PROS

+ Good in team fights.
+ Strong laning phase.
+ Great sustain.
+ Doesn't use mana or energy.
+ Decent waveclear.

CONS

- Long cooldowns on his abilities which make him dependent on cooldown reduction.
- Q The Darkin Blade and W Infernal Chains are both skillshots that take practice to learn how to place correctly.
- High skill ceiling.
- Very predictable kit.
- Falls off late game.
- Worst enemy: Grievous Wounds.

PROS

+ Gank potential with W Infernal Chains and the constant knockups from Q The Darkin Blade
+ Very fast clear with Q The Darkin Blade
+ Passive healing helps with sustaining in the jungle.
+ Low ult R World Ender cooldown.

CONS

- Slower than most junglers
- Predictable ganks
- Your abilities for CC and damage ( The Darkin Blade Infernal Chains are skillshots thus hard to land sometimes.

Precision

Conqueror

It is the best choice for Aatrox, even after the nerfs and the removal of true damage. It now provides AD and healing which is everything he needs. This rune revolves perfectly around his kit. More or less the whole rune page is focused on healing and damage. Thus making him a healing monster dealing lots of damage.

Triumph

It's the best choice among the three in that slot. It has sustain for clutch situations and added gold which might seem little but it adds up a lot in an entire game. Also offers great sustain in teamfights synergising with your R and helps surviving close fights.

Legend: Tenacity

It is your go to for pretty much every game. Aatrox is countered hard from CC so you need to avoid letting people lock you down with CC. Also in some matchups you will need to go for Mercury's Treads and thus Legend: Tenacity will add up and offer you maximum tenacity to be able to cast your abilities and get the healing.

Legend: Alacrity

Very situational rune for team comps with zero or little CC. The only time i used this rune was a time that i was jungling because it helps with the clear speed. Other than that, just go for the tenacity as it will be usefull at 99% of the games. Legend: Alacrity feels good for the free attack speed to wave in more autos and maximize your damage but as soon as the CC comes in you insta regret it. So, plan ahead, go for tenacity.

Coup de Grace

It is the best option in the slot. When hitting enemies with the sweet spot of your Q's and are below 40% health, Coup de Grace melts them. My go to every time and by far the most reliable choice due to the fact that it is available every time an enemy gets low and you know you will use it. Also the damage amp it provides helps burst down high priority targets that would burst you otherwise.

Last Stand

Decent choice but definitely something you can't rely on. Aatrox's health always fluctuates and thus sometimes it procs, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes to it's full potential, sometimes no. It's just not that good. Yes Aatrox is squishy and will get low a lot, but you will heal back up and in the end the overall amplified damage is lower than expected. Coup de Grace feels and is a more stable choice.

Domination

Taste of Blood

This rune, helps a lot your laning phase. Try to adopt the habit to proc it every time it is off cooldown with an auto-attack or with Q The Darkin Blade abusing your range. It adds up a lot in a game and the healing is Aatrox's best stat. Sudden Impact can be an option for extra damage and a more aggressive playstyle. Aatrox doesn't have big lane sustain problems but personally i prefer Taste of Blood for the clutch potential in close fights or when 1v2ing the enemy top and jg or top and mid. In mid-game E Umbral Dash has a pretty low cooldown and Sudden Impact can be proced a lot and help with the lethality by amplifying your damage. It's all about preference and personal playstyle. Both are great choose wisely.

Ravenous Hunter

I know, the healing for AoE abilities is only 33% applied. BUT it is the best option among the rest in the slot. Synergises with Conqueror, Taste of Blood, Spirit Visage, World Ender, Deathbringer Stance etc. The healing potential on Aatrox is massive and this rune aplifies everything. Get it stacked and enjoy! Huge amounts of healing, great 1v5 potential and teamfight carrying.

Resolve

Bone Plating

Helps a lot when against ranged matchups by negating their poke until you hit your powerspikes to duel them. It also works great again champions that you don't feel so confident and want a bit of tankiness. Good choice against champions that want to all in you/burst you. It ruins their damage and calculations and with your healing you can try to turn around the fight or just survive and back off.

Revitalize

A great alternative to Ravenous Hunter making it easier to go for the tankiness since you don't lose much. Great healing source, especially when below 40% health. It also works perfectly with healers ally champions since it boosts healing from all sources.

Flash

Irreplaceable spell for many champs and Aatrox is one of them. Offers utility, engage, disengage and a potential for crazy Q The Darkin Blade outplays.

Teleport

Teleport fits perfectly to Aatrox because he is a champ who dominates teamfights and Teleport helps you get to them. Good for map pressure, reliable snowball on your lead by ganking other lanes and to minimize valuable gold and exp loses when reseting by being able to come back to lane faster. Moreover, it can be a life saviour in hard matchups like Fiora. You can use it to break freezes, collapsing with your jungler etc to help out yourself and your team of course.

Ignite

Ignite can be an option when facing champs with lots of healing. Or playing in low elo and just want to dominate the laning phase. Then aggressive spells like Ignite shine. My advice is to stick with Teleport and learn to use it. This way you will learn map awareness and how to utilize it to it's full potential which are essentials to be able to climb in higher elos.

Smite

Smite is an essential for every jungler. Don't you ever go jungle without it.

Lane

With the new mythics you wanna rush your Goredrinker ASAP! On first back go for either a Kindlegem or Caulfield's Warhammer when you need health for a tough matchup or AD for a normal one. Both of them offer Ability Haste which is crusial on Aatrox early on. If you are very far ahead, you can go for a Phage to hard rush Goredrinker but it is a rare occasion. When you complete your mythic it is a massive powerspike and the sooner hit it the stronger you will be. So focus on last hitting and punishing with your range the enemy laner whenever they try to last hit. Early and mid game is your friend since you fall off hard in late.

Jungle

As jungler focus on sequencing your camps to maximize your gold/exp output. Try to gank in between your clear whenever an opportunity rises. Don't ingore your team. Aatrox in the jungle is very team dependable. So make sure you are helpful and trying to get objectives.

In late game you fall off. You get outscaled hard and can be easily shutted down by many champions. Try to focus on team fighting where you shine and taking objectives. In teamfights you can either flank or stay behind the frontline to avoid getting bursted down. Avoid dueling at all costs and stay with your team. One realiable win condition in the jungle is Drakes. If you perfectly sequence every drake, you can spawn Elder Dragon before the 30 min and be able to end the game before even the late game starts.

Aatrox doesn't have good matchups! As a champion he is relatively weak. It's the skill that make the difference. You might think that you stomp certain matchups but that is wrong. It is that you played a lot against them and know every stage and thus feel confident against some champions you understand well. The truth is that it is just your skill overcoming the opponent. He has matchups that are skill based and matchups that you just play safe and wait for the opponent to make a mistake, which you must capitalize on if you want to get an edge on your opponents. However, his tankiness, healing and teamfight potential are massive, with his knockups and dashes he is able to chase down his opponents. Same applies to Jungle, you will be weaker than most junglers so avoid 1v1 and risky invades. Farm your camps, gank if possible, and look for objectives to secure.

When the enemy jungler reveals himself, and there is no objective on the map to get or any play to happen, you can counter-jungle the opposite quadrant. Or when they die you can sneak steal his buffs and make him really frustrated. Also, you can leave one small Murk wolf or one small Raptor or from the 2 original Krugs the small one to prevent the camp from respawning. This way you mess up his camp sequence and leave him behind as far as gold and exp are concerned. When the enemy jungler goes to that camp he will have to kill the small monster for little exp and gold and wait until the camp respawns again to take full advantage. If you can do this in his red buff quadrant, he will have 2 camps stalled and his buff missing, and he will be quite upset. If there is an objective, you can abuse the fact that the enemy team’s smite is far away and go for it without risk or make a play like a potential tower dive on the opposite side of the map.

Always check for enemies who shove waves into your tower when your laners are missing (dead or recalling). These minions are wasted and why not take advantage of some free gold and exp.

Do not force ganks except if you really need to (for example, placing a rift and getting the gold from the plates). You mainly want to powerfarm but do not think ganks of a way to mess up your clear and disdain them. You maybe get a kill or if not, you will get exp for sure and some gold that you will tax from the lane minions. Usually if you do not get the kill get some minions but if you do get the kill it would be better to not touch any of them (unless your laner asks to) to prevent them from tilting.

If you get ahead of the enemy jungler you can start counter-jungling even without him revealing themselves. You will have level advantage and thus stronger smite to steal away camps. Or you can just 1v1 them in their own jungle and make them go AFK after. But be very careful about lane priority since getting collapsed and shut down can be detrimental. So do not get cocky.

When ganking you want to flank the enemy in order to save your E Umbral Dash. So just walk up to them and start attacking. When they use their flash or escape then use your E to get closer and finish them off.

A very helpful way to look at lanes is to unbind the option “Select Ally 1”, “Select Ally 2” etc. from the F-keys (F1, F2, F3, F4) and bind them in easier to press keys to be able take glances at your laners and gather info about the lane state, if it is gankable, etc.

When counter jungling try to place some form of vision deep into the jungle to be able to keep track of the enemy jungler, while protecting your team and giving you the opportunity to spot him and make some sort of play around the map either is an objective, a dive or even a simple gank.

Fiora

The lane is lost vs a good Fiora. She can dodge all your abilities with her Q and W (Parry). Use teleport to help other lanes and play it safe. Only way to beat her is wait for her to make mistakes or your jungler comes to help.

Renekton

Very hard matchup. Go for tanky runes for sure. Try to interrupt his combo with your Q's knockups and play it safe. Trade with him as soon as he is using an ability to play around his cooldowns. Avoid him while he is at max rage. You can beat him pre level 3 but it is risky since it requires you to land everything. But it is good to know your powerspikes to practise them. I suggest trying it out in normals to test yourself.

Jax

He outscales Aatrox in mid and late game. He has good mobility to make it hard for you to land your Q and his E Counter Strike can make you useless in early game with the big CD on your Q and against his ability to block auto-attacks (and your passive) you can do nothing. Your only hope is getting a lead early on pre level 6 or your jungler understanding the situation and helping you out.

Camille

If played perfectly you have and advantage pre level 6. She has mobility and burst making her a big threat to you. Avoid short trades as you will definitely lose due to her passive's shield. Try to shut her down pre-6 to make it harder for her to stomp you later. After laning phase dont duel her. Aatrox is very bad at dueling a lot of champions after laning phase. Try to punish her mistakes and abuse her mana usage. Play it safe, and try to make a play happen with your jungler.

Irelia

The problem is that, you can't stop her from stacking her passive and when she does don't you ever fight her. With her Q Bladesurge she can avoid all of your abilities so try to fight her away from minions in order to not be able to dash around. Remember that her Q positions her behind you. Go for short trades and abuse your range. She can drain her mana if you bait her abilites and then stop her with knock-ups. Look for windows when she has no E Flawless Duet or passive or she doesn't get Q Bladesurge reset. Then it's your time to strike. Punish her mistakes. You have the potential to outscale her so if you are in a bad spot, play it safe and wait for mid-game. Or make plays at other lanes with your Teleport.

Kled

Kled had built in Grievous Wounds in his Q Beartrap on a Rope / Pocket Pistol making it very hard to trade when it lands. It reduces your healing a lot. Trade with him when he has no W Violent Tendencies and when he gets dismounted, avoid his attacks to prevent him from mounting again and poke him with your Q. When he gets low and you think you can kill him in one combo, go for it.