Aatrox Build Guide by Xylais

Introduction

Hi my summoner name is Xylais, I have been playing LoL for only about 5 months so this might not be very good, also it is my first time using Mobafire to make a guide so I don't know if I could go into as much detail as many other users do.

So yeah welcome to my Aatrox build, I hope you like it.

Aatrox has became my main champion to play in the top lane over the last 5-6 weeks, I personally like Aatrox as he is able to lane very safely even on low health thanks to his passive Blood Well and his Blood Thirst regenerating health every 3 attacks and then saving you from hard jungle ganks. I also find that he scales very well throughout the game and can be very strong during the mid-game if you have farmed well or got kills on your laner. So this is why I thought I'd make a build for Aatrox

Runes

Ok so my runes for Aatrox are pretty basic sorta top lane runes but there is some room for changes that I will talk about as I go though each rune. So my runes are probably not the best right now but like I said I will go through some alternatives to each section where applicable.

Marks: I take 9 flat AD marks because flat AD is stronger early-game than armor penetration and I like to bully my lane as hard as possible during this time to force them out of lane as soon as possible to farm in peace. So these runes let me deal pretty high damage during the early game. An anternative to my runes would be to run 5 flat AD marks and 4 armor penetration marks. They help your early-game slightly, but not as much as flat AD does, it's not a bad idea to take these because you only lose out on 4 AD, but gain 5 armor penetration, which will slightly boost your late-game power.

Seals: I run 9 armor seals as it is a standard thing to do in almost any role you play. They become especially good to have whenever your passive is down so stop your laner or jungler from dealing a ton of damage to you when you're more vunerable. But like I said these are a standard thing for almost any role so I don't like to change them.

Glyphs: I take 9 flat magic resist glyphs because they help in late game when your in team fights vs the likes of AP midlaners. They can also be helpful in lane if you are againt the likes of a Singed or if the enemy team has an AP jungler for example Elise so it stops strong ability power champions shreading you at early levels. An alternative to using these would be to get magic resist per level Glyphs but again this is down to personal prefernce. I would reccomend definately getting one of these two options as your Glyphs and nothing else.

Quintessences I take 2 AD Quints and 1 lifesteal Quint to boost my AD even more during the early game to help with harassing my laner. I take the 1 lifesteal Quint to further boost my health I already get back from Blood Thirst. An alternative that I often like to use is 1 AD Quint to still get additional damage early and 2 lifesteal Quints to give me even more sustain during the early laning phase.

Masteries

I take 12 points and 18 points in defence to try and get the best out of both as I like to build Aatrox fairly tanky with lots of damage. I take more points in defence as I play [aatrox]] very agressivly so can often use the extra health and damage reducing effects it offers at the lower levels.

My masteries are by no way great they are more of an experimental thing that seems to be working very well for me atleast when I play as [aatrox]] I will be sure to update them if I make any further changes to them.

Items

All my items have some description of why I chose them in the expandable notes but I will add the main ones down here too:

Bilgewater Cutlass I rush this item preferably on the first back if I can. I find it to be a very strong item to have during the early game as it gives additional attack damage and lifesteal. The active is also a very important part of it as it deals damagae and slows enemies. This is a very strong active as it means if you miss the slow from your Blades of Torment then you can use this to ensure you get the kill on your laner/jungler that you are chasing down.

Blade of the Ruined King Again this is very similar to the [bilgewater cutlass] but gives more lifesteal and a lot of attack speed which is good as most of Aatrox's damage comes from his basic attacks especially during early laning. The passive of the item is also very stong as it deals physical damage on hit and it's active is much like that of the Bilgewater Cutlass but dealing physical damage and slowing for a longer duration.

Boots are an option between Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads your choice of these will depend on who you're laning against and also what lanes are winning (or very strong) on the enemy team. I choose to get boots late as you have multiple slows in the form of your Blades of Torment and your Blade of the Ruined King's active and ofcourse you also have Dark Flight which also acts as an escape. Boots can be bought at anytime you feel you need them, it's a personal preference for me to leave them late.

Skill Sequence

Personally I prefer maxing Blades of Torment first Blood Thirst/ Blood Price second and Dark Flight leveling Massacre when available at 6/11/16. I do this as I perfer to poke at my laner and farm fast so Blades of Torment can do this for me as I can hit a wave of creeps and my laner while at a safe distance from them. I level Blood Thirst/ Blood Price second so I can get the health rengeneration or additional damage during fights. I level Dark Flight last as it is only good for engaging and disengaging and does not do great amounts of damage, also it is a lot more dangerous to use.

If I am getting camped or they have a fast clearing jungler like Shyvana I tend to take a second level in Dark Flight after I get my second on Blood Thirst/ Blood Price I do this to reduce the cooldown so I can use it more as an escape from the enemy ganks.

An alternative leveling pattern would be to max Blood Thirst/ Blood Price and Blades of Torment this will depend greatly on your play style, so if you are very passive and don't like to heavily harass you oposing laner then you should probably max Blood Thirst/ Blood Price first as it is better for sustain and can still deal good damage when you switch to Blood Price.

Spells

Your spell options for Aatrox in top lane are pretty standard but there are multiple choices you can use.

I would usually run Flash and Ignite which is a standard and safe combo to go with as it allows you to get away from enemies safely and to secure the kill on them when they're on very low health.

Alternative ooptions you can take to replace either of these are Teleport or Ghost this again will be to whichever suits your playstyle, if you want to split push down towers and inhibitors in late game or help apply extra pressure to other lanes then definately choose Teleport. Ghost is also very good as it allows you to chase down enemy champions so you can get close enought to use Dark Flight to knock them up.

I reccomend you try different combinations of these 4 spells to find which combo suits your playstyle.

Creeping / Jungling

Aatrox is very stong at moving to other lanes to gank thanks to Dark Flight which he can use to engage and knock up the enemy so that your team mates can deal damage to the safely. He also excells at it as he is very tanky so can take the hits instead of for example an ADC while they stand back and attack the enemy. He becomes very effective when Blood Well is active as he can dive in and take turret hits for team mates while they attack the enemy and then you can safely use Dark Flight to escape from further turret hits after the passive has worn off. Another strong jungling factor about Aatrox is his ability to do high damage with high attack speed making him very effective at counter jungling and stealing the enemies red buff or golems for example.

Farming

When farming with Aatrox you want to make sure ofcourse that you last hit as many creeps as possibe and deny your laner from as much as possible at the same time. This is where Blades of Torment comes in very useful to max first as not only will it greatly damage the enemy creeps for you to just base attack if used and landed correctly it can also deny the enemy laner lots of creeps as it deals good damage to them.

Blood Thirst/ Blood Price is also very useful when farming as you can use Blood Price to clear creeps faster as you deal more damage to them or you can use Blood Thirst on them to heal up from a failed enemy gank or from general harass from the laner or minion wave.

Team Work

With Aatrox you can set up many team plays due to your CC from Dark Flight. Use it as an engage and quickly follow up with Blades of Torment to further slow down the enemies. Doing this will allow your team to engage safely and use any further CC that they have. Aatrox is a heavy AD bruser so make sure once you land your CC combo that you continue to help out in the team fights as you will be very tanky and dishing out high amounts of AD at a fast rate especially when you use Massacre.

Pros / Cons

Pros: Aatrox can deal out very high damage very early so you can easily push you laner out of lane.
Passive allows you to dive enemies on low health safely under their turret.
It will also slow the enemy team down when chasing in teamfight as if you get caught then they ofthen focus you down and once your passive is popped many will wait around often to try and steal the kill.
Abilities allow for great lane gank potential.

Cons: Passive cooldown is quite high and once popped makes you quite vunerable to ganks from junglers with high cc.
If you miss both Dark Flight and Blades of Torment you waste alot of your burst damage and you waste your CC which more often than not means whoever you are chasing down can get away.

Summary

Hopefully you will have enjoyed my guide to Aatrox I will update this regularly with upcoming patches and item changes etc, or if I find anything else that I think works well with him.

Aatrox is a great bruser top laner and is great for engaging team fights or spilt pushing druing late game due to his tankyness which I think makes him a very strong champion as he is very versitile to play.

Thanks to anyone who uses and upvotes this :)
Fell free to leave feedback on my guide as I will read most of it.
I would especially like if those who downvote it would leave feedback so I can see what I need to work on and change.

Thanks again - Xylais.