Jayce can poke you out from range, swap to melee, and jump+auto+knock you back before swapping to range with MS boost to walk away (even more so if they went phaserush)
your best bet is to rush tabis and try to time him when he decides to step up to trade with ranged autos, as he will be easier to land q's onto. The very moment you land one, e+q2 and back off. if you e'd to land q1 just back off. Most jayce players will immediately swap to melee form and jump to you, and during that time you w. IF they arent running phase rush they get pulled in for a q3 e if you havent already dashed or have it up again and win the trade. If they have phase rush they just walk out the w.
you can play this lane with either brambles tabi or rush damage and try to out damage eachother. Although i recommend going brambles+tabis as he will certainly cheese you with how his kit works otherwise.
Gwen
Gwen is a wierd match-up, she wins with her level 1 e, so dont fight her at all, at level 2-5 you win, and at 6 she wins if you dont dodge any of her 3 ult casts, you can also use e to dodge her q true damage, but because of how we self root ourselves during our q she will generally use that self-root to land her q's, so you have to constantly move around and hold e's to dodge her q's.
watch for her tabis/brambles rushes and her riftmaker, if you get exec and some MR mid game you can actually out 1v1 her but you have to play perfectly, alas, otherwise, this is a skill match up in her favor.
Irelia
Ire's ability to One shot minions with Q all while stacking her stat stick passive will be your bane, your best bet is to either Q minions that she might q onto, or hold onto your e when she tries to all in you and dash out of her stun, You'll have a general hard time against her unless she either hard misplays or you managed to interrupt her dash.
post 6 this lane is almost unbeatable. with the slow on her ult giving her a free stun+ 4 stack passive, you'll lose half your health in 1 second and die the next, quite literally.
If you managed to get a kill early, rush an executioners, as when she loses the ability to spam q heal on minions without just ignoring your q's, she'll either have to win all in's or lose the sustain game.
Always play safe when she has a wave ready to spam Q onto, if she has no stacks she isnt a champion, and you should be able to all in her, just be aware of her ult and flash CD's.
Kled
Kled's Q and passive mechanic make this lane very annoying to play against, but not impossible. You'll see that ill say to hold dash a lot in these hard match ups. Dashing to avoid his Q is the best way to either stalemate or win lane. If he misses q he 100% loses the trade/all in if he used e to get on you.
All you have to worry afterwards is timing his W so its down when he dismounts, save w for when he q's after dismounting and kill him at range with q to make sure he doesn't remount again. Generally want to take IGN into this lane to make sure you have a 100% kill rate after he dismounts if his flash and w is down.
Vayne
Good vaynes will easily be able to space your combo properly and then proc passive+pta on you punishing you each time you throw it out early game, brush cheese and avoid taking free poke while you try to last hit. Try to hold a freeze into her to coax your jungler to alleviate some pressure :^) ___________________________
the only counter to vayne is rushing edge of night to stop her condem as its her only form of cc, but by doing so you're super squishy and she will slip out of your q hitboxes with tumble+ult invisability anyways, you have other options like going comet/glacial and rushing tabis before damage, the choice is up to you.
she outscales you with ease post level 11 anyways and she can easily keep you down early game if she doesnt straight up int.
Udyr
D ring start+ double r will shove out the first wave while also chunking you if you get caught in the storm, as he proceeds to pummel you with autos as you're perma slowed.
Theres generally nothing you can do to shut him down in lane phase, he has far easier wave clear that also does magic damage, his turtle stance will also block our retlaition q's, and he will just out sustain with its passive usage as well. Stay clear away from this abomination if you can.
Fiora
Difficult match up but not impossible. Much easier with grasp.
Otherwise you have to play safe and hold e to dodge her w. Fiora's all play differently so you have to figure out how they play yourself. Some will w on q2, some will w on w, some will w on q3. Some will q+ w.
your best bet at playing the lane is either rushing tabis+brambles/wardens or try to rush your mythic of choice and play the lane passively and farm safe.
post 15 minutes you just win teamfights against her, as she's a 1v1 splitpusher, make sure she doesnt get free farm or atleast trade objectives if she isnt grouping.
Akshan
Unlike most AD ranged toplaners, purely rushing tabis will not insta-win you lane.
Dont even bother leashing your jungler, walk up to the first/second bush in lane to make sure he wont cheese you to 1/4 hp, once minions crash dont bother walking up to secure cs as he will insta aggro and try to wittle you down with PTA+passive. At level 2 they will take their e and try to all in, if you retialiate in any shape or form they will e into you and ignite you. The best way to play this lane is to not play aggro at all till you have health+armor.
Tabis into phage seems to be best for me into this lane, give up cs if you have to, so long as you dont die to him early game and grab exp you can try to do 2-3 rotations of q1+w q2 into him and force him to burn e to disengage, and farm safely by going in and out of bush, if youre under turret just last hit. Once you have 6 you can pretty much run him down after landing 1-2 short trades into him, try to make sure you try to time your all in when his e is down, because if its not then you just burned ult for nothing.
TLDR, dont int early, out sustain him till levels 5-9, and kill him on repeat if possible. (take ign+bone plate)
Urgot
Urgot players generally start E and try to cheese you level 1 to get a kill/lead. If you manage to avoid the cheese, you generally have an easy time in lane.
Just hold your e for his e or take small trades with EQ till you can all in, be sure to hold w till he e's so you can reel him back if he all in's or tries to escape.
The problem is Urgot scales, hard. IF you're both even late game his passive alone will out dps your healing.
In lane urgot is a minor threat, but post lane phase when he starts scaling he becomes a problem.
Pantheon
He outdamages you early game and completely negates you with an e press. Your best bet is to make sure you dont die to him and stalemate the lane. When even, you outscale him at 20minutes.
Theres not much on how to play the lane, he will zone you as soon as minions crash with empowered q, which will out damage your entire q rotation even if you hit it (you wont, its level 1.)
he'll immediately push for lvl 2 and look to all in you with w+q, and level 3 he can completely negate all form of retaliation with e, take no damage in the process, so you cant heal. It depends on the pantheon player but good ones wont let you play the game.
As stated, try to play safe and farm, and out teamfight him mid game.
Camille
Camille is generally a hard counter to a lot of top laners. With a gap closer/stun/escape, a mid range aoe heal that does %health damage, and the ability to auto reset with onhit+true damage, theres generally no real way you can out dps/force her out of lane. Unless you can Q her when she lands on a wall with E, your only real form of counter play will be juking her e with your e, and abusing its cooldown with q so long as you dont let her walk up to get her passive shield nullifying all form of trade on your part.
she also hard outscales you late game, goodluck surviving 800+ damage true damage q's over the course of a fight with her.
Volibear
Volibear is that champ that likes to all in brainlessly and will win it if played decently.
Being able to slow you + shield himself, and then stun you, dps you with onhit/magic damage passive+ heal+onhit with his w will make it a very hard lane to kite effectively, you have to stay mid range all lane phase with him.
Be sure to cancel his Q all in with yours, but be aware his goes on a short cd so he can reengage the moment your q falls off/goes on cd.
your safest best is to sidestep his e, wait for the shield to decay (if he stepped up to get it) then eq and walk away, if you keep poking him he will be forced to either back or all in post 6.
be aware when he starts shoving lane as he can easily dive you alone, as well as with his mid/jungler. Make sure your brushes are pinked to see this coming as you'll 100% need to leave turret to avoid being dove.
Once he gets thornmail/firecape/ice gaunt this match up is nearly unwinnable in a 1v1, Generally need to out teamfight him in 5v5's.
Jax
Same reasons for urgot/kled/voli,
Jax can all in spam you and theres nothing you can do about it. The only way to truly beat a jax is to either go IGN (true damage dot when he ults) or beat him before his first/second back.
Once he completes sheen you'll be q+auto+w'd for 1/3 of your health and you cant retaliate at all as all he will have to do is press e and then dps you even more while youre stunned.
you need to q1, hold e, and when he jumps on you w q2 e backwards, and q3 +passive when he gets reeled in, just be aware when you land q3 to not auto him with passive if he's smashing his e as he'll block your auto after the cc wears off.
post 6 theres generally no real way to win the 1v1 unless he misplays or you outplay. (even with ign) since aatrox heals off damage dealt, even with the AD % increase during ult, his ult nullifies it with his increase in armor.
Akali
Akali will almost always be in q range for her own q, so you can easily trade off each other in lane.
you can still land q's in her shroud so she cant completely 'outplay' you with her invisibility.
be sure not to stand outside minions/back off after the wave dies so she cant kite you with her q+e+q+r combo, which will generally kill you if she has ignite.
rush hex, and follow up with either your mythic rush or play it safe with a cowl since you'll be going visage later anyways, your 3rd option is to build neg cloak and instead of going visage you can opt for force of nature. either or both items are good against her.
Illaoi
Your only option in this lane is to properly mess with the players head, dodging, bobbing and weaving around so they cant guess where to throw out their e to land it on you.
Since her Q soft locks herself just like Aatrox always try to to dodge hers and land yours for free poke.
Make sure you have proper wave control and set yourself up behind minions so she cant e you for free.
you hard win pre 6 but post 6 all she needs is one e to force you out of lane, more so if she just instantly ults after pulling your soul and crippling you to about sub 25% health. It only gets worse the more ad + e levels she gets, so the name of the game is to dodge her e.
K'Sante
you already know the meme.
anyways, q to bait his e, follow up with eq2 for poke in lane post level 2.
you can buffer 3rd q if he chooses to w
you can also try to bait his w with our w
dont over commit level 6 and avoid walls as best as possible, hold e to avoid stun+ult combo
Goodluck :^)
Yone
lethal tempo removal made this champ no longer stat check you with 1500 gold worth of attack speed at level 1 and actually requires skill to play, that being said, the loss of lethal tempo makes his kill pressure incredibly tiny without proper item spikes.
Rush tabis into damage, phage/pickaxe or 2 longswords.
getting wardens and tabis early shuts down his early kill pressure. Watch for his all in post 6 as most yones will instant ult as soon as youre hit with q3, hold e to dodge this. Outside that you can essentially out sustain him if you space correctly, and as said previously, dont force trades with him unless you know you can survive his dps after you land your combo.
Yorick
Good Yorick players will always hold their wall for when you waste dash. The problem with this lane is that good yoricks will also position themselves to not get hit with Q unless you waste dash, you get walled, you get e'd. ghouls jump on you, and he walks up with q and you either burn flash or die.
If thats not bad enough, ghouls can also proc GW from executioners, take little damage from our abilities because they are coded as minions, so Q wont even kill them even if you land all 3, and you are forced to auto both the ghouls and the wall if you dont have E ready.
This lanes generally unplayable after 6, your only form of securitiy is if you ult properly and dont get walled off, you can fear his ghouls and maiden long enough to either kill him or force him to burn flash, this is the one of the few lanes where you need jungle coordination.
Wukong
Wukong's e+q combo will hurt you, if you try to retaliate he will just w and walk back and wait for his cooldowns, his passive will also make it harder for you to out trade him, and post sheen+6 he can burst you down and kill you with his entire combo. Rush tabis and try to freeze under turret to grab cs.
Sett
My preference for sett is to just rush tabis and giga space micro him. But in most cases he will out damage you if you dont keep him mid ranged at every stage of lane phase. Watch out for his q ms into e combo's and you will generally survive lane phase without giving him any form of lead for mid game teamfights.
Be sure to position yourself properly so he cant just ult you towards his own turret and walk away without flashing/dying if his flash is down.
rush tabis into mythic.
serpants fang as a 3rd/4th item is not a bad choice either.
Mordekaiser
chempunk chainsword and serpants fang in your build after mythic+hex/cowl is the 2 item combo that deletes half his kit. Optional and also incredibly risky.
Just rush mercs, hex, cowl, or completely negate his entire champion with silver sash.
He may beat you in lane but come mid/late game with riftmaker he will certainly out 1v1 you if you dont have any mr or silver sash to cleanse his ulti.
If you go d shield + second wind + cowl you can regen from his passive damage so you can fight while in it. if you go hex then you win when the shield procs. Mercs afterwards for MS+more MR.
after lane phase mordes will generally win teamfights by taking out either the jungler during objectives or whoever is the biggest issue on your team, (usually yourself) as his team will 4v4 yours. If you get silver sash his game plan severally gets punished and he's forced to either ult someone else and then lose the teamfight because he's not pulling you, or abolish the teamfight all together and die when he comes out to a 1v5.
be aware of his build path and react accordingly. if he's rushing armor, rush mr. dont be greedy and build ad.
Sylas
Rush an executioners if you arent going Ign. you generally outtrade him so long as you dont let him e+e2 stun you. Even if he starts maxing w your executioners will kill his sustain, keep poking him with Q and make sure to space yourself properly, he should never be able to w for free without GW on him.
level 6 he wins if he can w you more than twice, since he'll be using your ult. like morde, watch out for his build path, build MR if he rushes armor. Dont be greedy.
Riven
completely skill dependent but tilts on riven's side. you can cancel any part of her q rotation with your knock ups. Just dont let her do her fast attack animation cancel and you generally win trades. Dont walk up into melee range into her, play a bit behind your melee minions and punish her when she walks up to cs. As her q's will stop on any entitiy she hits, forcing her to q onto cs while you poke. Cs for free while her e+q are on cd after escaping your combo.
that being said, she will always all in you at any point if you try to step to up to cs, and since her abilities come up sooner your best bet is to go trans + cdr shard and rush cdr, if you have more cdr you have the upper hand and can punish her relentlessly.
watch out for her items and make sure to not stay in lane under 60% health post6 if shes running ign or has executioners.
Darius
flash/ghost on darius is generally a really annoying lane to play. Annoying, but manageable. Just be sure to ONLY EQ1 in lane as anything more than that will have him pull you for free and you either straight up die or lose the trade.
be aware that if you end up trying to trade q1 with his all in you can safely e into his q range before the knock up wears off, this is fine before first backs and pre-6 as he wont have the damage to kill you off and you have a chance to coinflip the 1v1 and win.
Rushing t2 boots is not a bad option, as is going executioners. Building kindle early is also a good stop gap to avoid dying with the cdr+health.
Renekton
Play lane phase smart and space yourself properly with the minions to either force him to double e to get to you or eq+ walk back for free trades. If you time q right you can completely nullify his stun by throwing your uninterruptible q out while stunned, and then eq right after it wears off. If you have a good reaction speed you can invalidate his all in by cancelling his dash, or even cancelling his w animation before it finishes to stun you. (this is assuming you eq back in time) the knock up will stop his stun from going through but he will still have it, so if you walk up into him you will obviously get stunned.
rushing wardens or plated steelcaps severely cuts his rage w damage and is not a bad option if you just want to properly scale without perma dying.
this is a skill match up so play accordingly.
Shen
Rushing black cleaver or sunder is good into shen.
Watch out for his taunt early game, his empowered Q will out trade you early game, and he will use w to block your passive when he see's the auto for it. After a few items you outsustain him, so long as you dont eat taunts everytime its off cooldown, rush black cleaver into him and he wont ever be able to out 1v1 you.
Poppy
Build sunder into this and you have an easy lane once its finished.
While she may be registered as a tank she still outputs heavy amounts of damage, be sure not to stand close to walls, never let her q double proc on you, dont let her flash e you into a wall if your under half health, and make sure to land your q when she tries to trade with her passive +grasp so you can trade before she picks up the shield.
Heimerdinger
havent seen a hiemer top/mid outside one time since the durability patch, he's been pushed down to an even lane since he can still bully you early before you buy items for him but once you have them you can play a bit more aggressive.
Rush mercs+ cowl/hexdrinker and pray you have enough damage to kill him before you get bursted down by his turrets and combo when you decide to all in.
Quinn
Most quinns will generally outplay themselves by pressing e whilst you are in the middle of your eq+w+q+q rotation and end up cancelling their e on a knock up. You can bait her e easier when after you land w you backpaddle slightly so if she does e she just gets pulled back from w after she lands. Tabis rush is all you need.
Gangplank
Rush brambles so he takes damage with his q+grasp spam. His q range also puts him in your q range so q+eq2 will always out trade him. Once brambles is completed he'll just hurt himself more during the trades.
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you could also just rush dirk and delete him, or rush tabis to cut down his q spam damage by 12% since its coded as an attack. -----------------------------------------------------------
watch out for his barrels and when his passive is up, dodge the barrels and dont let him auto you when his passive is up and you can win the lane without issue.
Lucian
Tabis+brambles.
Gnar
An Annoying lane but gnar has 0 kill pressure unless you legitimately afk and let him kill you. Super easy post tabis rush.
Garen
Aside from his super telegraphed q+e+ult combo, the only thing a garen lane does is sit under tower and abuse his passive regen. prepare some coffee so you dont fall asleep.
Ornn
BUILD SUNDER.
Only thing you have to worry about with ornn is post 6 when he can burst 60% of your health away with 3 brittle procs. Poke him out of lane with ease and dont let him walk up to you after he w's you so he cant proc brittle and this lane is generally easy. (ranked minor instead of tiny because he actually has kill pressure with ult)
remember to build MR to cut down on his brittle proc damage as it is %health MAGIC damage, going mercs+hex before mythic will severely cut on his burst potential.
Cho'Gath
Just like garen, the only thing cho gath can do is hit you with his outplay button execute, and sustain via minions. Prepare some coffee so you dont fall asleep as he perma hovers his tower.
build sunder+maw or vissage 2 item combo into this match up and you should be fine with being able to outduel him at every stage of the game.
Tryndamere
Just dont get cheesed levels 1-3 with his crit, build tabis+wardens or brambles, and bring ign. You can shut him down with early armor and then build AD to outheal his dps when he ults, ignite right as you see his e animation when he tries to flee and ignite will secure the kill.
you can also run exhaust to kill any attempt at his rng coinflip all in's during early lane phase. going exh is also just much more benefial becuase he will never have the damage to kill you before his ult runs out unless he is somehow an item over you/ 2+ level lead on you.
Singed
rush cowl and laugh while he does no damage.
Ignite will somewhat negate his ultimate giving him resistances. You can just land full combos on him post 3 when you let him crash the wave under your tower and freeze it on your side of the lane as he has to walk up with his q to last hit.
Malphite
He has no damage for kill pressure unless you go afk. Comet+q spam on him will be annoying but manageable. Go d shield+second wind and you basically cancel him out till he burns through his C.Pot or all his mana.
be aware of his braindead gank set-up with R press, so have your river/bushes warded and avoid him like the plague when you see him randomly play aggro.
he outscales you post lane phase to the point you wont be able to tickle him so try to keep him behind before his 3rd back as thats when they generally have brambles+tabis.
Do not build anything outside sunder into him as your mythic. eclipse/rav hydra rush is inting, Black cleaver rush is also not a bad first item but you wont have the healing of sunder procs to be able to avoid his ramping magic damage that might end up out sustaining your damage vs his armor.
Nasus
He will generally not be able to play the game. you can cancel out his ult resistances with BC. Rush it. Build either tabis or swifties here to either tank q's or to cut down on his wither.
another lane where sunder is the best mythic into him to avoid getting ran down post 6 with q's. you can also opt to rush jaksho (not hydra) to get the scaling resistances but you will lack the sunder procs to heal from him outright as he has his sunder+q damage to outsustain it.
wardens as a second item will cut his q sunder damage by a good amount when he decides to ghost+ult to all in you.
Kayle
Incredibly easy match up, albeit with her very small hurtbox. Freeze a wave and punish her each time she tries to walk up to e a minion and force her out of exp range. She cant outscale you if you dont let her scale.
that being said if she gets to perma farm side lanes through out the game for free and you get collapsed on each time you try to pressure her, you're doomed to lose late game when she finally outscales you.
going exh to cut her late game damage is an incredibly potent tool to use.
Maokai
Rush executioners as his passive stacks with every q you throw out. Otherwise you can just brute force him out with a sunder rush if you dont feel like wasting the 800g, this is mostly just a preference to cut his sustain, as its optional.
you can do whatever you want in lane just be sure to hold q3 for when he w's as he will certainly do so to avoid getting pulled by w.
if he ends up playing the sapling mini-game, going hexdrinker before finishing mythic is not a bad stop gap to avoid him slowly draining you during trades.
Sion
sunder easily counters his entire ramping health passive, more so if they opt to go for heartsteel. It legitmately cripples him more and heals you for more the more % health damage you start dealing to him.
your entire combo completely counters his Q wind up.
be sure to have q ready if he ends up landing e to try to q you, you can either dash to the side outside the range or cancel it with your q.
Rengar
just rush brambles or tabis and throw out your combo on him for free when he pounces from a bush to last hit, just be aware of his stacks and dont let him all in you for free when he has 3+
you can quite literally walk into his face when he was less than 3 stacks and force him out of the bush post brambles +tabis. After that just build your mythic componants and bully him.
Dr. Mundo
Rush sunder and merc treads. you can then either opt for black cleaver secondary or rav hydra if you're feeling cheeky.
you absolutely hard counter his passive, considering most bruisers only have one form of cc, and we have 4, if he eats q1, he still has to try to dodge q2, w, and q3. Have fun playing with your new pinata.
if you build anything thats not sunder he will just run you down once he finishes his heartsteel. Do not build eclipse, rave hydra, or jaksho into him, it is bait. you will just perma die.
Yuumi
this is self explanatory.
Diana
Her ability to dive and ult a group of enemies allows you to throw out your entire combo on pulled groups, which is both super reliant and easy.
Kayn
If he's not rhaast he's not on this list.
rhaast is an ideal champ to have on your team, the enemy have to both deal with two drain tankers except one can magically become invulnerable and come back with more hp. Rhaast+aatrox is a deadly combo of 'who do i focus first' scenario.
Galio
His ult+ chain cc will always be great for aatrox to throw out his entire combo while they are locked down by galio.
Jarvan IV
With j4's armor pen, Attack speed increase, slows, and 'you stay here' ult, aatrox can do more dps with a far easier time while the enemy is locked down.
Taric
stuns, shields, invulnerability, and perma heals are incredible tools to have on your side.
Leona
self explanatory.
Lulu
Ult+shield+slow or poly anyone in your general vicinity, lulu will hop in your backpack and help you win teamfights.
Sejuani
Her passive with how bulky she is can slow+stun and knock up anyone on the enemy team for an easier time for aatrox to do his thing
Morgana
roots+ anti cc shield is extremely beneficial for you.
Ivern
Strong shields, an ult that gives cc, his root that pulls you into melee range, and bush cover give aatrox a large amount of tools to do what he needs to do.
Ashe
her ult+ w perma slow can help catch+kill anyone making it easier for aatrox to chase/use his abilities on slowed targets.
Ornn
with his ult+ passive giving mythics increased stats, and general tankiness, ornn is a friend you always want.
Pyke
Really good kit to both catch and kill for your ult resets during fights.
Veigar
His e is all the set up you would need.
Karma
Karma MS+ shield boosts help a lot during teamfights, just hope she knows how to time it.
root also ensures a free combo.
Braum
his w + e can help you survive + his q slow, ult, and passive all help lock down targets for you.
Synergies
IdealStrongOkLowNone
Yuumi
this is self explanatory.
Diana
Her ability to dive and ult a group of enemies allows you to throw out your entire combo on pulled groups, which is both super reliant and easy.
Kayn
If he's not rhaast he's not on this list.
rhaast is an ideal champ to have on your team, the enemy have to both deal with two drain tankers except one can magically become invulnerable and come back with more hp. Rhaast+aatrox is a deadly combo of 'who do i focus first' scenario.
Galio
His ult+ chain cc will always be great for aatrox to throw out his entire combo while they are locked down by galio.
Jarvan IV
With j4's armor pen, Attack speed increase, slows, and 'you stay here' ult, aatrox can do more dps with a far easier time while the enemy is locked down.
Taric
stuns, shields, invulnerability, and perma heals are incredible tools to have on your side.
Leona
self explanatory.
Lulu
Ult+shield+slow or poly anyone in your general vicinity, lulu will hop in your backpack and help you win teamfights.
Sejuani
Her passive with how bulky she is can slow+stun and knock up anyone on the enemy team for an easier time for aatrox to do his thing
Morgana
roots+ anti cc shield is extremely beneficial for you.
Ivern
Strong shields, an ult that gives cc, his root that pulls you into melee range, and bush cover give aatrox a large amount of tools to do what he needs to do.
Ashe
her ult+ w perma slow can help catch+kill anyone making it easier for aatrox to chase/use his abilities on slowed targets.
Ornn
with his ult+ passive giving mythics increased stats, and general tankiness, ornn is a friend you always want.
Pyke
Really good kit to both catch and kill for your ult resets during fights.
Veigar
His e is all the set up you would need.
Karma
Karma MS+ shield boosts help a lot during teamfights, just hope she knows how to time it.
root also ensures a free combo.
Braum
his w + e can help you survive + his q slow, ult, and passive all help lock down targets for you.
Regardless of either going grasp/conq, kleds Q+W will chunk you out of lane and let him dive you for free with his passive. Try to position yourself to dodge Q and E to the side when you see him step up to you.
Camille
The only difference between conq and grasp is grasp damage will go through cams passive shield and you can sustain with the proc, this makes the match up slightly easier to deal with.
the resolve tree also strongly helps you out in this lane.
Go boneplating to avoid her all in potential and always watch out for her Q2. if you dodge her w she wont be able to out sustain you.
Fiora
This build generally shuts down fiora into a stalemate.
rush brambles+tabis and watch her struggle to kill you while she afk auto attacks you early game. once she starts scaling with levels her passive will out damage the early armor rush cheese so be aware this is only to stop her from running you down early game.
Sett
sett will self damage himself from his trade pattern post brambles, just be aware of his q+w damage and you can breeze through this match up without too much effort. Make sure to hold e after he e's as his has a bullshit hitbox, if you get pulled after you e you potentially die or just lose the trade, your best bet is to e behind him when he w's or kite back with qe after his pull.
Tryndamere
Grasp+wardens+tabis shuts him down, dont get cheesed level 1-3 and his gameplan crumbles. Without a clear lead tryndamere just straight up loses till late game where he gets to spam e to run away from you. This is one of the few match ups where you're forced to side lane all game to force him to stop split pushing. Just be aware if or when your team needs you for objectives.
Unless you rush hard mr items like cowl/hex+mercs you wont be able to stay in lane against her for very long, you can trade against her when she w's to you and w's back but her tether will make it so you cant all in her afterwards.
it's very hard for you to lock her down and also avoid her bullshit tether range without gimping yourself in this match up.----------------------------------------------------------------
The shiv rush FF build makes this lane impossible, perma ban this abomination on sight.
Cassiopeia
Cass's w is cancer but she wont be able to all in you for free at any point pre 6 without either going oom or stalemating the lane, both of you reset afterwards if you chunked each other out. If she happens to land q she will chase you down with e's that will generally half health you with ease even before items. Dodge her Q and then make an attempt to trade with her, be aware of her w cooldown with yours as its about the same (24 seconds)
post 6 when you all in her try to backstep to avoid getting stunned by her when you eq1+w her as most of these players will instantly ult after you attempt to all in during 2nd q cast as you are softlocked into place and just staring at her for a full second during the cast time.
She scales slowly during lane phase but good cass's give me problems, she is my current permaban as i seemingly keep fighting against GM/chall smurfs with 70% wr each time she gets picked. this is mostly just a me issue.
Vel'Koz
You will never be in range to do any damage to him while he harasses you for free with his Q and waveclear with his w. Your best bet is to roam to get a lead.
Irelia
its irelia.
Azir
WIll spam auto's early game and perma poke you till you either have no health or he's oom. Difficult to farm against and if you try to all in him will just w+e+q away and probably ult you into his turret range if you arent careful.
Viktor
superior waveclear, poke that gives him ms and a shield, and the ability to completely negate your all in makes this lane extremely difficult to get ahead in.
that being said, go glacial and this lane gets dropped from a level 5 threat to a level 2 threat until he scales past you during mid game where his e alone starts chunking 1/3 of your health.
eq1, glacial procs, w and q2 as he w's ontop of you, press q3 at the last second and as he gets pulled in and you get stunned your q3 slaps him, rinse and repeat as you easily win these trades without problem.
on the rare encounter the player behind the screen has a brain and starts playing at max range e just to farm and not interact with you at all, you need to start roaming to get ahead.
Orianna
ori will out poke you early game with her ramping damaging autos, perma slow you with her q, and almost never be in a position for you to all in her. If you try she will ult+slow you and if you force it too hard she'll just barrier/flash away.
she hardscales you and will most likely just build zhonyas so it'll be impossible to shut her down without jungle help. -----------------------------------------------glacial works here just as well as it does into viktor, bringing the threat of ori down from 5 to 3, that said she still has a decent chance at stalemating the lane and have an easy gank set up with her ult+combo, so watch out for her jungler.
Morgana
Morg's brainless w waveclear spam will easily clear out minions easier than you. If you try to all in her she'll just spellshield herself and post 6 will just retaliate with ult and then root+w if its successful. You'll be able to poke her but never be able to all in her.
Yone
as long as you dont let him poke you out with q's while you walk up to last hit this lane goes in your favor. Yone's will go conq/LT and rush zerk greaves while you are rushing serrated dirk so you can easily burst him as he will be squishy during lane phase.
watch for his q3 into ult post 6, before then just make small trades and try to backtrack when he e's and try to dodge his q before casting q2/q3 as he tries to chase you down. rushing wardens/tabis before dirk is a very reasonable and smart thing to do.
Syndra
Syndra will generally shut down any attempt at an all in from you just by pressing e. You can try to poke her out of lane but be aware that she can easily insta gib you post 6 with ign if you are hovering 70% health. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------glacial is advised here as even after she e's you you may have a chance to land q2/passive auto when w reels her back, assuming she didnt q+e to stun you.
Zoe
Early game auto's and q spam will generally poke you out of lane if not zone you from cs if you dont make an attempt to push for level 2. Post level 3 zoe will just cancel all form of all in by hovering far behind her minions and bubbling you if you try to eq her.
Naafiri
Mostly a skill match up, Avoid being hit by both q's as she heals and procs her bleed as % damage. Watch out for her level 4 all in with ign as its incredibly strong. her packmates will almost always block our w so try to hold w for when she e's and packmates arent ontop of you. She can dodge your initial all in with e and then w to jump onto you when q is on cooldown early. I reccomend rushing rave hydra into her as it will proc on her packmates and delete them after a bit more AD.
Vex
Her passive sort of works against us, we're not extremely mobile but her extra damage proc after we e makes trades a bit more favorable for her, start D shield instead of longsword into her and rush either hex or merc treads instead of lucidity boots.
Neither of you have kill pressure against the other unless she gets jg assistance that gives her a lead or she roams and gets kills.
She generally starts e so when minions crash at the start of the game make sure you position yourself to the left/right side so the AOE doesnt hit you if she aims to hit the wave, if she chooses you hard shove with q asap as hitting level 2 prio is everything.
You'll stalemate each time you try to all in her as all she has to do is fear you and then follow it up with Q to win the trade, if you force an all in afterwards she'll just w and walk away before resetting, the w shield+ fear combo is extremely annoying but also really potent in shutting down her dying to your ign ticks/all in.
Yasuo
skill lane as you can still land q's while he's dashing around. While he is rushing zerkers you are rushing dirk so you will have a far easier time bursting him down. Be aware post 6 that he can outplay/out dps you if you dont manage to trade him ahead of his all in.
Anivia
Anivia's q+e combo can hurt you but are dodge able so its not an entirely rough match up. make sure to time your q+e usage into her especially post 6 as any form of cc will cancel her ult. Be aware that early game her egg form will be harder to kill if you dont have any damage to instgib her before she revives. rushing hex/cowl into her shuts her kill potential pretty severely without jungle assistance.
Ekko
You win every trade so long as he doesnt proc his passive. You can force him out of lane really easily so long as you dont get bamboozled by his w usage. Be sure to instantly sidestep if he attempts to play aggro by e'ing you and then make sure his q wont hit you on the way back. Hold w till he either used up all his ms boosts and has his e down.
Fizz
you can easily force him out of lane pre 6 with minimal effort as your q will always zone him out. Just be aware of his roams as any form of lead will easily sway this lane to the point where he can all in you for free.
Lissandra
You can trade q for q during early stages of the game and even go so far as force her to waste mana while you play the sustain game by forcing her to w and e away. Be aware post 6 that she can easily set up a gank for her jungler with minimal effort.
Neeko
Dodge her root and you can easily outtrade her during early lane phase. space yourself between minions so she has to choose between throwing q to poke or wave clear, dont get hit by it by standing in your wave. You cant all in her for free as her w will give her ms to walk out of your w and her ult will root and give her a shield.
Qiyana
you have the early game advantage by zoning her with q range. She can still outplay you post 6 so be very careful of your positioning. be wary of her current element as she can easily stun+dash+ult+q+ign you and kill you.
this is mostly a skill match up.
Talon
you win so long as you dont let him proc passive. make sure you have your pixel brushes warded as he will start roaming as talons normally do if he cant secure a lead in lane. When ahead he can just instagib you with his superior burst potential whilst invis.
Taliyah
this lane just depends on your ability to not let yourself eat free q's and being able to dodge her e+w combo. She will mostly be able to outrange you and usually hold her spells to punish you if you try to play aggro so just farm up and try to outrotate her. be sure to call out all mia's post 6 as she will easily gank lanes with her ult.
Zed
poke him out early and watch for his q+w poke post level2, post 6 hold q3 for when he ults when you attempt to all in and q behind you to hit him.
that being said zeds that are confident will all in you at any chance, and the unconfident ones ill just perma poke at max range q, which just makes this an incredibly boring match up.
Akali
Rush hex. Be sure to q1+e off cooldown and she wont be able to stay in lane or have kill pressure.
avoid her combo when she w's to avoid your follow up q's. be sure not to get hit by her e at any point because that gives her the opportunity to all in post 6 with ult.
Aurelion Sol
Reworked A sol is NOT a lane phase champ, this creature is easily punished and has no mana early game, so he cannot stay in lane if you force him to cast q+e to stalemate lane for the first few minutes.
after a few componants he'll just hover turret range and freeze waves with his q+e combo to hold the entire wave with the pull back, so he can easily farm waves regardless of how much you want to look to all in or punish him.
that being said he scales like a freight train and can out dps you if you dont cancel his q with your knock ups, while also staying out of your range and going over terrian when he uses w.
Look to punish him pre 10 minutes and perma roam when he is forced to use his q+e combo to hold the lane so it doesnt crash under turret. If you cant get a lead before 20 minutes im afraid that even if you somehow make him go 0/3 he will just take over the game after he gets his mythic and passive stacks.
Galio
You can easily punish him early game and force a lead by forcing him to miss gold/cs. Be aware of your zoning as galio has a very easy time setting up ganks with e+w. So long as you dont die to ganks this lane is free, try to rotate to bot/top to secure a lead over him before he has the chance to ult to his teammates to try to get a lead himself.
Corki
Aside from his ult spam post level 6 this lane is generally boring, you can try to secure all ins if you manage to land your full rotation on him but he will insta w escape every time you try to commit to one so all you can really do is poke him out of lane to force him to miss cs/exp.
Ahri
you can easily land poke onto her after she uses q to try to wave clear, without a lead she wont have enough AP to be able to oneshot waves so you can easily trade with her once she uses it to do so. Be aware to dodge her charm. Post 6 she will burn ult to avoid dying to your all in, when she does, try to all in her again before it comes off cooldown to secure a kill.
Veigar
He will generally sit back and try to scale with his stacking and farming and will try to shut down any all in attempt with e. Try to land w asap and walk up into it to get your 3rd q off if he gets pulled back in so he doesnt cut you off with e. Be aware of his gank set up with it.
Ryze
Aside from his spam waveclear this lane is generally easy. avoid standing around minions while he sets up his wave clear and then all him at any time you get the opportunity to.
Akshan
Aside from his level 1 and level 2 spikes of being a ranged laner into you early on, his kill pressure drops like a cliff once you hit level 3 and position yourself for optimal trade patterns, if you time q right you can outright stop his hook animation before it even starts and he's dead in the water. If he plays it properly he can even out the trade with his MS + shield eating some damage from q1+w, more so if they also go bone plating. You auto win after dirk+t2 boots.
Kassadin
You completely counter him early game and even post 6. So long as he doesnt get a lead or stay even with you he will generally not be a problem even post 11. Just be sure to force him out of lane asap, kills arent needed, just make sure he doesnt have the gold/exp he needs to be relevant.
try to end the game asap before he hits 16 because even with how behind he is he can still spam his ult on a 2 second cd which will make it impossible to chase him as well as completely dominate teamfights if he isnt the main focus.
Diana
She wont be able to outsustain or outdamage you at all, zone her off and try to avoid her q harass/poke, be aware if shes rushing steelcaps/zhonyas and react accordingly. If you can keep diana down she wont be relevant.
Katarina
You easily counter her entire gimmick. Force her out of lane or poke her off cd and zone her out of cs. be aware she can still completely negate your all in by just shunpo'ing to an incoming minion wave so time your all in's properly by looking at where your minion waves are at on the map. the best time is after the minions have crashed and a fresh wave hasnt spawned in yet.
Lux
She generally wont be able to do anything except spam e to try to wave clear, you can easily lock her down with your basic combo and even if you get rooted she will lose the trade if you manage to land q3+passive.
Malzahar
he may be able to secure cs with his kit but you can easily poke him out of lane and even all in him so long as his passive isnt up to block your w. he can also summon his voidlings to block w, which pretty much stalemates this lane till he starts scaling post liandrys/w/e mythic he's building. At that point he's just going to e you for free for 300+ damage as he zones or silences you with q and then w'ing to avoid getting chained.
Vladimir
Just rush executioners and you completely counter this champion at any stage of the game.
Ziggs
Ziggs wont be able to do anything against your poke/all in at any point in lane phase aside from satchel bombing himself out of your w. His q is easily dodgeable if you arent sitting ontop of your minions and you can easily force him to burn through his mana by constantly applying pressure.
you cant ever all in him since he'll always run phase rush. Watch how he plays post 6 and be sure to never get caught in his ulti, otherwise this lane is stalemated.
Just spam eq with comet and try to poke him out of lane.
Gangplank
His grasp q poke will hurt but you will both end up trading evenly with q+comet. Play early game safely till you back and have enough items. Once you have lethality and enough haste you can just run him down over and over.
Jayce
Poke with Comet and play safe, the comet poke will eventually force him out of lane. Just be sure not to eat his long range poke or let him jump on you in melee form
Gnar
Just watch out for his reversal all in after you eq poke him with comet when he e's to try to chase you down. Either w q2 + q3 or back off. Eventually you can poke him out of lane without issue.
Lucian
EQ poke and back off immediately, let comet poke force him out of lane. after dirk and some haste you can poke him out of lane after a few rotations.
Quinn
Running this set up makes quinn slightly harder to deal with rather than just rushing brambles+tabis. but its still completely do-able. with enough haste you can all in her after she e's away when your q and e come off cooldown as she wont have it up before you run her down.
Vayne
She has no sustain and will generally lose to your early game poke till she has enough saved for a vamp sceptre. by then you should have serrated and you can easily chunk her out more than she can heal while you wait for q to come back off cd.
dont over commit and the lane is free.
Teemo
He may be annoying level 1-3 but after you get dirk he generally gets ran down with minimal effort. Get mercs instead of lucidity and try to buy a pink to clear out his lane shrooms and its free.
I'll be using words and phrases that league players would generally know. I will not be covering basics of this game, champions, or naming abilities, assuming you've come here whilst already knowing the basics of league of legends and the champion. This includes other champion's skills.
Most of the match up's are under the Vanilla Conq page as most match ups dont change regardless of what runes you are using unless very specific, except for the mid lane page, that has all the match ups for mid lane.
Don't forget to look at all the notes that i wrote around the guide on builds/runes, i compacted lots of info on them.
The guide isn't 100% finished and will keep adding things to complete it, ill also edit it every patch if any items/nerfs/buffs happen.
Added viego+gwen match ups. -june 18th 2021
added : Revised Mundo rework match-up.
added: akshan match-up for midlane. aug 11 2021
added: akshan match-up for top lane. feb 1st 2022 (been popping up a lot recently and i dont spam games like i used to, sorry if this came out a bit later than it should of)
added: Udyr match-up for toplane. Wed Jan 25 2023.
August 22 2023- added naafiri to midlane match ups.
I'm still playtesting items, the current builds are still being theorycrafted.I'll continue to change the guide as time goes on.
Bio
Hello everyone, my name is Veng, I've been playing league of legends since late season 1 and started playing officially in season 3. I was a taric otp for 2 or so seasons before aatrox was released, and by season 4 i dropped every other champion's playrate by about 90% to become an aatrox one trick for nearly 10 seasons now.
Ever since the rework i have dedicated myself to relearn everything i had to, come items, synergies, match ups, and theory crafting different playstyles, runes, and so on. I decided to make this guide in the hopes to show the good people of the community that aatrox has more immediate options to help you out both in lane and in different enemy team comps and lane match ups.
why aatrox?
Aatrox was always a staple pick after his rework, getting picked in pro play and being nerfed as a result, his mini-rework also made very beneficial changes to both his playstyle and his thematic as a champion.
Since pre season 11 with the updates to items, aatrox is stronger than he ever was, even before the removal of his revive and double dash i might say. This is now the perfect time to learn or grasp learning the champion. While he isn't a 1v9 champion, aatrox is still a very strong pick in the right hands. I'll give you both the pro's and cons of aatrox.
Pro's
-First and foremost: resource less.
You never have to worry about losing mana, or buying mana items as he doesn't have any, after his rework he doesn't even have any health costs either, so you dont have to worry about slowly bleeding yourself to cast abilities.
-Hard CC on 4 abilities:
Being able to knock people up +slow/pull is great both in 1v1's and in teamfights. When paired up with a cc heavy support/jungler/ certain mid laners, you can cc lock enemies and lock them down to the point they won't be able to output their kit in teamfights. This is Knock up also stops them for auto attacking so if you're focusing an ADC you can cut DPS super hard.
-Has one of the easiest times in ranged match ups:
Regardless if you're playing either top or mid, aatrox is one of the very few melee champions in the game that can effectively counter cheese any ranged abuser. With the range on his q and your trade patterns, you can either poke or all in the enemies out of lane without getting ran down, harassed, or zoned off cs and exp.
and that also brings up to the next point
-Sustain: Aatrox has great combat sustain, while he no longer heals off minions like he used to, you can generally secure your health back in small trade patterns and keep yourself healthy during all of lane phase, with the addition to some runes you can bump up your early game sustain even higher, helping you secure a lead if you force the enemy to lose cs and exp.
Cons
-Falls off
Unfortunately because aatrox doesnt deal any % health damage, his pure physical kit gets outscaled super hard by both armor and champion levels as the game progresses, to the point you wont be able to kill adc's in a single rotation. (unless you're playing lethality midtrox)
-Slow animations
Since 80% of aatrox's powerbudget is on his Q, aatrox's damage is all loaded into an ability with a slow wind up. This gives many champions the ability to either dodge your skill shots or generally just out dps you while you wait for your abilities to hit.
-Extremely Demanding
while a lot of people think aatrox is braindead, this simply isn't true. Aatrox has one of the highest skill ceilings in the game, he is extremely mechanically intensive to the point that, if you even make a single mistake, you're most likely dead, and you lost out on a kill. Being forced to play against hyper mobile and hyper damage champions while you have to wait out 0.6 second cast times during q's means you have to know exactly what you're doing.
-Susceptible to CC
(this ones self-explanatory)
-Item dependent
(also self explanatory)
Learning Aatrox helps learning the fundamentals of the game in more ways then one, you will come to understand spacing, be more aware of your positioning, and when you should and shouldnt be using your abilities.
Aatrox is a great drain-tank, even if he falls off.
early game
(levels 1-3)
Early game wave management is almost essential to be able to lock yourself a good lead. Since 99% of junglers path top in every game, your gameplan is to literally never cast q early, as doing any damage to minions to harass your laner means that you'll lose wave health and potentially push into their turret. You have to correctly position yourself to the side to be able to hit the enemy when they walk up to last hit without hitting enemy minions.
(Levels 4-6)
While aatrox is a great lane bully, this is generally only post level 4, and when you've secured a advantage by being able to freeze a wave towards your side of lane. This allows you to force your enemy back, potentially losing out on cs and exp, and effectively trading with them without damaging the minion wave health. The best time to trade is after a new wave crashes, as you have about a minute to harass, poke, and zone before a new wave crashes into yours.
(level 6+)
If you manage to get a lane froze, and you are properly freezing it, when your enemy walks up, dont be afraid of just ulting and running them down. The MS boost will help you land your first q without needing to use E so you can use a W+E Q2 combo to secure a pull, generally unless an enemy doesnt have an escape, they'll most likely burn flash to not get hit by your Q3. Let them. You can now fast push and try to get a plate to try to reset the lane to set up another freeze, and if you do it correctly you can run them down with ult again to secure a kill while their flash is down.
Levels 7-9 you can easily poke people every 3-4 seconds with an EQ combo and zone them off cs. This is about the perfect time to abuse your poke to try to get a lead as much as you can. Forcing backs, teleports, and flashes will help you out come mid game, all because you can reliably poke and short trade with ease with how low of a CD Darkin blade has become.
Extra's
You generally want to rush either damage, cdr, health, and boots (depending on the enemy)
you can always rush Dirk as its your strongest power spike item that you can get. especially if you're opting for Eclipse, in which case youre going to end up going long+pots so you can rush dirk faster.
If you opt to still rush gore instead, rushing either kindle+boots or going for ironspike whip (essential if youre going conq) will be mandatory, as the active on whip gives you a stack of conq, letting you have it stacked before you use q3, so you get the AD bonus as well as the heal for the ability if you land it.
If you're going for my grasp trinity/sunder build, you want to rush kindle for the CDR+health letting you not get insta gibbed by an all-in, the extra health may also let you survive a gank if you play your cards right, go for warhammer right after for AD+haste and finish it off with sheen before completing sunder.
otherwise go for hearthbound axe into sheen and complete trinity.
mid game
Post lane phase your job is to secure as much of a lead during mid game. Aatrox shines extremely well between the 15-25min mark so try your best to get as much influence on the map as possible. If you've secured First turret you generally want to roam bot/mid and secure their turrets, set up for the next drake, get herald if its still up, ext.
Always be aware of the map if you decide to split push and set up deep wards if you are attempting to overextend to set up map pressure.
In teamfights at this point of the game you should be able to commit to fights without being absolutely bursted in a microsecond, more so if you already have steraks/maw/Deathsdance built. You have the damage to kill squishies in a rotation if you land all your abilities on them. Make sure to not overcommit fights if your team is spread out or dealing with an enemy tank/diver/assassin.
If you're behind you're not completely irrelevant but you'll most likely be nothing but a Q spam CC bot for your backline as you try to peel for your mid/adc so that the fights are won. Be sure to space in these fights correctly as a mistake on your part either means death or a lost fight.
late game
Aatrox hard falls off post the 30 minute mark when enemies get their later levels of armor per level's and finish their builds, you'll essentially become nothing more than a meatshield while also disrupting enemies mid fight, all you can hope to do is be able to live long enough for your team to be able to clean up fights.
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