I'm TheOrginalTwoSides (TwoSides is fine) who is a flegdling Aatrox OTP in Bronze. Why am I making a guide when I'm in bronze? Because I want to make myself a cheatsheet that I already know I can follow. That being said, take most of this information with a grain of salt. I am also open to suggestions and questions by my peers to help shape this "guide". With that out of the way, I hope this helps in some way!

P.S. Most of this guide was built on other guides - like a collage I guess, if there are any issues with what I wrote, feel free to get in contact and I will gladly take it down.

Aatrox is a top lane champion that I personally think is fun and you shouldn't play him if you don't think he's fun. If your looking for a champion based on abilities and stats, heres a list of pros and cons:

Pros:
- Resource Less: No mana/energy so you don't have to worry about it.
- Hard CC: His three Qs and W all have knockups which aren't affected by tenacity.
- Safe laning phase: Aatrox can farm pretty easily with Q, W, and E.
- Easy Time against Ranged Matchups: Aatrox Q range is quite large and helps you poke out ranged enemies.
- High damage: He just does a lot of damage.
- Sustain: Aatrox has built in sustain with his passive (reduced against minions but can be used in small trades).
- Carry potential: High damage + Sustain = Carry Game (if you can play well).
- Good teamfighting ability: Q range is massive AoE + knockups.


Cons:
- Weak early levels: Q Cd is quite long in the first 3 levels.
- Punishable in lane due to high cooldowns: This is why he has weak early levels.
- Needs decent mechanics to pilot: Not really a con but should be mentioned.
- Harder to play versus a lot of longer-ranged and/or high-mobility champions: You get kited a lot.
- Slow animations: You are locked into an ability for a while letting enemies kite and land skillshots for free.
- Weak to crowd control: Self explanitory.
- Needs items to do anything: Self explanitory.

Notes: You can charge up a Q and cast E to reposition the Q, also works with Flash. W can be extented using E as well

Auto -> E -> Auto: Auto attack reset.
Q1 -> W -> Q2 + E -> Auto -> Q3 -> Auto: Standard DPS Combo.
E + W -> Q1 -> Q2: Catching enemies trying to escape.
Q1 -> Q2 (stand still): Just know that if you land Q1, you can instantly Q2 when they walk towards you as they might expect you to E.
W -> Q1 + E -> Q2 -> Auto -> Q3 + Flash: Starting combo with W and then Q1 + E to stop their escape, Q3 + Flash to secure the kill if needed.

Laning Phase:

Levels 1 - 3
Aatrox is really bad early so the goal here is to farm as much as we can without losing too much HP, this can be done by using the range on our Q, or walking up to last hit than use E to back away. Don't do anything to make the wave push away from you as you don't want to walk away from tower. A neat tip I found was to use Q1 not on the wave so you can use Q2 to get all the melee minions on the first wave.

Levels 4 - 6
With all abilities and two points in Q, Aatrox can now bully the enemy. Freeze the wave on your side using your Q range to harrass.

Levels 6+
Now with your ult, if you poke the enemy low enough, you can ult and run at them, potentionally getting a kill/ their flash. Just keep pokeing and frezzing and then enemy cannot do anything.

Mid Game:
You have a few options as mid game is when your the strongest and should be used to expand your lead.

Split push:
Getting turrets is a really good way of expanding your lead.

Team fighting:
Aatrox has good team fighting and shouldn't be bursted at this stage so you can go in without dying.

In team fighting you can engage, disengage, and peel very easily so you don't always have to be the one to deal damage.

Late Game:
Try and win the game, it will be harder as Aatrox has fallen off.