Why Aatrox Will Always Be a Bad Xin Zhao, and Proposed Fixes

First off, lets compare kits.

Aatrox: Passive- Free Guardian Angel, essentially. + Attack speed steroid. Q- Knockup, dash W- Either sustain or damage on 3rd hit of every attack E- Slow R- Enhanced range, attack speed steroid

Xin Zhao: Passive: Armor Reduction Q- Knock up W- sustain AND free crit, attack speed steroid E- Slow, dash R- Knockback, armor/mr buff.

Very similar in function as you can see. I can go into detail as well into their base stats, but this is what it all boils down to: So long as Aatrox has a free Guardian Angel and no mana costs, his abilities are going to suffer. Just as Anivia has very distinct disadvantages in her kit due to the strength of her passive, Aatrox will as well.

Lets get this out of the way, Aatrox has perhaps the best passive in the entire game. Free GA and AS steroid? Sign me up. And due to the strength of said passive and the need to balance his kit around it, his kit outside of his will always be that of a weak version of Xin Zhao that gets a free GA as a consolation prize.

They are both very balls deep champions. They are initiators. Once Aatrox jumps in, he has a long period of time before he can use his Q again and he isn't particularly known for building CDR. The key difference being the free GA lets Aatrox initiate, and essentially make himself the perfect target for the enemy to blow their CDs on. Definitely an amazing passive, especially for an initiator. It hurts though that he seems to be so reliant on sustain, I feel as though ignite/wounds effects are such a huge counter to what he is trying to do.

So, this all being said, does Aatrox need to be changed? If so, then how so?

First off, I believe he does need some sort of rework. That said, I believe that can go in 2 directions:

1. the bread and butter of Aatrox's kit and what determines how good of an Aatrox player you are is your ability to manage his W. I believe one way to fix Aatrox is to instead build his kit around it instead of his passive. The free GA would have to go, but you would then have much more freedom to work with his kit. What if the attack speed from his passive were instead moved to his W? What if his E was given the Mordekaiser treatment and also filled a % of his bar per enemy champion hit? And what if instead of gaining attack speed and a free GA from his passive, he were instead to receive damage reduction based on how full his bar was? What if his R was then made similar to Shyvanas and that he could activate it whenever it was full?

2. alternatively, we can double down on his role as an initiator, reducing his offensive capabilities and instead provide him with more defensive capabilities. What if, for example, instead of getting a massive attack speed steroid from his R he instead were to taunt all enemies within range to himself and received X% damage reduction or +X/X armor/mr per enemy champion hit?