It isn't yet official but in next patch (14.9) there will be lots of nerfs to bruiser items, especially to Sundered Sky, Sterak's Gage and Spear of Shojin: three of which are basically integrated to our core bruiser build on Aatrox. That being said there's not really a point in going bruiser anymore since lethality just outperforms it so hard. In case lethality nerfs are on their way I'll reconsider what I said but for NOW (14.8) bruiser is still playable, although quite weak. Next patch will just gut it so I'd just recommend building lethality from now on.

Hello everyone! My name is forlid and I'm your enthusiastic Aatrox guide here today! I've been playing League for just about two years and during all this time I've tried out a plethora of different champions, mostly mid and toplaners so my experience is mostly single lane based. My most played champions include characters such as Aatrox, Yone, Yasuo, Sett, Sylas and Ekko, but the most proficient I'm with Yone and Aatrox. I've already done an Aatrox guide once before but decided to stop updating it due to concentrating on other things. I've revised this particular guide from stratch and tried to include more insight as to how exactly Aatrox should be played, so I hope you'll enjoy this guide!

Aatrox is one of the most popular toplaners and his playstyle mainly revolves around his omnivamp and combos. While he is not the most difficult champion when taken at face value, the skill ceiling of Aatrox is comparable to the more difficult champions in League overall. Aatrox excels in duels as well as teamfights but struggles with weaker scaling and gets easily countered by armor and grievous wounds.

Pros:

+ Fun and immersive gameplay

+ Satisfying combos

+ Can be flexed to Mid and Jungle

+ Strong blind pick

+ Playable against ranged

+ Very valuable in teamfights

+ No mana costs

Cons:

- Weaker scaling compared to others

- Easily countered with items

- Laning requires a lot of knowledge

- Very telegraphed kit

Passive Deathbringer Stance

Periodically, Aatrox's next basic attack deals bonus physical damage and heals him, based on the target's max health.

Aatrox's passive is a very powerful tool as it increases his auto attack range and deals a lot of damage for a basic attack. The cooldown of this ability is based on how many times you're able to hit your The Darkin Blade's sweet spots as well as auto attacks, as they both lower the cooldown for Deathbringer Stance. The cooldown for this ability gets gradually lower the more levels you gain and is eventually active pretty much every other second. Keep in mind that enemies will notice when you gain your passive based on a certain sound as well as how Aatrox positons his blade in a horizontal line.

Q The Darkin Blade

Aatrox slams his greatsword, dealing 10/25/40/55/70 physical damage. If they are hit on the edge, they are briefly Knocked Up and they take 16/40/64/88/112 instead. This Ability can be Recast twice, each one changing shape and dealing 25% more damage than the previous one.

Easily Aatrox's most imporant ability, The Darkin Blade is where your damage resides and it is extremely important that you master this ability. Whereas the inside of this ability does quite bad damage, the sweet spots are where you should always aim. To ease this you're allowed to dash with Umbral Dash while casting The Darkin Blade in every direction. This is how you'll be catching all of your foes who try to escape. Keep in mind that this ability is quite bad until level 4 where your second point in Q becomes available. The Darkin Blade has an extremely long cooldown early but it's reduced as long as you don't recast it after poking with it. This ability has three forms: the first cast makes a straight line and is used mostly as an engage tool as it has the longest reach; the sweet spot resides at the very tip of the blade. The second cast makes a huge horizontal line with the longest reach in both of its corners; the sweet spot resides in the very end of the blade with the entire line being the sweet spot. The third cast has Aatrox slamming his greatsword down in a circle with the sweet spot in its center.

W Infernal Chains

Aatrox fires a chain, Slowing the first enemy hit by 25/27,5/30/32,5/35% for 1.5 seconds and dealing 30/40/50/60/70 magic damage. Champions and large jungle monsters have 1.5 seconds to leave the impact area or be Pulled back to the center and damaged again for the same amount.

Infernal Chains is a pivotal part of your kit although far from the most useful. The main usage of this ability comes from comboing it alongside The Darkin Blade for an easier combo. This ability is widely known to be extremely inconsistent as its CC is very unreliable on its own. You can combo Umbral Dash alongside this ability for an easier hit and you can also last hit minions with it as it deals double damage to them. Enemies will often try to run to the side of the CC area in order to escape, so try to hit your Q1 or Q2 while they're escaping. This usually ends up in a huge trade in your favour.

E Umbral Dash

Passive: Aatrox heals for 18/19.5/21/22.5/24% of the damage he deals to Champions, increased to 20/24/28/32/36% during World Ender. Active: Aatrox dashes. He can use this Ability while winding up his other Abilities.

Aatrox's E is all of your mobility alongside World Ender's move speed boost, so use it effectively. You'll mostly be using this to catch opponents with The Darkin Blade or when you need to disengage. While the dash itself is pretty short ranged, it can pass through surprisingly tight walls such as raptors. Try to play around with it and learn where you can slip and where you can't. Umbral Dash pays another huge role in your kit as it's your main source of sustain. During your R it gets much higher and will allow you to outsustain basically every champion.

R World Ender

Aatrox reveals his true demonic form, Fearing nearby minions for 3 seconds and gaining 60/80/100% Move Speed decaying over 10 seconds. He also gains 20/32.5/45% Attack Damage and increases self-healing by 25/35/45% for the duration. Champion takedowns extend the duration of this effect by 5 seconds and refresh the Move Speed effect.

Aatrox's ultimate World Ender is where your damage gets boosted to the skies. It makes catching opponents much easier and makes your sustain one of the best in the game. Alongside giving you terrific AD it also gives you an insane disengage tool should the need arise for you to do so. Don't overlook the self-healing as it increases your regeneration as well as makes plants give you more HP. Don't always just insta ult when you see a target, rather try to observe and wait for the correct opportunity. In teamfights its also not always the call to instantly ult as you want to use it so that you're able to extend its duration. Now of course you'll use it if you're in a sticky situation, but IN GENERAL its not always best to just use all of your damage without a good reason. Enemies might just disengage as they recognize the danger you pose.

Main Runes: Precision

Conqueror

Simply the best keystone for Aatrox. Conqueror allows us to fight for extended durations and the damage increase serves as an extra source of sustain since more damage equals more healing. Conqueror should always be your choice of rune unless you're facing someone who's extremely difficult to catch and who's ranged, such as Vayne or Quinn.

Triumph

This slot is moreso just too one-sided due to Triumph heavily outvaluing both Presence of Mind and Overheal. Triumph is very valuable in teamfights and especially in 1v2 situations as the heal from a takedown might let you live or even turn the tide of a fight. You should also consider Triumph as a tower dive rune as the heal can possibly leave you alive after a successful dive: Aatrox is one of the best divers in the game due to the sustain he gains from a kill.

Legend: Alacrity OR Legend: Tenacity

This choice relies on whether or not you think you'll need the extra tenacity later on. I'm currently running Legend: Alacrity on most of my games as I think Sterak's Gage alone provides enough tenacity to render the rune itself mostly useless. Alacrity also helps with your passive Deathbringer Stance as more auto attacks lower the cooldown of your empowered attack. Consider going Alacrity into matchups where you can get more auto attacks off. These include low mobility champions such as Malphite, Sion, Nasus and Dr. Mundo.

Last Stand

Since you'll mostly be committing into a kill, more often than not you'll find yourself quite low as the fight goes on. Last Stand allows you to deal more damage the lower you are so it's perfect for extended fights.

Secondary Runes: Resolve

Bone Plating

A very solid rune best taken into melee matchups where the enemy is unable to poke you without fully engaging. Think about someone like Darius: he has nothing on you unless you walk into his Q Decimate. Be wary of some melee matchups as the rune can easily be poked down. These include champions such as Volibear who can poke it through his passive The Relentless Storm and Yone who can just use his W Spirit Cleave on you.

Second Wind

Serves as an excellent anti-poke rune due to its healing through taken damage. Pairing Second Wind alongside Doran's Shield makes up for some insane healing and makes ranged lanes somewhat playable. Second Wind is also an excellent rune even in some melee matchups where Bone Plating isn't as useful and where the enemy can constantly poke you.

Revitalize

An excellent rune choice for Aatrox as it allows for more healing. The shield part shouldn't also be ignored as it effectively increases Sterak's Gage shielding as well. If you're unsure what to go, Revitalize should always be your choice as it's really powerful with both bruiser and lethality.

Alternative Main Runes: Sorcery

Arcane Comet

The sole reason this rune page is even viable on Aatrox. The poke from Arcane Comet leaves most ranged champions in a negative trade should they try to poke with you as the damage is guaranteed should you hit your sweet spots from The Darkin Blade. Consider going this only if the enemy laner has a lot of mobility AND is ranged. Otherwise Conqueror is way superior.

Nullifying Orb

The only real good choice out of the runes available. It allows for some anti-burst from mages and as such leaves you more room for error.

Celerity

Synergizes well with your R World Ender and also boosts movement from various things such as Scuttle Crab and Cloud Dragon .

Scorch

A really good rune for poke as the burn damage is actually very viable. Another contender here would be Gathering Storm but seeing as Aatrox isn't the best scaling champion, the extra AD won't most likely make a huge difference.

Flash

Serves a very imporant role in your combos. Use it alongside The Darkin Blade to finish off low HP opponents. Keep in mind that your combo is very easily predicted so try to bait their movement out before committing. The obvious usage of Flash is of course also disengaging and dodging out important abilities.

Teleport

Teleport is very useful in top where the walk to lane is extremely long. It also allows you to split later on and join teamfights should they break out. Currently I think Teleport heavily outvalues Ignite so you should always take it even against healing targets.

Ignite

Not very strong in top and especially not for someone such as Aatrox. I'd only really take this if you're queuing for midlane and even then Teleport is equally as strong. There just isn't much use for it as there's a lot more potential with Teleport.

I don't really recommend picking any other Summoner Spells other than these three as they're not as valuable on Aatrox. Exhaust should never be taken on top and Cleanse is useless after Sterak's Gage.

Aatrox is one of the weaker early game champions due to his high cooldowns and enemy champions just being stronger in general. Your main job early is to let the wave push towards you as this way you can farm easier. Aatrox doesn't have much with which to waveclear early so try to learn to clear solely with auto attacks. You can of course poke the enemy with The Darkin Blade but keep your distance if they're someone like Darius as you'll always lose the close-ranged fights. When you hit level 4 that's when you'll be able to dish out damage and make some good trades. At this point you should be pretty healthy and still at your side in the lane: if your jungler cleared towards topside, you can try to set up a gank. Keep in mind that the enemy jungler is usually there at the same time so ask yourself: can we win this fight? If the answer is no, just ping your jungler to go away. Otherwise you can try to engage and with good luck you'll get a kill or two, even Summoner Spells will suffice. Voidgrubs are also very important if your laners are snowballing as they help a ton with plates. If you're able to solo kill your laner you can co-operate with your jungler and mid to obtain the very first objective in the game and get a huge lead. Wards pay a huge role here so try to get vision on either enemy jungle or deep ward in case you suspect you'll get ganked. If you're unable to do so just sit under your turret and farm. Your first back should be done around 1100g. This way you'll get a key component to your first item or you can buy tier 2 boots.

Around mid game your objetive remains the same as before: farm in lane and try to get plates by killing the enemy laner. In case you succeed, you can try to get another set of voidgrubs. This will exponentially boost your tower damage and helps very much later on. While you're getting closer to Baron Nashor you should start to roam a bit and if your bot is in a lead you can rotate your entire team so that you can push bot. With Teleport you can now join fights should they break out. You're also at your strongest around this time so if you're even with your laner you can feel confident in engaging them. Focusing on getting dragons so that your team can scale to late game and with correct map awareness you should be safe to farm and make some calls.

This is when ending the game becomes pivotal as your champion isn't the best scaler. Post 20-min mark you should ask yourself whether or not you can take Baron Nashor. If you win a teamfight you can look for it as with Baron you can usually push and get tier 2 towers which net a huge gold lead. If you went bruiser you should play around your team and peel for them as much as possible. If you went lethality you should be able to oneshot pretty much every single that isn't a full on tank. Good flanks with Teleport can be game changing so keep those in mind. If you're unable to end the game with Baron try to get Elden Dragon as it will most likely be an insta win at that point. Other than that you should act as your team's leader unless someone else is much more ahead as your kit is with which your team can make good plays around.