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Recommended Items
Runes: Every Game
Precision
Resolve
+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+6 Armor
Spells:
Every Game
Flash
Teleport
Items
Ability Order Every Game
Deathbringer Stance (PASSIVE)
Aatrox Passive Ability
Threats & Synergies
Extreme
Major
Even
Minor
Tiny
None
Low
Ok
Strong
Ideal
Fiora
Dodge. I personally perma ban her
Elise
AP jungler + ability to dive weak laners at level 3
Ideal
Strong
Ok
Low
None
Elise
AP jungler + ability to dive weak laners at level 3
Champion Build Guide
Introduction
Hewwo owo~ I'm Mohong and this my in-depth guide to
Aatrox, the Darkin Blade. He's my favorite champion in the game and I love everything about him from his lore to his gameplay. He's a staple pick in the top lane and saw a ton of competitive play following his rework. If you love the drain tanking raid boss playstyle,
Aatrox is definitely the champion for you.


Pros
-Carry potential
-Very fun
-Solid laning phase
-Manaless
-Strong teamfighting
-1v2 potential
-High skill ceiling
-Dopamine rush from ult resets
-No "true" counterpicks (maybe
Fiora)
-Very fun
-Solid laning phase
-Manaless
-Strong teamfighting
-1v2 potential
-High skill ceiling
-Dopamine rush from ult resets
-No "true" counterpicks (maybe

Cons
-Useless if behind
-Somewhat difficult to learn
-Feast or famine
-Poor tower taking ability
-Gets outdueled midgame
-Falls off late game
-Weak against armor
-Gets crippled by grievous wounds
-Very telegraphed abilities
-Item dependant
-Somewhat difficult to learn
-Feast or famine
-Poor tower taking ability
-Gets outdueled midgame
-Falls off late game
-Weak against armor
-Gets crippled by grievous wounds
-Very telegraphed abilities
-Item dependant
Runes

Really the only viable keystone on Aatrox as the adaptive force and healing synergizes pretty well with your ult. The reason why you take this tree at all is because


There is absolutely no reason to not go


From here you can choose between



Because Aatrox stacks a ton of hp and his playstyle results in him taking and healing a ton of damage, he spends a lot of time in




This is essential to get Aatrox through the early levels and allows him to take favorable trades. Trade this rune for












As for your mini-runes I prefer to go with the bonus attack speed, but all three option in the first row are viable. For the second and third rows I always go adaptive force and armor/magic resist depending on my matchup.
Items

This item is what makes Aatrox, well, Aatrox. It gives you everything you'd ever want: hp, cdr, and ad. Its active combined with




Another phenomenal item for Aatrox. Not only do you get a good chunk of health and ad, but you get a massive shield that prevents you from being bursted down and allows you the opportunity to keep healing. Should almost always be built as your second item, unless you're already building


1. You're super ahead, in which case build this second
2. They have multiple armor stackers. In this case, it's your choice whether to build this second or third after

NEVER BUILD THIS IF YOU'RE BEHIND
This gives you the armor pen you're desperately lacking and the slow allows you to chain your q's better.

Build this if they have a ton of ad burst/already finished your core items. The bleed passive allows you to keep fighting and rewards you for scoring a takedown.

Aatrox's best item vs ap. Increases your total healing and the shield from


Good late game item. Sell for


Pretty good buy for anti-burst. I usually don't build this item since it doesn't give hp. Basically the warmog's for tanks. Use this when you're low or know you're about to take a ton of damage.

Really the only time you'll be building this item is if you're behind. I prefer this to


ONLY BUILD IT THEY'RE ALL RANGED/SLIPPERY
You'll be sacrificing a ton of sustain for a small gap closer and a slow. I personally rarely build this item, even if they're all ranged but I've seen people make it work. You'll want to stridebreaker right before Q1 or Q2 so you won't have to use your e. Go adaptive or cdr minirunes if you're building this.

A solid anti-tank item if you're behind or you have a full ad comp that needs to shred their armor. Pretty mediocre compared to

Boots are pretty self explanatory. Go


Playstyle
Your early levels (1-3) are pretty weak due to your long cooldowns so keep your distance while poking with your q. Something important to note is to ALWAYS HOLD Q3. Unlike
Riven's q,
Broken Wings, which starts an internal timer on its first cast,
Aatrox's q,
The Darkin Blade, starts a timer on each recast. This means that if you use Q3, it will go on full cooldown but if you hold onto Q2 or Q3 and let the recast timer run out, the cooldown will be shorter. Not only this, but holding Q3 makes it so that your opponent can't engage onto you, otherwise you'll Q3 them. While e'ing your Q3 in may be tempting, you'll be in the enemy's face with no q, and no escape tool.
Throughout the laning phase you want to be chunking the enemy with your basic combo (which we'll go over later) while healing yourself. Rinse and repeat until the enemy is in kill range then go in with your ult. Look for opportunities to roam/tp to other lanes to pick up some kills.
By mid game your team will start contesting objectives, which you'll want to show up for. This video by ProGuides is a fantastic resource to learn the basics of split pushing. Although you're a team fighting oriented champion, split pushing is essential to ensure you have the resources you need and are always overleveled compared to the rest of the game.
You fall off late game, so you want to group with your team to end the game or get baron/soul as soon as possible. Don't forget to pick up waves in the sidelanes whenever possible.




Throughout the laning phase you want to be chunking the enemy with your basic combo (which we'll go over later) while healing yourself. Rinse and repeat until the enemy is in kill range then go in with your ult. Look for opportunities to roam/tp to other lanes to pick up some kills.
By mid game your team will start contesting objectives, which you'll want to show up for. This video by ProGuides is a fantastic resource to learn the basics of split pushing. Although you're a team fighting oriented champion, split pushing is essential to ensure you have the resources you need and are always overleveled compared to the rest of the game.
You fall off late game, so you want to group with your team to end the game or get baron/soul as soon as possible. Don't forget to pick up waves in the sidelanes whenever possible.
Combos
For this section, I'll be using timestamps from Lol Dobby's video on Aatrox so follow along if you want a visual.
3:36 Basic Combo - Q W QE AA Q AA
This is your ideal full combo, with your q2 guaranteeing your w pullback into q3
I say ideal because it requires you to with your q1 without e, which won't always happen. You can use your q1 with e and try to walk up to q2 them after hitting your w but it's very hard to pull off if they just walk away. Your best bet to hit q1 without e is to use it while they're csing or while you're out of vision.
4:10 E W Q1 Q2
Another lane combo that's less common because you'll be missing out on your q3 damage. If you land even one knockup after your w, they'll be pulled in, ensuring your next q will land. If your e is up after your q2, you can choose to e your q3 in
0:24 Q2 trick
Your q2 has a longer range if used diagonally, meaning you can guess what side of your w they'll dodge to and knock them up if you don't have e.
0:53 E auto reset
Your e is an auto attack reset, meaning you can AA E AA. Put your cursor right next to you character model to min range your e. You'll be using this in lane to poke, maximize dps while waiting for your q to come back up, and cs.
2:10 Q flash
Flash towards the end of your q animation to finish enemies off, engage a teamfight, or nuke the enemy team.
2:30 Q E flash
Combo your q, e, and flash for a surprisingly long engage. You can also use this to redirect your q to surprise enemies.
3:05 Q Goredrinker AA
Because your goredrinker is independent from your autos, it doesn't matter if you goredrinker AA or AA goredrinker. For me, goredrinker AA is smoother and looks better.
4:31 Utilizing walls
Aatrox's e allows him to travel over semi-thick walls but most importantly it allows him to extend his q range. In this clip, Aatrox extends his q range with the wall, allowing him to finish Lucian off.
3:36 Basic Combo - Q W QE AA Q AA
This is your ideal full combo, with your q2 guaranteeing your w pullback into q3
I say ideal because it requires you to with your q1 without e, which won't always happen. You can use your q1 with e and try to walk up to q2 them after hitting your w but it's very hard to pull off if they just walk away. Your best bet to hit q1 without e is to use it while they're csing or while you're out of vision.
4:10 E W Q1 Q2
Another lane combo that's less common because you'll be missing out on your q3 damage. If you land even one knockup after your w, they'll be pulled in, ensuring your next q will land. If your e is up after your q2, you can choose to e your q3 in
0:24 Q2 trick
Your q2 has a longer range if used diagonally, meaning you can guess what side of your w they'll dodge to and knock them up if you don't have e.
0:53 E auto reset
Your e is an auto attack reset, meaning you can AA E AA. Put your cursor right next to you character model to min range your e. You'll be using this in lane to poke, maximize dps while waiting for your q to come back up, and cs.
2:10 Q flash
Flash towards the end of your q animation to finish enemies off, engage a teamfight, or nuke the enemy team.
2:30 Q E flash
Combo your q, e, and flash for a surprisingly long engage. You can also use this to redirect your q to surprise enemies.
3:05 Q Goredrinker AA
Because your goredrinker is independent from your autos, it doesn't matter if you goredrinker AA or AA goredrinker. For me, goredrinker AA is smoother and looks better.
4:31 Utilizing walls
Aatrox's e allows him to travel over semi-thick walls but most importantly it allows him to extend his q range. In this clip, Aatrox extends his q range with the wall, allowing him to finish Lucian off.
Tips & Tricks
- In teamfights, only ult if you're sure you can get a reset or it's a life or death situation. Aatrox is pretty weak without his ult so use it wisely. It has a pretty short cooldown mid-late game so make sure you ult every fight.
- NEVER STOP FIGHTING It's not over until your screen turns gray. You'll surprise yourself by how much you heal and the enemy won't expect it either. KEEP FIGHTING
- Against more experienced players, they'll actually dodge into you to avoid your q's. The way to counter this is the simply not e with your q. Use the landing phase to learn your enemies' tendencies and play mind games with them.
- As an early-mid game champion, it's important to push your lead as much as possible. Assuming you've won the laning phase, make sure to take the enemy's jungle and your own jungle if your jungler is on the opposite side of the map. Not only will you ensure you're overleveled, but you'll be denying the enemy camps by stealing them.
- You'll discover that Aatrox doesn't really have a ton of combos. It's more about adapting to the situation and using your spells accordingly.
- Remember to weave in auto attacks, especially your empowered ones, during your combo. By mid-late game you only want to proc your empowered ones as you need to get your damage out otherwise you'll get bursted down.
- If you don't have e to land your q, utilize your ult's movement speed.
- Against champions with dashes, hold onto your e during the laning phase because if they dash into you as you e forward, you'll be in their face with no way to peel them off.
- During teamfights always go for your next reset target. You should ignore their frontline and use your cc to lock down their carries and kill them.
- Aatrox will feel pretty weak when you're first learning him as your healing revolves around how much damage you do but don't be discouraged and keep playing him.
Skins

Blood Moon/Prestige
- Very clean animations and sound effects with the best ult sound out of his skins. The in-game model is kinda weird, but other than that S tier skin
Odyssey
- S tier because of the animations and beautiful chromas. For whatever reason, Aatrox speaks microwave in this skin and his ult sounds like someone's blowing in your ear. If that's not too distracting for you this is a very good skin.
Mecha
- Q animations are pay to win, especially q1, and has a pretty good ult sound. The chromas are nice. Strong pick for the A tier.
Justicar
- Weird voice filter, okay q animations, okay ult sound. Not bad, but slightly better than base Aatrox
Base
- It's ya boi, base Aatrox. Not much else to say.
Victorious
- Budget Justicar skin. The animations aren't that bad but it's basically a reskinned Justicar. B tier for lack of creativity.
Sea Hunter
- The only skin worse than base Aatrox. The model is bad. Bad sea creature.
Matchups
































































































































































Closing Statements
Thank you so so much if you made it this far into the guide. I spent a good amount of time on this and hope I could help anyone who loves the champion as much as I do.
That's it from me, have a fantastic day
That's it from me, have a fantastic day
Mohong
Aatrox Guide
[S11] Everything You Need To Know About Aatrox
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