State of Aatrox

Hi there !

I main Aatrox since few months already ( 6 + ) and I would like to share my opinion on his actual state .

There are some things that have buffed him indirectly : The new fervor , battle trance , and siegemaster mastery .

The new fervor is powerful on him , it gives you the AD you need with Aatrox . Which means that a more HP oriented build can be imaginable and make him more of a viable pick again . Needless to say that he benefits more from the bonus AD than on-hit damage , you already build on hit effects like Titanic or Bork or bloodrazor if you're jungling . Increased healing and damage on his W is a very pleasant buff .

Battle Trance is very nice since Aatrox can burst or trade for a long duration . He thrives in long trades , and the synergy between Battle Trance and Fervor is very good , if not insane .

If against a ranged match up , or a hard one , it happens quite often that youre farming under turret and you get poked or harassed . This is where this mastery comes really handy and useful .

That being said , I wanted to adress Riot , since they acknowleged that Aatrox is on the weaker side of the spectrum :

Only buffs he needs are QoL buffs like : Bonus AS decaying over time after reviving and a heal/damage proc . Faster Q animation , %HP scaling on his passive.
At the the end , there are two more buff he needs : HIGHER BASE HP AND HP/LVL GROWTH . There is absolutely no reason for Aatrox being as squishy as an ADC .

Take for example : He's a hp and regen based mid range mage who can regen tons of health . His passive is scaling with bonus HP and AP . This gives a ton of HP just from building AP and items , yet he's never going to jump into a team but remains super tanky and can perma sustain if he builds 40% CDR . That's ( imo ) not what you wanted to do , since you've admited some time ago that you hate drain tanking mechanics in the game . Amirite ?

TL;DR : Aatrox can become a strong and a viable pick again for this season , since BORK an GR are getting buffs on PBE .