Aatrox's Gameplay Problems, with Possible Solutions
is the second (non-450 IP) champion that I ever bought (the first being 
), and I've mained him top lane ever since I started about halfway through S4 (I started the game when Braum came out). With a possible rework coming in preseason, I am going to list two major problems (which comprise of and overlap with multiple, smaller problems that may or may not be directly stated here) and possible solutions for them, all while staying true to his theme. These solutions will be culminated into a final, example reworked build for Aatrox at the bottom of this post.
1) His kit doesn't synergize with itself as well as it should. Aatrox is a bit of a conflicted champion. Almost all of his abilities scale with AD, but he needs to build health and resistances in order to survive longer in fights, which also increases the health taken away by his ability costs, which are a percent of his current health. His ult's AS and range increase buffs, along with its AOE magic damage, seemingly encourage him to use it at the beginning of a teamfight; however, if he dives into their team like his passive resurrection intends him too, he loses a large amount of AS as his blood well is empty, meaning he has to use his ult to refill his well before he gets killed. What is he supposed to do? If he builds full AD, he gets a lot more power in his kit (including his heal), but that doesn't really matter as he is too squishy to survive long enough to make enough of an impact. If he builds like a bruiser, he can survive, but you miss out on the power Aatrox is truly intended to have.
This also applies to his theme and lore. Why does Aatrox's blood well have his blood in it, and not the blood of his enemies? If he is meant to dive right into the fray and inspire his allies, why is he so squishy without defensive items, and why is his ult just a small AOE + AS steroid for himself? His AS should not be tied to his blood well so directly, and he should have some form of defensive power other than his heal build into his kit.
2) He is too item dependent. When Aatrox is ahead, he dominates everyone around him with superior sustain and damage (once, I got a 1v3 triple kill just from my W sustain), carrying his team to victory either by splitpushing or destroying the other team in teamfights. When he's behind, he's so squishy that he just gets murdered in a matter of moments, and he's so weak that he doesn't even do enough damage to make a difference. This is because of his dependence on items to make him stronger, whether they are defensive items that make up for his weak defensive or offensive items that scale well with his kit.
Aatrox's power should be shifted away from his abilities and their power and more to his base stats. Even though he's also supposed to be a duelist, he is often outmatched by the majority of top lane champions due to his weak defense, in which he can only rely on his W heal to survive. So, changes in his base health and armor, plus both of their scalings, may be beneficial for him. His scalings could potentially be changed, too, to lessen his fed and OP/behind and useless complex.
With this being kept in mind, this is my rendition of a reworked , based off of my own ideas and those that I have found on the forums from time to time (I don't take full credit for making this; thank the rest of the forums!):
Passive: The blood well is not filled from his own health costs (which roughly remain the same, btw), and is instead filled by the blood spilled from his enemies, similar in filling to a fury bar (e.x. 
, but minus the toxic part of it), adjusted to fill and disappear at a similar rate as it does currently. His revive works the same way as before, too. However, his % bonus attack speed is now a separate stack system that is refreshed + increased to a max whenever he hits an enemy, and disappears similarly to his blood well. Again, the AS bonus is still similar/the same as it is now, except that it isn't reliant on his blood well, thereby removing the conflict it has when his passive is popped and he loses a chunk of his AS.
Q: Remains the same, but it can't be interrupted (it is very easy to do so now), and its cooldown is reduced by 1.2 seconds for every champion knocked up. Before, his Q had too long of a cooldown to be used as an escape tool in the case that the fight turns sour and you need to run. With this, he is still encouraged to dive into the enemy team and knock them up, but it doesn't leave him stranded if he needs to escape.
W: Heal base remains the same, but its AD scaling is possibly reduced (Riot would be best at determining the appropriate number changes) to compensate for other changes, damage is possibly increased to increase his dueling power and relative burstiness.
E: Is a bit faster (is too easy to miss nowadays), damage (and cooldown?) possibly reduced to compensate. Also, if he hits at least one enemy, he gains the attack range increase formerly on his ult for 4/4.5/5/5.5/6 seconds. This should help not only with his poking power that I always enjoyed, but should also help him engage in trades/duels, too.
R: Aatrox inspires his allies to fight and destroy all who oppose them. Upon activation, Aatrox and every nearby teammate receives a Blood Shield (the amount it shields for scales off of AD), and extra AS, AD and a buff similar to 
that grants extra movement speed when attacking enemies. This is ability is meant to turn the tides of battle and inspire his allies as Aatrox does in the lore, and grants him the defensive power that is not attached to his W that he sorely needs in (team)fights.
So what do you think? Do you disagree with any of the suggested changes I made here? Are there any major problems that I missed/haven't taken into account? Do you have any changes of your own you'd like to suggest? I'm curious as to what you guys have to say.