Aatrox is a lot of fun to play as a support. A lot of you are probably surprised, Aatrox as a support? Aatrox actually brings a lot of useful skills to the bot lane. He has poke with his Blades of Torment, sustain and AA buffs with his Blood Thirst / Blood Price, and a gap closer/escape with Dark Flight.

If you like breaking the meta with picks that actually work, try this!

Before I begin with this guide: Do not play this in ranked! This guide is not meant for competitive play. While I do think Aatrox actually works decently as a support, and you can with with him without much difficulty, don't play this expecting to win.

Pros:

+ Pretty decent poke, and harass
+ Sustain is great for bot lane.
+ Lots of roaming potential.
+ Dark Flight is actually extremely useful for engaging/disengaging, and getting some nice kills during those awkward moments when everyone's at low health.
+ If you're doing well, you can carry late game.

Cons:

- Massacre isn't really useful in laning phase, since you're not autoattacking much. It's great in teamfights.
- No heals or shields (That's why Face of the Mountain is great.)
- Double AD bot lane can be easily itemized against.
- Long-ish cooldowns
- You are pretty susceptible to CC.

If you want to play Aatrox support and win, you should know when or when not to play him.

When to play support Aatrox:
- If you're like supporting and are looking for a change of pace.
- If you have at least 1 AP champion on your team (preferably 2 and up, but 1 works).
- If your lane partner chooses one of the champions seen in the "Champions Who Aatrox Works Well With".
- If your team needs CC.
- If your jungler gets counterpicked and you need a roaming support.
- If you like to break the meta.
- If you don't mind getting flamed at.

When not to play support Aatrox:
- If you hate fun.
- If you like playing by the meta.
- If your whole team is AD.
- If you need damage on your team.
- If you already have 2 or more tanks.

If you want to play Aatrox support, your runes and masteries really are up to you and your playstyle. If you like to stay back and poke, I recommend Attack Damage quints, but if you like to engage, I would rather take attack speed. Just do whatever works for you.

These are the Quintessences I would go for when playing Aatrox support, or in general.

Quintessences

These Quintessences are going to be for if you want to use your E more, as poke, rather than your autoattacks, just to be more safe in lane. If you want to be a late game beast, take the scaling runes. However, if you want to be more of an early game threat, go for Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage.

These next Quints are for when you want to be more of an engaging, autoattacking, and sustainable support. Take the Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed if you are going to roam mid alot and gank a lot, since you can get from bot lane to mid lane faster in early game. If you are going to engage or be more sustaining, take Greater Quintessence of Life Steal or Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed

Quintessence Options:

Greater Quintessence of Attack Damage
Greater Quintessence of Scaling Attack Damage
Greater Quintessence of Movement Speed
Greater Quintessence of Life Steal
Greater Quintessence of Attack Speed

Marks

I always take Greater Mark of Attack Speed, unless I am already taking the Attack Speed Quints. If I take the AS Quints, I usually go for either Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage or Greater Mark of Attack Damage for the extra poke, but greater mark of armor penetration is always an option for shredding the tanks.

Mark Options:


Greater Mark of Attack Speed
Greater Mark of Scaling Attack Damage
Greater Mark of Attack Damage
greater mark of armor penetration

Glyphs & Seals

For Glyphs, always take Greater Glyph of Magic Resist
For Seals, always take Greater Seal of Armor
This is for extra defense, early game. It makes a big difference. If you really want to be a complete beast late game, take scaling versions. However, you might struggle a bit more during early game.

Masteries are more of a surefire thing when it comes to the support role in general, since they generally don't change much. Here are my recommended masteries.

It's always a big grey area on whether to start off by maxing Q, [Blades of Torment], or W,[Blood Thirst / blood price], but when you support it's always good to go with Q first. W comes second. It comes in handy, especially in other roles, but Aatrox won't be autoattacking as much as a support. Q is more of a gap closer and an escape, so you don't need damage on that.

If you feel like you're going to be autoattacking a lot (if you are roaming a lot or if you are going to be engaging a lot), go with something more along the lines of this.

Before jumping (or should I say flying) into a game, you should know about how his kit works.

Passive: Blood Well -

This is Aatrox's notorious revive passive. Basically, if you use an ability that takes away some of Aatrox's health which are his Q (Dark Flight) & his E (Blades of Torment), the health that is lost is added to your Blood Well. When you die, and the passive is up, you will revive and gain health equal to the blood well, plus 10.5 + (15.75 * your level).

Pros and Cons of Blood Well:


Q: Dark Flight -

Basically, how this skill works is you start flying up to an area you've selected, and then you crash down onto it. There is the outside radius and there is the epicenter. If you get an enemy on the outside radius, it does a small amount of damage. But if you get them on the epicenter, it will knock them up on top of the damage. Using this ability makes you lose 10% of your health.

Pros and Cons of Dark Flight:


W - Blood Thirst / Blood Price -

This is a toggle ability, where you can toggle between 2 passives. Activating it, or toggling it on, will turn on Blood Price. Deactivating it, or toggling it off, will turn on Blood Thirst. This way, 1 of the 2 toggles are always up.

When Blood Thirst is up, every third autoattack heals you for a flat rate of health, plus 25% of your attack damage. This is Aatrox's main form of sustain early game before he gets his items. You want to stay on this passive most of the time. You also get triple the health when under 50% health.

Blood Thirst works in a similar way to Blood Price. Blood Price is basically every 3rd autoattack, you do extra damage in return for some health. You want to turn this on when fighting an enemy, when you have at least a bit more health than the enemy. If not, keep Blood Thirst on.

Pros and Cons of Blood Thirst / Blood Price:


E - Blades of Torment -

This is going to be your source of poke during laning. Blades of Torment is a skillshot that slows the enemy on impact. It is crucial that you hit this at least 50% of the time, since it gives a slow and does decent damage. It is most useful during levels 1-5 when the enemies still have their starting items, but is useful for poke throughout the whole game. You take 5% if your health when you use this.

Pros and Cons of Blades of Torment:


R - Massacre -

This is a handy ult allowing for a good amount of damage and a good engaging tool for teamfighting. It deals damage to all enemies around you, and you gain a lot of both attack range, and [[Blood Well] points, allowing for even more lifesteal and sustain.

Pros and Cons of Massacre:

Not all of these are AD Carries. Double-meta breakage is always fun. Remember, if a champion is not on here, I'm not saying to not pick this if you don't have one, these are just great.

Yasuo -

Aatrox can knock up however many enemies he can with the Dark Flight, and Yasuo comes flying in and smashes everyone to the ground with Last Breath. That knockup ult combo is always great.

Blitzcrank -

You have 2 knockups from Dark Flight and Power Fist, a silence from Static Field, a slow from Blades of Torment, and a pull from Rocket Grab. So much CC.

Thresh -

The hook ( Death Sentence) is always great, and Massacre and The Box work together very well.

Vayne -

If Vayne can knock someone into a wall with her Condemn, then that person is pretty much dead.

Alistar -

See Vayne.

Sivir -

The slow really helps Sivir land the Boomerang Blade much more easily, allowing for a ton more damage.

Miss Fortune -

Believe it or not, but AP miss fortune is a great pick for Aatrox. The Dark Flight and Bullet Time combo is great, and Dark Flight also works with Make it Rain

Nautilus -

This is a very synergistic combo. If you can pull in an enemy with Dredge Line, then proceed to CC them with Dark Flight, Blades of Torment, Depth Charge, and Riptide, they're almost certainly dead. There is also a lot of sustain from Titan's Wrath and Blood Thirst / Blood Price, as well as natural tankiness.

Aatrox, especially as a support, has a pretty weak early game. However, you want to mostly play safe until you see the right moment to Q in. You do have your passive to fall back on, so you should be using your Blades of Torment as much as possible to charge that Blood Well up.

When you spawn:

Don't get your skill yet! Buy your items and leave base.

There are 3 scenarios that should happen when you play Aatrox support, or any support in general. The possibilities are:
- Your jungler chooses to invade the other jungle.
- Your jungle needs you and the ADC to leash.
- Your jungler either gets top to leash, or does not need a leash.

If your jungler chooses to invade the other jungle:

Of course, you want to go with him/her. In this case, upgrade your Q at level one, E at level 2, and then basically follow the usual ability sequence. This will help you chase down the enemy jungler/leashers, and can ultimately help you to first blood. It can also work if you upgrade your E first anyway.

Your Jungler needs you and the ADC to leash:

If your jungler is a champion that can sustain themselves for the most part, such as Volibear, Aatrox, Maokai, Shaco, etc. then only you can be there, so that your ADC can get as much minion gold and poke as possible. If your jungler is either squishy like Fiddlesticks, or asks for a hard leash, you will both be there. Make sure to give your jungler a good leash so he can get to ganking for you faster. Make sure not to take any damage from the monster. Again, level up E first. After this, head into lane.

For whatever reason, your jungler does not need a leash:

Just head into lane, and look at the next step. You're especially set for this since you get some extra time to place your ward and get those 3 minions. That might not seem important, but 60 gold to your ADC and a ward can make a big difference.

Warding is essential for any Support, and if you ward in the right places you can see ganks way ahead of time, and can ultimately determine whether you win lane.

If you want to see it in higher resolution, go to this link:
http://i.imgur.com/qGauv4E.jpg

Teamfighting is one of Aatrox's greatest strengths.

What to do:

- Have full health, make sure Blood Well is up, and come up to the enemy team with your team with you.
- Make sure no enemy turrets are nearby.
- Tell your team "I'm going in, follow me".
- Engage with your Q, then ult. Switch to Blood Price.
- Try to land an E on however many opponents you can.
- Get as many autoattacks as you can.
- Focus the carries (mid laner, ADC, jungler if they aren't a tank).

What not to do:

- Engage in a 1v3 into the enemy turret with your Q.
- Focus the full health enemy Malphite.
- Die within 3 seconds since your Blood Well wasn't up.

Q: Is Aatrox your main?
A: One of them. I like Volibear and Blitzcrank too.

Q: Is Aatrox bad, and if so, then why should we play him?
A: Firstly, I don't think he's bad. His design is just a bit flawed. I play him as a support mostly and sometimes as a top because he's super fun, especially as a support.

Q: Favorite Aatrox skin?
A: I like Justicar's splash more, but Mecha more ingame.

Q: You're not gold or above, how are you qualified to write this?
A: I actually don't play ranked at all and don't plan to ever. I don't play League to win, I play for fun. And Aatrox support is fun.

Q: Will we get an Aatrox top/jungle guide from you?
A: Not in particular, since I don't think Aatrox is as good as a jungler as he is a support. Expect AD Blitzcrank and full AP Volibear though :)