Aatrox is severly handicapped in matches. He basically doesn't have any passive benefits.

I get that "now he can build tank" and that somehow this helps him when he is behind.

However, even if he is building tank, if he is behind 2 levels he is basically useless in team fights. Its hard stack to HellBent when you are behind, being poked by the other team, and still squishy despite building tanky, as a team fight is brewing waiting to happen.

In lane its the same. If you are zoned, you can forget about your revive. It will be hard to stack when you can barely get off auto attacks, and the cool down between E is such that by the time its up again, you lost the 20% from the last one.

Aatrox basically has no passive. The benefit is so infrequent and so fleeting that most of the match you don't have any passive benefit. All you have is an unreliable dive, a weird slow poke, and some bonus damage that is not impressive compared to the damage other top laners can generate with their abilities. Even your heal is not that great. I see Tryndamere out heal me all the time in fights.

Yes you can win with Aatrox, get the first couple of kills and snowball. But most champions can win if they snowball.

No, this mini-rework is so bad, they should have just left him as he was until the class update. At this point though, I am fairly certain what emerges from the rework will be unrecognizable as Aatrox and basically just a new champion.

If Riot thinks these changes are good in anyway, that should worry all of us about their reasoning and judgement skills. If they know its shit, and it will help them basically delete him during the class update, then they are being underhanded and sneaky, an that also should worry us.

There is no way of looking at this major screw up where Riot comes out looking good.