Aatrox Build Guide : Dad's Guide to Aatrox [9.1] :: League of Legends Strategy Builds

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Hi! Thanks for the guide. As they are continuing to weaken Aatrox in 9.3, what changes to the items or runes should be done?

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When will you add at least a few general or most common matchups for Aatrox?

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Hello! The "HANG IN THERE, BUDDY! [GRASP OF THE UNDYING]" needs runes updates.

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the resolve runes are out dated... you need to fix this... i didnt find that chyrallsis runes..

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Greeting NEATKHAJIIT, this is great guide its really good guide i like it aatrox is my first main from mine start playing league of legends anyway only thing that i dont like in your guide is that you didnt added synergies other stuff are great and as aatrox main i would like to say this to you its great guide keep making more like this.

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Thank you! I haven't quite had the time to test all the possible synergies and matchups that could experience, but hopefully I'll have something to report soon.

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Hi bud, nice guide, any matchups you could potentially add? even if its just general tips against certain champs and how to play it. Cheers

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How would Glacial Augment Aatrox be build? Like items to utilize the rune etc.

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Not a whole lot would change. You basically just get to pick up an item other than because the rune does that for you.

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Would you buy active items to utilize Glacial Augment or would you just stick to your standard build?

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What does the premitigation-physical damage on Aatrox's E mean? Does the heal come from ability damage or auto attacks or physical damage overall? This word confuses me tbh

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"Premidigation physical damage" simply means the total physical damage you deal before factoring in armor or (though it's not relevant here) magic resist. What that means is that if you were to deal 300 damage to another champion, whether that is by an auto-attack or by your , and theoretically that enemy champion had 100% armor, you would do no damage to the enemy, but still heal 300 health. Hope that helps!

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It did, thanks for the explanation! When will you add a match-up section btw?

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I've been working on it steadily but haven't been able to make any progress lately. I've honestly been busy with school work since I'm in university now. I just wanna have a decent amount of matchups finished before I post anything.

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Personally I think grasp usually doesn't work also the dark harvest can be good but it has flaws sometimes. Overall though I think its a solid build!

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I appreciate your support! I think it's good to try new builds out and learn for yourself what kind of build you enjoy playing with. I tried to do that with guide by providing multiple solutions to the potential problems you might have playing . Please let me know if you think I can improve on anything!

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wrote:

I appreciate your support! I think it's good to try new builds out and learn for yourself what kind of build you enjoy playing with. I tried to do that with guide by providing multiple solutions to the potential problems you might have playing . Please let me know if you think I can improve on anything!

Thanks honestly I substituted the resolve against a few picks and it helped it also seems comet works the bes ton him for top lane personally

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arcane coment is probably the most potent rune you can use, but is high-risk high-reward. There's nothing innately wrong with that, but it may affect your choice.

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Very useful guide, thank you. Do you think it's normal to main jungle aatrox and what do you think about him?

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Of course! I think doesn't quite have the mobility of other junglers, but he has the lockdown potential to secure kills. I personally prefer him in lane, but he doesn't have any problem jungling.

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I'm a simple man. I see enemy taking conqueror, I thank them for the free win.

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I've been thinking about swapping out my Conqueror build for the Comet build just because of how strong it is right now. It's really all about preference, and newer players will probably have an easier time with Conqueror. But hey, at least I helped someone win!

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It's not about preference as on is simply inferior, unless you're going some kind of off meta attack-speedesque build. drops the win-rate of severely compared to both and . Which one of you take of the two would depend on the match up, but there is simply no match up where is superior. Neither statistically nor theoretically.

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I wouldn't really consider to be attack-speed oriented. The 4-second startup kinda reduces the effect of an attack speed build on anyone planning on using it. As I've said before, new is about tempo, not burst. He doesn't have the heavy burst potential, especially now that they nerfed his early game.

That being said, is great for poke but has the exact same drawbacks as , where you have to stay engaged in combat in order to keep the damage up. The only difference is that you can poke and wait out the cooldown on . doesn't really even compare just because of how slow uses abilities. I do agree, however, that reduces 's healing because you can't heal off true damage and therefore is less effective than in the long run. But to count out entirely doesn't make sense. It's just a matter of preference of sustained damage vs. lower sustained damage with slightly higher burst. There's nothing wrong with "off-meta" picks.

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Activating can only be proc'd by auto-attacks, which means that when playing properly, it would only affect your Q3. Starting your combo with an auto-attack means you won't be able to land the sweet-spots of Q1 and Q2 unless your opponent has no idea what your skills do.

wrote:

new is about tempo, not burst. He doesn't have the heavy burst potential

You can 100-0 people with a full combo after level 6 unless they're tanky or you're past the mid-game.

wrote:

It's just a matter of preference of sustained damage vs. lower sustained damage with slightly higher burst. There's nothing wrong with "off-meta" picks.

does not have sustained damage. The moment your Q goes on cooldown, if you keep on trading with the enemy top laner, you start losing the trade to laners with actual sustained damage.

is about as off-meta as AP .

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I'm not sure you even know what does. If you read the ability, you activate it by auto-attacking AFTER being in combat for 4 seconds. You don't have to initiate with an auto-attack. In fact, you can Q1, Q2, then come in close for an auto-attack, activating followed by Q3, or switch those two around. You have to spend those 4 seconds doing something. It actually works perfectly with his kit, because he starts off at a distance and works his way in.

Also, I think you confuse the terms "burst" and "damage". I never said he couldn't 100-0 people. That's one of the reasons I enjoy playing . He skillfully dances around his opponent without face-rolling like a lot of other burst champions.

Finally, certainly has sustained damage, just not in the strict manor you're used to. The character was created to be played patiently. You gain nothing by spamming your Q without properly placing the sweet-spots. isn't supposed to stand there and auto-attack his opponent. Why do you think I suggest cooldown reduction so heavily in this guide? The whole point is to use his passive frequently and reduce the cooldown by using other abilities. When I say "sustained damage", I mean he doesn't burn his entire kit in 2 seconds.

Also, "off-meta" and "bad" aren't the same thing. In case you were unsure. But thanks for checking out my guide!

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wrote:

activating followed by Q3

wrote:

Activating can only be proc'd by auto-attacks, which means that when playing properly, it would only affect your Q3.

What did I say?
Still highly inefficient to use conqueror just for that.

wrote:

When I say "sustained damage", I mean he doesn't burn his entire kit in 2 seconds.

That does not make him a sustained damage fighter. A sustained damage fighter would probably be able to get more than a 45% win-rate with . Luckily there are other runes that can take which very obviously outperform.

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I was referring more to this comment:

wrote:

Starting your combo with an auto-attack means you won't be able to land the sweet-spots of Q1 and Q2 unless your opponent has no idea what your skills do.

You won't ever START your combo with an auto-attack, because won't work. The process of activating works perfectly with 's kit, as it requires you to start from a distance and work your way in. Also outperforms late game because of the fact that you'll be able to activate the buff easily, and stay in combat longer. It's really just more reliable, but maybe not as flashy as you'd like.

You seem to have a very isolated view of what a "sustained damage" champion is. is certainly not a burst champion. He's a "sustained damage" fighter in the same way that is. Ryze uses a lot of abilities quickly, but he's keeps that up and does more damage over the long run than most burst mages.

If you wanna base your opinions on strictly win-rates, feel free to do so. But I don't see what kind of fun you'll have by playing the same thing over and over and over again. I said from the start, I'm not a pro player, nor do I claim to be one. I only just made it to Gold V this season. This guide is meant to help people have fun. Some people forget that games are supposed to be fun. I hope the best for you.

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In the life steal section you wrote about the rather poor effectiveness of BT. Have you thought about a build with attack speed to utilize BT? I know Aatrox would be far more sqishy without the tank items and the fact that there are only a few attack speed items that would fit for him, but I am still curious about your thoughts on that...

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I have thought about it, and I feel like buildimg attack speed around a single item would be risky. His passive cooldown does not decrease on auto-attack, which would make attack speed great on him. doesn't quite have the kit to allow him to utilize high attack speed.

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A very informative guide
I really like this type of thing
cheers from Brazil

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Hi, great guide! I have recently started playing Aatrox, and with this guide I have been going great top lane with him. I was wondering if there are certain match-ups where it would be better to max W first top lane?

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Hi, I'm not the owner of this guide, but I made my own Aatrox guide, and I'm a long-time Aatrox main, so trust me.

This guide is outdated, especially the top guide. It makes no sense to max E first anymore. You should always max W first, you only max E first if you get absolutely stomped on, but if you get the hang of Aatrox this shouldn't happen. Again, no reason to max E first. His W damage output is bigger than his E, and his W also provides more healing on top of that. Again, this guide is a little bit outdated.

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Hey it's the owner of the guide here haha.

In my experience with Aatrox, I find it to be quite useful to max his E first, especially because that early poke damage can do wonders when you're trying to farm. It's not quite as important to have extra healing or auto attack damage, unless you're opponent also has absolutely no other poke damage.

Aatrox's E let's him knock his opponent out of lane, letting him farm up quicker. Even if you don't want to max your E first, I strongly recommend leveling your E at Level 1. This early level will allow you to keep top laners with heavy poke at bay, or allow you to apply some pressure to your opponent.

Also, I apologize if you believe this guide is outdated. I still play every once in a while, and I find that most of what I've written here has remained true, regardless of the changes to his passive, and even his itemization. Thank you for your recommendations, and I will edit my guide to reflect that.

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Hi, I didn't see your reply come through here, but I still disagree with maxing E. You say maxing E is very good poke, but actually the best poke aatrox has is Blood Price. Maxing E means you have to keep spamming it to make sure you deal damage to your opponent, but this can easily mess up your passive, sometimes proccing the 5th stack and losing out on pressure. When you really are looking to poke, there's a simply combo. Get 4 stacks, Q on the enemy, you get your 5th stack and then throw a Blood Price in his face, it's insane poke. After that you disengage with your E. Also, E has a cooldown (8 seconds or so), while you can use your W every 3 autoattacks. Your W is also your sustain, and not having enough points in your W means you have to waste 6 more autoattacks on healing, instead of stacking up your passive.

Oh and eh,, from the Aatroxmains Reddit and Discord, a message from all aatrox mains: "Any build on aatrox is fine, as long as you don't build guinsoo's or frozen mallet." I think you're violating a law of Aatrox mains :D
Personally I've never seriously tried playing with Guinsoo's, but it sounds kind of weak, since most of your damage is burst, and after 6 autoattacks in a teamfight you already are done fighting. However, it's really good for soloing baron :D

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Hey, just to let you know, I wasn't debating your point with my previous reply. In fact, if you looked at the guide, I recently updated both the Jungle and the Top builds to have W maxed. After playing more of the rework, I came to agree with you.

In addition, I took your advice and added additional item builds that are more focused on single-target burst than sustained damage that I usually play.

I could also add another item build without Frozen Mallet or Guinsoo's, but that's where I'll disagree with the "Aatrox Mains." Frozen Mallet is an incredible item when playing him as a bruiser/tank that can keep targets from escaping, while Guinsoo's is phenomenal with the rework. Most of your Blood Well stacks will come from auto-attacking with Blood Price, so you'll quite easily get to 6 Guinsoo's stacks, and your Blood Price/Thirst will trigger even more frequently. If you have to stack your Blood Well now for it to be useful, why not stack another item in the process with little-to-no additional effort?

Anyway, that's just my opinion. I've taken a break from bruisers to play mages recently, so it's possible the meta/itemization has changed in League as a whole without me noticing. Thank you for your input, and I'll look over my guide to ensure only the highest quality builds are being delivered.

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I will say this: Guinsoo's is not the best item for Aatrox. Rather, it's a fun item you can buy for him if you have the funds and you're comfortable with trading tankiness for more damage. Definitely not a must-buy.

Dad's Guide to Aatrox [9.1]

Dad's Guide to Aatrox [9.1]

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