Aatrox/Strategy

Champion Spotlight
By David 'Phreak' Turley



Learn to dominate top lane through damage-heavy exchanges and potent in the  Champion Spotlight.

Aatrox'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.

Tips

 * Playing As
 * Avoid engaging in a fight with low health unless your  has at least 3 or 4 stacks, so you can activate it quickly in order to revive.
 * can be used to activate your passive for quick reactive revives.
 * The extra range granted by  allows you to kite melee enemies as well as stay in attack range of ranged targets by orbwalking.
 * The damage from  is very high for an ultimate at levels 6 and 11, abuse these powerspikes for easy kills early game.
 * You do not always need to use your  early game. If you think you will die and gain nothing out of the revive, simply allow yourself to die so that your doesn't go on cooldown for no reason.  revive can be more valuable in the long run than the enemy getting 300g.
 * Use your  to guarantee landing  knockup.
 * It is possible to land  reliably with no setup, however it takes a lot of practice.
 * Your  / persists through the passive revive, the stacks are not reset.


 * Playing Against
 * Aatrox's Hell Bent passive grants him increased attack speed and attack damage when his bloodwell is full, avoid fighting him during this effect and you will have a large advantage in terms of dps.
 * Killing Aatrox while his blood well is empty, or on cooldown will actually kill him.
 * When Aatrox's blood well is off cooldown and full, he gains the visual effect of .
 * When Aatrox casts towards your location, avoid being knocked up by moving away from the center of impact.
 * A good Aatrox will slow you with  to guarantee landing 's knockup. Respect  and 's range if Aatrox is strong enough to engage you.
 * 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.
 * reduces healing from . This is essential to executing any that can't be bursted down.
 * Pay attention to Aatrox's stacks of Blood Price /, he will often want to engage when it is prepared.


 * Playing with
 * Aatrox can function similarly to an adc at times, so lending him a supporting hand can help him pop off hard.
 * Slowing or stunning an enemy will guarantee Aatrox's .
 * can be exceptionally strong when used to mitigate cc on Aatrox as Aatrox's survivabilty and damage is entirely linked to his ability to auto attack.
 * Pay attention to Aatrox's  stacks to determine how ready to fight he is.

Playstyle

 * (Passive)
 * Just because you have a revive doesn’t mean you should use it.
 * Aatrox doesn’t aim to ‘get killed’, If you die you aren’t dealing damage, which is the point of the champion. This is more of a free guardian angel which allows you to play offensively than something you should rely on defensively.
 * Dealing damage to enemy champions or jungle monsters will stop from decaying during Hell Bent.  Will not decay if it isn't full and you are in combat.
 * (Q)
 * Should be used both offensively and defensively
 * Be careful how it is used offensively, as it is also your only escape.
 * It is not necessary to land this for the damage and knockup, it is primarly used to get in range. The damage is a bonus.
 * The damage does not change whether you hit them with the center or the outer ring
 * There are scenarios where landing the knockup is crucial, but most of the time you just need to gapclose or escape with it.
 * If you can get in auto attack range without using and without taking much damage this can guarantee kills on targets with a lot of mobility.
 * Aatrox’s mobility is actually very low outside of his
 * Only displacement cc will cancel it, so be sure to save it for use after knockups
 * Use to jump over walls for a sneaky engage or to escape from the enemy.
 * ->flash does not work like 's ->flash, you will need to flash first if you need more range.
 * (W)
 * When you all in do not aim to out sustain their damage, kill them with this.
 * In teamfights it may beneficial to use isntead, until fighting a carry that needs bursting down.
 * (W)
 * Use this to recover hp when out of combat with enemy champions.


 * (E)
 * Use this on the enemy laner right before you attempt to trade auto attacks with them, the slow will make it difficult for them to return damage as it makes pathing through minions very difficult.
 * Do not use this ability as harass.
 * Against ranged hit them with it right after they auto attack you. Because minions will aggro to the enemy champion when they auto attack you, this will result in them taking more damage as they are forced to stay in range of the minions for a longer period of time and minions are able to chase them easily.
 * Using it in a wanton fashion will result in the wave slowly pushing towards the enemy turret, which may put you in an extremely vulnerable position to the enemy jungler.
 * There are a few ways this is used to lock down a target
 * To keep them in range of your
 * To guarantee the hit of
 * Self peel/disengage
 * (R)
 * You can r->flash to have your damage happen instantly at the end location
 * Orb walk when using the bonus range to reduce damage from melee champions and to stay in range of ranged champions.

Jungling

 * Hell Bent’s active effect now refreshes upon taking jungle minion damage, maintain Hell Bent’s effects between camps by pulling the camp you’re currently fighting towards the next one between auto attacks.
 * Use to fill up your passive as soon as possible vs jungle monsters for the increased attack speed and damage boost, rather than just keeping  on all the time to maintain a higher % hp.
 * When ganking, do this:
 * Get as close to the enemy laner as possible while taking as little damage as possible.
 * Attempt to land while closing the gap.
 * If they have summoner flash hold onto if you can get in range to auto attack them.

Masteries

 * This is arguably the best keystone on
 * It increases the damage on all of his spells but his ultimate, and because he is auto attack based he stacks and uses it all the time.
 * It increases the damage on all of his spells but his ultimate, and because he is auto attack based he stacks and uses it all the time.


 * This isn't terrible, but is flat out worse than.
 * This isn't terrible, but is flat out worse than.


 * Can be used in more burst focused builds to function more like an assassin than a fighter.
 * Can be used in more burst focused builds to function more like an assassin than a fighter.

Item Usage (Outdated)

 * Attack speed is a significant stat on . It will benefit not only his damage, but also his healing from both Life Steal and.
 * One of the most effective items on is . It grants bonus attack speed and lifesteal, from which  benefits. It also grants great active and passive components, both helping in assassinating his targets. Also, since  gains bonus attack speed from, the health shred will occur more frequently.
 * Another useful item on is, however only if you also are going to take other health items. This item grants an on-hit effect that will apply frequently thanks to 's attack speed boost and a health boost that will allow him to survive in fights longer.
 * When going for, take into consideration and .  can also be considered.
 * grants lots of health and magic resistance. It also decreases the cooldowns of your abilities and increases your base health regen greatly. Its unique passive also increases health gained from life steal items, and even.
 * grants bonus armor, health and critical hit resistance. It also allows you to slow surrounding enemies, allowing you to land a few more attacks. The slow from and  will allow you to near-root enemies hit for around 2~3 seconds.
 * will allow you to stick to your targets. Even if your enemies attempt to blink away, you can hit them with or just increase your attack range with . The extended attacks still count as melee, so it might help catch fleeing opponents.  also grants some bonus damage and greatly increases health, allowing you to survive for longer and increasing damage from . However, it doesn't grant any other defensive stats as armor or magic resistance.
 * works very well on Aatrox. When fully stacked, it will allow him to trigger / once every two attacks and also grants attack speed and attack damage.
 * The ability power will not go to waste, as he has a medium-high ratio on and a huge ratio on.
 * When going, might be also good option, as it will turn you into a hybrid champion with lots of magic damage and physical damage. However, it is suggested to play him more AD-oriented, so when taking , consider also an AD item.  seems perfect to match these items.
 * will allow to deal lots of damage as it grants bonus attack damage. It also grants bonus life steal and increases already high area of effect damage.
 * When damage-oriented, might be pretty good, as it will allow you to reduce incoming damage and heal from all your abilities. It also grants you some form of life steal and lots of attack damage.
 * When under focus of enemy mages, might prove useful. Its spell shield will negate most of the crowd-controls affecting you. Also, its magic resistance boost will greatly reduce damage taken and the health boost will improve your general survivability.

Counterpicks(Outdated)

 * can block Aatrox's auto attack with his, making it very easy to fight him 1v1
 * seems to be an excellent counter for . He gains lots of armor from, plus his abilities scale with armor and he can greatly reduce 's attack speed, all while granting a very useful ultimate for his team. However, remember that when laning, also deals a good amount of magic damage, thanks to  and . The latter can also negate the attack speed reduction from , so the 1v1 matchup is probably still in 's favor.