Hey guys! I'm Twined Hopper. I'm on NA and currently Gold V.As Aatrox was my first ever "Main" he holds a special place near and dear to me. So I made this guide for you guys wanting Aatrox to be something a little more suited for him. Someone that does good damage in a fight and that can take a hell of a beating. So without further due, Lets get right to it!

Pros!
+High sustain
+Great engage
+Ranged Poke
+No Mana Costs
-AOE CC

Cons!
-Weak to hard CC
-Extremely hard to come back after losing
-Can be CC'd out of jump
-Abilities cost Health
-Telegraphed abilities
-Passive leaves him vulnerable

Pros!
Aatrox Is one of the champions with the best built in sustain in the game. Which is one of the reasons why he is so good in lane. He can take a lot of poke and heal it right back as if he is below 50% health the heal is doubled. His engages are really Good for himself and his team as he has an AOE Knockup and a Slow that comes to a point. In lane Blades of Torment is his best poke ability, it deals good damage to all enemies hit and slows them for 2 seconds. Another thing is that since he has no mana costs, he just has to wait for his cooldowns basically.

Cons!
Sadly, Every champion has their weaknesses. Aatrox is no exception. He is extremely weak to Hard CC. Stuns, Snares, Blinds, Roots. They all make it so he cant use Blood Thirst to heal all the damage he is taking. His abilities, although they dont cost mana, cost his own health. So along with looking at your opponent, you have to make sure that you aren't using too much of your own health in a fight. He also has a very hard time coming back if he loses lane. He is a champion that if he falls behind, he is basically useless. Your passive, if popped, will leave you very vulnerable when you stand back up. You do heal based on the amount of health in the Blood Well but it isn't substantial until late game or until you get a Spirit Visage . Also make note that you can be cc'd out of Dark Flight and it will cancel it and put it on cooldown.

Ferocity Tree
Fury is a must on Aatrox. with the Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed 13% bonus attack speed at level one. Feast will also aid in your laning phase by adding to your sustain. Remember, this build you want a good amount of tank and sustain. the Oppressor You will be doing more damage after you land your E+Q.

Resolve
Recovery allows you to heal up passively, although slowly, If you trade badly. The Runic Armor will also increase your self healing by 8% so with Blood Thirst, Vampirism , and Spirit Visage you are healing for much more than any one person can damage you for. Last but not least, Grasp of the Undying will heal you even more along with Blood Thirst every third auto (if you follow this build)

• Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed You would want to take 2 of these for the 9% attack speed boost. But stack it with Fury and Aatrox's attack speed steroids, you can sustain so much better with Blood Thirst.
• Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage and Greater Mark of Attack Damage will give you a level one bonus of 11 AD. May not sound like much but with the Doran's Blade start you will have 79-84 Ad which lets you last hit more effectively and trade better.
• Greater Seal of Armor gives you 9 bonus armor at the start of the game. It aids in your survivability against AD champions and minions. I say again it may not sound like much but it makes a huge difference.
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist gives you the 12 bonus MR at the start of the game. versus AP champions this can actually make your landing phase much more manageable.

-> ->

This is your basic "All In" combo. If you miss the knockup on Dark FlightYou should back off and wait for the cool down before you try again as you will miss the opportunity for a second to a second and a half of free damage.

• Blood Well is your passive. It saves the self inflicted damage by using your abilities and converts it to attack speed. Then if you take fatal damage it will make you invulnerable and untargetable for 3 seconds while you heal on an amount based on the blood in it and let you stand up and keep fighting after the duration is over.
• You want to start your W Blood Thirst / Blood Price so you can stay sustained through the early level harass that you may take. Max this by level 13
• Get your E Blades of Torment second and max this first. It is your main source of poke and can be your saving grace as it is a 2 second slow as well.
• Then get your Q Dark Flight at level 3 and max it last. Save this for when you know you can get a kill, escape a gank, or initiate a team fight as it will knock everyone in the center of it.
• Your R Massacre Does AOE magic damage, increases your attack range, and increases your attack speed as well as fill up your Blood Well by 20% for each champion hit.

Laning
In lane you are going to want to start Doran's Blade or Doran's Shield. You start Blood Thirst / Blood Price and max it by level 13. Since you are running Grasp of the Undying you can afford on your third auto to toggle to Blood Price and get free damage since you will heal the health cost back because of grasp. Whenever you get the opportunity poke the enemy with Blades of Torment it can also be used to get farm that you are too far away to get with melee. You never want to try to 100 to 0 someone. you aren't bursty. You are a sustained damage fighter. always save your Dark Flight to get away from a gank or until you know for a fact you can go in with it to secure a kill.

FIGHTING
When you jump into a teamfight, you want to get as many of them as you can in the center of your Q Dark Flight as it will knock them up. While they are airborne, you need to pop your ultimate Massacre as it will do AOE magic damage and fill your Blood Well by 20% for each champion hit by it and it will increase your attack speed and attack range. Then follow up with a well placed Blades of Torment onto one of the enemy carries and have your w toggled to Blood Price as you will do more damage but at the expense of your health (if you dont feel comfortable doing that you can stay on Blood Thirst Either is fine). then you just wreak havoc on their team.

Blade of the Ruined King is your heart and soul. It gives you attack speed, % health damage , Lifesteal, and an active that will allow you to chase someone down. You need this item in every build that you will do on him. Even though it was nerfed you still NEED it.

Death's Dance Greatly helps with this build as it will put lifesteal on to all of your AD spells. So now you would be healing off of your E and Q and even the Blood Price proc. Not to mention that it allows you to lifesteal some of the damage dealt to you before you can be killed.

Spirit Visage is another must on Aatrox. As it will increase his healing by 20% and give him the tank stats he needs.

The boots are personal preference but you should really get Enchantment: Furor so you can stick to carries with the movement speed boost it gives on hit.

Dead Man's Plate makes you tanky and gives your next auto a decaying slow and deal bonus damage. It's a good item on him all around.

Guardian Angel it stacks with your passive and makes you even that much harder to kill because they would have to kill you 3 times and that could buy your team valuable time.

Other itemizations come down to personal prefernce in all honesty. Whatever makes you feel like you are the Unstoppable Demon God that Aatrox really is, then go for it.

The whole point of this guide/build is to be able to jump into an enemy team and be focused and be able to sustain through most of it while dealing damage to most if not all of the enemy team. Be of much more use to your team then typical Aatrox's. This is my first guide so if you guys want to give me any tips on how i can make this, or future guys better please let me know and i hope this helps! Best of luck to you on the fields of justice!