How to play the Aatrox matchup?

The following tips and strategies have been shared by players to help you win against Aatrox.

How to lane against Aatrox?

The following tips and strategies have been shared by players to help you win against Aatrox.

Aatrox Matchups Spreadsheet

Matchup	Difficulty	Win Rate	Games Played	Early	Mid	Late	Tips
Akali	3	51.9%	3,638	Win	Win	Skill	You hard win pre-6, you need to play aggressive and get a lead. Post-6 she has kill threat with her burst so you need to enough tankiness to survive it. This is one of the few champions that can play aggressive when Akali uses shroud, take oracle lens and use it to reveal Akali in shroud to land your Q's.
Akshan	6	51.33%	1,539	Skill	Skill	Win	Respect his early game. Play around bushes and stay away from walls so he cannot dive onto you. Plated Steelcaps is a great rush. You outscale him with items and levels in the midgame. Respect his e and avoid going in if he can effectively trade back after.
Camille	8	51.6%	2,539	Skill	Skill	Lose	Very difficult lane, you hard lose trades until level 5, you need to play safe early. Never let Camille land her hookshot and use your E to dodge it up or down and punish her with your W, you can also cancel her hookshot with Q. You should not stand near walls in this matchup. Don't let Camille land W poke. Rush your damage components and look for Q's while she farms
Cassiopeia	6	46.26%	895	Skill	Skill	Lose	Play very safe until level 3, concede CS and do not eat poke. At 3, retaliate reactively after she uses Q with your Q, then press W and walk up to her. It really is imperative you dodge Q's early on. Post 6, expect the Cass to ult while you're doing Q2, you generally want to turn away at this point, alternatively if you start the Q3 animation during her stun it will still go off. All-in its a very fast paced matchup where you need excellent movements
Cho'Gath	2			Win	Win	Win	Should be an easy lane, ChoGath has no mobility to avoid your combos, you should contest him for every minion. Set him behind early on and don't let him scale up for teamfights
Darius	6	51.72%	5,112	Skill	Skill	Lose	Respect Darius Level 1. Level 2 onwards, you look to poke him with Q into QE backwards. Do not attempt to Q3 into him if you're landing Q's because Darius will just win all-in after that. Your goal is to rinse and repeat whittling him down until you are able to all-in him with ignite. When you all-in hold your E to dash forward avoiding Darius outer Q. You outscale him in teamfights
Dr. Mundo	1			Win	Win	Win	Rush Execution's Calling, play to poke him down with Q's and don't go melee with him unless you land your W. Should be a free lane
Fiora	8	49.83%	3,582	Skill	Skill	Lose	Avoid level 1 fights, just reset her vitals by walking out. Always rush bramble here. You have to mindgame Fiora's parry using your W to bait it and avoid it with your dash. This is your window to all-in while its down. Stay near walls when she ults. Fiora hard outscales in the side lane but you can teamfight her.
Gangplank	4	52.34%	3,443	Win	Skill	Lose	You lose push levels 1-2, do not eat free poke and use the bushes. Level 3 onwards you can look for trades. Utilize Second wind and try to destroy his barrels mid-trade to deny him the movement speed to kite
Garen	2	51.35%	3,155	Win	Win	Skill	Pre 6 its not very threatening, if he tries to Q, you simply dash backwards and QW him instantly. Post 6, garen is much scarier with his ult ignite combo. Don't get cheesed at 6 and don't get in melee with him. Keep harassing him to deny him his passive, you have all the tools to kite him and you outscale him in teamfights
Gnar	3	51.79%	2,732	Skill	Skill	Skill	The key is to not eat any poke and play safe until level 3. After 3 you have advantage on mini-gnar, play around Gnar's hop cooldown early on its 20 seconds long and his only escape for Aatrox chains. Against mega gnar, you should try to kite him out and only use your Q's since they still go through stuns.
Gragas	3	50.18%	2,240	Win	Skill	Skill
Graves	2			Skill	Skill	Lose
Gwen	6	46.98%	4,074	Win	Skill	Lose	Avoid extended trades and play for short trades and poke, reactively Q whenever she Q q's or has no stacks on it. Level 6 she can kill threat with R ignite, dont die to cheese
Heimerdinger	5	49.37%	711	Skill	Win	Lose	Pre-6, you're really just playing defensively and farming. Take Second wind and MR runes to negate poke. Post 6, youre objective is to bait out heimerdinger E by scaing him. You run at him with R and expect him to reactively throw his E out, you must sidestep it or you die, if he misses he dies.
Illaoi	7	55.15%	1,291	Skill	Skill	Skill	You need to be actively looking to kill her tentacles as they spawn. Always dodge her E even if you have to burn your dash. Safely Q poke Illaoi behind minions. You should win level 6 provided you aren't in melee and are playing at range while denying her healing.
Irelia	10	49.14%	3,006	Skill	Skill	Lose	Extremely difficult matchup. Rush bramble vest and armor boots, you have to let Irelia push early on, if you get frozen on its over. Your best chance to kill her is level 3 when her passive stacks drop.
Jax	7	53.3%	3,058	Skill	Skill	Lose	During lane, You have to let Jax jump on you and eat his combo, when Jax's E is over. You MUST all-in and land your abilities. OR if you're opening the fight with Q1, expect Jax to jump on you and then you should instantly W then q2 back and win the trade
Jayce	6	52.27%	6,069	Skill	Skill	Lose	Stand behind minions to avoid his shock blast damage. Play around bushes to avoid his auto damage. Jayce has no way to dodge your spells if his accleration gate is down, he is simply too slow. Play to combo him when his gate is down and use your ultimate to chase him when he e's you away. His tear and serrated dirk spike is pretty big for him so respect it. Plated steelcaps is a viable rush.
K'Sante	5			Win	Skill	Lose	You have to pressure him early before he starts getting items. K'Sante can e and w out to dodge your qs or w. Focus on keeping the wave in a good position, avoiding eating his q autos with grasp, and comboing him with your qs. Use your ult movement speed to chase him down for a kill or to kite him when ults you. You hard lose when he gets items later on.
Kalista	5			Skill	Skill	Lose	Difficult matchup requiring a lot of skill, You will have to concde minions the first few levels to jayce but stay in XP range. You can look to Q poke him and but you may start having openings to all-in jayce depending on how aggressive he is at level 3. If he ever jumps on you and knocks you back. You need to look for an All-in. You will hard-outscale provided you survive the early game
Karma	1			Win	Win	Win
Kayle	4	46.89%	2,077	Win	Skill	Lose	Kayle has no mobility to dodge any of your spells. Constantly spam your combo on her on cooldown. You have to hard pressure her and create a solid lead before first item. Try to freeze early by 3 waving shoving and freezeing on the bounce. Kayle cannot break it herself and you can hold the freeze forever.
Kennen	3	49.36%	1,323	Skill	Win	Win	Matchup varies a lot based on the kennen's skill. For most kennen's you can just tank their damage and win the matchup by landing Q's. If you spam Q during his ult, your Q's will go through his stuns.However if its an extremely skilled Kennen, you will struggle to trade on him. Take second wind, doran's shield and don't eat too much poke. If he burns his E, always look to pusn with W.
Kled	6	50.11%	904	Skill	Skill	Win	You have to respect his q and dash in the early game. Play back level 2 and try to dodge/ space his e. He will likely try to do it as soon as he levels up. Kled only wins trades if he can stick onto you. Try to take short trades against Kled so you don't eat his q or w auto damage. Try to dismount him and then back off and wait for another spell roation. If you keep fighting him, he can remount and turn the fight around in his favor.
Lilia	3			Win	Win	Lose
Lucian	6	50.67%	6,963	Skill	Skill	Skill
Malphite	7	48.95%	2,372	Skill	Lose	Lose	You have to get a solid advantage before he can start armor stacking. Malphite has no mobility so you can combo him for free. Avoid getting in his q range and play around bushes. Malphite has mana problems in the early game so if you freeze early you can likely force his tp if you are healthy.
Maokai	1	48.5%	1,130	Win	Win	Win
Mordekaiser	6	52.82%	3,194	Win	Skill	Lose	Focus on dodging his pull. Mordekaiser has no way to trade back on your combo due to his lack of mobility. Avoid all-ining in his Death Realm and play for short trades on your q cooldown.
Nasus	4	52.25%	1,420	Win	Skill	Lose	You have to hard pressure him in the early game. He has no mobility to dodge and no damage to fight back. Nasus only wins after he gets stacks. Try your best to freeze or dive him early.
Neeko	3	52.03%	1,157	Win	Skill	Win
Olaf	7	50.94%	850	Skill	Skill	Lose	Play to kite him away from you. Olaf can run you down very easily with his q slows. Q1 him and focus on dodging axes. If he runs at you q2 and e backwards and w. Q3 and run away. Plated steelcaps is a viable rush in this lane. Try to run from him when he ults and trade when his ult runs out.
Ornn	3	53.67%	2,059	Win	Win	Win	Q spam him in the early game. He can w to stop your w pull and he can also e out. If you cancel his e with your q you can chunk him very hard in the early game. Be careful trading with him after he forges into an item spikes like bamis or sunfire if you're sitting on less items. Be careful of his triple brittle combo. Avoid taking damage from his w and w auto. You should always win trades.
Pantheon	7	50.79%	1,892	Lose	Skill	Win	Pantheon favored lane. Play around his mortal will and e cooldown. Pantheon win trades by w'ing into your q2 and e'ing your q3. You can try to outplay this by q1'ing to start, w him, then q2 and e backwards preemptively to try to read his w in. Don't q3 since he can still e it and q away. You start winning at level six since your ult is an actual combat ultimate. Ping his roams after six. Platerd steelcaps is a viable rush in this lane.
Poppy	4	51.1%	1,587	Win	Win	Win	Q spam her and avoid stepping into her q range. Use your q as she is e'ing you since it will go off even if you are stunned. Her w can deny your e so avoid using it while hers is up. You outsustain her by a lot. Try to run over her buckler so she doesn't get the shield from it.
Quinn	5	50.99%	912	Lose	Skill	Skill	Rush steelcaps. You lose level 1/2. Level 3 you can start looking for q trades. Quinn can use her e to dodge on of your qs. So avoid using your e preemptively before she uses hers unless you are hard reading her. You should outsustain her in lane unless you are constantly eating auto damage from her.
Renekton	6	52.66%	4,193	Lose	Skill	Win	Play to kite him away from you. He can start e level 1 and look to short trade. Try to w him after he uses his e or when his e is down altogether. Renekton has a strong all-in with his r try to use your ult movement speed to kite him and run when he looks for an all-in with r ignite.
Rengar	6	53.01%	1,360	Lose	Win	Win	Play away from bushes and q him when he goes to cs. Respect his ferocity stacks and be careful of his triple q combo damage. Plated steelcaps is a viable rush.
Riven	7	49.28%	2,910	Lose	Skill	Skill	Tough skill matchup. Riven has a 4 dashes to escape your w. Use it when she is on you and preferably when she is out of dashes. Riven's q is her mobility and damage. Thus, if you space her properly she has to use her q's and thus her most damaging ability to get onto you. Q1 and Q2+e'ing backwards should enable you some room to run away. She has a lot of kill pressure on you with R flash and ignite so give her some respect if you are low. You generally start winning from level 7. Be careful of q1ing her in land since she can e in and look to hard trade with her qs.
Rumble	5	50.57%	1,574	Skill	Skill	Win	Avoid his empowered q damage. Dash out if you have to. Rumble has some the highest burst damage in the game with his overheat mechanics. If he lands everything on you he can 75-0 you with ignite. Stand behind minions so he can't e you for free. Play around his q cooldown and look for qs when its down. If He is close to overheating you can look for a fight since he can only retaliate with 1-2 spells. Rushing mr is viable.
Ryze	2	52.37%	1,686	Win	Win	Lose
Sett	4	51.55%	4,149	Skill	Win	Win	Kite backwards and don't stand in his auto range for free. If he qs toward you just q1 and then q2 and e. Keeping the wave and your spacing good is very important in this matchup since you if trade poorly he can dive if he has enough health.
Shen	1	53.36%	1,576	Win	Win	Win	Combo him on repeat. He can dash out to escape your w. Try to combo him when its down. Remember he can block your passive auto with his w so avoid walking up for that if its still up. You should demolish Shen at all stages of the game he just has no way to deal with your damage output. Try to q him when his passive sheild wears off in terms of poking.
Shyvana		51.71%	791
Singed	3	45.13%	1,959	Win	Win	Win	Walk with your wave level 1 so he cannot shove and look to proxy. You are much stronger than him pre six. If Singed drops a wave to proxy don't follow him to kill him unless your Jungler is there and you know you can kill him quick. Losing waves is generally not worth killing singed. Singed has some kill pressure in an all in if he has ult and ghost and you misposition especially near his turret.
Sion	1	54.06%	2,466	Win	Win	Win	You demolish him until the very late game. Your q interupts his q so you can trade on him for free. Moreover, Sion has no mobility so you should be able to land all your sweet spots uncontested. Goredrinker is optimal if you are winning, however Cleaver is also viable if you are losing. Play on your q cooldown on land and spam q1 and q2s on him. Try to freeze if you can.
Swain	1	55.11%	1,341	Win	Win	Win
Sylas	2	52.5%	6,551	Skill	Win	Win
Tahm Kench	3			Skill	Win	Win	Tahm Kench has no mobility to dodge your abilitys but he has strong cc to run you down if you misplay. Stand behind minions so he cannot land his q for free. Only auto Kench for your passive otherwise avoid trading with him since his autos will hit harder with grasp and will stack his passive for q stun or his ult. If he goes out of vision suddenly be careful of his w.
Teemo	3	48.3%	1,733	Skill	Win	Win	Hard trade on him. Teemo has no mobility and cannot dodge your combo. Try to play around bushes in the early levels so he cannot auto you for free level 1 or 2. Rush damage and ad in this matchup.
Trundle	6	54.24%	837	Lose	Skill	Lose	Trundle is immobile so you can always land your combos and sweet spots uncontested. Respect his level 1 especially if he has lethal tempo and/ or ghost. Trundle has one of the strongest all-ins in the game. You want to avoid all-ing and auto trades with him at all costs. You have to poke him down with your combo. Consider forgoing landing your q3 on him if it means he can trade back effectively.
Tryndamere	6	54.56%	1,666	Skill	Skill	Lose	Be careful of his level 1 when he has rage stacked up. You always want to fight him when his rage is down. Reccomend giving up level 1 wave control and letting it shove toward you. Play to poke him and don't let him e onto you. Try to pressure him on the bounce. Plated steelcaps are great in this lane.
Urgot	3	49.74%	1,954	Skill	Skill	Lose	Be careful of his level 1 especially if he has pta. Urgot is immobbile asside from his short range dash. If Urgot does not land it on you every trade you take should be winning since its very easy to land your sweet spots on him. Be careful of his e flash.
Vayne	5	50.07%	3,377	Lose	Skill	Lose	Plated steelcaps is very strong in this lane. Try to play on your cooldowns and avoid taking free auto damage from her. Play around bushes and play to short trade with her.
Viego	1			Win	Win	Lose
Vladimir	2	50.53%	2,630	Win	Skill	Lose	Spam your combo on him and win. Do not eat his empowered q. Your w chains will pull him back even if he is in his pool. If you hard trade pre six you should be able to pressure him and force him out of lane.
Volibear	5	51.54%	2,080	Lose	Win	Lose	Kite backwards and don't stand in his auto range for free. If he qs toward you just q1 and then q2 and e. Keeping the wave and your spacing good is very important in this matchup since you if trade poorly he can dive very easily.
Warwick	6	51.42%	1,653	Skill	Skill	Skill	Rush antihealing. Executioners is preferred over bramble vest. You can combo him but don't let him q onto you and stick to you. Its very hard to get him off you without getting chunked in the process. Don't greed for kills if he has barrier.
Wukong	5	52.19%	2,332	Skill	Skill	Lose	Used to be a tough matchup but Wukongs numbers are just bad now. Avoid trading level 1 since he will likely skill his e. When he jumps on you q2 and e backwards then w. Remember Wukong can clone out and the clone will auto attack and not stand still like the old one.
Yasuo	2	51.21%	4,776	Skill	Win	Lose	Rushing plated steelcaps is viable in this matchup. Try to q him when he isnt near minions so he cannot dash out and dodge it. Yasuo can windwall your w but its hard to react to if you do it point blank. You want to play for short trades with q1 and q2 and not let yasuo run you over with lethal tempo stacks and his q. Respect his level 1.
Yone	9	52.64%	3,940	Skill	Skill	Lose	Yone favored matchup, you have to rush bramble vest and armor boots, whenever yone goes for tornado q, use your q. When you see Yone ult animation, instantly q forward as its guaranteed he'll be hit. Whenever Yone E is on CD, you need to play very aggressively, your Q cd comes up much faster and Yone has no escape. You should use your W now and not during Yone E.
Yorick	6	48.85%	1,566	Win	Skill	Lose	Hard pressure him pre six. Yorick does no damage without his ghouls so focus on dodging his e if he has graves up and try to hard trade when he has no ghouls up. Yorick has no mobility so you can q1 w and q2 to side and then q3 for free.
Zac	2			Win	Win	Win
Zeri	2			Win	Skill	Lose