Don't buff Aatrox just to say, "We buffed Aatrox. Don't complain he's weak."

Seriously, why even the champion if the buffs are going to do nothing? You might as well not buff him. That way you can't claim that you did 'buff' Aatrox when you barely did anything.

• 2 base AD

• 10-20 Q damage

• 5 E damage

How does this fix the core issues that hold Aatrox back from being fun and viable? Aatrox's damage is early high. He's one of the highest base damage top laners while his passive is up. His damage isn't the issue at all.

"But Aatrox is getting a rework soon?" You're right, but then I'd have to ask, "Why even buff him at all?" Aatrox just suffers from 3 core issues: He cannot damage tanks, heal reduction completely negates him, and he can't stick to targets allowing people to walk out of his passive. This could be fixed easily.

• Passive drains 3 seconds slower. E slows for 1-1.5 seconds longer. Now he can stick to targets and people have to play around his passive more.

• Give his W percent armor pen on empowered attacks. Aatrox is a splitpusher, but he's the only one who can't kill tanks? No clue as to why.

• Make him immune to heal reduction during his ultimate. You'll be able to poke him out of lane/trade with him with heal reduction still, but he should at least be able to teamfight/all-in properly and not fall off the planet.

And none of this fixes his itemization issues. BoRK is shit right now, and bruisers need to build the Trinity/Cleaver -> Titanic -> Sterak's build to work. They could make his damage form W count as using a spell, making his next auto apply Trinity Force procs, which would help him use that build somewhat better.