life Steal and HP Regen you are going to have; mix this up with the extra Damage, Health, Armor and Magic Resist from these items and you'll be hitting like a truck while very likely outsustaining the enemy's damage.
The HP Regen from Ravenous Hydra, Warmog's Armor AND Spirit Visage, PLUS the 20% extra healing from the latter, will provide you with some actual nice HP recovering which is really useful if for some reason you can't hit an enemy to Life Steal some Health back. This way you recover HP while in the middle of a fight AND out of it. Some examples and advantages of this could be:

• recovering the HP spent from using your skills when kiting
• recovering HP if you have to get momentarily out of the teamfight to lose aggro
• recovering HP while chasing or being chased
• recovering HP after winning a teamfight so that you can push safely

Building Order Suggestions & Exceptions

• First item should almost always be Ravenous Hydra. This will boost your CS and gold as a consequence and its pushing power will leave you time for helping other lanes, teleport somewhere else for a gank, win a dragon fight, etc.
• I prefer to build Warmog's Armor as my second item overall, and my first defensive one, as Health is more effective in early-mid game than Armor and MR. If you were able to rush a Ravenous Hydra by the 15-20 minute mark, then beginning to build a Warmog's Armor can give you a fair advantage. As a general rule, Warmog's Armor is better if the enemy team has a balanced mixture of AD and AP damage, and may help you mitigate burst a bit better.
• You may build Randuin's Omen prior to Warmog's Armor right after rushing your Ravenous Hydra if the enemy AD Carry is fed, or if any enemy AD champion is causing you trouble.
• Spirit Visage is a core item on Aatrox, so you can go ahead and buy it anytime after the laning phase; you should of course prioritize it if you face an AP Caster in top or if the enemy team AP Carry is fed.
• If you are just too fed and the enemy team is doing poorly, you may add even more damage to try and finish the game quickly. In this case I would buy the Blade of the Ruined King and just give 'em Hell.

Boots Options

These synergize well with Aatrox's offensive kit. I'd take them if I'm clearly ahead in my lane and if the enemy team doesn't have too much CC.

Quite self-explanatory. You'll want to rush this against an AP opponent or if the enemy team has too much CC in the teamfights.

Usually my last option, but can come in handy if the enemy AD Carry is fed or if you face an annoying harasser like Jayce or Zed.

Situational Items

With the recent rework, I would still buy this over Last Whisper. The reasons behind this decision is all the nice stats it provides PLUS the on-hit Movement Speed, which has a tremendous sticking power when chasing someone. Rushing this item could a great idea when facing armor-stacking champions like Malphite or any other who just goes for armor instead of damage.

Good choice if you find yourself having a hard time against an AP based champion. Mostly useful perhaps against DoTs (Damage-Over-Time skills) champions' like Singed or the ever-hateful Teemo.

Maybe a redundant item on Aatrox, but Hell, who doesn't want to be revived freely twice? (Or thrice, just imagine if you'd had a Zilean on your team). Seriously, I'd replace Randuin's Omen with this if I found myself being heavily focused or if I were the only real source of damage in my team. If the game is getting too long it wouldn't be a bad idea to get this as well.

I'm not a big fan of building Critical Chance in Aatrox, but I guess it's OK to take this if your carries can't keep up with the other team's damage. I would consider this perhaps if your enemy has a fed Master Yi, Vayne, Draven or Yasuo. I name these because they snowball really hard and tend to be a real problem in low Ranking Play, but you get the idea.

Other viable items

Fairly useful if you can't get past the enemy frontline due to lots of Crowd Control. Also a good item if paired with Spirit Visage when the enemy team has too much AP damage.

Quite a bunch of nice stats for Aatrox. Definitely a good option if you are going for Ninja Tabi or Berserker's Greaves. Also, if the game gets stupidly long, you can even replace your boots with this item and use that extra space for more damage or a Guardian Angel.

A nice replace for Randuin's Omen, or a complement to it if you need even more Armor and HP. It's rather cheap and its passive adds a bit of damage to your combos. It would not be a bad idea to buy this as first item if you are having a hard time laning.

You actually can make a really good use of all the stats this gives, specially the active, with which you can wreck someone combined with your ultimate. Definitely the item I'd get with Infinity Edge if my team wasn't doing enough damage. Those two items alone will leave you at a 35% Critical Chance which should be more than enough to take out a squishy target or two. (Edit: this item is becoming more and more common among assassins and problematic champions such as Riven. As a result, you may have to build this in order to keep up with their damage.

Not the optimal first item as I see it, however it has some potential. If you are quite ahead winning your lane, then adding some Crit Chance and extra burst might give you the edge to try and settle that dominance. I'd replace Youmuu's Ghostblade with this if you are building Infinity Edge to achieve some relevant Critical Chance percentage.

This item was suggested to me by Darkospeed. I hadn't really thought of it, but almost everything it offers can make quite a difference when dueling. Just take a look at its passive stats: basic attacks AND skills grant you stacking Attack Speed, and when below 50% Health you gain extra Life Steal. It's not an expensive item, and you may think that the AP it gives is wasted, but actually two of your skills scale off of AP. This item could really shine when laning against autoattacking-reliant champions like Tryndamere, Xin Zhao or Master Yi, maybe too against Volibear and Yasuo.

Not a bad idea if you have to face a melee AP based Champion. You could rush this item against the likes of enemies as Gragas, Diana or Akali. I however don't find it that effective against ranged champions, in which case I would still stick to Hexdrinker instead.

The Critical Hit Path

First of all, I'd have to advise against the use of this particular build in Ranked games, for Aatrox is not an Assassin and therefore once he commits to a fight doesn't have the tools to move back to safety, such as do have LeBlanc, Zed, or Fizz. Neither does his kit have the required burst damage to clean up a squishy target quickly. However, due to his all-in nature, he can act as an assassin-wannabe by making good use of his Attack Speed by building critical damage.
Having said all of the above, this build will still require at least one initiator and some CC in your team, so that you don't get focused down and killed while trying to take out your targets. If your team has no initiators/tanks/offtanks/whatever-beefy-character, then this build is by no means any good, as it is focused on becoming primarily a massive damage dealer with little to no survivability items until at least mid game, other than your LS.
If the forementioned team composition requirements are met, this build might come handy in situations when your team is struggling to deal enough damage to win the teamfights.
So here is a sample of what the building order and core should look like (buy some boots as required and replace them with Zephyr if you are able to complete the full build):



Armor Penetration is not really required as you should focus on taking down mostly squishy targets, but you can leave behind Randuin's Omen and get a Last Whisper or Black Cleaver if Armor stacking is a problem. LS is important as a survival mechanic and therefore Spirit Visage is core on Aatrox and is preferred over any other defensive item.
Just remember this particular itemization is really situational, its building path not entirely reliable so it shouldn't be used in most games. It's still viable but I strongly suggest you stick to my Standard Core Build as many games as possible, as it has been thoroughly tested and it's a balanced item set.

To unleash Aatrox's full potential you'll need to pay special attention to your laning phase and how to play against smart opponents or counterpicks. Let us go a little bit over all that in this section.

Early Game

First of all we'll concentrate on the very early game. If you are playing Ranked, consider starting with my Recommended setup. Those Health Potions should keep your HP full at all times; plus, you'll be closer to buying a Tiamat or a Bilgewater Cutlass with the Long Sword.

Levels 1-4 should be focused in last-hitting minions AND harassing your opponent at the same time, preferably with your Blades of Torment and some autoattacks if you are close enough. It is your goal to make your enemy consume all his/her Health Potions so that you can go in for the kill when he/she's run out of them and has around half HP or less. If you can't kill him, then you may force him to go back to base, which will make him lose experience and farming. You, on the contrary, with your innate sustain can stay there forever taking CS and then come back with some items that will put you at an advantage.

If for some reason you can't play aggressively (because you are being camped by the enemy's jungler or got counterpicked), then always try to at least trade back when your opponent harasses you. If they are melee, you should have little problem doing so. This is important because if you don't trade back your enemy will end up zoning you, which means a loss of CS and XP for you.

A very different matter is when your enemy is ranged. There can be two different scenarios in this case, the first involving you being able to nevertheless play aggressively once you have 1 point in Dark Flight (I recommend such strategy against really squishy champions with no slows or stuns, such as Teemo).
In the second scenario you may have to adopt a very different strategy, which might happen if you are being outharassed, have run out of Health Potions, or suffered too many ganks; that's when the careful and selective last hitting comes in play. In this scenario the 3x Greater Quintessence of Health Regeneration along with the starting Doran's Shield should provide you some sustain when you back up from the annoying kiting from your opponent after last hitting a minion. Examples of this second case could be a lane against Kayle, Lissandra, Kennen, Jayce.

About Warding and Enemy Ganks

These are the spots you'll want to ward at all times during the laning phase:

• If you are playing on the Blue Team, you'll want to see the enemy Jungler or Mid Laner coming to gank you. A single well placed ward as shown in the picture above should give you enough time whether they come from the tribush or the River.
• When on the Red Team, best warding spots are the enemy Blue Buff camp entrance on the River, and the tribush.
• For both sides, you may need to be aware of incoming ganks from the lane bushes. I would normally use the Stealth Ward if I suspect the enemy Jungler is camping one of these.
• You should start placing wards once you hit levels 2-3 OR anytime you can't see their enemy Jungler on any of the other lanes on your mini-map.
• If you are playing on the Blue Side, expect an early gank because the Top Lane is closer to the enemy team Red Buff camp, and the Jungler might just take advantage of it.

Always remember to KEEP YOUR LANE WARDED AT ALL TIMES. This may sound trivial if you are experienced at League but, if you are careful enough, Aatrox can't be ganked due to his Dark Flight used as an escape, provided you have vision to react quickly.

That being said, if you see an opportunity to get kills, just go for it. You'd be surprised at how much damage Aatrox can deal to two enemies if they attack you on a 1v2 scenario. One of the keys to playing Aatrox successfully lies in that; your set of skills turns you into a master baiter killer. They can even dive on you, but you will revive and kick their arses, so use this to your advantage. As I said before, never underestimate the power of your passive Life Steal, it can be really deceiving in most situations during the laning phase.

The only downside on Aatrox's side is that burst damage can effectively shut him down. That's why you need to play smartly and harass the hell outta your enemy so that they live in fear and don't dare go in for the kill because they already have little HP and are falling behind.

Mid and Late Game

If everything went fine, once you're level 6 you should be ahead of your lane opponent either in farm or in kills. Rush a Ravenous Hydra to get a boost of CS with it (you'll literally eat a wave of minions in no time), then follow my build to get some Health and Resistances as needed. Soon the teamfights will begin and you will need to stay alive while dealing as much damage as possible. Remember to pay attention to the enemy team composition and also to their greatest threat, so that you can tweak your build accordingly.

If things didn't go well for you in the laning phase, then some defensive items should be your priority. You won't be doing much damage, but the least you can do in a scenario like this is to initiate and tank the first wave of damage so that your teammates take care of the rest. If you had a bad laning phase and you still build damage items you probably won't last much in the fight while dealing little to no damage before dying.

Otherwise in Teamfights try not to initiate or go in recklessly because you'll most likely die and waste your passive. Wait for your tank to do that job so when you go in they've wasted some of their skills. Always aim for the carries unless yours are being heavily focused and you see that by peeling them your team will get the edge of the fight. By now your damage and sustain should be enough to get some kills for your team. It's rather crucial that if they have too many slows and/or stuns you already own a pair of Mercury's Treads.

If the game comes over the 40 minutes mark or so, it's very likely that the team that wins the next fight gets the game too. So NEVER, EVER get caught out of position. If no one on your on your team is warding then you should be helping with that, by telling them and buying wards yourself. Try to stay with your team at all times, finish your build accordingly, and be cold-blooded because a single mistake can turn the tide of the match. Aatrox is more of a Mid-Game champion as I see it so you should aim to win your games before the game gets too long.

I'm still lacking some champions here but I keep adding everything that you may encounter in a top lane or has the potential for it. Overall I have to say that Aatrox is quite a safe pick because few people expects that much damage and insane sustain in early game. I'd be very careful though to pick him against what I consider are his hard counters. As with most champions, with some help from your jungler you may even win some of the toughest lanes; nevertheless I suggest you pick accordingly because a skilled player can really mess your game up. I hope this section helps you decide that with some perspective.

Difficulty: 3/10. Spoiler: Click to view This one will depend on your ability to bait his Qs ( Rupture). If you can do that, then you will outharass him with your Blades of Torment, and if you take AD Runes your autoattacks will do more damage than his Vorpal Spikes. So time his Qs and dodge them, harass the hell outta him so that he can't heal, and this lane is yours.

Difficulty: 6/10. Spoiler: Click to view Darius's never an easy one. You just need to harass him early on as always with your Blades of Torment, and always poke back if he initiates. However, as against most champions, NEVER ever go for the kill if he is at full HP after he has his ultimate Noxian Guillotine. His burst is too much for you to handle so only fully commit to a fight if he's at 50% HP or so. If you are careful with that and also keep him zoned out, this lane is easily won.

Difficulty: 3/10. Spoiler: Click to view This very likely will turn into an extremely boring lane. You can get a kill before he hits level 6, after that just forget about it. If he's anywhere close to dying he'll run away and recover his HP like crazy. So almost every lane against Dr. Mundo is probably going to be a farm lane. Thus a good advice would be to not push your lane so you can farm effectively and cover behind your minions against his Infected Bonesaw.

Difficulty: 7/10. Spoiler: Click to view Talking here primarily about the nowadays more or less common AD Fizz, which is a surpisingly difficult lane. The only advantage you have against him is your sustain, something Fizz naturally lacks but makes up with his combos. These rely on a reasonable mixed amount of burst and sustained damage, the worst coming from his Seastone Trident strikes. You'll have to level up Blood Price to keep up with that kind of damage and avoid as many trades as you can or else you won't stand a chance. In case you encounter an AP Fizz in top, you should have a fair advantage pre level 6 so make it count before he gets his ultimate and combo you before escaping with his annoying troll-pole.

Difficulty: 3/10. Spoiler: Click to view This dude's gonna have a hard time with you. Save your Blades of Torment for when you see him charging towards you to silence you with his Decisive Strike. He'll never get to you because he'll be slowed as hell. Poke him to death with it, bait him and he'll just have to live in the bush to recover his HP, which will probably make him lose too much CS.

Difficulty: 8.5/10. Spoiler: Click to view Pre level 6, if he means to hurt you he will run out of mana real quick. As Aatrox is manaless you have the advantage there, so again, use your Blades of Torment if you see that he is going to initiate on you with his Leap Strike/ Empower combo. However Jax has the perfect weapons to fight you: he is a bursty champion and has a dodge skill. So piece of advice, never EVER engage Jax if he's at full HP. He'll rip your heart out. Your only bet here is to starve his mana pool by baiting him and poking him from a safe distance, but I strongly suggest not picking Aatrox against him.

Difficulty: 8/10. Spoiler: Click to view Man this guy has the potential to send you back to hell if he plays aggresively. The main problem about Jayce is that he'll poke you constantly with Autoattacks, from which you may not recover just by last hitting minions. If he pushes the lane a bit, he can take a nice chunk of your Health with his enhanced Shock Blast. To make things even worse, he can even dive on you with the combo To The Skies!/ Thundering Blow with you not even being able to trade back. I would gladly avoid this lane; best advice if you have to play against Jayce is to take HP regen quints and start with a Doran's Shield so that you can rely on HP regen more than Life Steal (since you probably won't be able to autoattack anything much). Also taking Ghost is viable in case you have to chase him or escape his crazy dives.

Difficulty: 5/10. Spoiler: Click to view Not a common pick for the top lane, but I've seen him a few times in Ranked games. He's by nature a bursty champion, but he needs to build mana before damage, so there goes your advantage in early game. He also doesn't have any sustain while you do, so use that to your advantage. In this matchup there's not much point in leveling Blades of Torment first, because the shield from his Null Sphere will negate most of the damage when he comes in range to harass you. So level up Blood Thirst first; he has ranged skills but he needs to get into melee range for effective farming. Build an early Hexdrinker and if you avoid getting ganked this lane is quite winnable.

Difficulty: 4/10. Spoiler: Click to view Some will say a good Lee Sin means trouble, but the truth in my experience is that if he can't land his Sonic Waves, he can't deal too much damage. You can easily dodge these by just hiding behind your minions all the time. Try to engage him when his Sonic Wave is on cooldown, and if after that he pokes you, make sure you always poke back. Do not ever push your lane against Lee Sin, because if he chases you without any minions to cover you, his burst is too much for you to handle.

Difficulty: 8/10. Spoiler: Click to view This is a tough one, because even though you can get a kill very early on if he's too concentrated in farming and didn't take Ignite, if he's smart he'll come back with some Armor and/or HP, which with his pasive Life Steal from Soul Eater will make him near unkillable. Most likely you can't win this lane if he knows what he's doing, but at least you can stay up to his farming and not lose it. Thing is, if you fight him and he fights back, his Wither will cripple you to hell and you'll be forced to retreat. Ask for ganks to keep lane pressure on him, so that he can't farm his Siphoning Strike, and pray the game doesn't get very long.

Difficulty: 2/10. Spoiler: Click to view Quite an easy lane if you go a little bit aggressive and stay healthy. It's important to get cover behind minions when she's in human form to avoid her Javelin Toss. That way she can kite you with autoattacks but not much more than that. If she goes cougar form, then her burst might hurt a little, but you should always trade and make your sustain count, as she won't be able to heal any damage until she goes back to human. It may be hard to chase her if you need to, so time your Dark Flight and Blades of Torment accordingly.

Difficulty: 9/10. Spoiler: Click to view This guy means that if you make one single mistake, your lane will be lost and most likely you won't be able to comeback. You may be able to kill him if you harass him a lot in early (your Blades of Torment got more range than his Spear Shot, and you do more damage with autoattacks), but being stunned is BAD for you, plus you can't match his burst. Overall the best advice would be to avoid this lane, so play Yorick or some other thing against Pantheon.

Difficulty: 10/10. Spoiler: Click to view If Pantheon is already terrible to go against in lane, then wait until you come across a Renekton. His kit has everything that counters Aatrox, making the combo Slice and Dice- Ruthless Predator- Cull the Meek deal some fine burst damage to which you can't just simply keep up to. If you get ganked just once, game will be quite over for you. So avoid this lane at all costs unless your jungler plans to sit on the top lane to help you.

Difficulty: 6/10. Spoiler: Click to view Definitely not the easiest of lanes. As most good Rengars, he will abuse the bush and jump at you frequently, so first rule is to play as far away from bushes as possible. Also, his burst is more than you can manage so never trade whenever he's got full rage. He lacks stuns so he is not really a counterpick, and playing cautiously you can win the lane. Taking Ignite might be a good way to stay up to his damage.

Difficulty: 8.5/10. Spoiler: Click to view Yet another tough match up. Riven's kit is the perfect weapon against you: she can combo you while you farm by getting in melee range with her insane mobility, knock you back, stun you, and deal a tremendous amount of damage in the process. Plus, she will escape with you not being able to trade, thanks to her shield. Her skills don't use mana so she will spam and abuse that combo over and over again. But I'll be honest: I've won lanes against Riven, and the trick is to spam Blades of Torment and a few auto-attacks when her skills are on cooldown to wear her HP out, and buying Cloth Armor along with 5 Health Potions, but never engaging her when she hasn't used her skills for a few seconds. Note that in order to kill her you will have to have your Ignite and your ultimate available, and she will have to be at about 25%-30% HP when you engage. Her burst with her ultimate on deals an ugly deal of damage, so you may still die; just be sure to also have your passive on cooldown.

Difficulty: 6/10. Spoiler: Click to view He's ranged and you are not, so there goes our first problem. He also can burst you down and deprive you of your mobility with Rune Prison, so even if you manage to get to melee range you might just as well get snared for nothing (or for wasting your passive, or dying, actually). A little help from your jungler could give you some advantage, but the only way I see to beat Ryze is constantly jump on him with Dark Flight and right away land a slow so that he is more worried about running away repositioning than actually kiting you. He may eventually run out of mana before his first back, so keep an eye on that and on his cooldowns. He's one of the top lane kings in the current meta and has everything that Aatrox hates to play against, so you'll have to play really smart to take a chance on him.

Difficulty: 2/10. Spoiler: Click to view Aatrox turns out to be quite a nice counterpick to Singed. If your jungler comes ganking before he hits level 6, you will get a kill most likely. Singed won't be able to farm minions past your lane as they usually do, because your slow will hurt him and if you trade you will end up dealing some more damage. However without ganks you won't get too many kills because he'll just run if he's near death and you won't catch him up. Try to save always a Blades of Torment for when you see him coming towards you to Fling you.

Difficulty: 5/10. Spoiler: Click to view Most Shyvanas will push their lanes hard, which is not a bad thing for you actually since you can counter-push with Blades of Torment. She doesn't have CC or an insane amount of burst damage like say Jax or Riven, and you have far better sustain, but the main problem about her is her tankiness and her low cooldowns. Plus you'll have to watch out for when she uses Burnout while both of you are farming close by; you may not notice how much damage she is doing to you but it ends up hurting quite bad. I'd say this is mostly a skill lane, but you can take the advantage if you punish her pushing by spamming your skills on her and then retreating to recover your HP; make a good use of your sustain. Also, consider taking Ghost over flash in case you have to chase her, since you'll need to cover a great distance if she escapes with Burnout and Dragon's Descent.

Difficulty: 5/10. Spoiler: Click to view If you play defensively against this weakling, he will zone you out and you will lose farm. So try to go offensive once you have your Dark Flight. He'll get you with his Blinding Dart, so just get into melee range with Dark Flight, use the time while the Blind is wearing off to land a Blades of Torment, and you should outdamage and outsustain him with autoattacks. If your jungler comes gank before he places his Noxious Traps everywhere, it'll be an easy kill.

Difficulty: 5.5/10. Spoiler: Click to view A pretty strong and quite often pick in the past Season 4. The Frost Troll is still a formidable adversary for any melee champ (yes, even Darius). However in this case you have a fair advantage pre-level 6. After that you may have trouble dueling him because of his ultimate Subjugate, which completely cripples you. Pair that up with the insane Attack Speed he gains from Frozen Domain, and your fighting potential against him hits the ground. So, you should attempt to dominate the lane very early on, playing as aggresively as possible. If you can't achieve that by level 6, building some HP and avoiding fighting him might be the best option. You won't lose the lane anyway if you don't fully comit to a fight; just keep on farming and avoiding confrontations. Oh and by the way, always save a Dark Flight to escape his annoying Pillar of Ice.

Difficulty: 5/10. Spoiler: Click to view This match-up can be quite tricky. If he's a smart Trynda he may try to get in close to poke you quite constantly. That way your Blades of Torment loses its harassing potential a little bit, but you can keep up with his crits if you start with Blood Price and max it first. If he plays passively you'll end up owning him, though he may be able to trigger your passive with his ultimate Undying Rage on and run away. Pay special attention to not give him First Blood because he may snowball out of control and you'll have a really hard time laning after that. Consider taking Ghost over flash and prepare for long chases if he escapes with little HP.

Difficulty: 2.5/10. Spoiler: Click to view Aatrox is considered by some as a hard counter to Yorick. This is because if you engage him, your Attack Speed and Damage is greater than his. Also, your range with Blades of Torment is far longer than his Omen of Famine and Omen of Pestilence; plus you can heal yourself with his gouls if you autoattack them, which renders Yorick's main strength useless. He may poke to death the first 3-4 levels, so just be patient and when he eventually runs out of mana that's your time to strike. After that try to keep playing as aggressive as posible because you can't afford him to zone you out of the lane.

Well that's pretty much it. I'll be glad if people try this build out and give me some feedback on how they did.

I just hope Aatrox doesn't get nerfed as some have already asked. I'll trust Morello's word on that. (Edit: well he got nerfed finally. He's still pretty much viable but with the AS reduction doesn't feel anymore like a hitting truck until you have built-up some good blood pool. Let us hope it stays like that and no more!)

THANKS!
I would like to thank all that gave this guide positive votes, feedback and comments.
Special thanks go to jhoijhoi for her guide which is a HUGE help for people making their first to contribution to the MOBAFire and League community.

So thanks once more for reading and good luck on the Fields!