His entire kit has utility since he steals stats from opponents, the only free stats he gets are from his W. The problem is that most champs aren't tanky enough for his ult to matter and most fights are just too short for his damage to matter. He likes long, extended fights instead of the instagib circus we have right now. He's naturally weak against burst damage for a large portion of the game.
Even if they reverted the Pillar nerfs, he would be able to gank again, but he still wouldn't be very strong with how much the game currently favors front-loaded damage. Personally, I would like for them to reduce both the mana cost and the cooldown for Pillar, but defensive scaling needs to be buffed across the board most of all.
Also, bruisers need more flexible itemization choices than
