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You can bully ahri pretty hard pre 6 since she can't trade a lot with you without running out of mana. She can kill you post 6 if your ult is down and she's on point with skillshots, but otherwise its an easy lane
Akali
Aatrox is one of the few champions that can deal with akali quite well in lane thanks to his aoe damage and control. However her kit is still quite broken, especially if she gets a lead on you early. Force trades on her and chain her before she shrouds so you can keep track of her position in stealth.
Anivia
Anivia is really immobile and squishy early on to the point 1 q combo will kill her. Post 6 any hard cc cancels her ult, so don't let her permashove freely.
Aurelion Sol
Pretty similar to anivia, but he can hard push from level 1. Punish him for using his w and don't let him roam freely.
Camille
Though she is mostly played as a jungler now, top lane camille can still be an annoying matchup due to her ability to instantly get on top of you and dodge your q. She is still rather weak early so beat her through poke and superior wave control.
Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia can be slippery with her high speed and dps, as well as stun/grounding to prevent you from fighting back. However, you can still punish her early if she misses a q and will typically opt for a tear which gives you a window of superior lane pressure.
Cho'Gath
Cho is a pretty boring lane. You can easily hit a combo on him since he's immobile and has a large hitbox. Don't let him cs freely since he will heal off each last hit.
Darius
An interesting matchup, Darius is pretty immobile but can kill you pretty easily if you mess up. Keep in mind his pull repositions your q, so keep your distance until you have 3rd one up. You can beat him at post 6 all ins if he has to waste his ult on revive and he's not tanky enough to survive multiple Q combos, so poke him down before going for the all-in.
Diana
Diana is a pretty weak early on, and you can bully her out of lane with ease. Post 6 she can easily get of top of you, but wont have the enough damage to kill you until she finishes 2 items. Try to always engage on her first as she has no innate escape.
Dr. Mundo
Another boring immobile tank lane. Punish him early on as much as possible. He will become really hard to solo kill once he has a few items, so just ignore him on teamfights if there's a better target.
Ekko
A good Ekko is pretty hard to deal with in lane due to his high mobility, waveclear and ability to reset a fight with his ult. Your only window to outtrade him is when he uses q for waveclear or e is on cd.
Fiora
One of the hardest matchups for aatrox, fiora can play around your combo with her mobility and riposte stunning you at any point. You are still stronger than her early damage-wise and her parry has 24 second cooldown, so punish her if she wastes it. Try to move sideways if you q her so you wont get stunned. Keep the lane pushed since she doesnt have any waveclear before tiamat.
Fizz
FIzz is annoying to trade wish due to his E, but you can punish him easily once he wastes it. Just like fiora try to keep lane pushed and force him to waveclear with it. He can easily all in you post 6 if his ult is down, so I would recommend early hexdrinker if you're unfamiliar with the matchup.
Garen
Garen has pretty high damage early and a lot of free sustain and defensive stats, making him hard to force out of lane. Don't let him get close to you for free and poke every chance you get so he can't regen.
Heimerdinger
Heimer has a lot of damage and lane control due to his turrets, but you can easily kill them with 1q + auto when u get the chance. Be careful of his stun grenade, it will chunk you pretty hard if it hits in middle of his turrets.
Illaoi
Illaoi is immobile and easy to combo down, but getting hit by her E will hurt you badly and give her free klepto/grasp procs, so avoid it above all else.
Irelia
Irelia is still pretty strong, and can all in you easily if she hits stun and has passive + conqueror up. Other than that, she has no mobility outside of minion waves, so try to freeze on your side and trade her every chance you get
Jax
Jax is really strong right now and can easily punish you if you're not careful. You can poke him down and kite him in lane, but you cant really win all ins due to his counterstrike and ult making him extremely tanky. If you're not experienced with aatrox or the matchup, I would recommend banning him.
Jayce
Jayce is a strong laner with a lot of poke and burst trades, but you can easily combo him down if he oversteps. You can both outtade and outsustain him as long as he doesnt get a free lead and is useless if behind.
Kassadin
Kassadin is very weak pre 6 and easy to abuse. Freeze as much as possible and force trade every time he walks up. You beat him at any point until lv16, so force him to lane against you as much as possible.
Katarina
Kata's laning has been nerfed a lot, so you should be able to easily outtrade her as long as you dont walk into every dagger. Try to keep lane pushed so she wont be able to roam and get fed of ur sidelanes. Get some defensive items for midgame since she can oneshot you once she has gunblade.
Kennen
Don't let kenny poke you for free and you should be fine. He doesn't have enough damage to kill you in an extended trade and early mercs make his stun irrelevant.
Kled
Kled is a very aggressive laner with strong early all in. Play defensive and freeze early on while poking him every chance you get. You can all in him when he gets dismounted and you have cooldowns up. Early tabis/kindlegem highly recommended.
LeBlanc
One of the strongest soloq midlaners currently and a pretty hard matchup for aatrox. Only window where you can kill her is if she blinks back to her w early and is still withing your range. Ignite or chain before popping her passive so you can track the real one.
Lissandra
Aftershock liss has been quite popular recently due to lane safety and has no solo kill threat on you whatsoever. You can force trades on her whenever possible to wear down her hp and mana and be play around her aftershock/ ult cooldowns. She has very low armor early on to the point 1 q combo will force her out of lane if not kill her.
Lux
Not much to say here, just like lissandra is a squishy control mage with no kill pressure, punish her as much as possible early, especially if she uses cooldown to cs.
Malzahar
Malz will just try to afk push you with E, kill his voidlings asap to deny him. Make sure to chain him asap to cancel his ult. He's not much of a threat by himself, but you should still get a qss to be able to teamfight against him.
Malphite
Malph gets a lot of armor as the game goes on, making him near impossible to kill outside of lane. If he plays to defensive to kill, you can only build as large cs lead on him as possible. This is the case for pretty much every low interaction toplane tank.
Pantheon
Pretty is a pretty easy matchup for aatrox as you outdamage his trades at any stage and he can't poke consistently due to mana issues. Just be mindful that your passive damage will almost always be blocked and he will roam with ult a lot which gives you free space to build a gold lead.
Poppy
Poppy is one annoying tanky midget. You have very low kill pressure on her and she can chunk you pretty if you position near walls.You can force trades on her thanks to superior range, but you can only really go for all ins if her w is down. Dodge/Cancel her ult above all else since it gets you out of the fight and wastes your revive.
Renekton
You have stronger damage and sustain than renekton at any stage, but his combo is much quicker and easier to pull off than yours. Never let him get free trades as he can easily all in you early on with filled fury bar.
Rengar
Rengar toplane is pretty hard to deal with due to his passive bush jump and quick combos and sustain. He can't however do much if lane is shoved on either side and has no direct mobility aside from bush jumps. Passive helps a lot at winning trades with him since it reduces his w healing a lot.
Riven
Riven is a skill matchup more than anything as you both share similar combos and trade patterns. She has slightly shorter cooldowns than aatrox early, but way less damage on her combo unless she autoattacks. She gets harder to deal with as she gets more cdr and levels, though you should never let her run you down without a fight.
Rumble
Rumble is immobile and has a large hitbox that makes it easy to combo him down. However he has high enough early dps that can rival your own that you have to respect. Don't walk up to him without q or you will get roasted pretty hard
Ryze
Ryze is pretty weak on early levels and easy to abuse, however once he gets an item or 2 he's pretty much impossible to kill due to spammable shield/movespeed buff. Freezing lane and forcing all ins is the only way you can deny him from scaling.
Sion
Sion is hands down the strongest toplane tank currently. You can beat him pretty easily early with his immobility, but once he gets an item, he becomes pretty much unkillable for you. Spacing out your kit hits to stop his own can be quite effective at that point, as every time you cancel it, his q goes on 2 second cooldown.
Swain
Swain is pretty weak in lane and is easy to hit. Only thing to consider is that his passive pull repositions your q and heals hit, so dont let him poke you for free.
Syndra
Syndra has decent lane pressure and can poke you down easily. Her E denies your all in so play around its cd for all ins
Tahm Kench
Tahm Kench isn't played top very often, but is actually a pretty hard matchup for aatrox due to his very high base armor (47 at level 1) and durability from e.
Talon
Talon has strong early burst and can kill you easily if you get careless and get hit by his combo, but you can kill him as easily as he can kill you. You have to play this lane aggressively otherwise he will just shove and roam.
Teemo
Teemo has a tiny hitbox which makes him hard to hit with q, thought once you do he's pretty much a free kill. Buy sweeper or duskblade during midgame so you can deny his shrooms.
Tryndamere
Trynd is pretty much an rng based lane early on, but post 6 its really important to force his ult at least 2 seconds before he forces your revive. Once he completes phantom dancer its pretty hard to outduel, so avoid laning against him unless there is no better alternative
Twisted Fate
TF is a weak laner overall, you can easily combo him down if he wastes his w. Early mercs are good to deal with his gank setup.
Urgot
Urgot has been a pretty strong meta pick lately due to his lane presence and tankiness. He is pretty easy to hit due to large hitbox, but always be cautious of his e as he can wind it up during knockups. Getting your passive stab on him before he shields is also preferable to greatly reduce his survivability. Most urgot run spellbook and you have to always keep track of which summoner he is currently using.
Veigar
Veigar is pretty immobile and weak early on, but you have no means of getting over his cage without flash. Always poke him to the point he uses it and hard engage when it's on cd. Early mercs recommended
Vel'Koz
Velkoz wants to keep his distance and poke you with q, so always stay withing 900 range of him and engage when you have cooldowns up
Viktor
Viktor matchup can differ a lot based on lane, but I will focus on current top tank viktor meta. Your main window to bully him is before he finishes first augment. Let him push up and freeze lane as long as possible. He can't fight back at all during early levels, so try to zone him off wave entirely. He will become really hard to deal with once he has iceborn + aug and you wont be able to kill him until you have lv 13 and core build.
Vladimir
Vlad's only escape from you combo is his pool, which has 28 sec cd early, If he wastes it to dodge your combo, you can all in him next time your spells are up.
Wukong
Try to chain wukong asap, since the tether will reveal him in stealth. He starts being a threat after he gets some lethality, you can bully him heavily before that.
Xerath
Similar to velkoz, as long as you don't get hit by every skillshot and stay withing threat range, he's pretty easy to kill or force out of lane
Yasuo
Similar to irelia mathup, yasuo relies on minion waves for mobility. Freeze lane and zone him off. He becomes difficult to duel after phanton dancer, avoid sidelaning against him if possible.
Yorick
Yorick is very immobile and squishy early on, as long as you avoid his e, he cant trade with you
Zed
Zed is a pretty easy matchup overall. You can force trades freely on him and play around his w cooldown. Avoid dying to his ult later on as he will get a lot of ad from you.
Zoe
Deny her spell drops as much as possible so she doesnt have a way to get free trades with her movespeed
[8.23] Aatrox lane matchup guide
Build Guide By Ashnard
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