Aatrox
Matchup Summary
The essence of this match up is essentially dodging Aatrox's Q sweet spots, avoiding his passive and playing for short trades to whittle his health down. Eventually when fighting Aatrox, try to force fights when he is 50% HP, as this threshold will allow you to kill him or force him into a tower diving situation. This match up heavily relies on the ability to sidestep his abilities, while also utilising healing reduction through ignite or executioners to help weaken his laning and mid game power. Building burst items through Eclipse, Cleaver or BoTRK also help stat check and provide the damage needed to help keep him behind. Within skirmishes and teamfights, try to avoid Aatrox getting kills through his R, as he can use it to reset his CD and keep up his R timer. When fighting Aatrox solo, try to also use your R to help you have the necessary damage and stats to overpower him. Later on you can potentially build DD to help weaken his overall dueling power..
Detailed Tips
- 01
Level 1 Q Start - Try to push for level 2 advantage while poking Aatrox with your Q, on level 2 skill E/W use advantage to chunk out Aatrox. Try to avoid tanking Aatrox’s Q damage in the process by using short in and out clicks to bait them out.
- 02
Dodge Aatrox’s Q's - The biggest aspect towards overpowering and beating Aatrox is trying to avoid his Q sweet spots. Try to abuse short clicks against Aatrox, by clicking in and out very fast. We can essentially avoid Aatrox’s Q1 and Q2 from doing this alone, allowing us to hold our E for his Q3. Being able to dodge Aatrox Q's is necessary in being able to win the match up. Be aware his CD will drastically lower through the game, so ensure that you remain confident with your movement to help avoid Aatrox’s overall threat level.
- 03
Avoid Aatrox’s W Pull - Aatrox W is by far one of his strongest abilities he has, mainly for the reason that his W slow sets up his Q hits. If done right, Aatrox’s W can also instantly cancel your E amid its animation, preventing you from escaping and pulling you back. Make sure to avoid using your E within the last second, using it earlier allows you to escape his potential Q hits as well as his ability to keep you in his range.
- 04
Avoid Aatrox’s Passive Auto - Aatrox Passive is another underrated strength in this match up, as it allows him to deal damage based on his target’s maximum HP, while healing him up to 100% of the post mitigation damage dealt. When laning vs Aatrox, make sure to wait for him to use his passive, preventing him the ability to help stat check Renekton within a 1v1. Do note that each time Aatrox uses an auto attack or an ability, he lowers the overall CD of his passive’s 22 to 10 second CD by 2 seconds. If Aatrox hits his Q sweet spots, he’s able to drop the passive CD by 4 seconds for each individual sweet spot he hits.
- 05
Rush Antiheal - It's no secret how crazy Aatrox’s overall healing can be within a fight, so make sure you don’t avoid giving him any chances without grievous wounds. Simply take Ignite or rush an early Executioner’s to lower his overall sustain, as this is a giant powercut to Aatrox's survivability, which affects his passive, Q, Sundered Sky and R interactions.
- 06
Quick Trades - E > Q > AA > W > AA > E Out / E > Q > W > E - These combos allow for Renekton to get quick damage off in being able to keep health up and whittling his opponent down, use these to get your laner low and look for a low HP kill with flash.
- 07
Play Waves Accordingly - Simply assess whether or not you want to play for freeze, to help you deny XP and CS, while presenting yourself more opportunities to create fights. Or, play to shove waves to create proxy angles, tempo resets or create a dive opportunity. Renekton has all the cards to do whatever he wants with wave management. Also respect that if your laner tries to proxy, simply proxy back or coordinate a kill on them with your jungler.
- 08
Abuse Renekton's R Powerspike - Having Renekton R within this match up essentially allows you to go toe to toe with Aatrox. Aatrox R is a giant powerspike in itself, however the consistent damage from Renekton R on top of the increased fury generation allows you to consistently overpower Aatrox if you're even or ahead. Try to always play around your R for all ins or if Aatrox is threatening an overextended fight.
- 09
Respect Aatrox's R Strength - Aatrox's R increases his attack damage from 20/30/40% AD, and his overall healing by 50/75/100%. Aatrox’s R can be absolutely monstrous in fights, allowing his R to continue an additional 5 seconds for killing enemy champions. When fighting Aatrox, either bait out his R if you want to force it out before teamfights or tower dives, or apply healing reduction against his R if you're committed to the all in.
- 10
Build Plated Steelcaps, Eclipse, Black Cleaver or Death's Dance - Go Plated Steelcaps to lower Aatrox's overall damage and to utilise the movement speed vs Aatrox Q / Go Eclipse for consistent power through mid game and damage mitigation with the shield. / Go Black Cleaver for additional CDR and other versatile stats for utility based gameplay. / Go Death's Dance to hard counter Aatrox's Damage and overall healing.
- 11
Midgame + Teamfighting Tips - Within the mid game, Aatrox's spikes are considerably strong in skirmishes and teamfights. Try to lock Aatrox down and protect your carries from him landing his Q's. Aatrox is very easy to shut down in isolation, play off your W and your allies CC to easily shut him down. Before any major objectives, you can also try to catch him out in the side lane. If you’re strong enough to 1v1, make sure to kill him before any major objectives. Or if you have your teammates aside of you, simply focus him down to free up any map pressure he is creating, then look to force fights on his death timer.