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Aatrox Build Guide by

The ALP Guide to Aatrox Jungle

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1 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author AverageLilliaPlayer

Aatrox Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (1) More Aatrox Guides

Runes: Standard

1 2 3

Precision

Conqueror

Triumph

Legend: Alacrity

Last Stand

Sorcery

Absolute Focus

Gathering Storm

Bonus:

+10% Attack Speed
+9 Adaptive (5.4 AD or 9 AP)
+10-180 Bonus Health

Spells:

Standard

Flash

Smite

Items

Jungle Pets

Red Pet

First Back

Standard

Other Standard Items

Blue Pet

Green Pet

Potion

Tank Aatrox

Standard Tanktrox

Other Items

Lethality Aatrox

Standard Lethalitrox

Other Items

Ability Order Standard

Aatrox Passive Ability

More Aatrox Counters

Champion Build Guide

About Me

Hello, my name is Average Lillia Player (or ALP for short) though ingame I go by Yoon. As the name suggests, I main Lillia and prefer to avoiding laning as a whole, often queuing for Jungle or Support (but mostly Jungle). Almost all of my time in the game is spent making extremely strange picks in the Jungle work out, anything from meta to borderline throwing, I'm determined to make it work.

Champion Introduction

Abilities

Items

Aatrox, The Darkin Blade
Melee, Fighter, Tank, Manaless, Top Laner, Physical

Clearing: Healthy, Average Clearspeed [ 3:36 ]
Ganking: Average, Depends on the angle approached
Speciality: Mid-Game Tankiness and Damage
Why Jungle Aatrox? Aatrox has a very healthy jungle clear and does not particularly struggle at any point in the game unless incredibly far behind. Learning his combos is very important when it comes to successful ganking and vision control is important for the entire team, as a single bush can destroy an Aatrox's chances to get a kill. He is an excellent counter-ganker, however.

Pros and Cons

Pros

➺ Manaless
➺ Very Healthy Clear
➺ High Damage
➺ Great Sustain
➺ Great Early-Mid Game
➺ Difficult to Counter-Pick

Cons

➺ High Skill Ceiling
➺ Average Ganks
➺ Easily Telegraphed
➺ Very Bad Against CC
➺ Bad Late Game
➺ Doesn't Snowball as Hard as Others

Builds

BRUISER

Bruiser Aatrox is the standard build path for jungling. He builds Profane Hydra first, but apart from that he goes mainly fighter items to maintain a level of tankiness while also providing large damage outputs.

TANK

Tank Aatrox works well because of his inherent large health pool and ability to lifesteal efficiently with his passive, ultimate, and E. Building tank items on top of this creates a very beefy fella.

LETHALITY

Lethality Aatrox is the build you go if you'd like to focus entirely on damage and risk your life in every fight you're in. It works out well if you're competent with your Q and ultimate, but it is far from his most optimal build.

Skill Order

Q
The Darkin Blade
1 / 4 / 5 / 7 / 9
W
Infernal Chains
2 / 14 / 15 / 17 / 18
E
Umbral Dash
3 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 13
R
World Ender
6 / 11 / 16

> > >

To begin with in the Jungle, we want to start out with level 1 and further max it out as your first ability. Hitting the sweet spot of his Q here is integral to doing anything damage wise to both jungle camps and enemy champions.
For level 2 we want to pick for the little boost of damage it can give us in our early clear speed. It ain't much, but it's honest work. Moving into level 3 we pick rather than put another point into our Q for the mobility and passive omnivamp it grants us incase of an invade.
Though we do not max out our W and E in this order. After Q is maxed out we move into leveling up our E, once again for it's passive Omnivamp, then finish our levels with maxing out W.

Ability Usage in Jungle

PASSIVE ABILITY

Deathbringer Stance

➺ 's auto attacks deal extra percent health magic damage and periodically heal him as well as having a slight increase in AA range. The cooldown for this heal decreases the cooldown for heal by two seconds. Hits with the edge of reduce it by four seconds instead.

➺ In the Jungle, benefits from this passive exponentially. His passive keeps him healthy enough to full clear and move onto scuttle to fight if necessary, and if not then there is ample health to gank top or middle. This also keeps Aatrox alive in team fights a bit longer provided he is able to get an auto off.

The Darkin Blade

➺ can activate three times, each having a different area of damage and a sweetspot that does extra damage. If hit by the sweetspot, enemies are also knocked up in a short stun.

➺ In the Jungle, is the primary clearing, ganking, and damage tool. Hitting monsters with your sweetspot Q dramatically increases clear speed times and the three stuns from the same aforementioned sweetspot can allow for free kills during ganks.

➺ This scales with

Infernal Chains

➺ sends out a chain forward that deals magic damage to the first enemy hit, doubled for minions, and slows them for 1.5 seconds. If it hits a player or large monster the chain connects to the enemy and pulls them back to the center after a short period of time if they do not get far enough away to break the chain.

➺ In the Jungle, is the primary clearing, ganking, and damage tool. Hitting monsters with your sweetspot Q dramatically increases clear speed times and the three stuns from the same aforementioned sweetspot can allow for free kills during ganks.

➺ This scales with

Umbral Dash

➺ ACTIVE: dashes in a target direction. This can go over some walls. This dash also resets his AA timer and can be cast at the same time as other abilities.
➺ PASSIVE: heals himself as he damages other champions.
This passive scales with .

➺ In the Jungle, can increase clear speed times by having dash over jungle walls to lessen the time walking from camp to camp. In the later game, having maxed out also gives a great deal of his vampiric tankiness.

World Ender

➺ unleashes his true form for ten seconds, fearing nearby minions and monsters. He is also ghosted at this time and gains bonus movement speed on activation. The duration of the ultimate extends by five seconds when scores a takedown. During the duration of , he also gains bonus , increased size, and bonus healing from all sources.

➺ In the Jungle, is an initiation tool for ganks. Or, at times, it can be used to run away from a fight because of the increased move speed. In late game, is the only way to survive in large scale team fights due to 's falloff.

Objectives

DRAGON

can solo any dragon at any point in the game, but struggles if attacked during the initial clear. It's important to keep vision around dragon pit to avoid a gank and wards should be cleared before beginning the objective.

He benefits the most from Infernal Soul. Infernal Cinder's grant just a smidge of movement speed and the bonus from soul is always beneficial.

VOIDGRUBS

It is highly recommended to be at 's when they spawn, as can clear the camp and remain at very high HP. Hitting the grubs with the sweetspot of your Q can make the task incredibly fast, especially the second and third sweep. does not need any assistance in clearing the camps, but it is always helpful and appreciated if a teammate comes to you willingly.

RIFT HERALD

Herald can be solo'd by , though it isn't as fast as it is with some other champions. It is recommended to have a teammate within reach (they don't have to be there directly, just keeping an eye on the baron pit) so that the enemy jungler or others cannot come and completely shut down the objective attempt.

VORACIOUS ATAKAHN

Voracious Atakahn will spawn in lower-action games with fewer kills/damage, taking root in whichever side of the map has the most drama within it. It cannot be solo'd by and requires a majority of the team to be with him. If attacked by the enemy, abandon Atakahn and focus on pinching the enemy between yourselves and Atakahn, as you both deal great amounts of damage and you wouldn't want to be the one taking both. Upon killing him, your team is granted a free, one-time use of False Life but instead of reviving right in the middle of the fight, you blink back to your fountain. This is best used to secure kills right after the Atakahn fight, especially if stolen from the enemy. You also gain a small gold bonus buff to killing enemy champions.

RUINOUS ATAKHAN

This is the most likely Atakahn for jungle specifically, due to his high damage and snowballing potentional, as well as decent objective clearing. Ruinous Atakahn will spawn in high-intensity games full of damage and death, taking root in whichever side of the map felt the most carnage. again, cannot solo the objective and should use a similar tactic as Voracious Atakahn when fighting it. Upon slaying Ruinous Atakhan, you are granted Crown of Carnage which permanently boosts rewards from epic monsters slain aswell as 6 stacks of Bloody Petals. This buff should be used to snowball the game, with your team putting a great deal of emphasis on securing objectives.

BARON NASHOR

has a lot of sustain to help him in baron fights, making him a formidable jungler to triple or even duo baron. He is best suited to fight baron with an ADC who is going even in their lane, preferably ahead and close to full build. However, if it is up to choosing or and the game is completely even, I would recommend getting first.

ELDER DRAKE

prefers to get over baron if possible due to the extensive damage he can put out late game. All it takes is one lucky Aatrox with elder buff to win the game, as long as he/she isn't completely CC chained (or just a bit bad).
can solo this objective, but it is highly unrecommended and much better to do with a team.

Clearing

RED SIDE

BLUE SIDE

Ideally, would start Red Side due to the slightly extra damage from 's burn and the AOE camps, which his Q prefers. He starts Red Buff into into 's, then moves to blue side.

isn't as useful to as red side due to being manaless. The camps on blue side are also (almost) all single target camps, which doesn't favor all too well.

Core Items

STANDARD

TANKTROX

LETHALITYTROX

Feats of Strength

PLATED STEELCAPS
grants you and , most notably armor and a passive that decreases the amount of damage taken from basic attacks. Against an AD team, these boots are impossibly useful, but unless against a majority of AP casters, are standard nonetheless.

FEATS OF STRENGTH
Feats of Strength is gained by completing two of three objectives before the enemy team. These objectives include 3 epic monsters slain, first blood, and first tower. For , the most optimal are First Blood and first three epic monsters slain. This is because of his good ganking power when put in an unfair fight against an enemy and the unexpected damage of his Q combo. His ability to sustain with jungle monsters also aids in his secondary Feat of Strength.

ARMORED ADVANCE
Upgrading PS grants you , provided a buff to the and of your boots. Most notably, you also gain a new passive alongside your old one. Now, will grant you a physical damage shield for four seconds when taking damage from a champion.

Summary

IN CONCLUSION
-

EARLY GAME: Aatrox does not struggle with an early game clear speed nor does he suffer from being low hp by the end of it. He is fully capable of fighting over scuttle crab and can do early game objectives solo.

MID GAME: Aatrox could have/should have a few kills or assists under his belt at this point and with his ultimate, he can participate in counter-jungling and invades frequently. If there is ever a time he begins to fail at one of these, it takes very little effort to flash, e, or r out of a fight.This is his most powerful point in the game, take advantage of it.

LATE GAME: By this point in the game, Aatrox is either unstoppable or his team is. A fully fed Aatrox might begin to show signs of being outclassed by other champions who perform better in the later halves of the game, but a smart Aatrox knows this and plays around his engages and ultimate.

Patch Notes

1/15/2025: 25.S1.1 - Replaced "Boots" section with "Feats of Strength" section, Added Atakahn to "Objectives" section.
11/6/2024: 14.22 - R Damage Decreased.
10/12/2024: Added "Builds" section.
10/1/2024: Guide Created.