Aatrox, the Jack-of-all-trades
- Build damage, die instantly.
- Build tanky, do no damage.
- Build bruiser, die instantly AND do no damage.
Choose your favorite.
31 Comments
Build 
+tank destroy everyone that's doesn't have sated themselfs while having CC and a passive that revives you .
You are missing Option #4
my personal favorite Aatrox build
See you in lcs
Usually what I get.
Its like a choose your own adventure book! A sad... depressing... really not that good choose your own adventure book.
Ever heard of a broken thing called sated devourer?
the only way I play aatrox is: 
mid lane.
great for picks because EQ->AA = literally 1 shot anyone who isn't a full tank
super power early game
however you have to play it like katarina and either flank fights to the backline or wait for CC to be blown then fly in and fuck shit up. Pentas are not uncommon with this build lol, I can safely say i've gotten around 6-7 with it.
is so fun to play if they don't pick a comp with a large amount of stun.
Start with a 
, then a , and .
You now have so much sustain you can 5v1 nearly any comp, throw in a 
so they can't get away. And top it off with a 
, they now have to be able to kill you 3 times to be rid of you.
Just don't be foolish and pick this info any kind of reliable stun, and try to pick your moment to go in.
it's actually difficult to die like this.
too bad you can't do anything simmilar in a regular game, butrushing lifesteal and AS -> will get you started.
I've played Aatrox for a while, on and off, and honestly I don't buy much into that "either die instantly or do no damage" criticism people throw at him. You 'have' to play his strength, and his strength is AA lifestealing. That is what gives him a lot of durability in teamfights. You have to know when to initiate and you have to account for what CC will be thrown at you, because if you cannot constantly auto attack in a fight then you will die quickly.
Obviously there are variations for the enemy comp you are playing against, but my conventional build for lane Aatrox would be; 
or 
and a sixth damage item, or 
or 
(Black Cleaver I'd get earlier on, usually if I'm having trouble in lane and need the early CDR boost to spam E).
Aatrox's real problem is that Riot took the "counterplay" philosophy too far on his Q. There are simply too many ways to stop it. It's a slightly delayed cast so it can be dodged if you react quickly enough , it only knocks people up if they are in the very center, and the worst part is that it is easily interruptable even in mid air.
I think his Q should either be slightly quicker on the draw, or maybe it should do less damage but knock people up for slightly longer. Maybe even take longer to cast, or have a longer cooldown or some other trade off, but become entirely uninterruptable while casting. Although I think this latter solution would sort of break the flow of his autoattack spammy gameplay.
Really the only thing that seems to work is Sated with Bork. It gives you enough damage and sustain throughout a fight as long as you don't get blown up. 
being the best options to finish the build. I feel it takes too long to turn on though. I agree with the OP; he needs some work.
in a nutshell^
i chose to build nothing and die instantly
My favorite is damage, because you might be able to get at least one auto off before you die, which might deal around 300 damage. If you build tanky, you might be able to get 2 auto's off before you die, but it would only be around 200 damage.
His base stats are really unforgivably low.
anyone use blood price on him? it seems that it can be very worth it and deals LOTS of dmg. but sustain is so good, specially when low. Im wondering how bruiser aatrox and blood price would work together--specially with
My preferred build is (assuming you're not going jungle and getting ) is
and a situational item (usually 
or ) with 
Using all the MS bonuses to splitpush like you're hybrid of tryndamere and Xpeke, while still having the damage to duel ADCs and other squishies
I go
I don't attack fast enough, nor do I deal enough damage late game to sustain well enough
early game though, I get bork early and e poke and i quite consistently get the enemy laners going "WTF how long is that e range? you hit me with the tip EVERY TIME"
[{quoted}](name=My Desired Name,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=qIvGWcBo,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-08-09T22:03:39.686+0000)
- Build damage, die instantly.
- Build tanky, do no damage.
- Build bruiser, die instantly AND do no damage.
Choose your favorite.
Tank and bruiser champs are the same thing in Riot's world.
You might want to build like this:
+ 2 items of your choice. Can be sated devourer, Bork, some more MR from spirit visage, etc etc. Sure, the mana of iceborn is pretty much wasted, but you have some nice sticking power with it. It's the only offensive item that gives armor and cdr, so you might want to grab it. (But get dat black cleaver first).
Hahahaha. OP is so accurate.
Aatrox would benefit greatly from such a revision to rageblade https://mocklolpatchnotes.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/ragebladehexblade-stack-new.jpg
As well as this proposed change to spellvamp (Nearly all his spells do aoe damage that work with spellvamp) : http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/TaXPYTao-spellvamp-100-scale-on-aoe-but-with-100-cap-as-thoughwas-singletargetoverlap-w-current-equation