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PSA: Grasp is Aatrox's best performing keystone. Also, his base AD is nuts: think trinity/steraks

Bern·6/28/2018, 6:52:24 AM·4 votes·5,224 views

https://i.imgur.com/pDCqIRE.png

Makes sense to me, considering he's a lot more bruiser-y than glass-cannon-y now and has awful base HP. Grasp probably really helps him at all stages of the game with his current kit.

Depending on how it's coded, conqueror might make his e passive heal for less, which is probably why conqueror isn't doing so hot on him.

Also seems like a big candidate for trinity into visage/steraks/etc. or something similar IMO. (Considering that he literally has like 145 base AD at 18 and a triple-cast q, trinity sounds godlike, but he might be too squishy with it -- who knows, though, since e passive would heal off the trinity proc. Sterak's with that massive AD has gotta be juicy, too). Having trinity would also mean you're penalized less for only hitting with the inside of your q, since you're proccing trinity and hitting them with a very fat auto, and the trinity movespeed and rage passive probably helps his fat, lumbering ass actually hit his skills.

EDIT: And E resets the AA timer after hotfix? Wew lad, all aboard the trinity force train.

9 Comments

Illabethe6/28/2018, 8:37:12 AM2 votes

Lolalytics only has 3/4 of one day's of stats posted. I don't even know how you can use that as a sample size.

Game count is low. Ban rate is high.

And people who don't have a clue how to play the kit are still prominent in the statistics.

You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you item 3078 is OP on Pyke, now would you? Yet I just Second item'd it and went 23/0/7 on an unstoppable onslaught, which took 1/2 of Nocturne's health in 1 auto attack.

But that's not on any of his kit builds or suggestions.....

Troll for Trump6/28/2018, 2:22:10 PM2 votes

You don't get triforce on him because he doesn't weave autoattacks well. The stat spread is bad for aatrox who needs a bit more bulk for survival. Attack speed and mana are both wasted stats. Grasp feels awkward on him for the same reason. Bruisers generally don't even like grasp, despite how synergistic it is with most of them. You rarely get the opportunity to auto in teamfights (with some exception) and Aatrox's aa-weaving feels off

Visage is good, but Aatrox has other priority items and tank items atm aren't super good (vs health/AD items).

Sterak's is great, but Aatrox really needs 40% CDR first, so Sterak might not be worth getting 2nd.

His E gets over a lot more walls now. Think that might affect his jg.

BlueNinja896/28/2018, 8:15:33 AM1 votes

40.19% win-rate on Arcane Comet. (Second best Keystone for Aatrox!)

I thought this would be a good Keystone on the new Aatrox! After all, Aatrox's new Q is very similar to Camille's W and his W applies a slow so... yeah.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

The Whamboozler6/28/2018, 7:00:22 AM1 votes

I'll give it a go, but.... he's still gonna feel clunky as hell. If only Iceborn Gauntlet wasn't so awful on him, I'd love that nice, juicy, spammable AoE slow to keep them held down... and with his high base AD it would still hurt a fair bit. But tt's just not worth it to sink all that unused mana onto him. Lousy.

Jackom16/28/2018, 9:23:58 AM1 votes

Not too sure about trinity force, it's possibily a good item on him, but positioning in a way that your Q always hits the sweet spot while also go in for an auto in-between each cast seems kinda difficult. In addition, trinity isn't a great item in terms of defensive properties, and Aatrox doesn't benefit at all from AS now (plus he doesn't get mana). That means that, while Spellblade is good on him, most stats on trinity aren't that useful, greatly reducing Trinity's gold value on Aatrox, and we're talking about an items that costs a lot.

Cleaver on the other hand gives him MS every time he deals dmg, not just on his Autos, shreds armor, and has a better balance of tankiness and offensive properties. And costs way less.

Steraks is definitely a must, as you said. Bonus AD from his - pretty high - base AD is great, plus shield based on HP, which he'll buiild a lot of now.

So in terms of items, I think the go to will be Cleaver into steraks, which is more or less your standard juggernaut build.

As for masteries, so far I tried Conqueror and Grasp, and I too feel that grasp is better. But probably that too depends on matchup:

Enemy team has 2-3 tanky champions, or you just can't get past the enemy main tank. Then maybe Conqueror is better, as Aatrox doesn't have much tank-killing potential, even as a juggernaut.
Enemy team is more balanced in terms of composition, and you can somewhat reach the more fragile champions? Then probably grasp, as it gives you more sustain, and as long as you have Cleaver, you don't need true damage to deal with anything that isn't a tank.

DW Diana6/28/2018, 2:47:36 PM1 votes

Hi guys,

I spent a fair amount of time playing him on PBE (50+ games) and have a couple of suggestions for him:

Triforce Steraks is a great build for him
Conqueror is actually very strong on him, just remember people are playing him as a rework for the first time so will screw it up (his Q takes some getting used to but E helps a LOT).
40% CDR is nice on him, but remember his Q gets reduced CD as it levels so far more useful to get a phage first (one AA while using Q will help you hitting all 3 a LOT). Boots rush is also massive for him!
Mobility is very important on Aatrox. As mentioned in 3 boots rush and phage are both good options, also look at Zzrot much like Yorick.
Q timer has a fair amount of time on it. Hit your first Q without an E, then hit them with your W and follow up with the second Q, then finally E and Q for the third shot. This combo makes it MUCH easier to get all 3, and leaves time for AA's between for Triforce procs.
Cleaver is a good option vs tanks, but I personally found it better to stick with Triforce and then look for a last whisper item if needed. Going tank after Triforce/Steraks is fine for him, he gets the damage he needs with those much like others and remember more HP he has the more he gets from his ult's revive. I liked getting a Frozen mallet as well, but it's down to you what you feel is best.
New Aatrox feels clunky when you first start playing him. Don't let this scare you off. He isn't a Q AA Q AA style, he relies on ALL of his abilities to ensure he can hit his Q's properly. The above combo is what I found worked best for me, but rather then looking at him like Riven, this of him more like Darius where his abilities enables another etc etc etc. He isn't so much "clunky" as slower then people expected which is more due to people using bad comparisons for him (like "Riven 2.0") then anything else.
Final point from me. Remember he isn't the same champion anymore. That's not to say he's bad, any more then Swain was bad after his rework, he's just different. You'll either like him or you won't, but never make the mistake of thinking that means he's bad. I , as an ex-Aatrox Jungle main, personally love him and can't wait to play him some more, but give him a go as a NEW champion with a fresh start and see what you think then.

Hope that helps some of you.

Loki -

Veraska6/28/2018, 7:25:21 AM1 votes

Curious to see glacial augments not on the list, applying a slow with ur auto and then w makes landing all your Qs really easy