Talk:Aatrox/@comment-5763148-20150606001141/@comment-26251927-20150707043354

Runes: AD marks, a mix of HP and armor seals, MR glyphs, 1 AD quint and 2 MS quints

This is a more generalist rune setup, so you'll never be wrong to chose this, but it won't excel in any particular matchup. It provides a good amount of resists so you can build your damage without being an easy oneshot. The move speed is also for anti-kiting. The AD is self-explanatory.

Masteries: 21-9-0

Take standard AD masteries, along with double edged sword and both spell and blade weaving

Item Builds: BotRK -> Hexdrinker -> tank item -> tank item -> BT/Zypher/tank item (boots whenever)

As with runes, there are multiple item buids you can go, but in the interest of time, the one I've listed above is a generalist build. The BotRK is my go-to first item as it gives you a spike in dueling power and it useful for keeping your opponents from kiting you.

Hexdrinker, which I usually complete into a Maw, is great because it gives a lot of offense and defense. If you're against an all ad team, you can skip this for another item of your choice. I usually pick up zephyr second in these cases

Getting two tank items, usually randuins and spirit visage, makes you reasonably tanky alongside the rune setup I mentioned earlier. Usually sitting around 120~ MR and armor with 3K hp. Add your innate life steal and passive and you have a lot of effective HP.

I usually finish off with a third damage item depending on the enemy team. I favor the BT because that shield gives you so much effective hp along with 20% life steal. Basically you can have blood price on all the time and the 80 AD is much appreciated.

Zephyer is a great item on Aatrox because it provides a lot of what he wants: mass atk speed, a bit of AD, tenacity, and CDR. Most people heavily undervalue CDR on Aatrox. Zephyr plus spirit visage gives you a solid 20% CDR, which does make a difference.

You can have an extra tank item in the last slot if you're still afraid of the oneshot or you want thornmail to ruin the enemy adc.

As far as Hydra is concerned, I don't like it. I feel like the atk speed BotRK provides is far too important early and later on it doesn't do much for Aatrox other than a bit of AOE.

For boots, I usually build merc treads unless the enemy team is very auto reliant or I'm building zephyr, in which case I build ninja tabi.

Alternative Aatrox: Hextech Gunblade -> Nashor's Tooth -> Death Cap -> Zhonyas -> Void Staff (build CDR boots)

Rune/Masteries: Standard AP runes and masteries. Nothing fancy here.

This is the Aatrox build I break out when I want to have some fun with my opponents or when they pick pantheon. It's actually very powerful for a few reasons.

Firstly, you start off with a doran's blade and bilgewater cutlass, like you're AD Aatrox, so your opponent builds armor. This gives you a huge advantage in lane as your E and ult magic damage is unaffected by the armor stack.

Secondly, Aatrox's AP numbers are a bit silly. Full build, your E is doing around 700+ damage and your ult is hitting for over 1000. Easily enough to oneshot the enemy backline, even without the extra damage from gunblade active.

Thirdly, it's great against some of the greatest counters of AD Aatrox, specifically pantheon. As most of your damage comes from E poke and not autos, his passive doesn't do a thing.

Fourthly, it gives good waveclear.

There are more reasons, but I won't bore you with them. Just don't tell anyone else I mentioned AP Aatrox, it's a bit of a taboo *wink wink nudge nudge*