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Choose Champion Build:
- Balanced Carry Aatrox Top
- Hard Carry Damage/LS Build
- Safer Tank Build
- DON'T KILL ME PLEASE!
Recommended Items
Runes:
Spells:
Teleport
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Deathbringer Stance (PASSIVE)
Aatrox Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Jax
Pretty hard counter to Aatrox since his E removes most of your kit. Good Jax players can win trades against you so probably consider maxing E to poke from afar to make it safe to CS again. He will outscale you and he beats you if you do not bait out his E. Only trade if he has no E or he will punish you!
Changes
P.S. If you can win lane, take the first build's runes Press the Attack and domination secondary, if not take Lethal Tempo or Grasp of the Undying and make sure to have Second Wind and Iron Skin to survive laning phase.
Aatrox was reworked in S7 and now with Lethal Tempo, he is back in action for the top lane. The problem with Aatrox's rework was sometimes you die before you can stack your passive, Blood Well, which gave you that Guardian Angel passive and crazy attack speed buff. Stacking that attack speed buff, with Lethal Tempo as well as his W, Blood Thirst, he gains two attack speed buffs while healing/dealing extra damage each third hit while making it easier to stack his passive. Also, Aatrox gained small buffs to his early game during the balancing patch for the preseason and with Overheal it works well with his kit and his build letting him have a built in Bloodthirster with the reforged runes.
I've only tried this out a little bit so far but it seems to be working with the new runes, its just a matter of tweaking which other secondary runes to take and optimizing his build for either more damage or tank since he is in a weird spot of damage dealer/brusier. So finding that balance is key and can really make an unkillable Aatrox with high damage and attack speed.
For the secondary runes we take Domination and stack more lifesteal with Taste of Blood and Ravenous Hunter to complete the insane sustain.
I list Randuin's Omen but that is for safer more consistent play. Most of the time you will play Aatrox as a split pusher so it will probably be necessary to build Titanic Hydra or Ravenous Hydra for AoE wave clear. Find your playstyle and if you end up splitpushing more than grouping consider grabbing one of the hydras and Phantom Dancer to assume the perfect split pusher build.
Bloodthirster is okay, not the best since we can get the Overheal shield now and Aatrox's AD ratios aren't very good. HOWEVER, Sterak's Gage seems to a great buy even without Trinity Force. His passive Blood Well gives him bonus AD alongside the bonus attack speed. The bonus AD comes from base AD which Sterak's Gage raises. So, I'm considering testing this more and seeing if this is worth being part of the main build. Lastly, Guinsoo's Rageblade is good because of how well it works with Blade of the Ruined King and Black Cleaver, just not a great buy because of the high price and (I believe) Aatrox no longer has AP scaling after his rework in S7.
P.S. If against a really, REALLY bad matchup tank Doran's Shield.
P.S.S. I have seen a challenger Aatrox main build Gargoyle Stoneplate consistently for his 3rd item and have above a 53% win rate with it so I assume it works well since you dive in with Q and just turn it on.
In most cases though max W, then E, R when you can, and max Q last.
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You are
You have stacking attack speed from your passive, runes, and items.
You have a built in Guardian Angel and can even get a Guardian Angel for max annoyance.
You counter most tanks.
New runes have made Aatrox viable again.
You lifesteal like crazy with the new runes, your W, and your items.
Your kit is simple and easy to learn with possibility to carry most games.
Cons
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You are still not meta and do not have a perfect item build.
Aggressive laners can freeze you out of CS and punish you if you misposition.
You get kited easily if the other team has peel or if you jump in at the wrong time.
Your kit is too simple to some and leads to easily being read and outplayed. Practice with
Another trick is to trade when the 3rd AA on Blood Thirst is ready so you can go into the trade with slightly higher initial damage.
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