Aatrox Build Guide by KST Midnight
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Starting Items
Boots of Choice
Core Items - Offensive
Core Items - Defensive
Viable Offensive Items
Viable Defensive Items
Ability Sequence
3
14
15
17
18
2
8
10
12
13
1
4
5
7
9
6
11
16
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Masteries
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Hey guys! This is Midnight and welcome to my  Aatrox guide. It took me some time to make this guide so I would appreciate if you guys would read this completely and give me some decent feedback! Aatrox is a really interesting champion to play. His passive allows him to towerdive safely + He gains AS if he has more blood in his Blood Well! He has an EXTREMELY INSANE amount of sustain with Blood Thirst. Great engage and disengage with his Dark Flight. A free harass/poke with his Blades of Torment despite it's long cooldown. Don't forget, Aatrox becomes a MONSTER with his Massacre active.
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Pros
+ Extremely high sustain with Blood Thirst+ Deals high damage + Blood Well has a lower cooldown compared to other revive passives.+ Manaless + Dark Flight is extremely useful for the whole game.His Blood Thirst is just so good in most parts of the game. Makes him almost undying with that amount of sustain. The sustain even increases more while your health drops so Aatrox is like a "High Risk - High Reward" champion. His damage is really great especially with Blood Price and Massacre active. His Blood Well is just extremely good. Especially for tower diving. |
Cons
- He gets weaker at late game - Harder to engage without Blood Well- Long Cooldowns - Blades of Torment is hard to land at a far range-  Ignite or any other source of Grievous Wounds, hurt.Early and Mid Game, Aatrox is extremely good. However, he gets potentially weaker on late game. Of course this changes depending on the flow of the game but that's usually the case. It's harder to engage without Blood Well because you have no guarantee of living in a teamfight or something else. With Blood Well active, Aatrox can be a really good "High Risk - High Reward" champion as stated before.
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| Masteries | |||||||||||||||||
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1/5
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4/5
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4/1
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1/1
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3/5
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1/1
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3/5
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3/
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1/
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2/5
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2/1
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1/1
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3/5
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1/1
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 Double-Edged Sword
is just really good since you are a "High Risk - High Reward" Champion.
Fury
isn't really a big mastery but it does provide a few attack speed that would definitely increase his potential.
Sorcery
is one of the most useful masteries for S4. That free 5% CDR is too good to be a Tier I mastery, why miss that out?
 Butcher
is a really good mastery if you can't really last hit minions that good or just want to last hit them easier.
 Brute Force
provides AD per level which is kinda good.
 Martial Mastery
grants a flat AD bonus.
 Executioner
? Hands down. It is a really good offensive mastery for securing kills or turning tables with duels or teamfights.
 Devastating Strikes
allows you to deal more damage with a little bit of armor/magic penetration.
 Havoc
, as always, is a good Tier VI Mastery for it increases your damage by 3%. The defense tree is pretty much the standard 9 points setup for S4, and pretty straightforward if you ask me.
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| Runes | |||||||||||||||
Greater Mark of Attack Damage 9 |
Greater Seal of Armor 9 |
Greater Glyph of Magic Resist 9 |
Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage 3 |
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- Greater Mark of Attack Damage: A free +9 AD for Marks is more worth it than a 15% Attack Speed, in my opinion. Since you have both Blood Well and Massacre to increase your Attack Speed anyway.
- Greater Seal of Armor: Gives off a free +12-13 armor which can be good for early game defenses against physical damage.
- Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Gives off a free +12 magic resist to increase your survivability by reducing some of the magic damage received.
- Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage: A free +7 AD with the same reason that I stated in the marks.
Ignite: A really good summoner spell for a lot of reasons. Mainly for kill securing but it can also help shut down those nasty healing/regenerating maniacs. (e.g. Aatrox,  Dr. Mundo,  Garen, etc.) |
Flash: Probably the mostly used spell in the game for high leveled summoners. This is probably because it can help in chasing/escaping or even to combo it up with Dark Flight.
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- Blood Well: This passive is really great for a lot of reasons, let's check them all out. First of all, passively increases his attack speed every 2% in the Blood Well. Also, when your HP goes to 0, you'll revive after a few seconds of statis. This way, Aatrox can just hammer down on opponents during a gank or a towerdive, etc.
TIP: You can use
Spirit Visage to enhance the health restored while you are reviving.
- Dark Flight (Q): A really good gap closer skill. It also provides crowd control when the enemies gets hit in the center. This skill is mainly used for initiating and escaping.
TIP: You can use Dark Flight to jump through walls, which is good for chasing/escaping. Keep that in mind.
- Blood Thirst (W): This skill would forcibly make the enemy team focus down Aatrox with a lot of damage before he recovers all the health lost. You're mainly gonna use this when you are under 50% HP to use it's full potential.
TIP: You can still use Blood Thirst at any %% HP you currently have but you recover THRICE as fast when under 50% HP. Keep that in mind.
- Blood Price (W): This skill is what makes Aatrox extremely strong. Building attack speed, damage and using Massacre would definitely boost this skill. This can be a very risky skill so don't hesitate to switch to Blood Thirst when needed.
TIP: The safest time to use this is when you are above 50% HP so that you wouldn't risk that much health.
- Blades of Torment (E): This skill is really important for poking/harassing an enemy champion. Despite it's weird way of being cast, the damage is pretty neat. In addition, it also has this decent slow and cooldown values.
TIP: This skill can be used to clear minions faster. Especially with the use of Dark Flight.
- Massacre (R): Let's start simple. Gives off 40-60% bonus attack speed, increases his attack range by 175. Upon activation, it deals 200-400+ magic damage to nearby enemies. This makes it a neat special for Aatrox it would buff a lot of stuff during fights such as his Blood Price and Blood Thirst.
TIP: Don't be afraid of using this skill more than usual. It would help secure kills because of your bonus attack range and it would sometimes turn the tables of a duel/teamfight.
Starting Items
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Allows you to have slightly more damage with extra sustain from its HP and passive. |
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A must take even though Blood Thirst gives you insane sustain. This should be bought AFTER buying a Doran's Blade until your gold runs out.
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Take this trinket because... why not? |
Boots of Choice
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The core boots for Aatrox. You would be able to tank and soak a lot of physical damage especially from those AD Carries.
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I don't usually go for this but I advise you only take this if the enemy team has tons of Hard CC. |
Core Items - Offensive
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First of all, Attack Speed. It is one of the most important factors that you'll probably need for Aatrox. I know you already have some skills that boosts your Attack Speed but, having a few more would be better. The rest is kinda simple and obvious enough.
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Gives G-G-GREAT damage and lifesteal. Helps your farming speed because of it's AoE damage. I prefer this one over  The Bloodthirster. Although BT is a really good item too, so you can swap it Hydra with BT if you want.
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Core Items - Defensive
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One of the worst nightmares of physical damage dealers. Not only does it reduce the attacker's attack speed and movement speed by a %%, it also has an active which slows their movement speed AGAIN! In addition, the stats that it gives are really good. |
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This is an item that really works great with Aatrox. Gives him a decent amount of CDR and improves the health regained from Blood Thirst and Blood Well.
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Viable Offensive items
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A great item that gives AS, MS and Tenacity. With a little bit of damage too. Zephyr combined with something like  Frozen Mallet or  Trinity Force will make you a chasing-destructive-machine.
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It is just very cost effective. Decent armor penetration + damage for late game dominance. |
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There's a lot of situations that Zerk Greaves is viable -- very fed, not getting focused, they don't have that much CC, they don't deal that much damage, etc. -- Regardless, AS is an important factor for Aatrox.
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This item has an INSANE passive. As your HP gets lower, the more destructive Aatrox will be. It will also grant a shield when you're low on health which is pretty good.
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Gives 70-100 Bonus AD and 12%-18% Life Steal. A really cost-efficient item in my opinion when you have farmed it up. Life Steal stacks with Blood Thirst meaning you can get a lot of health back.
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Viable Defensive Items
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This item is just so great. It synergizes with Blood Well so it's a good defensive item. Now the enemy team will be having a harder time killing you or perhaps they might focus someone else because they might find this synergy annoying.
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Real good for countering the enemy AD Top Laner because of the bonus armor. Gives decent health for survivability and melee attackers will suffer from that DPS. This also synergizes with your Blood Well. While you are reviving, the passive will still work.
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A great item when getting focused by an AD Carry or to simply put, if their AD Carry is too fed -- Don't hesitate to buy this item. |
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Decent HP and MR. The thing I personally like, is the passive spell shield. It would help you against incoming CC. Which might save your life. The refresh rate is actually fast (25 seconds). |
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Provides a GODLY amount of HP. Because of that, your Blood Well will be much better. Also, since you have Spirit Visage, this item's passive will be increased!
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21/09/00
| Masteries | |||||||||||||||||
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1/5
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4/5
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4/1
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1/1
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3/5
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1/1
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3/5
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1/
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2/5
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2/1
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1/1
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3/5
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1/1
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R>E>W>Q
| Ability Sequence | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
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Special Thanks to jhoijhoi for the guide on how to make a guide, which you can find here.
- 12/14/13 - Guide Created
- 12/15/13 - Added Changelog Chapter
- 12/15/13 - Completed Introduction Chapter
- 12/16/13 - Completed Pros / Cons Chapter
- 12/17/13 - Completed Abilities Chapter
- 12/18/13 - Completed Masteries Chapter
- 12/18/13 - Completed Runes Chapter
- 12/18/13 - Completed Summoner Spells Chapter
- 12/18/13 - Added Items Chapter
- 12/18/13 - Completed Summary Chapter
- 12/18/13 - Guide Published
- 12/19/13 - Updated the Pros / Cons Chapter
- 12/19/13 - Updated the Summoner Spells Chapter
- 12/21/13 - Updated the Items Chapter
- 12/22/13 - Selected the "Sample Full Build" as Core Items
- 12/22/13 - Completed the Items Chapter
- 03/18/14 - Re-worked entire guide for Patch 4.4
- 04/10/14 - Slightly adjusted to guide for Patch 4.5
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Guide Discussion (14)
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