AATROX: THE DARKIN BLADE

Ok, I lied… I’m not covering Sylas. After actually playing him for a few games I realized I don’t enjoy his kit. So I looked for a champ whose kit i quite enjoyed, THIS leads me to today’s focus, AATROX: The Darkin Blade!

Let’s get some basic things out of the way:

Role: Bruiser

Damage Type: AD

Main Damage Vehicle: Abilities

Accessibility: Intermediate to Hard

Abilities

Passive: Deathbringer Stance

Aatrox’s next basic attack does bonus damage based off of the target’s max health

 The cool-down on Deathbringer Stance is decreased by 2 seconds whenever Aatrox uses an ability or hits the enemy with the tip of his Q

Q: The Darkin Blade

This ones a bit complicated so bear with me…

When you cast q, first a long, straight hitbox will show, the tip of that is the critical point

You cast q again, this time it produces a shorter, wider hitbox with a much larger critical point at the end

Finally, the 3rd cast will put the critical point right in front of you in a large circle

W: Infernal Chains 

Aatrox shoots a long skill-shot forward, if it hits a champion or large monster, it will cause a box to surround the target. If the target doesn’t exit the box before 1.5 seconds, the box pulls them to the middle. It also slows.

E: Umbral passage

Aatrox dashes a very short distance. After he dashes, he gains bonus AD for a short time. He can use it in conjunction with Q to get better angles with Q.

Passively it gives Aatrox life-steal towards champs

R: World Ender

Upon activation, Aatrox grows in size, fears all surrounding minions, and gains bonus movement speed. He also gains bonus AD

When Aatrox is in World Ender, he is gaining “Blood Well” points, he is immune to dying and will enter a revival period after dying. The amount of health regained will depend on the amount of blood in the Blood Well.

Runes:

1. Electrocute
   1. Hurting enemies with three abilities or autos will proc electrocute
   2. Electrocute will proc, doing damage
      1. then it goes on Cooldown
2. Dark Harvest
   1. used to be really good
      1. if buffed, use this then

Laning as Aatrox:

You own the lane.

Level Q, then E, then W

Trades:

To win lane, you must first push in your enemy to their tower, to do this you must lower their health my winning “trades”, trades are when you throw out and ability or two or maybe a few autos. There are a few different basic trades that you can do on Ornn.

1. E+Q, Q, Q
2. Proc Passive, W, Q+E, Q, Q+E
3. Q+E, Q+E, Q
4. Honestly just Q a lot

Notice you Q+E a lot, these two abilities work wonders together.

Poke constantly with Q, go for critical hits often. Use W to setup easy Q, remember the W will always send the target to the middle if not exited.

Mid to Late Game:

As Aatrox, it is your job to be the front-line for your team while also providing pressure against the enemies. Poke with Q and throw out W to get picks.

In team-fights be smart, use R to get the extra AD and take the attention of the enemy players.

What to Build:

• Basic Bashing
  • Youmuu’s Ghostblade
  • Black Cleaver
  • Sterak’s Gage
  • Deaths Dance
  • Ninja Tabi/ Mercury Treads
  • Guardian Angel

Closing Thoughts:

At the moment, Aatrox is a force to be reckoned with, honestly, until Riot guts him, I’d say abuse the hell out of him.