They did change the passive. Not sure if you overlooked it, but even if it doesnt seem like much, it is much.
Deathbringer Stance (Passive)
[Removed] Reduces healing and shielding on champions
[New] Heals Aatrox for the bonus damage dealt
Bonus damage lowered from [8-16%] to [5-10%]
Cooldown lowered from 25 to 15
Cooldown reducing effect changed from [2 seconds per spellcast + 2 for hitting champions with sweetspots] to [2 seconds per damaging attack or spell on enemy champions and large monsters + 2 on sweetspot hit]
Maximum bonus damage against monsters lowered from 400 to 100
Attack frame adjusted to more closely match other basic attacks
The fact it has a lower base cooldown and a better way of getting it off cooldown in fights is massive, and it also can weave in easier than before due to the frame adjustment.
E (Spears stacking and Detonating) - While the Mechanic of infinite Spear Stacking and then blowing it up after a while sounds cool, it simply doesn't help her because you don't know how much damage it will deal, and if it doesn't really kill someone all you can do in that case is just auto someone to death with your kiting.
W (Blight Stacks) - Varus has almost a similar issue as Kalista in terms of having to guess if the % Max Health damage is going to be enough to win the 2v2 fight. His W Passive Blight Stack Mechanic becomes pointless because once he uses his abilities to detonate Blight stacks, he then needs to wait for 20 - 10 Seconds (NOTE: In-Mid Combat) for his Abilities to come back up. This is why he is built heavily around On-Hit/Attack Speed because of how unreliable this Mechanic is.
Passive - With all the changes coming to him (most of which I think are good), i'm a little surprised that they didn't really rework Aatrox's Passive. It has almost no synergy with his Spell-Caster playstyle, most of the time he will just use his Q in fights and won't ever really randomly walk up to Auto Attack unless the enemy decides to stand still for the whole fight.
