Aatrox/Strategy

Gameplay
By Tyler 'RiotWenceslaus' Eltringham

is a basic attack dependent melee champion who excels as a duelist and team fighter. His built-in and  mechanics make him an ideal fit for top lane.

The sustain from keeps Aatrox’s health topped off, allowing him to farm throughout the laning phase. Aatrox excels as a duelist, able to switch to for heavy burst damage when trading with his lane opponent. After the exchange, Aatrox can toggle back to to top off his health. When he’s ready to finish the job, adds significantly to an already potent burst combo.
 * Top-lane

If the lane isn’t going Aatrox’s way, the knock-up effect from can be used to set up ganks for his jungler. Or, if Aatrox has bullied his enemy out of lane, he can push aggressively, safe in the knowledge that the disengage from and ’s slow will aid his escape when enemies come charging. Even when things go totally wrong, offers a second chance to secure kills or make a quick exit.

Aatrox’s gives him an innate ability to pressure enemy carries in team fights. grants Aatrox plenty of sustain as he tangos with enemy initiators and tanks. When he sees an opportunity to reach an enemy carry, closes the gap and allows the punishment to begin. When Aatrox is in deep, the area of effect burst and extra range from, and slow on prevent high-value targets from escaping. All the while the consistent healing from and resurrection effect from  keep him alive long enough to cut through enemy squishies.
 * Team fights

If Aatrox’s team is on the defensive, a well-aimed can slow multiple enemies and open a window for retreating allies to slip away. Alternately, he can kite enemies with, and create an opportunity for the remainder of his team to turn and counter-initiate. If Aatrox is focused, ’s sustain and the keep him in the fight, giving his teammates an opportunity to cut through foes as he  and delivers the killing blow.

By David 'Phreak' Turley
 * Champion Spotlight



Learn to dominate top lane through and  in the Aatrox Champion Spotlight.

''’s combination of and  enables a hyper-aggressive playstyle, punctuated by brazen dives and daring escapes. He excels at relentlessly pushing lanes, relying on his and  to evade incoming ganks. In team fights, Aatrox’s mobility takes on a more offensive bent, allowing him to dive past tanks onto valuable back line targets.''

Learn how to your enemies with Aatrox in the Champion Spotlight, where we’ll sample the Darkin Blade’s tactics, masteries and more.


 * Recommended Items

Tips

 * Playing As
 * Avoid engaging in a fight with low health unless your is full so that you regain enough health to continue fighting.
 * Building Life Steal can be very potent on Aatrox to help compensate for his health costs.
 * is great at turning the tide of a battle. Make sure to use it at the right moment to maximize its benefits.


 * Playing Against
 * When Aatrox takes fatal damage he is healed for the amount currently in his, landing a fatal blow on him while the is low will result in him reviving with a lower amount of Health.
 * When Aatrox casts towards your location, avoid being knocked up by moving away from the center of impact.
 * Aatrox is auto attack reliant for most of his damage and survivability, reducing his attack speed by purchasing or  can help reduce both of those components greatly.

Tricks

 * Ability Usage
 * is a fighter, focused on initiation, sustain and sustained damage. His focus lies on having a strong initiation combined with powerful AoE damage, but keep in mind that he needs to be close to enemies in order to deal damage, so a mix of defensive and offensive itemization options will maximize your presence in game.
 * is a versatile champion in terms of role, being able to be played on top lane or in the jungle and as tank or fighter, even being able to combine both classes. He gains powerful attack speed buffs both from and, while  also grants him a second chance to either finish enemies or escape a dire situation.
 * can be killed fast in fights if is on cooldown, and disengages from the enemy team's side can stop his momentum since he only has  for gap-closing.  needs to be in combat constantly in order to deal his maximum damage output when a fight erupts, since  needs to be at its fullest in order to get a lot attack speed, especially when his build is damage focused and less tanky, as he will need more time to fill.
 * Since has already great attack speed buffs in his kit, attack damage or defensive runes might provide more use than attack speed ones.
 * greatly increases his range, opening possibilities to hit enemies from afar.
 * For a sustained damage melee fighter, has strong initial AoE burst damage, using,  and , alongside with the active abilities from and , in quick succession can deal an compareably high amount of damage and can be powerful enough to burst down squishy targets with high speed.
 * and deal magic damage, making it harder for the enemy team to itemize effectively against him, since they cause two different types of damage.
 * Whether playing in lane or in the jungle, it is recommended that you level your first as the increased slow time as well as the powerful, ranged, magic damage offers more per skill point than any of  other skills.
 * It may seem appealing to maximize first for additional sustain, however the amount healed only goes up by 10 base with each skill point (roughly  health per attack)
 * Therefore, leveling second and  last is highly recommended.
 * If you feel confident enough, maximizing  will provide heavy burst damage with a single basic attack, which can be used in lane to effectively trade with your opponent, coming out ahead in most exchange of blows.
 * To do so, last hit minions until the 3rd attack is ready and then make an aggressive move against your opponent, either attacking him with  or switching to in the last second to continue attacking minions, in order to establish dominance in lane.
 * The attack speed from is one of the most underutilized parts of  kit, be sure to keep your  full, regardless of whether or not the revive is on cooldown, since it synergizes very well with
 * It is important to remember that  and  can be switched between at any time. Meaning you can charge the heal in  then switch to  to instead use it for damage, or the other way around.
 * Switch to  for early game harass against other melee champions. On the other hand, switching to  and getting one last heal can mean the difference between life and death when running from foes.
 * can be used as both an initiation move and a disengage, but be aware that is still vulnerable to crowd controls, such as stuns and knockups.
 * has a very fast movement time and can be used to quickly jump over smaller walls to escape pursuers or chase down enemies who have recently used or other blinks such as
 * and have great synergy with each other.
 * Using first can allow you to get in a few hits and hopefully force an enemy to attempt an escape, after which you can follow up with  for further punish the fleeing enemy. Reversing the skill order will achieve the same effect but not with the same efficiency -  has a longer cooldown and is a "harder" form of crowd control, thus encouraging more efficient use.
 * Additionally, the slow from makes landing dark flight's knock-up easier by reducing the enemy's ability to dodge it.
 * Try following the bonus damage from your immediately with  after you engage for the quickest burst of damage. A full combo would be readying your, engage with  followed by , proc  bonus damage, then activate  to deliver a burst of damage.
 * Be aware that both and  briefly interrupt Aatrox's movement.
 * When trying to disengage, it's good to use first (since it has a longer range and a shorter cast animation) followed immediately by  (since it has a shorter range and a longer cast animation).
 * With enough life steal, can leave  on indefinitely, as the amount of damage he takes every third strike is negated by the life steal.
 * The self-damage is entirely negated by
 * has a huge variety of uses and a relatively short cooldown, so don't be afraid to use it for as many of these as possible.
 * One use of is for heavy burst damage as explained above.
 * Another use of is to grant yourself additional attack speed for pushing down towers and taking inhibitors.
 * Later, when Aatrox has enough items to sustain and when his is off-cooldown, Aatrox can be used as a living bait': sacrifice his  passive to make enemies waste some of their crowd control spells, leaving them open without retaliation when your teammates join the fray. After resurrected, Aatrox can keep contributing to teamfighting.


 * Item Usage
 * is a melee fighter who specializes in strong initiation and in-fight sustain. Because of the diversity in kit, he can quite effectively build two different ways: damage or tank, being able to combine both build paths as well.
 * Using and  together will provide an incredible 406 attack range, making it possible to hit melee champions from even farther, as well as granting tenacity and the bonus move speed for your allies.
 * Aatrox benefits from life steal since it allows him to negate the health loss from his abilities and complement the sustain from.
 * Apart from life steal, provides attack speed, letting him regain insane amounts of health through . An early  also gives some much-needed early sustain.
 * is a very useful item because it provides higher raw AD than (which has better synergy with Aatrox's AD ratios), health regeneration, and waveclear. It is a powerful substitute (or complement) to, and is recommended if you plan to splitpush with Aatrox. It also provides a very powerful burst.
 * Keep in mind that provides no attack speed at all. Aatrox will have to get attack speed from another source, but it is very likely that he will have to sacrifice tankiness if you plan to use an attack speed item, since apart from, no attack speed items offer significant defensive stats, and even the aforementioned item is only useful against magic damage.
 * gives a lot of attack damage and lifesteal, a lot more than and . It also has a passive that creates a shield which has synergy with Aatrox's sustain. This is not recommended to use as Aatrox's core lifesteal item, though, as it has neither the attack speed and on-hit effect from, nor it has the burst and the waveclear from.
 * isn't recommended on Aatrox. While the stats that it gives are useful, it's hard to proc the passive because Aatrox's cooldowns are very long, and toggling / does  let Aatrox proc . Not to mention, this item is very expensive. If you want the bonus movement speed from the  passive, purchasing  is a better option (see the below section for more details).
 * is especially useful once you fall below half health, as the bonus attack speed combined with the tripled healing from makes you very hard to kill, even without your revive passive.
 * is an especially useful item to Aatrox after the changes. It gives an enormous amount of health, more cooldown reduction than before. The passive from  is very useful too; apart from giving Aatrox more sticking power, it means that he doesn't have to waste gold on  to get it. The armor reduction may be hard to actually stack during a fight, but the stats that it offers make  a very good option.
 * While purchasing critical strike items seems to be tempting, given that Aatrox is very auto-attack reliant, he doesn't have enough mobility or sticking power to abuse critical strikes. Also, he would very likely have to sacrifice survivability to purchase critical strike items, so it is recommended to refrain from purchasing critical strike items, unless Aatrox is ahead already.
 * If you are going for the critical strike route: it is suggested to combine with . The latter's active will solve Aatrox's lack of sticking power. If the enemy team is lacking in mobility, Aatrox can instead opt to use  or . The former provides higher burst and waveclear, while the latter provides superior DPS and dueling power. Keep in mind that pure attack speed items have poor synergy with Aatrox's abilities (except /) due to them scaling only with attack damage.
 * An early is primarily to counter laning opponents dealing mostly magic damage. Additionally, the  shield can save  from an otherwise untimely death.
 * It can later be upgraded into a . Once is triggered, it grants  even more considerable damage and sustain while in combat.
 * converts a portion of the damage you would normally receive into a damage-over-time effect; is well-suited to sustain through this DoT with  and the item's unique lifesteal passive.
 * Keep in mind that because Aatrox has an on-hit healing and he is likely to build lifesteal, he benefits a lot more from resistances over HP, as the combined sustain will give him enough effective HP, and building HP only makes his abilities cost more HP. However, one can argue that building HP makes Aatrox fill his faster, due to the higher costs from his abilities.
 * helps soak up damage in team fights and helps you survive long enough to take out high priority targets and the active slow helps catch running enemies.
 * makes Aatrox very tanky against auto-attack reliant AD champions, and allow him to deal more damage than they can do in return, and making sure that Aatrox wins trades against all of them.
 * synergizes excellently with the sustain provided by, and even increases the heal from 's revive. In conjunction with , it results in extremely fast healing due in combination to the AoE-lifesteal passive of the and  increasing healing from all sources.
 * is also a good choice since it provides bonus health and, making Aatrox able to stick to opponents.
 * is equivalent to a second ; they both revive after death. This gives more survivability and allows for more opportunities to finish off targets.
 * passive procs before passive, so you'll keep the attack speed granted by  after your first revive.
 * may seem to be outclassed by on Aatrox, but the spell shield is very good against some dangerous spells such as, and is a tremendous boon if there are champions such as  or  on the enemy team.
 * passive will allow to deal mixed damage, forcing enemies to itemize on some magic resist as well as armor. However, 's damage potential falls off late game and  is outclassed in terms of defense by  and . Even so, the passive does remain as an asset towards split-pushing across the majority of the game.
 * is a good option if there are dangerous CCs on the enemy team and and/or  aren't enough to protect Aatrox. It is actually recommended against champions who have suppression abilities, such as, , and , since those can't be reduced by tenacity.


 * Countering
 * When takes fatal damage he is healed for the amount currently in his resource bar. Landing a fatal blow on him while the resource bar is low will result in him reviving with a lower amount of health.
 * Unlike other reviving champions, 's revive is rapid and grants him invulnerability during this time which allows him to quickly re-join a teamfight after being dropped to critical health.
 * When fighting him, consider his resource bar as part of his own health. (For example, killing him with a full will make him return with a large portion of his hitpoints and if the fight was closely matched, he will most likely kill you.)
 * Be aware that his passive (after reviving) doesn't provide any attack speed anymore, because he consumes all the blood within it and be sure to look if he got the / buff while reviving.
 * Aatrox's main weakness early game is being burst down, as he is naturally squishy, and that's the reason why he should build tanky during mid and late game. If you use a champion who can burst down Aatrox, the healing will be ineffective, as Aatrox will lose too much health in a short period of time to be able to heal though the damage. This is especially dangerous for Aatrox if he already popped.
 * Because of this, assassins or champions with amazing early game damage, like and, are effective counters to Aatrox. They can dish out a lot of damage against Aatrox, and then zone him from farming, since he relies on auto-attacking to heal himself.
 * Once Aatrox starts to get tanky items, these counters lose effectiveness, as Aatrox can no longer be burst. At this point, only champions that have superior sustained damage, such as or, can duel Aatrox.
 * When casts  towards your location, avoid being knocked up by moving away from the center of impact.
 * Most players will aim the ability right above you or right behind you. So, moving closer to Aatrox at the time he casts will likely make the skill miss you.
 * In lane, zoning out of combat will quickly drain out his  making him a much more vulnerable target.
 * While he can be built as a fighter, stats and kit are similar to those of a melee ADC, like  or . These champions are devastating as long as they are able to attack, but are extremely vulnerable to crowd control, and while  helps him survive, he is no exception to the rule, as a well landed stun or snare can severely hinder his combat abilities.
 * In particular, not only his damage but his in-lane sustain are dependent on him auto-attacking. Champions with strong blinds like or  will give him fits during laning.
 * Inflicting can reduce his healing from.
 * However, does not affect the health he regains from his.
 * Without ability power (which likely won't be built), initial damage is not a factor. The large attack speed and range bonus is a huge threat, but you don't have to worry about getting instantly burst-nuked by the activation.
 * The ability lasts long enough for most teamfights, but baiting into using the ability to commit to killing you before a fight breaks out will remove the strong threat the ability presents in a teamfight.
 * However, it's recommended you only do this if you are a very hard to kill or catch champion, such as, , , or.