I'd do Aatrox a little differently. Here's how:

At this point we're all aware of Aatrox's VGU, and his reception on the internet has been... mixed, to say the least. Almost every portion of this new champion has been heavily criticized, from his kit to his voiceover, to the point where Riot had to do damage control on Reddit. The core of this criticism comes from the change in identity brought about by this update: Aatrox was historically known as an autoattacker, and a character known for wielding rage itself as a weapon to frenzy others, yet now he is largely a caster, and mostly just an angry man himself. Because of this, I feel his VGU should've gone in a different direction.

Full disclosure: I am not an Aatrox main, so please do correct me if I get something wrong. Prior to the kit, let's set the foundation of what Aatrox's old identity is, what his issues were, and do the same with his new kit:

#Aatrox's core traits:

• Fights primarily through basic attacks.
• Sustains himself via his sword, and powers this sustain through autoattacks as well.
• Duelist.
• Has multiple stances he can switch between at will.
• Has wings and uses them.
• Has a self-rez.
• Can enter raid boss mode via a powerful steroid.

#Aatrox's flaws:

• Several of his abilities, especially his Q and E, are generic and altogether uninteresting.
• His manner of drain tanking makes him a bit too feast-or-famine, as he often either dies instantly or not at all.
• He tends to just stat-check opponents to death and not do much else.

#The problems with his VGU:

• The new kit feels generic and too similar to Riven. (EDIT: this was apparently intentional, as seen in this video where a Rioter mentions that "what if Riven was a juggernaut?" set the direction for the update).
• Erases certain parts of Aatrox, namely his focus on basic attacks and dueling power, when both have been proven to work on previously updated champions, namely Irelia and Warwick.
• Swaps out his old drain tanking for a new model that is liable to be just as unhealthy, if not more so (i.e. permanent omnivamp).
• Doesn't really fly at any point, even when his wings are out.

#What I think an Aatrox update should try to do:

• Find a healthy way for Aatrox to heal himself consistently, while preserving his focus on autoattacks and stances.
• Make his abilities more interesting and unique.
• Draw from his lore and capture his ability to inspire bloodlust in others.
• Allow Aatrox to express both finesse and brutality in his fighting style.

With this in mind, here's the alternative kit I propose (numbers are mostly filler and can be changed as needed):

#The Kit:

• Innate - Reborn in Battle: When Aatrox receives fatal damage, he remains on the field in a downed state for 4 seconds before dying. During this time, his ultimate becomes Massacre, allowing him to resurrect himself at the end of his downed state. Massacre already has one rank at level 1, and ranks up with Aatrox's ultimate.
• Q - Dark Flight: Aatrox takes to the skies, vanishing from the battlefield entirely for 0.5 seconds. After that duration, he crashes back down at the target location, knocking down any enemy on top of which he lands directly, and dealing them 110 / 120 / 130 / 140 / 150% total AD physical damage. While in the air, an ominous shadow marks where he will land.
• Range: 750
• Cooldown: 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10
• W - Blade of Torment: Aatrox challenges the target enemy and enters his Relentless Stance (see below) for 4 seconds, empowering his next attack against them. During this time, Blade of Torment can be toggled at will to switch between his Relentless and Carnage stances: each stance grants Aatrox a different set of bonuses, and causes every third attack after the first to be empowered against the challenged opponent, gaining a new effect and refreshing Blade of Torment's duration. The stances are as follows:
• Relentless Stance: Passively, Aatrox automatically parries all strikes from enemies other than his challenged target that hit him from the front. Empowered attacks in this stance cause Aatrox to dash to the challenged opponent, no matter where they are.
• Carnage Stance: Passively, each of Aatrox's basic attacks against his challenged target also cleave nearby enemies in an arc for 40 / 55 / 70 / 85 / 100% AD physical damage. Empowered attacks in this stance reduce the challenged opponent's armor by 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 for 4 seconds, refreshed but not stackable with subsequent applications.
• Blade of Torment has 500 range, and a 10-second cooldown at all ranks, beginning once the effects end. Switching stances has no cooldown.
• E - Blood Price:
• Passive - Blood Well: Aatrox stores 12 / 14 / 16 / 18 / 20% of all premitigation damage he deals to champions (maybe large monsters too?) in a Blood Well, indicated in his resource bar, up to a maximum of 50% of his base health. The Blood Well begins decaying after 4 seconds of not striking an enemy champion, at a rate of 25% per second.
• Active: Aatrox instantly heals himself for 20% of his base health, but loses the same amount over 4 seconds. This drain draws from his Blood Well before affecting his health. This active has a 1-second static cooldown at all ranks (unaffected by CDR), and the drain both stacks and refreshes indefinitely with each application. The drain is capable of dealing fatal damage to Aatrox if it brings him below 1 health.
• R1 - Blood Thirst: Aatrox drives his allies into a battle frenzy. All allied champions near Aatrox are empowered for 4 seconds, causing each of their strikes against enemy champions to heal them for 1 / 1.5 / 2% of their missing health, increased based on the delay since their last empowered strike, up to a maximum of 5 / 7.5 / 10% of their missing health. While an empowered ally remains near Aatrox, their bonus is also refreshed every time they strike an enemy champion. Aatrox himself does not benefit from these effects.
• Range: 500
• Cooldown: 200 / 150 / 100
• R2 - Massacre: Aatrox resurrects himself at 25 / 50 / 75 / 100% of his base health, refreshing his basic ability cooldowns. Additionally, he gains 25 / 50 / 75 / 100% bonus attack speed for 4 seconds, ignoring the attack speed cap for the duration. Striking an enemy champion refreshes this bonus.
• Massacre has a 300 / 240 / 180 / 120-second cooldown, and ranks up with Battle Frenzy.

#Risks:

• Q is free-targeted mobility, just like the old Q, which doesn't entirely fit a diver due to how it provides an escape.
• Gaining a dash every three autos on W could make Aatrox way stickier than may be healthy.
• W description in general is a bit loaded.
• E is a weird ability due to its heal/self-bleed combo, may turn out very differently in practice than expected.
• R1 combines an AoE buff with sustain, both of which have been difficult to balance in the past. This could create a rift between Aatrox's performance in standard and pro play (team utility tends to be much stronger at the pro level).
• R2 requires Aatrox to die to access his steroid, which may generate satisfaction issues.

What do y'all think? Do you think this captures the feeling of Old Aatrox better? How would you go about updating his kit?