A New Aatrox Perspective (Suggestions)

With the recent mini-rework on Aatrox on patch 7.5, it's clear that he's been having some issues, especially on the early game. However, my aim for this discussion is not to complain like every other player at the current moment, but rather give a new insight into his build and playstyle that would hopefully get some attention and better his idea in the long run. I've been looking at all these for a very long time and have been debating on new ways to really pop off his gear and kit to the better of him, and after a few test runs in the practice tool and in game, I think I found where his true potential can really shine.

Getting down to the good part, lets start off with a new build kit. Keep in mind that this isnt a sure-fire build path, but only my preferable build items for whatever the situation calls for. These items are:

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Starting off, Sterak's Gage is A HELL OF A LOT more useful to him, making this my #1 build item. Because his passive gives him an increased Base Attack Damage, Sterak's Gage has the exact same passive, and bringing it up even more once it's in use. Since Riot has claimed they want Aatrox players to be less hesitant to build HP on him, Sterak's Gage would help further this idea by giving a shield based off max HP for those who want to give him a high tanky feel. If not, the Base AD and shield is still a great feel for reasons I'll discuss on the TriForce.

Death Dance is another go-to that pretty much explains itself. Combine this with Sterak's Gage and Aatrox is a lot more resilient than one might think.

Now comes the fun but tricky part. TriForce is without a doubt one item that many would think that it'd be his strongest item due to how much Base AD he'll pick up from his passive and Sterak's, and they'd be right! There's no denying how much damage he would dish out with this, and the addition of 40% Attack Speed and the Phage part is also a great asset. However, TBH I have yet to actually try this in an actual game due to my higher interest in a safer play with the Black Cleaver, giving more HP for Sterak's and reducing armor against pesky tanks, pitting you to be more suitable to fight them in the long run. But if someone would rather give him the squishy killer build, your all for it, nothing wrong about it.

Aatrox needs Attack Speed. Maybe not to a high necessity, but recommended so your not ignoring your W ability, pretty much the bread and butter to his kit. Enter BORK, which was pretty much the main thing he needed for every game. While I cant deny this is still an option to build on him, I find myself enjoying it less than what it once was. The nerf on both BORK's Attack Speed and Aatrox's Attack Speed pick up (until full charge) seems to have hit him more than I expected, both early game and late game. Every other aspect about it is still great and is still a big given choice on him, but because of his current playstyle atm, I find myself looking more towards the Rageblade since it gives more Attack Speed and Damage once fully charged. While it doesnt have the life steal portion and it has an ALMOST useless magic damage, do it for the W...

Spirit Visage and Maw are pretty much self explanatory, I'll throw it out there anyway. Spirit Visage for a tankier preference, and Maw for a damage preference. Either way, these give 10% CDR, and mixed with DD's 10% and Black Cleaver/TriForce 20%, your up to 40% CDR, letting you go full ham whenever you want. If the enemy is high AD however, you can ignore this portion and grab a or something, IDC.

Boots are whatever you want. I usually take the left portion of my list, so going Ninja Tabi's gives me an even Armor/MR rating of about 140 (I had scaling runes, so my late game was better)

Explanation:

With this new Aatrox rework, I find his "betterment" within this game is what I like to call "Awaken in Battle". On a full build, as the fight goes on, Aatrox becomes stronger, more than one might think. With the Sterak's pop, the shield turns him tankier, if Rageblade his threat level only becomes bigger, and every other aspect depends on the player's preferred playstyle. I find building him with this style makes his team fight a lot more viable AND preferably frontal than his previous strive or struggle problems he had of just building high AD, then crying when you realize a full crit Trin is laughing at your corpse.

This huge post was mainly to show everyone my perspective and recommendations of his current style. I know there are a lot of other ideas some would think, like building HP junkie similar to previous LCS players since it's more viable now, or some would still try for the full AD build and make a clickbait video I'll probably end up watching just to cringe at. And to those people, I say please show your support and let me know what you guys would recommend, or let me know what you think about this current build. I know I left out a good bit of other details that could have been said, but I'll let others experiment more so to see what everyone's got. If you've gotten this far, THANKS FOR READING!