Aatrox? Who's that?

Hey everyone,

So after playing the ol' Darkin again after having put him away for a while, I remembered why he'd been gathering dust.

The way I see it, he definitely needs some buffs. To which part of him, I'm not sure yet. I definitely don't want to see Jax 2.0 wrecking everything because he's been put out of balance, but I hope everyone can agree that Aatrox isn't in a very benefitting spot right now. He's feeble as a damage dealer and unsatisfying as a tank. Either you jump in, attempting to take out the carries, and get blasted to smithereens before you can toggle your W, or you play a tank whose main abilities are a knock-up, a measly slow and auto-attacks that do no damage nor healing what-so-ever.

I honestly can't put my finger on what the problem is with him. I just feel he does no damage, unless you get awfully fed, but assuming you're against a legit match-up, it's hard to pull off. Maybe it's the health cost? Maybe his passive Attack Speed doesn't rise enough for using your abilities? Any thoughts?

I'm just gonna leave this out there to gather some opinion. Is Aatrox your trump card? And if yes, why? How do you make him work? Or is Aatrox just a champion that makes you go 'ugh' when a teammate picks him because there are other champions that do what he does only better.

Hoping to hear from you, Silven