Possible ideas for an Aatrox rework

Okay, so upon viewing the video by Redmercy (/watch?v=8J2QD8qWx9I for reference) and taking a look at the comments, it became pretty clear that people are currently very unsatisfied with the state Aatrox is in. And part of that is probably due to the fact that he doesn't feel like himself - his lore-self and his ingame-self seem to be different from another.

In his lore, Aatrox is this godlike creature (what Justicar Aatrox tries to depict) that intervenes in wars and changes their outcome - most of the time supporting the underdogs and leading them to victory. To them, he is a hero, or a god of war that showed them the way to win; giving them courage and "reigniting their fuel" (and lust) for battle and blood. On the other hand, to his enemies, he is a demon that tears through their lines, turning the tide of battle in an instant and inspiring fear and dispair in the hearts of those standing against him and his army. He dives head first into battle, tearing his enemies to shreds and (as seen in the case of Tryndamere) at the same time keeping his pawns alive, even if it means bending the rules (Tryndamere should have been dead, but managed to rise above what humans usually can do).

Gameplaywise, Aatrox is (supposed to be at least) a champion that dives into the enemy team and deals as much damage as possible, while also having to watch out that he doesn't go down too quickly. His ult is a self-buff (with minor AoE damage), which gives him a "sort of" berserker rage or blood lust buff. His W is a tool which he has to choose carefully; either he can up his survivability, or he can up his damage, but not both at once. The Q is his manner of engage (in itself a rather unique mechanic; at least when he was released) and his e is...just there actually; it doesn't really tie in with anything (except for maybe smoothening out some of his weakness against ranged champions). And his passive is basically just a "different" Anivia egg (the first portion) whereas the second portion (bloodwell-attackspeed) somewhat does actually seem to tie into his theme.

The disparity I can see between his lore and gameplay stem from the way his kit is designed: He is a frontliner, a bruiser that wants to get right into the battle and draw as much blood as possible. So far, we are getting along with the lore. But the way he does that just doesn't feel right: He is a solo engager that is dependant on his team following up on his engage so that his passive doesn't completely go to waste. On the other hand, he (technically) needs to be in the fight and stay alive for a while to reach his maximum potential (maxed out bloodwell), which is just virtually impossible when you're the engage your team relies on. Also the way that engage works doesn't at all tie in with the lore: His lore states (more or less) that Aatrox dove into the fight as a "second wind" kind of morale boost, not a "I'm getting in and doing this myself" type of leader. His Dark Flight just doesn't seem to offer the feeling of a reengage as it just doesn't offer anything to reengage off of - except for a comparably hard to hit knock-up (for comparison, look at i.e. Sion's knock-up which is almost guaranteed in a teamfight). Secondly, Riot created the theme of an inspiring champion (either bloodlust, or fear), which he simply doesn't do at all; he doesn't offer any buffs for the team. From a lore-based point of view, Aatrox should be the type of engager that has insane synergy with the traditional image of a Bruiser (i.e. Olaf or Darius) and give them a way to actually get into the fray.

Okay, now that we have that annoying explanation out of the way, we can move on to the suggestions - assuming you're still reading at this point, dear reader: (Disclaimer before we get into the actual suggestions: They will probably sound pretty OP, since I am no numbers-expert; forgive me for that short coming on my part).

1. I personally would suggest a way more lore-based Aatrox design; a complete rework of how he works. In my opinion, Riot has created a champion with a beautiful lore for an engaging type of character, but created a lack-luster on the kit. That needs to be fixed. So as a first suggestion, I'd say that he needs a rework on his engage. His enagage should be something that drags his team along (like a Ryze or a Kled ult) and enables them to effectively follow him into the battle and get right into the middle of the enemy team. In my personal opinion, that would tie in way better with his lore than the current engage that just has a knock-up and doesn't really contribute anything to the team. Also, I'd suggest moving this (obvious) powerhouse to his ult - seeing as how such an engaging tool is very, very powerful and might be too hard to balance if set to a basic ability.

2. The second major change I'd suggest would be his passive. This ability (for me) just doesn't add anything to the champ (as always, lore-wise). The attackspeed over time, yes maybe, but still then it should feel more like Jax' passive that lets you ramp up attackspeed by hurting others, not by hurting yourself - because I don't remember anything in his lore hinting towards Aatrox' masochistic ingame nature. Yes he is a diver, but that doesn't mean that he's a masochistic champ. If you take a look at it, the reworked Sion is a perfect example of how a non-masochistic champion can come from a (rather) masochistic kit: They just removed the self-damage part and tweaked his other numbers (and well...added the channel on his Decimating Smash; nice balancing idea - not even sarcastic here). So, the suggested change would be something along the lines of "Aatrox lusts for blood and gains X attack damage per unit slain (i.e. 0.1) and a larger amount for larger units" - basically Sion's Soul Furnace just with AD. Why? Because Aatrox is supposed to be this being that grows in the anticipation of battle; a creature that lives for the battle, recklessly taking lives for its own amusement (also his sword seemingly "grows stronger" with each enemy slain; see the Wiki for reference). Another benefit you gain from changing up his passive, would be the overhaul of how his sustain works - a champion that can heal for a few hundred HP off a non-crit if he is low enough (looking at you, Olaf) and basically has a second lifebar in store can not be balanced or healthy in any way (in my opinion). At least not if Riot doesn't want to tweak his numbers everytime an items that involves him changes. Back on track: If his passive got switched to this infinite scaling-passive, you'd get way more of the "this is my ultimate masterpiece"-battle type of feeling; the feeling that he grows each time he fights. DISCLAIMER (once again): The core idea of this reworked passive of mine would be the infinite scaling; if Riot wanted to, they could switch up HOW he scales infinitely (in strength though; that part's essential for my idea and understanding of his lore) to whatever - that's Riot's thing, and we've seen that they are very much capable of getting infinite scaling to work somehow without being completely broken (even Veigar is "just strong" a champ).

3. A third issue with Aatrox, is the promised "I will inspire my team" part in his lore that completely got lost on the way into the actual game. I feel like Aatrox should be a pick that is strong in some team compositions, but can completely fall off in others. To be precise: I feel like Aatrox should be a teamfighting champion (as always I base this off his lore) and not a splitpushing duelist. For that I suggest Aatrox gets an AoE self- and teambuff that he can activate if certain conditions (i.e. at least 3 enemies around) are met. It would remove the toplane-island-king aspect that Aatrox had going for him when he was released - sidenote: he was seriously hard to duel and nigh impossible to stop from splitpushing due to his kit back then - and (re)introduce Aatrox to the teamfighting-composition scene. Now to the actual suggestion: In my opinion (and once again based on his lore) Aatrox should have a buff that inspires allies with a "berserker rage" type of feeling. A buff that makes it possible for his team to survive longer than usual, but at the same time deal more damage. Again, I know that this would probably make for a pretty potent ability, so either this would have to be tweaked down (level of a Warwick W) or we'd introduce a new mechanic (since at this point, this would be a new champ with an old lore: Maybe we could see the introduction of a second ultimate ability instead of a basic ability (aka. a basic ability with shittons of cooldown and special conditions to be met). This way the "conditional power" aspect of Aatrox would be kept alive, and additionally the lore potential could be finally realised. Just a general idea for balancing (while we're at it) could be that the buff loses 20% potency for each ally that is not in range - the ability wouldn't be useless when used alone, or with 1/2 more team members, but it'd definitely be weaker (-> conditional power). I feel like this combined with his "drag my team into the battle" engage would finally live up to the potential that I (personally) can see in his lore, but feel is totally lacking in actual gameplay. As an alternate idea, this buff could be set to his (proper) passive (seeing as that is what he passively did to the soldiers in his lore) and the scaling-thing could be set to a basic ability (like Soul Furnace).

4. And lastly, I'd like to address an aspect of him that is definitely mentioned in the lore, but completely lacking in my idea so far: his sword. I 100% agree that Aatrox needs some interaction with his weapon, seeing as "this unknown hero cleaved through their enemies, his body and blade moving in unison as if one being" (again, quoted from the lore on the wiki). There should be an ability in his kit that makes his sword into a real weapon that actually does something - possibly the ability to whose passive the scaling is added; would at least fit design wise - such as adding an onhit-selfbuff like i.e. Fiora has. This is just one idea for a sword interaction - he could in theory even throw it like a hook - but to be honest this is a part that I find too tedious to actually take a look at, since there are so many countless possibilities of Aatrox interacting with his sword. And no offense to Riot, but I personally must say that the current interaction is just very, very lacking in actual interaction with the blade; it feels more like a switch that you press and then you go into healing mode.

I hope that my concept ideas - although them being really, really draft at this point - find some sort of recognition amongst the people who actually care about Aatrox (all four of them if possible) and that maybe even Rioters take a look at this and possibly take one or two ideas into consideration. Thanks for reading, and sorry for the wall of text - although that shouldn't be too unique here in this part of the forums.

PS: On a different note though, and in a direct question to Riot: When will we finally see an AD-Support champion? Could that possibly be the second Darkin (since we were promised five)? Again, thematically that would be a fitting role( very supportive lore you gave to Aatrox)