Aatrox is a melee fighter who specializes in strong initiation and in-fight sustain.

As a health-based caster, Aatrox relies on dealing heavy damage to stay alive.

His powerful combination of sustain and crowd control effects make him an ideal choice for solo lanes or the jungle.

Aatrox’s passive, Blood Well, draws on the health cost of his abilities.

As the bar fills, it grants additional attack speed. If Aatrox leaves combat, his blood total slowly decays over time.

Additionally, when Aatrox takes fatal damage, he becomes untargetable while he heals from the blood stored in his Blood Well.

If Blood Well is on cooldown, Aatrox still gains attack speed, though the bar turns grey to indicate the revive is on cooldown.

Dark Flight is Aatrox’s primary initiation ability.

On use, he flies up and dives to target location, dealing area of effect damage on impact.

Enemies within the smaller circle of the cast indicator are knocked up.

It’s important to note that displacement spells can knock Aatrox out of his cast animation,

but stun or root effects will only take place after he’s landed at his target location.

Aatrox has two battle stances that passively affect every third basic attack he makes.

When using Blood Price, the affected attack deals bonus damage at the cost of health.

When using Blood Thirst, the third attack will heal him instead.

When Aatrox is below half health, the healing effect on his basic attacks increases,

making him a deceptively tanky duelist as his health wears down.

Switching stances doesn’t reset or delay his attack animations,

so you can even switch between Blood Price and Blood Thirst mid-swing if you want.

In early game, Blades of Torment serves as Aatrox’s primary damage ability.

Sending twin blades out in a targeted direction, Blades of Torment damages and slows all enemies it hits.

Be careful when aiming this ability, because the hitbox gets narrower as the blades come to a point.

Aatrox’s ultimate is Massacre.

On use, Massacre damages nearby enemy champions and grants Aatrox bonus attack range and attack speed.

While it’s easy to think of Massacre as a basic nuke and steroid,

remember that the bonus attack speed synergizes with Blood Thirst to give Aatrox a lot more in-fight durability.

In solo lanes, Aatrox makes an excellent duelist who can constantly force skirmishes with his lane opponent without having to go back to base.

Here he combos a primed Blood Price with Blades of Torment to trade attacks with the enemy Zed before recovering with Blood Thirst.

Blood Thirst allows Aatrox to cycle between heavy aggression and healing without relying solely on potions.

Both Aatrox and Jayce are forced to retreat after a fight, but Aatrox is able to recover much more quickly by toggling Blood Thirst.

Thanks to his high innate sustain, Aatrox can apply tremendous pressure by forcing his opponents to burn through health potions or return to base.

Blood Well and Dark Flight allow Aatrox to escape from situations that would spell death for most other champions.

Xin Zhao surprises Aatrox at the tri-brush, but Aatrox is able to escape to the turret after reviving.

Aatrox also excels at setting up ganks for his jungler using Dark Flight and Blades of Torment.

Here Jayce gets a little too aggressive, allowing Aatrox to get off his full knock-up and slow combo.

His strong initiation helps Shyvana to easily jump into the fight and assist the kill.

As long as he’s allowed to attack and use abilities, Aatrox can survive through tons of incoming damage.

Wukong gets off a full damage combo and ultimate,

but Aatrox is able to sustain through the entire fight through Blood Thirst and the attack speed bonus from Massacre.

Against enemies with a dash or jump, take care not to use Dark Flight too carelessly.

Here Aatrox uses Dark Flight prematurely, despite knowing Ahri has a third dash.

This lets her kite easily while dealing free damage, forcing him to retreat.

On the defensive, Aatrox can also dodge skillshots thanks to the quick ascension and cast speed on Dark Flight.

In this fight, Aatrox reacts to an Ezreal Mystic Shot by quickly jumping into the air with Dark Flight to stay just out of harm’s way.

The combination of Dark Flight and Massacre make Aatrox an excellent addition to an area of effect team composition.

Here he quickly follows up on Ashe’s arrow to knock Lulu into the air and catch the enemy team with his ultimate.

Afterward Nami, Orianna and Volibear join the fight as he cleans up with the bonus attack speed and range from Massacre.

Aatrox also excels as both a primary initiator and disruptive damage dealer.

By diving into Miss Fortune with Dark Flight, Aatrox cancels her ultimate and finishes her off with the help of Quinn.

Because Blood Well’s up, the enemy team knows Aatrox is the hardest target to kill, so they target his team instead.

Unfortunately for them, Aatrox deals so much damage with Blood Price and Massacre that he’s able to clean up without much effort.

When building Aatrox, focus on a mix of attack damage, attack speed, and durability.

For runes, try Attack Damage Marks, Armor Seals, Magic Resist Glyphs, and Attack Damage Quintessences.

For masteries, try 21/9/0, taking attack speed, physical damage, and armor penetration in Offense, along with extra health and armor in Defense.

For summoner spells, try Flash and Ignite, allowing you to quickly reposition in fights and secure kills.

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