2 questions, one about Aatrox, one about top lane in general.

DeMendite·10/16/2014, 8:20:59 PM·1 votes·1,671 views

Hi!

New player here, just finished my placement games (silver 3, I avoided bronze yay)

How do you harass your lane opponent with Aatrox top without pushing your lane hard and becoming vulnerable to ganks?
My absolute favorite thing in lol is to play tanky melee top laners. However, I get my arse handed to me by ranged top laners so often that I find myself playing jungle most of the time now. Is melee vs ranged top simply a very hard matchup or am I missing something in the way I play? If you need specific exemples, I enjoy playing Garen / Nasus / Malphite / Pantheon / Aatrox top, and I've been crushed by the likes of Ryze / Nidalee / Lissandra.

Thanks! This game is amazing; I wish I hadn't been a starcraft 2 elitist for so long ;p

edit: Thank you very much for all the answers :)

8 Comments

muchjake10/16/2014, 10:20:27 PM3 votes

I can't tell you about aatrox top since I don't play him, but only certain champions can deal with ranged top laners to be honest. Most of the champions you listed get punished pretty hard by range, so I would recommend trying some others. Jayce is ranged and melee so you get the best of both worlds. Add me in game if you wanna talk, muchjake

LordTobiothan10/16/2014, 10:25:10 PM3 votes

As for aattrox, just last hit twice, switch to damage W and smack opponent, then walk away, only E when they step out from behind minions or if they try to chase you after you AA them.

insaiyanbacca10/17/2014, 12:14:31 AM2 votes

most ranged tops are pretty squishy early so: step 1: learn wukong step 2: eq harass them to half-hp step 3: dive them if they step out of tower range if ganked clone escape

Aurora Celeste10/17/2014, 12:49:40 AM2 votes

The second poster is right about the aatrox tips vs melees.

When against ranged top laners, playing having sustain like your nasus/items or someone with range like jayce is ideal. As melees though, if you can manage to go for an aggressive extended trade using most of your abilities and then sustain back up, you can win lane since you are usually tankier. You just have to be really careful with jungle ganks. It's a still fairly risky strat and Id recommend playing passive since its just safer. Don't try this against ryze or liss though, they'll likely stop you in your tracks without a non ultimate gap closer.

badooga10/20/2014, 9:43:03 PM2 votes

Against ranged top lane champions with Aatrox, try to play a bit more passive than you may normally be and bait them into bad situtations in order to get kills (your Blood Well is very helpful in doing that). If you don't want to get ganked, simply make sure to ward bushes and/or to not push too much if you don't have vision of their jungler/saw their jungler go towards top). For harass, poke with your E and try to just focus on CSing and not killing them until the right moment. Ask for jungler ganks early on as if you get fed and snowball then you shouldn't have too much of a problem against them. You can sustain back your health if they do harass you and if they try to kill you go all in on them with your Q and your ult if you have it. If you have anymore questions just ask!

Spicy Rice10/21/2014, 1:43:34 AM2 votes

So far, playing from the bush has worked well for me when playing a melee. Basically, you just sit in one of the bushes and only run out to last hit. When trading, makenit short and brutal. Dump your skills, get 1-2 autos in and go back to the bush.

Social Mobility10/16/2014, 10:48:34 PM2 votes

It's not bad to push the lane up like that, Aatrox is one of those top laners that can 2v1 if you assert dominance. Rely on the power of minion waves to decide how to harass, typically you just go in on them when you have the wave advantage or exp advantage, heal up and outsustain them. If their jungler shows up they'll be way weaker than you by level and item differences, and since the enemy top laner is shoved back by minions or low, it gives you a distinct 2v1 advantage. You'll need practice with it though, and in some cases you'll play against junglers you can't escape from like rammus. Taking Exhaust Ignite is viable here.

It will probably be in your interest to play something like rumble to practice this, since he is really good at it.

If you want to deal with ranged champs with aatrox, take teleport + flash and just max E to last hit with it and let the wave push up to your tower. You don't need to win lane to win game, do what aatrox is useful for in setting up ganks for your jungler or being a raid boss during dragon dances. If you're in silver, no one gets dragon until like 17 minutes into the game, ideally you should be trying to get it around the 7 minute mark when buffs respawn and junglers hit level 6. At this time, you may want to roam to bot and brute force a dragon, or just help your jungler in sneaking it since you have good sustain as aatrox.

DeMendite10/17/2014, 8:01:05 PM1 votes

Thank you for all the great answers, people.