My thoughts on an Aatrox rework

his ult is one of the best team-fighting attack speed steroids that there are in the game that fits the thematic of a bloodthirsty demon who wants to be in the middle of the battle. the issue riot has is that they made a champion that they could never allow to become good unless by accident with an item. he was created as a heavy sustain splitpusher with team-fight potential with an awkward escape on his e. what needs to happen for him is that they either need to revoke his lore as a bloodthirsty demon and have him go around doing things for strange reasons or rework his abilities so that he has less escape on his e and more sticking power. you're on to something with his q and e, but the question is what needs to happen to them to reduce his effectiveness as a splitpusher and increase his power as a team-fighter who sustain tanks damage rather than just straight tank it.

[important information/tl;dr] I would recommend shifting some things around on his abilities that wouldn't fix him, but change the way he uses his abilities making him better at team-fighting but still capable of split pushing: •Keep his pqw mostly the same, maybe work on the slow, the projectile speed and the cast time on q •have his e be massacre: a straight attack speed steroid on a moderate cooldown with some sort of cost •have his r be Dark Flight: a short channel flight that ends in him knocking up a moderate area (think j4 ult size) and sucks in blood before extending the range on his aas and q, the effectiveness of his w heals and bonus damage, and the duration of his new e attack speed steroid, filling his blood well depending on how many targets hit for an short-moderate amount of time along with a small increase in tenacity that decays over the duration, all of which persists through his passive. if interrupted it would be put on quarter to half cooldown depending on balancing.

since dark wind would be changed to his ult on a moderate-high cooldown, aatrox would be less enticed to use his only real mobility as an escape as it is also a good engage for a teamfight, requiring him to waste it if he split pushes and needs to leave in a hurry or otherwise rely on his q to slow the pursuers . the change would solidify him as a sustain/engage champion who doesn't care if he dies his first go at a teamfight, since that's when he's strongest. this would reduce his mobility in the jungle, but maybe adjusting his other spells would help with itemization. through his lore, aatrox is supposed to be charging into battle with his team, not going top lane and splitpushing, only to run away when a bunch of enemies come to stop him.

this would put him in a class alongside other hard engage champions like malphite, but unlike malphite, he uses sustain and revival instead of straight burst. filling in a similar niche but being distinct while doing it. a lot of balancing would have to be made for him to work out, but I believe it can be done.