Aatrox returns in season 5 but is rated much weaker and only serves as a damage-absorbing frontliner while activating the Celestial trait. In fact, in seasons 4 and 4.5, he lacked the crowd control capabilities he had when appearing in the Cultist composition during the Monster Festival. However, Aatrox in season 5 has a very special mechanism: when using his ability, he deals 220%/240%/280% attack damage and heals for 200/300/450.
With this mechanism, in some ways, Aatrox is not only a tough frontliner, very difficult to be taken down in 1 or 2 ability casts, but he can also deal significant damage. But of course, if Aatrox were still a 4-cost champion like last season, he would be a hot pick; the only issue is, this is season 5, and almost no one wants to stack damage items on a champion that is just “tanky” for 1 gold.
However, Aatrox still proves to be very useful if equipped with suitable items, specifically the Bloodthirster or the Risky Bloodthirster. A brief overview of these two items: the Bloodthirster typically provides a healing effect (40%) and creates a shield equal to 30% of maximum health if the owner is below 40% health.
As for the Risky Bloodthirster, Aatrox becomes even stronger as he still heals for 40% health from basic attacks and gains an additional 25% true damage. Especially when healing 90% health, he gains an additional 40% attack speed for 3 seconds. And right when the fight starts, the Risky Bloodthirster converts 33% of the owner’s health into true damage.
Thus, with everything mentioned above regarding the Risky Bloodthirster, it is indeed the most suitable item for Aatrox to carry the team. The available healing mechanism combined with the Risky Bloodthirster makes Aatrox almost fearless against any matchup, even against currently “overpowered” champions like LeBlanc, Vel’Koz…
Another special point is that if players use the Legion composition, Aatrox also receives additional attack speed from the trait (60% when activating 4 Legion). When at 3 stars and paired with 4 Legion units, using 2 – 3 Bloodthirsters, one of which is the Risky Bloodthirster, Aatrox can comfortably carry the team and will almost not lose any health by the end of the fight.
An item that also synergizes extremely well with Aatrox is the Demon Staff, which also provides healing. Similar to the Warwick 3 Demon Staff meta, Aatrox can fully build this way to gain both damage and increase his own healing capability.
However, the Aatrox Bloodthirster build should only be used for fun or when the necessary champions have adequate items. Essentially, Aatrox is still quite clunky, and if faced with compositions or champions that deal ranged damage (Karma, Teemo), he can still be easily taken down.
A composition with Aatrox Bloodthirster should still include some damage sources in the backline to provide additional support in case this champion gets taken down.
