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To you trashy Aatrox mains

Slave Knight··3 votes·642 views

I don't know why I am even making this shitty post to try and help you shitty aatrox players/starters because 99% sure this thread is going to wizz by your heads.

Hello I am a filthy gold casual that doesn't play the game anymore but used to main Aatrox, here's some advice so just take it and get better please.

  1. The only hard match ups you will have in the toplane are: Pantheon Quinn Teemo Yasuo Jayce Fiora JarvanIV , everyone else is fair game. Learn these match-ups, don't avoid them well unless you really don't wanna play Aatrox to his fullest and in that case idk what you're even doing here.

  2. Always play aggressive when you can (EXCEPT WHEN HARD MATCH-UPS LISTED ABOVE) and go for good trades that leave you on top. Usually start W and item 1055 if you're in a melee match up and go for W Blood Price trades and then recover back to your minion wave. If against ranged, start E unless they're bad and item 1054 going for cs only when you are allowed or sniping them with E. Try not to damage the wave a lot and only trim what minions you need, let the wave push so it's easier.

  3. If you complete a full defensive item first then don't even play Aatrox, play poppy or a tank or some shit. ALWAYS go for an offensive item first, you can build defensive components along side to keep you alive though. I consider Ninja Tabi or Merc Treads more of a half-buy so getting this early is fine. Either item 3074 item 3748 or item 3153 first in the toplane, depending on who you are up against. Usually it's like 1. Rav = I can burst them easily and pick up some nice 300g, 2. Tits = I want some more survivability aka "help i'm up against a full AD Jarvan or Pantheon but want to farm too!" and 3. Bork = I need to chase these fkers down and give them the wet noodle.

  4. If you're gonna play Aatrox, play him to snowball and stomp. Why build shitty items that don't help you nor improve your status quo as a duelist/melee carry? If you're gonna get blown up you're gonna get blown up, but if you blow them up first you win. Simple as that. If you can break towers faster than they can send 3 top cause you just killed their laner and are pushing like a madman, what's the point?

Items that are good on Aatrox:

Offensive: Core: item 3074 item 3748 item 3153 Big Sword Collection: item 3072 item 3031 item 3156 item 3146 Need for speed collection: item 3124 item 3046 item 3087

Defensive: item 3143 item 3065 item 3053 item 3026 item 3742

Boots: item 3111 item 3047 item 3006

Always pick 1 core and 1 need for speed item. Pick 2 defensive items. Your last item can either be 1 more damage item from any category or another defensive item. Also don't forget your boots! Boots 90% of the time are worth more than a damage item but it's situational if you need to sell for another defensive item, use your head and decide for yourself.

Shitty items to avoid: item 3071 item 3812 item 3147 item 3142 item 3078 item 3022

You're not an assassin, you want burst and high dps afterwards. Those items don't benefit you because you cannot abuse them. DON'T buy them.

Okay well take this with a bag of salt, as I said a shitty used-to-be Gold Aatrox player. Aatrox has more problems then this post can help you with and there's a lot of critical basics you're gonna have to learn on your own if you wanna get good with him. Either way, take this as you may - it's what's worked for me for ages even against diamond+ players in norms.

3 Comments

badooga1 votes

As an Aatrox main, I'll say that item 3812 item 3022 item 3071 are great items on Aatrox - if you are going bruiser or tank. In fact, against someone like Darius or Fiora, rushing item 3812 as your first item is great, as it gives you tons of healing and anti-burst, as well as the same amount of AD as item 3074 and some CDR to boot. item 3071 is great when they are stacking armor; it also helps you stick to your target with the phage passive, and gives AD, CDR and Health, all stats that you enjoy. item 3022, like item 3071, is great for sticking to your target as well as giving you health and AD.

All in all, it depends on your playstyle - if you enjoy going drain tank or not is personal preference.

Slave Knight1 votes

Death's dance is a noob trap. In the early game you want a power spike, death's dance does not provide with adequate burst, lifesteal or anything worth noting. You don't need CDR on Aatrox, it's a waste. You want to spend as little time as possible to kill him, not go through 2 whole rotations because you lack damage. I've tested deaths dance many times, 8/10 times it just felt bad to rush. The only time I won with it, my opponent was pretty lackluster and in that scenario, going any of the other items would have been a better buy anyways.

Whilst you can make an argument for Cleaver, I would still call it pretty 'meh' on Aatrox. Health is nice and 50 AD is too but the passive is not going to be useful unless you can actually apply that armour shred. Aatrox has no AA reset or means to keep up the procs without the enemy being stunned and in the case if you had a Guinsoo instead, your damage output would be through the roof as they cannot itemise towards it without AT LEAST forking out 5-6k on 2 defensive items.

Frozen mallet, now I get that you want to be sticky but regardless if you have this item or not, the ability to chase someone down leans more towards the champion's kit than the item itself. If you're going to lose someone because they had more mobility than you, more than likely this item will be redundant for you. Teemo, Ekko and Yasuo can abuse this item because they have insane mobility and can stick to you but on the other hand Aatrox only has 1 weakish slow and his only form of escape/initiate his Q which isn't saying much.

It's up to you guys whether you take my advice or not, but i'm TELLING YOU these items while good in their own right are NOT good on Aatrox. They work better on full time bruisers with kits to back it up ie. Olaf, Fiora, Renekton, etc.

P.S - You should NEVER build current Aatrox full tank. Bruiser will do you well up into the mid-game but if you truly want to play Aatrox to his best ability currently, build him for the late game and not the mid game. If your only two offensive items are Hydra + Bork and all tank, you will do 0 damage to anything past 30 minutes.

badooga1 votes

Of course, I actually don't build these items that often; item 3071 and item 3022 are situational picks that good when the enemy is stacking armor or when they are immobile and you need to be able to stick to them once you make it there in the first place with Q, respectively.

For item 3812, healing for 15% of the damage you deal is quite good, as well as the anti-burst you get without sacrificing the AD you'd get from other items; again, I only buy it versus high damage dealers such as Darius Riven Fiora where you need some kind of defensive mechanism in addition to offense in order to beat them. CDR, while it shouldn't be something you go out of your way to buy, is great for more stickiness with E and more uses of Q overall; items like item 3812 item 3071 item 3065 item 3156 give CDR in addition to the other stats you enjoy without sacrificing anything from it (you don't even have to get all of them to reach 40% CDR).

And for bruiser stuff in general, I really refer to a build like item 3812 item 3143 item 3153 item 3748 item 3065 item 3124 (where item 3006 were swapped out for item 3143) where you only get 1 or 2 pure tank items and a bruiser-ish item; this way, you can be surprisingly tanky (both by draintanking and having defensive items) without sacrificing much of your items.

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