Outside Opinion On Aatrox

TL;DR: He still falls victim to kiting to the point he doesn't really fill his niche very well.

Preface: Just played Aatrox in the jungle, and I'm not a Aatrox main, just offering my anecdote here. It's not a rage post, I went 8/0/5 with 180 CS at just short of 30 minutes.

The Sustained DPS Synergy His passive now lends itself towards a sustained damage dealer role, because he has to stay alive long enough to trigger it. His W either gives him the sustain or damage needed to do his job, and his ultimate sustains his passive for even more damage extremely well while increasing his damage and range to constantly pump out damage, so long as he can constantly stay in range. Should he fail in this endeavor, the whole thing falls apart; he loses his sustain, his revive, his passive, and by extension, he loses a chunk of his DPS.

The Problem This leads into his problem. The rest of his kit screams "Please keep fights short." Incredibly long CDs on his Q and E means if he revives, he'll probably be unable to re-trigger his passive, and his heal at low health is weaker now. He's extremely prone to being kited, even with his ultimate up, because what little CC he has is highly telegraphed. On top of this, he is now even more ult dependent, because without his ultimate, he takes 5 years to trigger his passive.

It just feels like he should be a sustained DPS fighter, and his kite just doesn't facilitate this play style.