Wild Rift Guides
Aatrox Baron Lane Wild Rift Guide
Who counters Aatrox in Wild Rift? The toughest Aatrox Baron lane counters are Fiora, Jax, and Irelia. Full Aatrox Baron Lane counters and matchups, plus the best build, runes, and game plan for Patch 7.2c.
Overview
Aatrox is one of the strongest bruisers in the Baron lane. He is a drain tank who wins long fights by landing the sweet spots on The Darkin Blade and healing back the damage he takes. Each of his three Q casts has a sweet spot: the far end of the first slash, the edge of the second, and the center of the third slam. Hitting one deals bonus damage plus a short knockup, and landing all three usually wins the trade outright. His plan runs on two early timings: his passive empowered attack, which deals bonus damage based on the target's max health, and World Ender at level 5, which adds damage, speed, and much stronger healing. Win a trade, crash the wave, and be first to Rift Herald. He is not a late-game split pusher. Aatrox does his best work in skirmishes and teamfights, where every sweep hits multiple enemies and every hit heals him.
Strengths
- Big AoE damage with built-in knockups: his sweeps hit whole teams, and a clean combo wins almost any lane trade.
- Great sustain in long fights, especially with World Ender up; the longer a fight runs, the more it favors him.
- Strong into immobile enemies and HP stackers, who cannot step out of his sweet spots and feed his max-health passive damage.
Weaknesses
- Can be locked down and bursted: once his dash is spent, a crowd control chain kills him before his healing matters.
- Anti-heal hurts him badly; Grievous Wounds cuts his whole game plan in half, in lane and in teamfights.
- Everything is a skillshot: miss the sweet spots and he loses the trade he started.
Build Snapshot
Rune Setup
Summoner Spells
Aatrox Baron Lane Counters
Who counters Aatrox Baron Lane in Wild Rift (WR)? These champions beat Aatrox in the Baron lane matchup, with how each one wins. Learn to play around them or ban them in ranked.
- Fiora: Her parry counters your whole kit: a riposted sweet spot leaves you stunned, slowed, and chunked, and she out-duels you once she is even on items.
- Jax: Counter Strike dodges your autos and blunts your sweeps, his stun starts trades on his terms, and he out-scales you hard in the 1v1.
- Irelia: She dashes through your sweet spots with minion resets, out-sustains short trades, and a messy extended brawl favors her.
- Kennen: Constant poke and his stun chain ruin your combo timing, and you can only walk up when his energy is low or his stun mark is not loaded.
- Vayne: She kites you and slips out of your Q wind-ups with ease, then shreds you with true damage you cannot itemize against.
Champions Aatrox Is Strong Against
Aatrox's best matchups in Wild Rift. Aatrox holds an edge against these picks in the Baron lane role, so look to press the advantage and contest objectives.
- Shen: Shen's block stops your empowered auto but does nothing against the Q sweeps that carry most of your damage, so you win the trades.
- Sion: Sion is big and slow, so your sweet spots land freely, your passive chunks his huge health pool, and a knockup interrupts his charging Q.
- Dr. Mundo: Stacking health only feeds your percent max health damage, and he has no hard crowd control to stop your combo.
- Teemo: His blind turns off your empowered attack but not your Q sweeps, which carry most of your damage, and he is too squishy to survive your all-in once World Ender is up.
Early Game
Levels 1 to 3 are about short, sharp trades. Walk up with your passive attack ready, start with Q1 at max range so the tip lands, and weave the empowered auto between casts since it both damages and heals. The full combo is Q1 into W, Q2, E, then Q3 with an auto at the end. You can also use E in the middle of a Q to slide a sweet spot onto a dodging enemy. Level 5 is your first real all-in window: World Ender plus Ignite kills most Baron laners who are not near full health. In ranged matchups, save E to dodge their key spell instead of using it to attack.
Mid Game
Your first core item flips close trades into wins, and that is your cue to play the map. Crash the wave, walk to river, and set up Rift Herald, since few champions contest it as well as Aatrox with World Ender. In skirmishes, remember that takedowns extend your ult: commit where a kill is likely, then carry the extension into the next target. Your W pull punishes anyone who face-checks a river brush, so play around vision and use it to threaten the enemy jungler's path through river.
Late Game
Late game Aatrox is a teamfighter, not a side laner. He falls off in pure 1v1s against scaled duelists, so ignore advice that tells you to split push. Group with your team, look for flanks, and save W for a carry instead of wasting the pull on a tank. Track enemy anti-heal: once their carry buys it, you are much less tanky in practice and need to fight around their cooldowns instead of face-tanking. Use World Ender as the fight commits, not before, so the bonus damage and healing cover the real fight.
Teamfights
Activate World Ender right as the fight starts, then position so your Q sweeps hit two or three enemies, since every target hit means more healing. Use E, or even Flash mid-cast, to drag sweet spots onto the enemy carry: the knockups set up your team's follow-up and the bonus damage is what actually kills. If their front line blocks your path, do not force it. Sweep the tanks, heal off them, and let your passive chip at their big health pools. One takedown extends your ult, and an extended World Ender Aatrox usually decides the rest of the fight.